Sellers failed too declare boiler had broken down...

[Greenwitchhorse]

What do people think of this one: I recently bought a house in the South East. The boiler although more than 7 year old worked at the time of the survey and sellers provided a certificate that it had been serviced/check the year before and stated in the forms sent to solicitor that it was in good order.

Right after I bough the house I brought in a plumber/engineer to do various jobs and asked him to double-check the boiler and of course it is faulty and need at best a new part at worst complete replacement...

I have just emailed my solicitor about this.

The sellers also failed to clear the house when they left leaving me with unwanted furniture and a bunch of crap in the shed I had to dismantle, clear and pay a company to remove and bring to the local tip.

There is no way they did not know their boiler had broken down between survey and exchange/completion...

Has anyone been in that situation and it is worth pursuing them to get them to contribute to the cost of the boiler repair and to invoice them for having to clear up the mess they left?

or is that a waste of time?

I am really tempted to take them to the small claims court...

I am also trying to contact the company that provided the gas certificate as I am suspicious that it is not a local one and wonder if they actually even could have faked the paperwork they provided.

We left our house immaculate. It was spotless. Paid a cleaner to come in after us and everything for a deep clean. So obviously used hot water for that. At some point between us moving out and then moving in the boiler got a leak. We got a snotty message suggesting we had known and needed to replace it. We lived there with our kids, I'd like to know how we'd have been there in the winter with no heat, how we'd have cleaned it with no hot water? I was so annoyed that I was in my new (filthy and full of crap) house dealing with all the mess and they were in their immaculate house blaming their bad luck on me.

It wouldn't be great to just leave it and make them sort it, even if offering to pay. Even when the vendor pays it's hassle the buyer doesn't need on moving day to get this stuff sorted. They'll probably want their own furniture in there and need to get it in now as that's when their removers are available.

Can't you measure and see if it'll fit and if it won't get house clearance to come and remove it before the move? Or ask the removal company when they quote if you're using one. Removal companies are also experienced at taking things apart to get them through doorways and up/down stairs!

No.
If it can be dismantled it should be done by you, even if it needs a chainsaw to do it. How are they supposed to get their sofa and other furniture in and get settled with your sofa in the way?

Now you’re just being nasty.
what’s the timeline of events?
Was the house empty before you moved in, or did you move in the same day they moved out?
When did you notice there was no hot water?
How do you know you didn’t break the boiler when you moved in?

@whirlyhead do a trial now so you can see and sort it rather than worrying about it.

It’s an auction company coming to get the couch as we’re not taking it to the new house, and the only day they could come was moving out day. Our buyers aren’t moving in straight away as they’re redecorating. I had hoped they’d want to keep the couch as it was designed for the room…

You need to try to see if it will fit out now before the auction house come to remove, cancel them if it doesn’t and cut it up to get it out if the new buyers don’t want it. You can’t just leave it for them.

Surely you establish first if the buyers want the couch? If they do, then just leave it there.

If they don't you get a company in to quote for removal, although that might involve cutting it up.

Leaving it for an auction company that can only come on removal day is too risky - you need a company that will take it whatever state it's in if it's that day.

Definitely pursue it. We had exactly the same situation, boiler that we were told was working was dripping when we moved in. Plumber came round and was shocked it had been given a certificate. (it had a random plastic drinks bottle in it!) Our solicitor chased our sellers solicitors and we got £600 from them to get it fixed. We had also been left with a garage and loft full of junk and we got £250 for a skip from the sellers too. We are currently raising a case with the surveyors also who missed so many problems in their report.

As if moving wasn’t stressful enough… it would’ve helped if they hadn’t waited until the last minute to tell me they didn’t want it. I asked them ages ago! It’s a bloody £7k hand made couch so not keen on the chain saw idea.

Seems my partner has sent the sofa and door measurements to the auction company and advised they will need to take the frame off so hopefully all will be ok. Not much else we can do.

I’ve had crap left by the sellers in all the houses I’ve bought, and the boiler in my current house broke about a week after moving in. Never thought about going after the seller over these things, just sorted them myself. It’s just part of the house buying process!

Might not achieve anything but at least will have the opportunity to tell them exactly what I think of them.

This is nasty!

We moved in in the April . Boiler worked . A week later it didn’t .
These things happen, especially if the boiler is older. We sucked it up .

How much did you pay to have the unwanted stuff taken away?
I'm not sure it will be worth your time/effort to pursue them for that cost.

Re boiler... very similar thing happened to friends about 15 yrs ago. They were unable to recover the cost to get a new boiler. I don't know all the details. I think their boiler may have worked for a couple of weeks before it failed.

makes me wonder if I should pointedly run the hot tap when I view a house, just to prove the hot water works.

This happened to us last year when we moved. It was December and two weeks after we moved in the boiler failed. We had a certificate to say it had been serviced. We ended up paying £2k to have a new one as it was freezing cold.

Also we have recently come to have our chimneys swept and it appears we should have received a HETAS certificate for the log burners but we didn't because they appear to have been put in as a DIY job. Both are now unsafe and we have to replace them.

Did your plumber come immediately when you got the keys? Impressed you managed to arrange that.

Surely if you only found out it was faulty because a plumber checked it, it's unlikely that the sellers just knew, but chose to conceal it.

You've a right to be annoyed about the rubbish, although the reasonable course of action would have been to ask them to remove it before spending a load of money to do so.

You bought the boiler with the house. It was serviced. By your own admission your survey checked it. You didn't bother to check the hot water before a plumber happened to be in your house, and found a fault. I expect they, and their solicitor will assume you're trying it on. It sounds it.

I bought a flat from a sportscaster on TV (now on Sky but was on the terrestrial TV as no Sky then)! Not only did he lie about the boiler, but the neighbours upstairs also knew the boiler wasn't working, so he couldn't have said that it was working when he moved out. My first property I had no idea about anything, turned it on and a horrendous noise and the neighbours came running down. Not worth pursuing at all according to my solicitor, but he was crap too as there had been a (fixed) leak from upstairs and he was supposed to repair the ceiling and redecorate and my solicitor was to withhold £250 in case he didn't. Well he hadn't fixed it but my solicitor had also failed to withhold the money!
I hiss at him every time I see him on TV.

@Lovingitallnow you’re responsible for the house and ensuring all is as expected and per contract until completion. If you cant prove the boiler was working before you left, then it’s a tough situation. And It’s a boiler! It’s not like a door handle broke, it’s a pretty serious and important piece in a modern home.

@whyisitallsohard as it turns out we could because it was connected to our phones. Didn't stop them sending us a solicitors letter.

Not much else we can do.
Yes there is.
Just because you’ve had crap left by your sellers, it doesn’t give you the right to do that to the blameless people buying your home. Awful attitude.

''@Muddypaws20

Definitely pursue it. We had exactly the same situation, boiler that we were told was working was dripping when we moved in. Plumber came round and was shocked it had been given a certificate. (it had a random plastic drinks bottle in it!) Our solicitor chased our sellers solicitors and we got £600 from them to get it fixed. We had also been left with a garage and loft full of junk and we got £250 for a skip from the sellers too. We are currently raising a case with the surveyors also who missed so many problems in their report.''

Thank you for that comment. At least it is good to hear that you managed to get some redress.

I went opened some cupboards today in the loft and saw that again they had left more stuff there (old bits of carpets, what looks like some old bits of plastic pipes).

I am in a very similar situation as I think the surveyor missed a lot of issues in his report although I had the highest possible survey.

''@surreygirl1987

This is nasty!''

Such a bizarre attitude.

By the way The plumber/engineer who came to check the boiler also found that the gas fire they had in the living room was a death trap with no proper ventilation and I immediately had it removed. He stated that it would have killed me (as the fumes would have come back into the room.

To those above who said ''you are trying it on'': I bought the house but did not move in on completion instead as I still have my rental flat for a couple more weeks. I had booked an electrician and plumbers to come in and check that everything was fine and this is when everything came out.

It staggers me how so many people have tried to paint me as the villain here.

@Lovingitallnow it’s tough, as i said, from their point of view they paid for a working boiler. What happened in the end with the solicitors?

OP you bought a house and expect it to be in working order as per your surveyor and not for it to be a death trap. Youre not “trying it”. Theres a lot of disgruntled homeowners and seller on mumsnet atm because house prices are dropping and they know it. They are taking it personally. Good luck in making your new house a home and for it to be a safe place. Sellers cannot get away with this. Make sure you have all in writing and documented by the engineers and plumbers.

Sadly it’s caveat emptor. We had similar happen and there is very little you can do. Annoying but try to move on and enjoy your new home.

@whyisitallsohard it was all grand for us. To be honest I was simultaneously livid that they'd accuse us of being sneaky and liars, especially that we'd do anything unsafe with a boiler when we'd kids in the house. And I'd also said via the estate agent that we'd had no problems with the boiler when it was first raised. And also felt sorry for them that they were in their new house and had to get a new boiler especially because based on what our engineer said it looks like it could have been easily fixed except the plumbers they went to hadn't a clue. They were coming to us 4 months later and after they'd replaced it so our engineer never had a chance to review the boiler and establish what was wrong but he was able to point out a load of flaws in what their plumbers had said. (They'd said silicon was unsafe in a boiler- our engineer had the list of content that showed it's an actual component of the boiler) it was really stark reading. That coupled with the face we had the app which showed when it was working. They left it after that. So as I say, I was raging at the accusations but also did feel for them in the end because I'd say they could have had a far cheaper fix.