Appx. cost to service and fix a gas fire?

[Canvasbags]

We're amidst selling our house. We currently live in a rental far away as we moved two years ago for jobs and couldn't sell the house in 2008.

We never used the gas fire. I always was suspicious of using it when we moved in and when we had a gas safety check done when we let the house, we did not include the fire but had it rendered unusable for our tenants.

So, we're two weeks off exchanging contracts and our buyers have now asked for us to service and fix the fire before exchange of contracts as they have 'heard' that the fire hasn't been used for 20 years!

I'm not sure how they would know that, as we have owned the property less than 5 years!

I don't know for sure that it doesn't work. I mean, it switches on and makes a fire but I wouldn't know if it was safe or not. We bought the house not knowing - maybe we were naive?

Anyway, does anyone have any idea how much a swervice would cost and how much could it cost to fix?

I know we're lucky to have got a buyer and this is probably only a small thing but it is hard not to get narked by such a thing when we have included all appliances in the sale including a rather expensive oven.

if it hasnt been used for 5 years i believe you shouldnt be selling it knowing it hasnt had a yearly safety check. I believe in the vendors pack you have to sign something that says things are in working order. You would be breaking your contract and the buyer could come to you for the cost of the repairs anyway.

you say it needs fixing...is it broken.

A service could cost about £100 but it needs to be checked for carbon monoxide as you may be held responsible for selling it in an unfit condition. I wouldnt want that on my conscience.

I'm sure we would not have said the fire works in the vendors pack if it was listed. Really, really would not have.

The fire does work but hasn't been serviced. The fake coals got moved around on the front by our young children and we were told that those were supposed to be in the correct places - so we rendered it out of bounds for our tenants when we let the property (they have a one year old - it was likely the coals would get moved around with no fixed fire guard)

I haven't had a property with a gas fire or sold a property with a gas fire before so I didn't know that they were supposed to be serviced yearly or serviced prior to selling the property. Is that the same with boilers and gas ovens? When we buy a house again, should the vendors supply us with a gas safety certificate? I assumed, like an electrical test, it was up to the person buying the property to arrange if they wante to. I do actually think it is should be an obligatory part of the selling process. We certainly weren't provided with any of those things when we bought the house nearly 5 years ago.

yes as a landlady/tenancy agreement the boiler legally has to be serviced once a year(and certificated) otherwise you could be sued for endangering your tenants.(same with any electrical changes)Ive had to sort all this stuff out for my son at uni so i have gone into all the details.

when i recently sold my mothers property i had to fill in that the boiler,fire,electric shower were all in full working order as you can be liable to pay for them to be fixed up to 6 months after selling the house...so my solicitor said anyway. My mums boiler broke down 2 weeks before i sold the house so i ended up knocking £600 off the price as i didnt have time to get it fixed.