Urgent advice needed please, no heating in rented property

[isthismylifenow]

I do not live in the UK, so am not sure how best to advice my dd.

She and her friend are renting a room in a house (all the rooms in the house are rented out).
My dd has just told me that the landlord 'just assumed' that no one would be there over this Christmas weekend, so had turned off the heating to the entire house.

I didn't know this, but just found out it has been off since the night of 24th December.

I am pretty sure this is not legal. Never mind the fact she says it is freezing cold at the moment.

She and her friend are new to the country so they are not sure what action to take.
They have contacted the landlord who has not responded.
Their rent is fully paid, they have even paid for January, so not in arrears.

Can anyone advise if the landlord is not responding what else they can do?

(I have told her to go buy a cheap fan heater and run that constantly, as electricity is included in their rent. I don't know what else to advise)

Is there an oven? I'd just turn that on full and open the door up.

I’d do exactly what you suggested and a cheapie fan heater. If they have an oven in the kitchen run that and open door every ten minutes and you get a lovely blast of heat. I once stayed in an air bnb with no heating and the oven was a life saver.

There is a communal kitchen with the oven, it doesn't lead on to their room though.

They can just turn it back on?

He’ll have just switched it off on the main control panel (instead of ‘auto’ or ‘timed’ or ‘on’) or flicked a switch.

If she can send you a photo we can probably suggest.

Or does he keep control through an app or something?

Thank you, I have asked her now.

She said they were planning on going to the pub to keep warm. 🙈

I suppose that is another option I didn't think of...

Depends. Our nutty landlord controlled our heating from his phone and only let us have it warmed to his standards (living 5h away from us). Paid 650pm for a room. Left after 4m

Nutty indeed @Destiny123! that’s why I asked about the app.