no heating no help

[baby121990]

hi, my boiler blew up on Friday night i called emergency team out

[ILoveTIFFANY]

And?
Rented house?

[Fakebook]

And danced around naked.

[baby121990]

hi, my boiler blew up Friday night late, i called the emergency team out was impressed he came quickly but was told would not be able to fix until Monday so gave me 2 yes 2 fan heaters to warm a 3 bedroom house. i have no hot water either. i have 2 children one who is 5 with autism. so this is stressing him out which is stressing me out.
Monday came i called the council to be told i have to wait until this Friday before anything can be done. i called back and explained it is impossible to live with no heating and hot water with my children but they don't seem to care and told me there was nothing else they could do. does anybody have any advice on next steps i can do to either get them to rush the job or get them to put me in temporary accommodation. thank you xx

[Feminine]

Are you council/HA?

We are, the same thing happened to us in December. I have 3 children and we just had to wait...and boil water.

Its not easy , I'm sorry.

I doubt there is any advise that can be given with regard to getting them to hurry up.

[whois]

Uh, yeah. Welcome to the realities of life. Things take just as long trying to hire a plumber to sort out heating even if you are employing them yourself and paying yourself.

Two fan heaters should be enough, quick blast every now and again in whatever room you are using. Or you could buy lee to have one in each bedroom.

Boil water in the kettle or hob for baths.

Honestly it's an inconvenience but not exactly emergency accommodation kind of problem.

[Astley]

How do you think the human race managed til central heating?!

Half the world still doesn't have access to running, clean water, let alone hot water

If happened to us in December. 2 weeks to fix. Noone died.

[usualsuspect]

I feel for you, I had no heating for a few days last week.

The council usually prioritise tenants with young children. Have you rang them again?

[usualsuspect]

Oh well , we lived in a cardboard box in the snow

[Groovee]

My dh who works for a council as a GE says if it's blown up, you'll need to wait on a new boiler. Which comes down to whoever is doing the admin. If it's a part, then they cannot magic up parts sometimes and it needs to be ordered. 2 heaters is pretty normal, most people cannot afford to use them though.

I wouldn't say you need emergency accommodation.

[RuleBritannia]

Do you have an immersion heater where your hot water tank is? My boiler broke down just after Christmas and that was the first thing I looked for.

Try neighbours to borrow heaters from them. My neighbours came up trumps for me. Just try. I'm sure there will be people around you who will help like that. And I was lucky to have an enormous convector heater that used to belong to my now late parents that was a godsend - jolly heavy though to drag up from the garage.

I'm not with Whois about boiling kettles of water for baths though. There isn't enough in a kettle except for a quick wash in a small basin but it is better than nothing.

[Binkyridesagain]

Boil water, wear layers, heat one room the best you can with what you've got

[Astley]

It's just the 'it's impossible to live without hot water' nonsense. No it isn't.

It's annoying not life threatening.

[ShamyFarrahCooper]

Well I suppose it depends where the OP lives, because if it's heavy snow where she is then yes I think it is a problem.

Wow, word mention of council/ha and people get a bit snotty about paying it for themselves etc. It's no different to a landlord surely and OP doesn't mention whether she works or not.

OP what about hot water bottles? For the kids those heated bean filled teddies I believe (although we use hot water bottles as kids and never got burned)

It's horrible to be stuck like that.

[usualsuspect]

Heat one room, and wear layers.

Hot water bottles in beds. Forget baths in freezing cold bathrooms. Washes will do unless you can go to a friends or relative for a shower.

[GhoulWithADragonTattoo]

Poor you it's not a good time to be without heating and hot water. I think usual's advice is good. You don't really need to heat the bedrooms as long as you have a nice warm duvet or blankets / dressing gowns on top of your duvet. Wear socks in bed too they help keep you warm and it's less of a shock when you get out of bed in the morning.

Concentrate on keeping the living room warm and make sure you're all well wrapped up (even a hat if it's that cold). I hope they manage to fix it soon. I'm sure your neighbours or friends wouldn't mind you popping round for a shower or could you go swimming with the children and get them showered there - I've done that before when no hot water.

[CommanderShepard]

Your autistic son - is he registered disabled? I ask only because my neighbour is disabled and when her boiler blew up recently the council had someone out on the Sunday to fix it. Assuming you rent from the council it might be worth mentioning this. Admittedly my neighbour is also elderly but I'm sure she said it was her disability status that got them moving.

[JeeanieYuss]

I'm sure there's a time frame that it should be fixed by if you have young children..
I feel for you, all the people saying how did people cope before hot water, heating, etc.. We don't have too now, times have moved on ! And I doubt very much any of them are sitting in there houses with no heating and taking cold showers for the fun of it!

It's minus 0 degrees and below in some places, I certainly wouldn't want to be stuck without heating atm.

Take no notice of the posters saying yabu, I hope it gets fixed soon.
Remember the council as a landlord is obligated to get it fixed, as I said above I'm sure there is a timescale too so get on their case!

[OwlCatMouse]

Wow, what helpful posts!

[usualsuspect]

I thought mine were quite helpful

[LynetteScavo]

The thing is OP, everything that can be done is being done. If you weren't in a council owned property, you would still have had to wait over the weekend, and no one would have brought you fan heaters. You would also have to pay to get your boiler fixed.

Yes, it is a huge pain to wait for a boiler to be mended. We waited two years (although we still had hot water) because we we couldn't afford a new one.

Is the 5 year old at school during the day? When he gets home, all stay in one room, heat his bedroom with the fan heater before he goes to bed, and invest in hot water bottles.

Can you use someone elses shower or go swimming while you wait for the boiler to be repaired?

[ApocalypseCheeseToastie]

lots of those deodorant wipes and invest in some dry shampoo !! You can get through it, we went 6 bastard,fucking weeks with no bathroom ( had to use outside loo oh yes we did ) and no hot water / heating. We stank but survived by getting showers at my sisters and becoming a fan of our local pool I have 2 dcs with sn but don't think it makes any difference with regards waiting unless child is at risk of becoming unwell. Could be wrong tho.

[AmberLeaf]

Ignore the wanky responses.


As Usual says, heat one room, keep the door shut. extra clothes in bed.

Is your son in receipt of DLA?

Having a disabled person in your home should give a level of priority, but if they have to wait for a oart they have to wait for it. crazy though that independant gas engineers can magic them up for paying cutomers but thats council/HA for you.

[GrendelsMum]

Have you been able to borrow some electric heaters from friends or neighbours? If you heat up your living room and have hot water bottles for sitting on the sofa and going to bed, I would imagine you'd be fine. Plenty of hot drinks to keep you going as well.

(Our heating went last week, so I sympathise!)

[AmberLeaf]

oart = part

[baby121990]

im sorry i only wanted some advice really. and thank you too. my 5 year old is registered disabled and he is at school part time. i am a council tennent am i am on benefits as im my childs carer. yes he does get DLA. i only wanted to no my rights really didn't want people to dig me out. we had lots of snow the weekend but thankyou to some of the kind people