Can my seller demand I pay for heating oil after exchange? The price of heating oil has been falling over the past year but the cost is still significant. Buyers can currently expect to pay around 52 pence per litre. The average size of a domestic heating oil tank is between 1,000 and 3,000 litres, so the cost of filling a tank will be around £1,000. Depending on usage, you may need to refill the tank a few times a year. Jeremy Raj, a partner at law firm Wedlake Bell said oil tanks, as well as septic tanks and cesspools, are often a source of dispute in conveyancing transactions. “Given their relative scarcity, buyers, and in some cases their conveyancers, sometimes do not appreciate the running costs and practical issues associated with oil-fired heating systems,” he said. “Sellers, having lived with such systems, may not appreciate their counterparts lack of knowledge as to what they are taking on.” Mr Raj said that while some utilities are easy to transfer to buyers on a sale, the handover of oil reserves requires a little more negotiation, and there can often be a significant value to the oil left behind. Depending of the level of sophistication of the tank, there may be a meter giving a precise readout, or you may need to resort to dipping with a stick to reach an approximation. Tanks will have varying capacities and it is possible to shop around for competitive oil prices, so both the method of calculation and the cost per litre should be agreed in advance. As with all aspects of the sale of a residential property, the crucial date for fixing the bargain struck between buyer and seller is on exchange of contracts. “Filling in the Fittings and Contents form represented the first stage of agreeing payment for the amount of oil left in the tank on completion,” he said. “However, while the section in the standard form headed Stock of Fuel allows you to confirm what is included or excluded in the sale, it also asks specifically for a price to be specified, and has a separate column for comments. It is unfortunate that after you stated that the oil was excluded from the sale price, the matter was not considered further, particularly given that the intention was to leave it and charge for it. Further guidance from your solicitor would have been helpful, and there may be some mileage in a complaint on that basis.” Mr Raj said on a strict interpretation of the documentation, one would most likely have to conclude that you are entitled to remove the oil from the tank on completion, but not to charge for it. “An appeal to the better nature of the buyer or the threat of action through the small claims court may be the only other options, but neither seem to offer much in the way of grounds for optimism,” he said.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:36:15 +0000
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