Vendor refusing to get up to date electric/gas certificate

[homeandstay]

Reason being, they accepted a reduced offer and are fixing 1 thing from the survey which is costing around 1k.
Fair?

Not about fair/unfair really. They’ve drawn a line in the sand with what they are willing to negotiate on and perhaps feel they have compromised enough on their side. Your choice is to accept and pay for the checks yourself or walk away. Personally I’d probably accept their decision but depends how much you want the house.

@homeandstay Pay for them yourself, it is normal for the buyer to do it - some vendors do it to be helpful, but not all.

I don't think they even cost very much.

Hi, jumping in to ask whether this is standard practice for purchasing? Getting up to date gas/electricity certificates.

I’ve never done this when selling nor has anyone I’ve bought from. I don’t think it’s expected in England, is it? Has this come from the survey? I’ve always assumed that’s just the surveyors covering themselves.

I looked it up. And it is not a legal requirement when selling

We're also selling our house, and we're getting ours checked to be helpful, maybe we should ask the buyers to do it, if it's usually the buyers

Doesn’t this come up on most surveys? Maybe not gas, since you should ideally be servicing the boiler annually but it’s pretty standard to not have an up to date electrical certificate as you don’t get an electrician in unless you’re actually doing work. I would just take it as solicitor arse covering and not an actual necessity.

It's common to get a gas safety check done, but paid for by the buyer, in my experience. My solicitor recommended it to make sure the boiler etc wasn't leaking. Cost about £50 I think.

The option of an electrical safety check was also mentioned, but the house I was buying was a 90s build with no structural additions, so I decided not to. Electrical code changes fairly frequently, and there is not requirement to upgrade a house when the code changes unless you are having work done to the electrics. So the chances are, an inspection will just high light where it doesn't mean the most recent code, unless you are buying a house with very old electrics I wouldn't personally bother. Or if there has been structural work with no building control sign off (but you probably have other issues to worry about then anyway)

Perfectly fair for vendor not to supply - absolutely no requirement for a property to have either.

There are normally 2 trains of thought with the certificates, most normally electrics:

The buyer is doing due diligence by checking in advance of the purchase, by not relying on the vendor they can be certain the certificate is from an electrician they have apppointed themselves

Or the vendors provide an electric check, and have boilers serviced etc in order to not hold up a sale, to be seen as being proactive. For some however even if the vendor does provide the info, the buyers still commission their own in order to fully satisfy themselves.

What should not happen is the buyers and vendors stall the process due to each demanding the other do it! In the scheme of house prices, having the tests done is very tiny.

Makes no odds,we had an up to date gas certificate when we bought the house,the boiler broke a month after we completed,electrics are never up-to date unless it’s a new build anyway.

We've never had these for either property we've bought, or sold. it's not required.

Sadly yes the risk - I prefer asking a plumber to look at the boiler/heating and ensuring a service is done, far better than a certificate which tells you nothing.

Electrics, yes Part P regs are pretty much out of date for everything other than new builds, and even then they can be if the regs have recently changed, but I think having an EICR is worthwhile - as it does show if the electrics are safe. The only time I did not have one was when I knew the house was going to be rewired fully.

Well maybe they feel they are in a strong position and you are getting a bargain.

You have two options.

It's not about "fair". There is no fair or unfair in property purchasing. A house is worth whatever time and money the buyers are willing to put into buying it.

They've told you the extent they're willing to go in order to sell their house and they've decided they're done jumping through hoops.

It's up to you to decide whether to proceed or not based on that.

The seller is not legally obliged to carry out checks. If you want it checked arrange and pay yourself.

It's not a requirement. If it is needed for you to want to buy the house pay for it or walk away. It's your choice.

Yeh totally reasonable I think. A boiler service - sure but past that I'd say no too.

I just took out a service contract with British Gas which covered my old house (FTB asked for a service certificate, and I thought fair enough since I'd never had it serviced since I installed it 4 years prior) and then I used it for my new house a few months later when I updated my address. It was no hassle and I wasn't interested in haggling with our vendors.

It’s not a legal requirement so the vendor can choose not to do it. We’re in the process of buying and have booked an electricity safely check at our own cost, as they haven’t been checked since 2010. It will be done a few days before exchange. If the check shows a lot of work needs doing we will be renegotiating the price.

The check will show if the electrics are safe surely that is the important aspect of the check? Any electrics can be safe, but require updating that is to be done at your cost not a renegotiation in price, only if the electrician will not issue a certificate thereby deeming the electrics unsafe should there be any change in price.

It's not really a 'thing' to have gas and electric checks outwith the rental market. I would hope to see boiler service records and would glance at the consumer unit to get a rough idea of age.

If you want them you pay for them. The fact you’ve chosen to provide them on your sale isn’t relevant and wasn’t necessary.

Our buyers chose to pay for an electrical survey close to exchange which we were fine with but were firm in advance that there would be no renegotiations on price so close to exchange!