Seller lied about boiler do we have recourse?

[Shwish]

Moved into our new house 2 weeks ago and woke up this morning to a flooded kitchen. Boiler had burst. Called an engineer who pointed out it's about 20 years old and not worth fixing we'd be better to replace. Thing is - we asked boiler age before exchange and were told 7 years.
We were also provided with a "service record" which the engineer has shown us is for a different boiler!
Anything we can do or is it just hard luck?
Thanks

Do you have 7 years in written proof?
get your paperwork in order, including a report from the engineer proving the service record is from a different boiler and then talk to your solicitor.

I’d speak to your conveyancer and get their advice. On the face of it you would have a case, as it seems to be a blatant lie.

However I think the usual advice in these cases is that the cost of taking any legal action would soon outweigh the cost of fixing the problem yourself.

However I think the usual advice in these cases is that the cost of taking any legal action would soon outweigh the cost of fixing the problem yourself

Yes this is what I was wondering really. God. What a dick move.

I think a letter to the vendor via their solicitor will be enough to get them to pay up. I would expect half the cost of a new boiler

I think a letter to the vendor via their solicitor will be enough to get them to pay up. I would expect half the cost of a new boiler

A letter from your own solicitor, yep.

If no response to that, and you have the evidence, is this something that could go thru the small claims court?

https://www.amicuslaw.co.uk/caveat-emptor-buyer-beware/ not saying this is fact but seems like it is probably going to be the case.

Yes. Again I am aware that when you buy something it's at your own risk but I was thinking that since they actually gave us dodgy paperwork maybe it wouldn't apply

@Shwish you used to get a couple of weeks to find faults not disclosed. get onto solicitor first thing monday morning!! a 20 year old boiler usually looks 20 years old!

It does look quite old to be fair but I know nothing about boilers!

@Shwish its fraudulent if they have provided service documents for a different boiler!

If they have said in writing it’s 7 years old and given you a service document showing it’s in good working order which isn’t for the actual boiler then yes I would be seeking compensation as while they don’t have to disclose problems, if they answer a question it, they need to be truthful

Yeah I think it might be Illegal especially because boilers can be dangerous. "Luckily" ours flooded so we found out it wasn't serviced but what if we'd all been poisoned with carbon monoxide or something? Could have been really bad.

Having said that maybe it's legally our fault for not checking the record matched the boiler. They didn't provide the report for our boiler a with faked service record. So maybe that would again come under buyer beware? I don't know
It's costing us £4k to replace though which is obviously money which we weren't expecting. But then I don't want to end up in a situation where we spend say £3k on solicitor costs to get half the cost of the boiler back.

A boiler is like £2k courts will probably cost more than that in time and money with a very good chance you might be simply asked 'where is your commissioned gas safe engineer report?' that you are recommended to get (on its on you if you don't) as part of the buying process and didn't thus invalidating your claim.

Its really quite a cheap job in terms of over all home maintenance, even if you believed it was 7 years old it then only had 3 years left in its recommended life span and would be an advisory to replace anyway.

Its your job to check though, they don't have to provide anything.

Gas safety is to be checked by the buyer not seller regardless of if any documentation is supplied.

Its not a legal requirement for them to supply info on the boiler, boilers breaking after you take home ownership is on you as home owner not the previous owner even if it breaks minutes after getting the keys.

Small claims only costs a couple of hundred so I would just do this following a stiff letter from your conveyancer (assuming they don't respond favourably) it's worth that to try to recover the costs. Half the costs plus court expenses seems pretty reasonable and I do t think a judge/they could argue considering that if they had been honest you should have got another 13years out of the boiler.

Just one thought OP - get yourself a Carbon Monoxide alarm, which I'm assuming you haven't got if you say you could have died from CM poisoning.

I suspect they would claim that (like you) they 'know nothing about boilers' and believed what they told you to be true.

In any case I agree that it is probably not worth your time to try to get money back.

When we moved to our current house the boiler was about 7-8 years old but within a few weeks had developed an annoying fault where it constantly needed re-setting. We had to put it down to experience and get a new one fitted.

I suspect this might limiting factor - i.e. the is no legal requirement in a house sale to provide a boiler age certificate or servicing record so the fact it is fake may well be a moot point.

Thanks. I guess this makes sense but I thought a service report from Aug 2024 (which I understand she wasn't required to provide) would mean that it was safe and up to date.
Ugh. Really hope karma catches up with her.
Hope the boiler in her new place does the same thing and maybe even damages some cabinets with the water leakage!

Thanks. We have actually got one. So Im.not particularly worried about CM poisoning. It was more that I was thinking legally it might be more serious than a fake service record for most things.

Please do report the falsely made document to Gas Safe Register. That engineer could be out there making a killing falsifying gas safety records and putting people's lives in danger

I don't actually know it's a false document though. It's just a document for a different boiler than the one in the property. So maybe the seller just nicked it from somewhere else. I wouldn't want to get an engineer struck off for signing a document that might have been perfectly true for the boiler it was written for
What a pain in the arse.

I’d buy a new boiler and let the vendors know that you’ll be taking them to the small claims court unless they cough up the full cost including installation.

@Shwish the label/serial number on the boiler usually has some code for working out the month/year it was manufactured? Which, if you have anything that says they told you 7 years and it’s much older, may be useful.