Recently bought a house and was told that the boiler was old but "in good working order". The boiler broke down last week so British Gas were called out to fix it. The engineer who attended advised that the previous owners of the house had been advised last year that the boiler was "at risk" didn't meet current safety standards and needed replacing urgently. The previous owners didn't have the courtesy to disclose this information, so I am looking at what legal recourse I have against them. I have 2 young children .. and they could have potentially put them in danger ... something which I consider to be totally unacceptable. I contacted British Gas to try and get a copy of the service history of the boiler to establish exactly what was advised to the previous owner, but they have refused citing "data protection" legislation. I explained that this evidence might be required for a legal dispute ... but they did not budge. To me this is poor service by BG and a blatant mis-use of the Data Protection Act. If a buy a car, I am entitled to see the full service history ... so I would expect the same with a boiler. I am not asking for the personal details of the previous owner ... which I have in any case .... just to know how long the boiler has been dangerous.