To expect landlord to fix boiler ASAP

[CJ2010]

Put the hot tap on yesterday in the kitchen in order to wash DS bottles and there ws no hot water. I went to have a look at the boiler and a red light was flashing which indicates flame failure.

So I phone the landlord and he says he will phone his builder, whose friend was the plumber who fitted the boiler and get him to come out and have a look. The builder is a lazy, PITA and if I am having to rely on him to contact his plumber mate then I'm screwed. You when you can foresee a saga developing? Well this is one if those times and I'm about to lose my rag already!

As a tenant what are my rights in getting something like this fixed? I have a 20 month old and a five week old baby. AIBU to demand the LL gets this fixed within the next couple of days. Need advice please!! TIA

Fine, but would be interested to know what aspect you disagree with though.

I disagree that someone who makes a buy to let purchase is 'half decent'

And I think it's a very judgemental thing to say borne out of jealousy.

I disagree because property is an investment that is open to anyone to make. It's not like people aren't living in these houses, it's still providing a home for someone. Someone that has a choice over whether to rent it or not!

Buy to let properties are not the only reason house prices have risen. Much more blame can be laid at the feet of the banks who lent people ridiculous amounts of money in mortgages, and the people who took on too high mortgages in the first place.

If they didn't have the mortgage money available, then houses would not have been sold at the high prices they were sold at a few years ago. People would still want to sell their houses, so would accept lower offers. There wouldn't be so many people now living in negative equity, who would move if it weren't for the fact that they would make a loss. They can't afford to move, which is keeping house prices artificailly high.

Pretty much what Slave said! I just hate crass generalisations, they are so black and white which is quite a childish way to view the world.

Situations like this infuriate me to no end. YANBU. About 2 years ago, when DD was under 1, we were renting and our boiler (or something) went which meant we had NO heating. In the middle of winter. British Gas came out and fixed it (LL was on a plan with them) and it broke again 24 hours later. BG came back out and said due to the age of the boiler the same thing would keep happening and he would attempt to do a quick fix but it wouldn't last. When I approached LL about getting a new boiler he refused, because he wanted to sell and did not want to spend the money to buy a boiler before he sold. So I was to "suck it up". Not impressed. Funnily enough we moved out about a month later...

In our tenancy documentation, there is a very good line:

"In the case of a household containing a terminally ill person(s), very elderly person(s) or infant(s), then a lack of hot water or heating may be considered an emergency."

This many be simply company policy (it is a LA), but PM me if you want the name of it, and you can use them as an example of best practice. CC it to your landlord by e-mail (this time-stamps your communication, as well as putting it in writing).

I'd also be talking to the Citizens' Advice Bureau or a local solicitor about this sort of delay in sorting out things to your house.

"Buy to let properties are not the only reason house prices have risen. Much more blame can be laid at the feet of the banks who lent people ridiculous amounts of money in mortgages, and the people who took on too high mortgages in the first place."

Cannot disagree at all that the banks used these people as a proxy to allow them to inflate the bubble. A lot of these people who took on too high mortgages WERE Buy to letters though.

They went into it without an idea of the business involved, whether they were making an appropriate yield considering the likelihood of capital loss etc.

Pure greed. And that is what makes them need to realise they to EARN their money.

HA - jealousy. I could buy a house outright, but won't because it doesn't represent value for money. Property should not be encouraged as an investment class. There are far more appropriate vehicles for that - not speculating on shelter.

But the landlord hasn't even said he isn't going to fix it?! It only went yesterday!

She's paying for a service. The landlord should make it his priority to sort it out. Immediately.

When we pay rent, we pay a premium in the expectation that shit like this gets sorted at no inconvenience to us.

If landlords don't like it, they can sell up so that we can buy at a fair price and we'll happily bear the inconvenience and cost ourselves.

Withholding or threatening to withhold rent is not a good idea, equally getting your own Gas Safe registered engineer is also not on. A reasonable time is determined by the availability of an engineer, the problem itself, the time it takes to order and collect parts if needed and finally the time to organise the fitting of those parts. Clearly this can take some time.

As you were expecting hot water when you opened a hot tap, I assume you have a combination boiler. You can do a few checks yourself. First check the pressure within the boiler, if it is below 0.5 bar then boiler cannot start, so increase to 1-1.5 bar. Next, turn up the boiler and room thermostat and try and start the central heating - observe and listen to the boiler whilst you do this. You should first hear the pump start and the boilers pressure gauge will jump a little, next you should hear the fan start followed by some rapid clicking as initial ignition is attempted. The sound of the main burner lighting is quite distinctive and cannot really be mistaken.

If the sequence does not start or reach the clicking stage for central heating then it certainly will not for hot water either. If the boiler works for CH and not for HW then you have an electro mechanical fault on the HW side. But, to be fair, with the exception of checking and adjusting the pressure and resetting the boiler via a button or spur the boiler gets it's power from, there is nothing you can do.

Good advice from BaldPlumber but although it may take time to get parts etc it is reasonable to expect it to be looked at within a couple of days even if that's just to diagnose the problem and work out what parts are needed.

Some landlords are good and will act promptly if there's a problem (I try to be like this with our tenants). Some aren't and will procrastinate or refer the problem to a mate to fix, and the mate then takes weeks to sort it out. Our previous landlord was like this. He always sent round his FiL or someone he knew from work which meant everything was bodged and took ages to fix. He was too tight to replace the ancient boiler so we regularly had someone round, trying to fix it. Unfortunately there's not a lot you can do except to keep on his case and remind him of his legal obligations.

Absolutely, immediately...I shall imagine the ll clicking his heels and magic a reliable, trustworthy and skilled gasman out of the closet, where he lives just awaiting their call. Or should he/she pick the first instantly available (not always a good sign) tradesman in the Yellow Pages and cross their fingers?

But I'm not sure what a builder would know about a boiler...

When our boiler had a problem we were recommended someone who specialises in that make and he came round to diagnose the problem within 2 days. When I needed a gas pipe moved in a hurry I found someone reliable who came round the next day... and returned with less than 6 hours notice when there was a problem with it.

It can be done and it isn't difficult. It just requires the landlord to care enough and not just fob it off on his mate.