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.

I was going to mention this too. Does England not have this? Yet another crap thing about the English system.

Our boiler broke on the 6th day; you get 5.

Ours. It's a 40kW boiler, top of the range because our house is very long so it has to work hard to get hot water around the house. Plumber also chose it as a future-proof system; we could add a hot water cylinder if we need to when we have 3 teenaged girls.

@Lovingitallnow i understand, i'd be annoyed to be accused too if i did no wrong. i think the new generation of house buyers (millenials and gen z) will not let these things drop though. apparently in scotland they have clauses for things like this too, puts more responsibility on sellers. glad it got sorted

I will update people as to what the solicitor says as I only emailed them yesterday.

I am also doing a bit of detective work today and contacted the firm that supposedly conducted the boiler check and gave the certificate last year provided for the conveyancing because that company is situated in a completely different part of the country and I can see that the address of the house is not even on the certificate...

So who wants to bet this is not even a gas certificate that relates to this house/boiler?

Maybe it will turn out that the sellers were genuine but I would say there is also a possibility that there is real dodgy thing going on and that this will end up in court.

@GrouchyKiwi I was originally going to buy in Scotland because the system seems so much better and kicking myself that I did not go ahead with that plan.

You forgot to tell us how long the house had been left empty before the faulty boiler was discovered.

@Soontobe60 Not long at all. Just over a weekend...

I re-read the survey paper and it was noted the boiler was working then and confirmed later by the sellers in the forms you have to fill that there was no issue with hot water and heating.

So one hell of a coincidence that if would suddenly shows a fault as soon as I move in.

Good on you, wished I had gone after our sellers for leaving all their crap and all the stuff they tried to sell us that we said we didn't want. In the end I was just exhausted from the whole buying thing but wished I had had it in me to pursue.

@AfraidToRun I think this is what happened with me. I was so exhausted with everything that I probably missed a lot of red flags.

I also think that if you are a decent person you want to see the best in people and don't expect them to just screw you over. unfortunately many people just don't have the same values.

Boiler replacement cost is how long is a piece of string. DDS Ideal one in her two bed cost £1200 in Jan, my more advanced Valiant for a for bed was £2900 in July.

honestly, I would probably take that on the chin and be grateful for a lovely new boiler for the winter.

I would bin all their Mail now though!

@TerfTalking

There is no bath only a shower and I live on my own and don't even use the heating that much (South East) so I am really not going to go for something top of the range.

I am getting a second opinion from another recommended plumber because I think the first one was just trying to push the most expensive Worcester he could find...as he is affiliated to them.

And yes the mail is no longer going to be redirected to them.

I will just return it to senders for the first month which gives them plenty of time to have paid for a proper redirection with the Post Office & after that everything goes in the bin.

It's definitely worth a claim for the stuff they left behind. Or house was owned by a couple who'd moved to another country and left their son living there. When they eventually sold it to us the son decided to leave behind a double mattress, sofa and a couple of other bits. Our solicitor sent theirs a bill for the skip we hired and they paid it.

An oil fired combination boiler costs £6k and that's how much I paid. What's the problem with that for you exactly? Just think yourself lucky you don't have to pay that for a new boiler, eh.

Seller has to fill in a form which asks if the boiler is working Take it from there Stupid question really It should just ask for the last gas cert

how did this pan out for you? We recently moved and the buyers are claiming that we lived there with two kids with multiple leaks flooding the kitchen and dining room. They've sent an email with all sorts of ridiculous demands and are threading us with legal action.