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.

It’s not a cheek. You can ask pretty much anyone you like to check out the state of the property. Because it’s up to you to check that it’s worth what you are paying for

a buyer has every right to check out every part of the property. The buyer has given the vendor notice that they want a report to include the boiler. The vendor won’t get one. So the buyer does it.

You are not required to provide a boiler service when selling you don't even have to prove it is working.

Apologies this was presented as a “just send him round with the surveyor” ie without specific permissions.

and even so, yes I’d say no if the buyer wanted to come and service my boiler.

be only time I’d say yes is if I was desperate to sell which you should probably be more worried about.

No we wouldn't have lost the property. We had a good and firm offer on the table, the boiler was over 20 years old and we were near exchange and quick completion. It was their decision to service and not ours.

We are about to put our house on the market and have just had the boiler serviced as a regular annual safety inspection. We would have done it before marketing anyway to have the certificate ready, it shows that you keep the property in good order and gives confidence to potential buyers.
In Scotland buyers can make a claim against the seller if the CH doesn’t work properly on entry to the property

Scottish Standard Clauses: Under standard Scottish property contracts, buyers may raise issues if the central heating system is not in working order upon entry, though claims typically need to exceed a minimum threshold (such as £400) to pursue.
Maybe another point in the Scottish system that we should adopt.

You can here if it’s described as working and isn’t but you’d a) have to prove they knew it wasn’t working and b) it’s uneconomical to sue someone for that amount of money so people never do it (how do they do it in Scotland?)

a service doesn’t prove that the boiler is working at time of completion anyway. It can literally pack in the next day.

If you pay to have the boiler serviced and ideally for a report from the engineer than if it goes wrong once you move in then you have some comeback against the engineer

How? A service isn’t a guarantee the boiler won’t fail in future.

If you want the flat I wouldn’t bicker over things like this, or it’ll drag on forever. If it’s not that big of a deal for her to get it serviced, it’s not that big of a deal for you. Unless you’re hoping to negotiate a price reduction if it’s not in good condition? If she suspects that, then she’ll be even less keen to do it.

When I bought my house the boiler was old and the roof looked dodgy. I factored that into the offer price.

Just to add: in Scotland things are really different! In England the buyer is responsible for paying for the surveys and establishing the conditions of the property. The Scottish way, where the sellers do a lot of that, is certainly more honest and better overall I think.

Ask to have an engineer service it now even if you cover the cost. Depending on what he finds, you can then renegotiate.

Do you love the house? I mean you can

• demand it's serviced
• demand it's repaired if needed OR
• demand money off the price for any repairs

If she wants to sell quickly she is likely to capitulate for fear of loosing you. She might not though... then you have to accept as is, or walk.

How old is the house and is it the original boiler? If the boiler is like 2 or even 5 years old (either the house is a few years old or it's a replacement boiler) it's unlikely to need major repairs even if it should have been serviced annually. If we're talking a 10-15 year old boiler that was last serviced 5 years ago, that's much more likely to need major repairs or replacing!

You wouldn't as something may have happened to the boiler after it was looked at.

Backoffhackedoff
You can here if it’s described as working and isn’t but you’d a) have to prove they knew it wasn’t working and b) it’s uneconomical to sue someone for that amount of money so people never do it (how do they do it in Scotland?)
a service doesn’t prove that the boiler is working at time of completion anyway. It can literally pack in the next day.

It’s written into the contract, which you as the seller sign, I think it’s within 2 weeks of ownership, if I remember.

I recently moved into a new house - all I got was the gas safety certificate. I then got BG out to service the boiler - who cleaned it out and rebalanced the radiators. If you push this - you will most likely receive the gas safety certificate which is the cheapest option for sellers.

An old boiler needs replacing. It won’t be efficient and it could be unsafe. Don’t hassle the seller about getting checked, it’s pointless. Make sure when you move in, you get a new boiler.

Why do you need to replace the boiler? If it needs replacing anyway the service is pointless, if it's relatively new you can just service it once you get in. The sellers have to confirm it's all working on property info from anyway

This.

Whether or not the boiler has been serviced has never been something I've even thought about when buying a property. It's a minor detail in the much bigger scheme of things.

If I were her, I’d say - you pay.

I reckon she probably doesn’t want to move out of her home.

It’s not a rule that boilers have to be serviced, electrics have to be up to date, roofs have to be watertight.
The sellers complete a form that asks if there are certificates for boilers / electrics / windows but this doesn’t mean they have to have them.

If the budget is tight another £10k to replace a boiler might mean the purchase is out of their budget ? How the other half live eh?

It's not likely to cost £10k to replace a boiler.

Bought my house last year, with a regularly serviced boiler, all up to date and it still broke irredeemably on the day I moved in!

All buying/selling is a game of chicken. You want the boiler serviced, she doesn't, who's going to crack first? Realistically a boiler service won't guarantee the boiler won't break down, it's good maintenance, and as with cars a big part of the value is in having it done regularly rather than just a one off at the last minute.

If this flat is in decent condition, even at 10k more expensive and with a potential replacement boiler, it's probably the better buy of the two. You can get through 10k incredibly quickly with renovation work and a new boiler is a couple of thousand if the worst came to the worst. But realistically, if the boiler is working today, it will probably be working when you move in. If the boiler service is important to you to confirm that the boiler IS working then say you want it done but you'll pay for it - it's £100-£150 to do which is a small amount for the peace of mind in a property purchase.

If the other flat is £10k less then even paying out another £600 on searches/fees you’ve still saved more than the cost of a new boiler.
If the boiler is that old and unserviced then I’d drop your offer by £3-4k to account for a new boiler. If the boiler is really old then you’d likely be better replacing it as soon as possible to get a more efficient one anyway.