Seat belt pretensioners are notorious to have problem with resistance beeing high at under seat connector, thus making SRS light to lit. In case of Rover 200/25 MG ZR this is especialy evident.
People do know to cut both connectors and solder wires in order to avoid this resistance problem, but then you will have problem tonpull the whole seat out.
On the other hand people cut both connectors and replace them with better ones for firm connection.
In my R200 I do know to have SRS light to lit if I move seat and the I just disconnect and connect and it is gone.
Sometimes I need to disconnect and reconnect under both seats.
I would not be surprised that in this case light is still on because they did not make this reconnection for passenger seat.

So, in my opinion, this should not be any problem if you like the car.

 

Get the garage to fix it as it may be simple or expensive. It's also a fail come MOT time.

Edit. Having looked at the OP again, is it a private sale and the vendor took it to a garage?

 

No it's a garage selling it.

 

Get them to fix it with a warranty or do a Mike brewer and beat the price down.

 

March mg enthusiast magazine has a step by step fix for the mg tf srs airbag light.

It says many issues are 'straight forward to fix' after reading the article it may be more than one of several issues.

test1. battery off, seat out. test seat belt pretensioner.
Sometimes the wiring gets damaged if the seat is moved a lot.
Multimeter and test continuity of wires. It could be a simple break.
Also sometimes the light can go out if there is a reconnection.

2. Obtain a spare seat belt pre tensioner then swap. Gloves to stop static( or touch an earthing point)

3.check rotary coupler. Does the horn work? If not thats your problem. Even if the horn works the multistrand ribbon cable can fray. Mine did.

4.srs control unit.

Non of this is my own information it is on page 72 of the magazine. I got mine from whsmiths. A few quid to know what you are up against.

More info here: http://forums.mg-rover.org/mgf-mgtf-sponsored-mgfntfbitz-12/mg-tf-135-srs-warning-light-153958/

 

Going from the above, I'd say that you have an easyish fix, and a good excuse to get a oouple or three hundred off the asking price.
Remember with TF and F's most faults can be found just by going through the forums!

Sundance

 

The SRS light being on is now an MOT fail so the garage can not sell a car with this fault unless sold as spares so the car is currently only scrap value.

However there are only a few components in the system, all of which are easy to replace and cheap to buy. It also helps to have equipment to diagnose the fault, I have and I can.

Get the car cheap and if you are near enough I'll come and give you a hand.

 

Great thanks everyone. With it being an MOT failure I'll tell them they can either fix the fault, reduce the price, or I'll walk away! I'm not buying a car that would fail it's MOT. Not a chance.

 

If the fault is intermittent they may put it through the mot if the light is off. Be aware.

There are also some other lovely cars for sale. Just wait for the right one.

 

If you do buy the car without the fix, I have spare pre-tentioners, SRS control unit and the SRS wiring loom stripped out from the main loom, if needed :broon:

 

One other thing to check is the horn. If the horn isn't working then the slip ring (connection behind the steering wheel) might be broken. It can happen if someone was working at the steering and over rotated it but is an easy cheap fix.

 

I'm fairly sure CJJ has done a 'how to' on fixing a break in the cable to the pre-tensioner. Off for a long walk today in a few moments do don't have time to find the link but it is either here or on the t-bar..
I'm a fan of buying it as seen for peanuts. Get them to deliver it home to your driveway as part of the deal. Scrap prices are low just now so they won't get much.
Plenty of help available it seems