Seller's estate agent being difficult about boiler repairs- advice needed

[QuintonMan]

Afternoon everyone,

We are FTB expecting our first child in February and are currently in the process of purchasing the following house: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/107992601#/?channel=RES_BUY.

When placing our initial offer, we negotiated down to £257,000 and then increased the final offer to £260,000 on the proviso that the likely faulty boiler would be replaced by the seller if found to be faulty (home buyers survey confirmed this).

From our POV we need essential services to be working ready for the baby in the new year and would struggle to replace the boiler and also undertake the necessary repairs/renovations.

The seller undertook electric and gas safety checks, replacing the electric consumer unit which was appreciated.

However, we are now in a position where the estate agent on behalf of the seller is challenging the request to service and replace the boiler. She is stating that because the boiler is '" gas safe" (but not serviced) this was the only requirement.

We would be open to paying for the service ourselves if necessary but are firm that the cost of replacement is met by the seller and that we have an agreement regarding the model used.

I'm conscious that we are now very close to exchange and this is the final hurdle. To go back to the market would likely cost us at least 10-20k more on the mortgage for similar quality of the house (due to price increases) and I would like to avoid this If possible.

Is possible, does anyone have advice on how best to proceed in this situation?

Thanks!

I think your mindset is wrong. When you buy a house, you don’t expect it to be perfect. There are always likely to be things wrong or about to go wrong. Always something or other will need fixing. The seller doesn’t have to make their house perfect for you. You agreed a price. Don’t quibble over nonexistent problems with a boiler in an effort to get them to lower the price or whatever. The sellers aren’t going to replace a boiler just as they are moving out. Why would they? If you want a new boiler, you pay for it.

Your op says you increased in the proviso the boiler was not faulty.
It seems the boiler is not faulty. It may be old but that’s a different matter.
Not sure why you are unhappy. (Maybe I’ve misread).
Personally I’d definitely want to replace old goods myself rather than walk into a house with the seller having gone for the cheapest option installed by who knows who etc. I’d want to choose the thing the service plan and have warranty in my name etc etc.

@MrsEko because this is likely to be the tip of the iceberg of shoddy things the vendor is trying to hide. As well as the shoddy boiler we had:

Shit double glazing
Shit conservatory
Shit patio
Shit garage roof
Shit kitchen fitting
Shit kitchen electrics
Shit bathroom plumbing
Shit kitchen flooring
Shit chimney breast seal

Lived here a decade and every bit of work unpeels another layer of what the clearly shit builder did to his own house. So yes I wish I'd pressed on the boiler issue instead of having it condemned at the height of winter.

We have just had our boiler replaced, took a day. We picked what size we wanted (how many kw etc). Just buy the house and get the boiler serviced. If it needs replacing then do so yourself. For the sake of a couple of grand you could lose your house. Its just not worth holding things up for.

Shit surveyor by the sound of it.

The side porch thing is odd though isn't it? I can see that all the houses on that road have the same though, what an odd thing to do.

I think you are extremely lucky that the vendor is still on board with you buying. Be careful, you’re getting close to not only losing the house but also potentially getting blacklisted by the agent—when this falls through and you try to offer through them again, they will warn vendor that you killed a previous sale through irrelevant and pointless demands.

It seems to be a fairly new thing that FTB are very unrealistic, think the surveys are gospel, and believe they are a good prospect because they don’t have a chain. I don’t know anyone in recent years who will opt for the FTB if they have others offering, even if the FTB offers a bit more.

OP, just sort out the boiler yourself. The surveys are nitpicky to protect themselves.

@BlueSurfer

It seems to be a fairly new thing that FTB are very unrealistic, think the surveys are gospel, and believe they are a good prospect because they don’t have a chain. I don’t know anyone in recent years who will opt for the FTB if they have others offering, even if the FTB offers a bit more.

OP, just sort out the boiler yourself. The surveys are nitpicky to protect themselves.

It’s not new. I had a ftb in 1994 who nearly drove me to distraction. Post survey I had visits from every trade you can think of to follow up queries raised by the survey - none of them found any problem.

He wanted me to include all the curtains in the sale and tried to reduce his offer the day before exchange. Needless to say, I was completely sick of him by this point and told him to jog on, we exchanged at the agreed price.

In the nicest possible way you sound like the FTB that have filled pages of threads on MN before.

I'm afraid you've made an unreasonable ask. If I was your vendor I would remarketed by now. Good luck op.

We had a new boiler installed last year, it took less than a day and cost under two grand. There was no mess and just slight inconvenience of having no hot water for the day. The one we replaced was well over 20 years old and getting unreliable. It was flagged on our survey 20 years ago when we moved in as possibly needing to be replaced. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a survey where they don’t suggest the boiler will need replacement. It’s surely like flat roofs, they always flag them as needing maintenance.

I wouldn’t take the risk of losing the property for such a small amount of money. They have carried out gas and electric tests paid for a new consumer. You need to bend a little for a smooth transaction especially as you are near to exchange.

I don't know what you've agreed but the price of the house has increased by almost £50k in two years. Is it worth what you are paying?

While a gas safe cert is no proof of a well functioning boiler - in my rental the boiler is about 35 years old, it's hugely inefficient, is so loud it sounds like a plane taking off every time it fires and needs to be on 24/7 on full power all winter Just to make the flat bearable. The engineers apologise each year that they can't condemn it as it's still safe and can't believe the thing is still going either. - it sounds like the home report suggested it was checked, it would be unusual for them to actually do it, and it's been found to be safe. I imagine if it was unsafe then they would have gone through with the replacement. It was odd you didn't just proceed with the lower price and replace the boiler yourself although that's done now and you have backed yourself in to a bit of a corner because they won't accept the lower offer again. You say you're happy to pay less and replace and really should have just done that in the first place. The sellers will know they are in a position where the market has risen in the time you've been faffing about with boilers so you need to decide whether to walk away out of principal and lose more money in the long run or proceed and let this be a costly 3k mistake