Thanks to everyone for the advice and replies. We are now going over tomorrow for a day trip to test what we can - I have my newly purchased socket tester and tape measure at the ready so I’ll report back how we get on. The immo did also try to arrange a boiler person to come but think she’s had difficulty as it’s August…so fingers crossed!! As we’ve already had a good reduction on the price not sure we’ll be able to knock more off if nothing works but we’ll see how we get on tomorrow - on the plus side the CDV has pretty much been approved by the notaire so things are moving at pace which is good and should put us in a good negotiating position if needed as we’re also cash buyers.
Good luck, hope things go well. 
So an update! A pretty successful today - a 3.30am alarm call but worth it when we arrived into a lovely sunny day!
Got to the apartment and the new electricity account we had set up for testing was up and running and bingo electrics were working! So i used a trusty test plug and nearly every socket and light swtich was working so that was a relief - just some light bulb purchasing to do!
Our agent had also arrange a boiler engineer to come along and he gave the boiler a full service (which we’re paying for, bill to come but appros Euros 300) and luckily there was just enough fioul to test the system and it all worked well. He seemed pretty impressed at how clean the boiler was so that was comforting! I also learnt that the fioul boiler can product both heating and hot water and that the other separate tank is a separate water heater. He also gave me a local contact for Fioul delivery.
We didn’t manage to ascertain if the water tank actually works as we didn’t have time to leave it to heat up so still trying to get that sorted. But essentially we had a really good day and feel much more at ease that we’ll at least be able to utilise the apartment whilst we wait do some some rennovations!
Worst part of the day was waiting 1.5 hours at LHR for the meet and greet to bring our car back so we didn’t get home till 1.30am!
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There’s a very simple way to prove that a electric chauffe eau is at least pulling power.
Firstly, switch off the chauffe eau & also ensure that all large electrical loads are not in use (i.e. don’t be running the tumble dryer, making toast, charging an EV etc.).
Go to your electricity meter. If it’s still an old electromechanical one the horizontal wheel will be turning very slowly; if you have a white electronic one or a more modern Linky there will be a small flashing indicator which will blink a longish intervals.
Now switch on the water heater; if it’s drawing power then there will a noticeable increase in either the speed of the wheel or the frequency of the flashing indicator.
All electronic meters can also display the power being drawn if you wish to scroll through their menus.
P.S. Just because a water heater draws power it does not mean that the thing is working perfectly. It’s entirely possible that a faulty thermostat could prevent it from heating up fully. Equally not drawing power doesn’t mean that the element (resistance) is faulty - the thermostat could need resetting, or is faulty in some other way.
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thanks @Badger that’s really useful and helpful info - we’ve gone back today to ask if they can service it at their cost as we 're already paying the electric and fioul service so don’t think it’s an unreasonable ask so we’ll see what comes back. It’s pretty old looking and I think will likely need replacing fairly soon so I’ve been looking at Leroy Merlin for prices etc. and see they can also install…
You could consider a Sunamp heat battery, there was a French company setting up using Sunamp’s products. Much smaller footprint and can keep hot much longer than a water tank. Cost is higher though but should save that back in energy.
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You can compare prices with
https://www.fioulmarket.fr/ Or any other company with prices online.