What do you do if your landlord won’t fix toilet that won’t flush?

[PlumbingProblem]

DD lives in a shared 3rd floor flat in London. Both toilets in her flat are full of water and cannot be flushed. Suction has not worked. Apparently the tenant in the flat below also has the same problem with her toilet. This makes me think that there is systemic problem affecting drainage for multiple tenants.
DD reported the issue to the lettings agency two days ago. They have still not sent anyone out to fix the toilet. When she phoned them today, they told her that they won’t be coming out until Monday to fix the toilet.
I feel that this is entirely unacceptable and that the flat is not a bit for human habitation without a working toilet.
One of DD’s flatmates has put the request for repair in an email so that there is some kind of evidence that repair was requested.
DD and so flat mates have all made several telephone calls to the letting agent explaining the urgency of the situation. However, they have not got any further with having the toilet fixed.
Other than continuing to call the letting agents, is there anything else that DD in her flatmates can do to pressurise the letting agents into getting the toilets repaired?

It can’t be flushed. It’s not that it doesn’t flush.

I would be on the phone to the environmental health dept and letting agency emergency out of hours contacts.

Can a landlord leave a tenant without a toilet? – Just Landlords

Sound like it is an issue with the communal sewer stack or the main drain, so the landlord will be limited in their ability to fix it. The freeholder needs to send their own plumber to inspect the communal drain pipe.

I'll bet someone has flushed somethig they shouldn't and it has blocked up the shared drain pipe.

We get that sometimea in our building from residents who seem to regard their toilet as a convienient alternative to the bin.

How forceful has she been? I’d be demanding someone is sent out now, or the letting agency can provide portable toilets. How are they coping with no toilets?

I do apologise for my lack of updating. I have had an exceptionally busy weekend.
What is happened is that DD has had to go and stay with a friend whilst waiting for somebody to come out and look at the problem of the toilets not draining. Her flat is effectively uninhabitable without a working toilet. All of her flatmates have had to find somewhere else to stay as well.

Thank you to everyone who has posted with information and ideas.

In answer the one PP’s question, I don’t think that DD has been anywhere near forceful enough in pressurising the landlord to take some action. She is only 22 and has limited experience in dealing with difficult landlords. I think she has more or less rolled over and accepted the landlord’s position that they are going to take a week to send somebody out to look at the problem.

I have conveyed all of the ideas given to me on this thread to DD. However, you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.

It sounds like an issue of blocked sewer. The water company will check and they don't charge.

Letting the agent know you’re in contact with environmental health should frighten them into action, if they’re being sluggish.

It could well be. Good to know that the water company won’t charge to check this. I will try to encourage DD to contact them.

Good idea. I will definitely DD to contact environmental health. I am having a job to persuade her to actually take action, rather than actively accepting the current situation.

Really good idea. I will ask DD to look into contacting the building management.

My dd went to citizens advice when her LL didn’t fix the boiler in her university flat. It was the letting agent who they found the Flat through that suggested it,

It can take a few tenancies to realise the tenant-letting agent dynamic is one of all-out war.

Your poor DD and flat mates having to vacate. They should also visit citizens advice and shelter because by law the landlord is supposed to pay for alternate accommodations if they ‘cannot’ fix an emergency within the 24hr maximum.

Can you not take over this problem for her a little bit? If this was my DD, I’d have been making calls myself in the absence of her being unable to assert herself properly so far (not a dig - she’s only young and I have kids of around this age myself)

id be contacting whoever I could and giving them a rocket up their arse. It’s totally unacceptable