Gas Was Off During Home Inspection, Seller’s Boiler Report Was Negligent. Any Recourse?

Location: Pennsylvania. I just purchased my first home, which is about 100 years old and has a ~20-year-old gas boiler. During the inspection, the gas was shut off, and my inspector explained he was not legally allowed to turn it on. Because of that, we couldn’t get a full assessment of the boiler’s condition. He did find that the vent pipe leading from the boiler to the chimney was visibly, severely damaged/disintegrating and posed a major safety issue.

We pushed back with the sellers’ agent, who provided a report from Ace Home Services showing the boiler and vent pipe had been inspected before the house went on the market and deemed in good condition. After a fair bit of conflict, the sellers’ realtor finally checked herself and saw there was a large, obvious hole in the pipe. The sellers ended up giving us a credit to fix it.

Fast forward to now: we tried to turn the heat on for the first time, and the boiler doesn’t work at all. A technician told us repairs would cost at least $1,000, but realistically we should replace the entire system. We looked back at the Ace Home Services report and realized it had multiple items checked off that don’t even apply to our system (for example, “checked filter,” even though there is no filter). Given that they also missed the gaping hole and damage in the vent pipe and marked the boiler as “safe” and “functional,” it seems clear the report was negligent or fraudulent.

Do I have any legal recourse here, for example against Ace Home Services for negligence or misrepresentation, or potentially against the sellers for relying on that report?