There's something dodgy, isn't there?

[ginghamstarfish]

Buying a house, 3 years old with ASHP and underfloor heating. When we viewed we took shoes off and could not feel any UFH so asked (in March and it was cold). Seller said they had been away and only just turned it up but it takes a long time to respond. We asked about the warranty for the ASHP as we understood they all had at least 5 years. They said yes it did. We asked if it had been serviced, they said yes, October 2022.

We viewed again a couple of weeks later. Same again, said they were going away so had turned heating to minimum. We looked at the thermostats and they were turned down to 18.
We made an offer, it was accepted etc. Property information form asks 'when was boiler last serviced' and asks for copy of documentation - they wrote October 2022. No copy of any proof, nor could they give proof of 5 year warranty. We asked, they ignored again, asked again via estate agent, can't find it., then said the warranty was actually 2 years and expired. We asked them to contact the company who did it, to get a copy - nothing. I contacted the company who installed it to ask they had service records for that address but they will not give me any information (data protection).

So we asked - many weeks ago - that it be serviced prior to exchange. They finally agreed, giving a date of last Friday 9th June. Today we were expecting the documentation from this, but when our solicitor asked today, they say they were 'unable to have it done'.
I am convinced they are lying and the ASHP is not working properly or has a major fault. This is a MAJOR part of the purchase and reflected in the price, but if we complete and find it's not working it could cost thousands to repair or replace. I am now calling round to find an engineer myself, but pretty pissed off if I have to pay for a service to someone else's property. Would you agree there's something dodgy or am I being paranoid? The alternative is to ask for a price reduction?

I live on a new development (built in 2019) and only one family have sold their house and that's because they were emigrating

We are proceeding, for all the reasons given ... yes I have my doubts but I guess you take a chance with any house. İt's just that the ASHP became a big issue because of the seller faffing about for so long, thus causing suspicion. Seller is from the opposite end of the country and his wife from another country - say moving back to be with family - but we all say whatever sounds plausible when selling. Maybe too isolated for them, few miles to nearest town, shops, GP etc.

We have underfloor heating and Heat Pump (plus solar panels). There are some negative people on the thread who will suggest you drop out for all sorts of reasons. Renting is really not the same as buying is it? I recently sold a relatives house and we reduced by £4k after survey. I could have stood their with my arms folded but realistially its a tough market in property now and sometimes you just need to bend a little.

With regard to insurance cover going forward I found using the manfacturers insurance cover was well worth it. The engineers knew their stuff and so far we havent had any issues. The cover does include a yearly service. What was a little tricky was actually getting them to cover it in the first place. They wanted to assess it before giving us the cover. We went for the Platinum cover as there wasnt a huge difference in price.

Just a thought but they could well be genuine in needing to sell even after 3 years. 70s for several of my relatives marked the point of fairly suddenly finding a house that had been perfect for them was now too far from shops/public transport/family or had too many stairs.

I bought a house with UFH and a GSHP. I would have bought it without, so didn't look too much into it.

Half of it failed to work when we tried to turn it on first time, the rest does work but is
a. incredibly noisy
b. ridiculously slow.

We are junking the whole system, and putting something else in.

Thanks, but as I said the sellers did not bother to register for the extended warranty, so there's nothing I can do about it, unfortunately.