Its a tricky one, aber87. Obviously you cannot do without hot water, so your trustee should really recognise this and be flexible - potentially suspending your payments for a period (though they would have to be added on at the end in all likelihood instead).

However, I guess you are going to need to find some way of financing the work in the short-term as it would take a long time for you to save up enough to pay for this. Have you any family/friends that might be able to help you out?

Hi aber87.

Is it a safety issue with the boiler?

Sometimes engineers are pretty quick to condemn older boilers that actually could be kept running well and safely for a couple of years with the help of a good local plumber. That's my personal experience anyway and it allowed me to put off a major item of expenditure for a couple of years.

It's obviously a different matter if there's a safety issue that cannot be fixed.

TDA you may well be right about the boiler.

I had Home Care insurance with Scottish Gas and they had condemned the old gas fire but allowed me to continue to use the boiler.

I cancelled the insurance when I was struggling financially before the Trust Deed and I also changed energy provider to Scottish Power. As part of the deal I had similar cover or so I thought. As soon as the engineer saw the condemned fire he asked if SP had ever been out to do an initial inspection (which is apparently my responsibility to arrange in their terms and conditions).

They haven't and he said the cover wouldn't apply given the condemned fire.

However it's not just the boiler that's packed in, I also have a leaking radiator that would need replaced as a minimum.

I think I will try someone local for a second opinion though before I do anything rash.

I hope that works out aber87.

I'm sure that the situation will be a lot more manageable if you can hold off from such a major expense.

If you think about it those utility providers that provide cover plans have a vested interest in you owning a brand new boiler that isn't likely to have problems.

They might also have a second vested interest in selling you a new boiler and charging you to install it it.

Oh... and a third vested interest in taking a fat commission for organising a finance plan for you.

Right - time to put my cynicism to one side for the rest of the morning.

Hi aber87

Arrgghh! the dreaded tradesmen. You have my deepest sympathy.

I think it's something you will need to speak to your trustee about and see if there is a way around this as you say, credit may be an issue. The minimum £3k is also a strange figure as you can pick up a full system for about £1,400 inc bolier radiators etc. So minimum £1,600 to fit is high. Also not sure why all the radiators would need replaced. In case your wondering my brother deals in all this, so I know all the prices and horror stories.

Hopefully you the Trustee will assist and you can come to some sort of arrangement with family etc as mentioned above to have this replaced.

Mark

Cheers Mark,

The guy did say you could pick up a full system for about £1,400 but he seems to think it would be a lot of work (there may be further problems with the tank in his opinion and the old gas fire needs to be stripped out). The radiators are very old but I have no idea about these things so not sure how many new ones would be needed.

In fairness he did say the policy would be cancelled and I may be due a refund of any charges (although I think it was included with the package I took with them so any refund will be minimal I reckon).

Hi aber87

I would shop about and try and find someone local to have a look at it. It may not be that bad (I hope).

Dealing with tradesmen can be a bit of a headache and a nightmare sometimes.

I'd suggest speaking with a couple of independent local heating engineers about your system to see what they say. You may find that they are cheaper than a large company like SP. You might even be able to negotiate with them over the price and that as TDA has suggested your system might just need a couple of parts to get it working again in the short to medium term.

I remember when my parents had gas installed they arranged for quotes ranging from £5,000 down to £2,000. This was for a full heating system to be installed from scratch as they had old storage heaters.

Different quotes had different strings attached in terms of warranty and aftercare from each company. Eventually my parents settled on a quote from a local independent company which wasn't the cheapest but in fact it was down to the level of aftercare service and duration of warranty for parts and labour that helped them pick. They did have a problem with the system and the engineer was out quickly to fix it.

As neverendingstory suggest best to shop around.

Let us know how you get on.

You can get a new boiler as part of the new green deal scheme which lets you pay for it through your future energy bills. You can also get up to £400 cashback by doing this as your making your home more energy efficient. Full info is on energy saving trust website.

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing that cherylfrench14.

That might well be a good option.

Sounds ideal. Thanks, cherylfrench14 - definitely a good scheme to know about.