Mid-efficiency furnaces are still commonplace in the US, and they don't have sealed combustion systems - they get combustion air from the indoor space, but they vent 100% of combustion products out. High-efficiency furnaces in the US made in the past 30 years or so use sealed combustion with intake and outtake to the outside. (North American high efficiency furnaces older than about 30 years were not necessarily sealed).
But yes, the GP is full of shit. Maybe they have some other non-induced vented gas burning appliance (ie a hot water heater or gas hob), or their measurement equipment is faulty.
Or you live insulated from shitty alliances and low income life.
A friend's husband was killed by a faulty boiler, carbon monoxide poisoning. In 2015 I lived in a house where boiler ignition didn't work and you had to reach inside with a lighter. That unit was definately not sealed.
UK only required consenser boilers since 2005, the ones before that used to air from inside your house.
Condenser boilers and balanced flue are separate concepts. The house I bought in 1978 had balanced flue gas heaters but they were not condensing. Condensing boilers are an efficiency measure. Balanced flue boilers have been available in the UK since the mid sixties.
All I can do is share personal experience of living in rental properties in UK, and if these boilers were really sealed, my acquaintance wouldn't be dead.
Whether most boilers are prehistoric, or it's just years of neglect, I don't know.
But yes, the GP is full of shit. Maybe they have some other non-induced vented gas burning appliance (ie a hot water heater or gas hob), or their measurement equipment is faulty.