UK Landlord Forum / Life

Ok new to this forum So I have put in an offer recently on a house, the house in question is hooked up to Gas, contains a combi boiler, gas cooker and perhaps once a gas fire although this is boarded up. I'm pretty sure the gas boiler will need replacing, to me it looks at least 10 years old or so, the radiators too look pretty old and might be corroding inside. so all in all to really get gas use back into this property proper I thinking it will cost £££'s.

I'm looking to turn this property (or similar if this one does not go through) into one which I can live in as a Landlord and rent out a couple of rooms. Its a blank canvas but as such needs refurbishment. I'm going to do a lot of the work myself so it need not cost loads but will take a lot of effort on my part which I don't mind. However, getting the gas sorted to full use I am concerned is going to cost and I think it would be a case of doing it along with the refurbishment and get it all done.

The fact of the matter is I'm not sure its really worth it, with all the cost of a new full installation, future Gas certificates and servicing at regular intervals and other headaches, i.e breakdowns, etc. Would I be better off getting the Gas company to disconnect the Gas get rid of all the Gas radiators, boiler, etc and just go for say electric cooking and oil filled radiators instead? Maybe even just have an electric shower instead of a bath. With all the paying out for Gas Safe people turning up all the time and the hefty amount they seem to charge I'm just not sure if its worth it and more of a pain than anything. Any thoughts?

Gas Safe people turning up all the time? What does this mean, or what do you think this means?

Electricity is nowhere near as efficient at heating water as gas is. Oil filled radiators? That's most Landlord's back up.

Quote from: Hippogriff on April 15, 2017, 10:02:55 PM
Gas Safe people turning up all the time? What does this mean, or what do you think this means?

Electricity is nowhere near as efficient at heating water as gas is. Oil filled radiators? That's most Landlord's back up.

Yeah, but the cost of a boiler can go into thousands, repairs often hundreds if not thousands, servicing & fluid flush into hundreds, then the yearly cert. not a lot but a continual expense. I've had a combi boiler in the past and it was temperamental and always breaking down, if you got through a winter with it then it was good going. I just think the cost of the gas should have the installation costs factored into it, which many seem to overlook. That and it may just be the odd room at a time that needs heating.

OK Peter Rachman,  that's why central heating zones and TRVs exist... surely? Are you quite sure you're not stuck in the past? Over several years and several properties I've had 1 catastrophic boiler failure - that was a Saunier Duval piece of crap... replaced with an Ideal Logic+ (which I have in a number of properties now) and all is good.

Ask yourself - what kind of Landlord do you want to be?

Quote from: Hippogriff on April 16, 2017, 09:01:12 AM
OK Peter Rachman,  that's why central heating zones and TRVs exist... surely? Are you quite sure you're not stuck in the past? Over several years and several properties I've had 1 catastrophic boiler failure - that was a Saunier Duval piece of crap... replaced with an Ideal Logic+ (which I have in a number of properties now) and all is good.

Ask yourself - what kind of Landlord do you want to be?

Appreciate the advice but does having oil filled radiators really entail being a worse Landlord? Surely they could give out as much heat as the central heating version, plus you can get them wall mountable so need not look particularly any different. Even a combi boiler uses electricity to turn on Outside of the tenants rooms I would tend to aim for undersizing radiators if using central heating to avoid unnecessary expense in seldom used areas unless of course I could get a TRV that could be locked to a specific setting otherwise a tenant could just turn up the heating go out all day leaving a lot of wasted energy. I had that happen as a tenant in a shared house, the culprit was not popular with even fellow tenants after doing that, lol.

You are worrying about nothing, just be normal.