House sale - oil tank too close to house

[MouseyHousey1]

Hi, we are selling our house and the home buyers survey is all fine. However our boiler service note states that the boiler is too close to the oil tank, and that the oil tank is too close to the house. There is nowhere else to site either of these (260 year old terraced cottage with courtyard garden). Should we be concerned that this will cause issues when handing the document over, and is there anything that we can refer to for peace of mind?

It came up on our survey when we bought he house 8 years ago, but we took the view that with nowhere else to place them we could live with it.
Thank you!

 

[Agile]

Perhaps the buyers will be able to take the same attitude as you did?

I would be pointing it out to prospective purchasers and let them make the decision.

Tony

 

[Boilerman2]

The tank should be no closer than 1.8 metres from your boiler's flue terminall (the part that the hot gasses exit) the boiler itself may be closer than that it is just the flue terminal that is the issue.

As for too close to the House??? there is no regulation provided the house has a fire resistance of 60 mins - What is more likely is that there is a window or door intro the house less than 1 metre away from the tank - it is openings (windows & doors into the property that are subject to minimum clearances)

It may be possible to construct a block screen wall between the tank and the offending openings/boiler flue terminal to overcome these issues
perhaps you could post a couple of pictures so I can have a look at your situation?

 

[Andy4444]

It depends on how tenacious the buyers solicitors are. Have you been asked by the buyer specifically to undertake any works to make the installation compliant? I did a survey for a house buyer and the oil tank was non-compliant. The buyer tried to negotiate the house price down but the seller would not budge. Buyer loved the house so proceeded and had a new rank installed.

My argument is any prospective buyer is purchasing the house....not the oil tank! I would wait to see what the buyers solicitor asks for. If nothing is mentioned proceed to exchange. If it is, determine the cost of making the tank compliant and knock it off the selling price of house.

You have to think bigger picture in these circumstances!

 

[MouseyHousey1]

Thank you for your responses. We haven't been asked to do anything, the issue hasn't been raised yet. The survey didn't state anything about the tank or boiler. The buyer has asked for the service certificate for the boiler, which does state the above. so I'm nervous about the potential impact of handing it over

I guess we'll have to wait and see - we knew the situation when we bought and it didn't matter to us. I was hoping that there was something I could refer to if a question was raised to put the buyers mind at ease. Hopefully they will feel he same as we did.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Tell the buyer the price already takes this into account.