Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Oil tank crack

13 replies

Awarsewolf · 19/04/2021 13:39

Not sure where we stand on an issue that has arisen thanks to our new neighbours!

We've just bought a property and chatting to our new neighbours yesterday, they informed us that an oil delivery had been attempted 4 days before completion, but had been refused due to an oil tank crack. I've just confirmed this with the oil delivery company, and they had said that no further oil deliveries can be made until the tank has been replaced. Where do we stand on this?

Timeline as follows:

Survey done in January 2021 - no issues with oil tank mentioned.
Oil delivery attempted and refused 12 April 2021.
Exchanged and completed on a property 16 April 2021.

We now have to replace this oil tank, but only because our next door neighbour was outside the day the delivery was refused do we even know about it now as the vendor mentioned nothing!

First time home owners, and already stung with unforeseen costs. ARGH!!

OP posts:
murbblurb · 19/04/2021 13:43

Not at all good of the vendors, but buyer beware. Your surveyor won't have looked at the heating system but there would have been a caveat to get it checked so his arse is covered.

StrongTea · 19/04/2021 13:45

Worth speaking to your solicitor for advice.

NaturalBlondeYeahRight · 19/04/2021 13:57

I don’t know about the legalities of the house sale and stuff but I have an oil tank and you don’t want to let it run out completely as you have to get the system reset. I presume you don’t have much if more was ordered (who was paying for that delivery?)
Have you got a monitor?

sbplanet · 19/04/2021 20:54

"We now have to replace this oil tank, but only because our next door neighbour was outside the day the delivery was refused do we even know about it now as the vendor mentioned nothing!

First time home owners, and already stung with unforeseen costs. ARGH!!"

It could be that the previous owners weren't aware of an issue with their tank. Our neighbours have had an oil delivery refused because there was a 'supposed' problem with their oil tank. I think the delivery driver is supposed to check the soundness of the tank when delivering oil. I'd not heard of this before (17 years with oil heating), but I can understand the reasoning - look on the positive side, if your tank has a crack that you didn't know about and started leaking oil then it would be costly to clean up.

121hugsneeded · 20/04/2021 08:42

Why would they be filling the tank just before they vacate ?

Sounds a bit suspect to me !

PresentingPercy · 20/04/2021 09:23

This does sound odd. Get a new tank. You then have no worries. You would Chengdu carpets without thinking.

PresentingPercy · 20/04/2021 09:25

change carpets - that should have read. Why pay a solicitor? You won’t get anywhere. Maybe challenge your surveyor? How old is it? They do get past usability.

hennybeans · 20/04/2021 09:29

I agree with a pp, why would they have ordered oil 4 days before completion? Usually you want to leave your tank fairly low because it's oil you've paid for.
Is there actually a crack that you can see? Does the neighbour have issues with the previous owner?

TakeYourFinalPosition · 20/04/2021 09:36

I'd also be trying to verify the crack... did the neighbour tell you which firm tried to deliver the oil?

We've got a lovely but slightly odd neighbour who yesterday spent 20 minutes in the garden telling me about how our neighbour to the other side has men and women round and is having loud sex all the time which disturbs him sleeping, but nobody will do anything about it. We're in the middle of the two, the guy is very quiet and works away a lot. I don't think I've ever heard anything from him, and he's very polite and friendly... Some people are a bit odd.

Ariela · 20/04/2021 09:46

I presume your full structural survey would have noted along the lines of 'oil tank is ancient and will need inspecting' ? What does your survey say?

itwa · 20/04/2021 10:05

Surveys quite often don't cover oil tanks or sewage systems.

itwa · 20/04/2021 10:23

Ours cost £1500 fitted recently.

Original poster
Awarsewolf · 20/04/2021 18:03

Yes sadly nothing of note on survey. I’m getting an oil person to have a look on Tuesday so that I get a first hand account as the company the vendor used are being (rightfully) GDPR about giving me too much of the details as vendor has not contacted them to give permission to discuss. So I just decided to contact a firm to have it inspected and if required replaced. And yes, solicitor replied with likely no case to answer. And I am mollified that it has been picked up now when heating isnt an issue and not depths of december Grin

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread