Should the seller get the boiler serviced?

[Teenagerantruns]

So we are finally after many years of renting buying a flat.
We are 5 months in even though it is a short chain its taking forever.
We asked our seller to get boiler serviced as she has never done this and its old, she is refusing and im not sure why?
Flat prices have fallen since we offered, there is the same flat for sale in the block we offered on at £ 10k less, although it needs more cosmetic work
We love the flat we offered on but won't have money to replace a boiler straight away.
So what would you do? We can walk away our landlady is going to sell after we move and not bothered when we go.
We would lose about £600 in solicitor fees and survey.
We are cash buyers.

Thats ridiculous, she should be doing it for her own safety! She could be poisoned by her own boiler.

She's prepared to lose a ££££££ sale for a £££ service and safety check? That's mad.

Arrange to have it serviced yourself as soon as you move in??

When buying our current property our solicitor rang us to say this boiler had not been serviced and advised us to contact EA and say either they get it done or we would reduce our offer by £7,000. We did this and it was serviced the next day!

Get it serviced when it belongs to you.
In the grand scheme of all the things that may need done/replaced in a house, a new boiler isn't that much. So if you can't afford it, maybe you need to build up a bigger contingency fund before you become homeowners.

She is not required to get it serviced, but needs to confirm it works when you exchange. Why don’t you get it serviced when you move in? It should not be a deal breaker

If it does need replacing, you could look at paying for it in monthly instalments https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/new-boiler-cost . Losing £600 is basically the cost of a quarter of a new boiler.

How old is the boiler OP?

We've always got our own service done when we got a property. Never expected a seller to do it. Its one of those things when you get the electrics, gas checked when you purchase a property.

The seller doesn't have to get it serviced and you don't have to buy it. Someone else will buy it instead.

It might not be £100, the service people may say it is too old and they can't get the parts or it is unsafe and, if gas, may attached a dangerous to use notice, and then you would have to replace the boiler, and that may be several thousand pounds.

We paid for ours to get serviced when we were selling as they wanted a certificate dated within the past year. For the sake of £120 it wasn’t worth arguing with our buyers.

What sort of boiler is it?

We have an old boiler, it's a through the wall one. We asked for it to be serviced during the buying process as it hadn't been for 5 years. Sellers arranged service and sent through paperwork.

On moving in day, we had no hot water (combi), when the emergency plumber came there was a rag screwed up inside stopping leaks. Turns out the seller didn't let the engineer in the house to check that the boiler was working properly but this wasn't mentioned on the paperwork.

My dh is a gas engineer. A routine service is a very basic thing. They really just check that it’s safe, check pressure, run a few tests etc. It does little to maintain the boiler especially the older it gets. If the boiler is already old then surely u factored that in to the price you offered. Get it serviced when you get the keys and or get quotes to get a new one.
When we bought current house we knew the boiler was old and one of the first things we did when we moved in was replace it. It was done within the first month.
I really wouldn’t be losing the place over it.

I sold a property recently and the buyer asked for permission to get the boiler serviced but made it clear they'd be paying. The survey has recommended a safety check and they preferred to spend the money on a service since they'd be owning the boiler.

I insisted on the boiler being serviced on a house I was trying to buy. I'd had enough of them and made it a deal breaker. They paid £99 to have it done but I ended up walking away months later anyway due to their behaviour. I'd make this a deal breaker too she gets it done and proves it or you're knowing off £3000 of the price.

She can refuse and you’ll have to get it serviced yourself when you move in.

It’s her house at the moment, her boiler, it’s entirely up to her if she wants to get it serviced

Dear god. Would I hell let you service my boiler whilst the surveyor was in. Blooody cheek

But either way- she can’t just send round a plumber at the same time as the surveyor and get someone else’s boiler serviced!

The time line was wrong. For your information as soon as what they doing became apparent I pulled out. One year plus later they still hadn't sold... so