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Original poster

If you were buying a property with a half full oil tank..would you expect to pay for the remaining oil?

20 replies

hattyyellow · 20/07/2009 14:20

Any thoughts? Our vendors are asking us to pay for the remaining half tank of oil.

DH has said not a chance and that they are welcome to remove the oil if they do not want to leave it..

What's the done thing?

OP posts:

mumblechum · 20/07/2009 14:22

I think you should pay for it. It costs almost £1,000 to fill ours up.

thrifty · 20/07/2009 14:23

you'd think it'd be included really, though i believe its quite expensive. I'd call their bluff and tell them to take it with them (i'm sure they wouldn't!)

EldonAve · 20/07/2009 14:24

How much do they want?

I'd probably say the same as your DH - they are welcome to remove it if they wish

PfftTheMagicDragon · 20/07/2009 14:26

I would not expect to pay. If you sell a car you do not ask the buyer to pay for whatever is in the tank. tell them they can take it with them.

thrifty · 20/07/2009 14:26

will you need it for hot water/heating when you move in?

Original poster

hattyyellow · 20/07/2009 14:28

Thanks all. It's tricky - they've been quite stroppy so far with the whole process - there was about £5-£10k of work our surveyor said needed doing and they refused to take anything of the price for that. So part of DH's logic is why should we shell out any more..

I'm keen not to lose the house. They haven't specified a price yet as DH said no straightaway.

We wouldn't dream of asking our landlord/new tenants to pay us for oil remaining in our tank when we leave our rental property..

Not sure where we stand legally...

OP posts:

gingertoo · 20/07/2009 14:28

We paid for half a tank of oil when we moved into our house.
We went on to the 'Boiler Juice' website to see what the cheapest price for oil was in our area then worked out how much the half tank would have cost then made an offer for less than that. (At the time I think the cost price was £250. We offered £180 and they agreed)

We were not too happy about it but we figured that if the house has gas central heating we wouldn't expect the vendors to pay for our first 6 months gas....

....and to be honest, I'm a terrible wimp so I suppose if your DH is happy to stand his ground - go for it!

Original poster

hattyyellow · 20/07/2009 14:29

We will need it for hot water - won't need it for heating as it will still be summer, but technically it is the only way to heat the house..

OP posts:

flowerybeanbag · 20/07/2009 14:34

Depends how much they are asking. If it costs £1,000 to fill it up and they are asking less than you'd have to pay a supplier, then pay. If they are asking more than it would cost you to buy it anyway, then don't.

LaurieFairyCake · 20/07/2009 14:35

Yeah, but it's not going to go off in the next six months so you will need it at some point.

It's quite normal to pay for it round here.

Though I would be negotiating that 5-10 off that you wanted as the survey said it wasn't up to scratch.

Original poster

hattyyellow · 20/07/2009 14:42

Good points..am dithering..

Out of interest..how complicated a job is it to actually drain the oil out of a tank?

I have no idea, would you just not bother?

OP posts:

DaisymooSteiner · 20/07/2009 15:29

I would absolutely expect to pay for it, just in the same way that I would expect to pay for anything I wanted left as an 'extra' such as freezer, washing machine etc.

I doubt they will bother to drain the oil as it would be a big faff, but if you want to do the right thing, then at least make them an offer.

swedesinsunglasses · 20/07/2009 15:37

It is normal to pay for it. But those selling it normally sell it at a bit below cost, because we know they aren't going to syphon it off.

It's not very good for the boiler to completely run out of oil. And if you have an oil Aga it can cause real hassle with sludge.

I think you're being unreasonable.

You should have made your offer £XXX including the oil tank and its contents.

Owls · 20/07/2009 15:38

We paid for half a tank of oil when we moved into our last property. With this house the vendor just used all of it and we paid to have it filled up on moving in day. Think it is fairly usual to pay tbh.

With regard to draining oil out of a tank, it isn't that easy and they would have to pay specialist people to do it and transport it as it is classed as contaminated. Also, transferring oil from one tank to another is also not recommended due to the risk to foreign bodies being sucked off the floor and causing problems with the tank it's put into. (Can you tell we've just had a new tank installed)

mumblechum · 20/07/2009 15:43

As someone else said, you wouldn't expect them to pay for your first six months' gas supply, and oil is no different.

scaryteacher · 20/07/2009 15:45

You should pay for the oil and not just expect a freebie, as heating oil is expensive. I leave a full tank of oil for my tenants, and then they are expected to refill it before they leave.

What your surveyor says needs doing and what actually needs doing can be two completely different things and a way to bring values down in the current climate, so the vendors may be justified.

StealthPolarBear · 20/07/2009 15:48

We did this 'properly' after a falling out with the vendors. They took a reading as they left, we took one when we moved in and I calculated the cost - which was about half of what they said we owed . So they'd tried to get us to pay for gas they'd used.
That's how it would work with any other utility - IMO that's fair enough.

StealthPolarBear · 20/07/2009 15:49

oh and we both paid the suppliers separately.

Original poster

hattyyellow · 20/07/2009 16:55

Thanks so much all for all your thoughts - it seems to be coming down on the side of us paying them for it - will have another chat to DH tonight...

I do see the point that we would have had to buy the oil anyway, it's not as if they're trying to flog us something we just don't want or would never use..

(Owls thanks so much for the explanation re emptying tanks and the hassle of it - it's amazing the expertise on random subjects you can find on mumsnet!)

OP posts:

nowwearefour · 21/07/2009 13:10

it is normal to pay for it. i was shocked too. but standard practice apparently.....

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