no heating no help

[baby121990]

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

OP ignore the few nasty people on this thread you are completely within your rights to expect working heating within a reasonable time i.e 24 hours in this weather. Our ha ensures all emergency repairs to heating and water are done within 24 hours. Its freezing out there, earlier my heating didnt come on (ok i used up the meter) and i couldnt get out to fill it, dh came home to do it but it was bitterly cold, 2 dc's and i were clothed with extra socks, slippers, house robes etc and still cold and i only had to go without for a few hours!

temp accommodation because of my children not because of me. wow i cant believe some people.

YES A FEW DAYS IS A LONG TIME WHEN ITS BELOW FREEZING OUTSIDE
I WAS ASKING IF IT WAS POSSIBLE I WASN'T EXPECTING

7 days without heating - the OP is in her home every day not just Monday to friday and the council i work for has staff who work weekends :)

OP I hope it's sorted soon x

My dads firm does callouts for a HA, several large hospitals, care homes and similar

The timeframe the OP has been given us entirely reasonable.

if its a house i dont think it's a great idea to boil pans and such for baths

walking around upteath times with them is very dangerous

op all the very best

OP, don't get wound up over negative threads. just ignore. Everything here is words on a screen and you can take them (or leave them) as you wish.

Of the things suggested, what do you think is achievable for you and your family? Is there anything else you would like tips on?

threads = posts!

OP would your son settle for a 'bath' in a plastic tub of some sort?

i used to use a plastic drawer out of one of those sets of drawers on wheels you get from poundstretcher when it was freezing upstairs and i had the fire lit. you could use an under bed storage box (plastic) or one of those large rubbery sort of round tubs you can get in asda (i use mine for laundry) it would do for a quick bath and would take less water also has the advantage of being able to bath him in the living room where you have the heater on.

My heating broke down last year and it was a two week wait. Thankfully as DS is older he could understand more easily than the OPs DS can.

Anyone renting IS paying for the repair. ..it's factored into the rent. ...or at least mine is as its included in the rent breakdown I was given when I moved in.

It's a nightmare not having heating this time of year.....but even if you were to ask someone to come out privately it would be a longish wait.

And Korma.....she isnt getting a free repair. It's not actually HER house but belongs to the council so they will want to repair it. You live in a nice area from your posts on this thread so understandably dont want to sell....thats the choice you make but if you own by choice it's a bit rich castigating someone who hasn't the luxury of that choice.

Unfortunately, just because a landlord or council has a responsibility to maintain a property, doesn't mean they can snap their fingers and get it done. They need someone to look at it, then they need to order parts, then they need someone back to look at it. The council had someone out there that same day to look at it, and I'm sure they would have fixed it on the spot if possible. But they need to wait for parts, and all the goodwill and bribery in the world doesn't make companies send them out any faster.

You have to consider what is "reasonable" in time frames. Council coming out that day, ordering the part on the next working day, allow a couple of days for shipping, then having it installed sounds pretty standard. Drag out much longer and you'll have something to complain about, but for now, it seems like they are doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.

Sometimes things break down. And it doesn't matter if you're a homeowner or tenant, you just have to let the cogs of trade work to get things done. Yes it's annoying, but it's how things work. You just have to make the best of it.
I was without hot water for a month a few years ago because the company that supplied the parts were closed down over christmas/new years. Even tried to call the manufacturers overseas to get item shipped direct and they wouldn't as they had a contract with the suppliers. Pain the you know where! But absolutely nothing I could do about it but wait, boil water and beg everyone I knew to let me have a shower at their place. I did a nudie run around the house in excitement and had a three hour soak in the tub when it was finally fixed!

I can recommend a really good cheap emergency heater from Argos . Much better than a fan heater and less noise. Our boiler often fails in cold weather but we are mortgaged and cannot afford a new boiler @£2000 to buy and install. Hot water to wash is more a problem especially with little ones. OP, have you any family/friends close by who can help out?

I can understand where Korma is coming from - the OP says no heating no help when someone is obviously already dealing with her problem, but just not as quickly as she would like. 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 says to me that its normal council or LL dealings, and it will get done, just not immediately.

OP, I really hope you get this sorted soon, especially with your DS, but there are so many other people in this situation with the weather at the moment, but not everyone can be prioritised. (including my SIL with 2 under twos at the moment, privately rented accom and no heating or hot water since last Friday either!!)

I can understand why the op asked about temp housing. In a moment of madness when you are freezing, because the little heaters the council loan, are shite, and you have dc's that are moaning because they are cold, and their routine is disturbed, you snap. You don't think straight, and you ask for crazy, weird things.

Now, op, what are the proposing to do on Friday? Did they say they are waiting for parts or will send someone?

You probably can't speed things up.

Things you can do

Boil a kettle for a wash or take the kids swimming and use the hot shower afterwards.

Put up a tent for the kids to sleep / play in. It will be fun for them and keep them warm.

Lots of layers and warm drinks.

Sorry to hear this has happened and the stress it is causing you and your ds.

We were in this situation last winter as the council moved us into a property which didn't have a gas meter (they forgot they had removed it, even though the gas safety certificate stated that it couldn't be completed because of this!) and it took 3 weeks to get one installed. We used fan heaters in the smallest bedroom to warm a bit and bunked in together with our then 2 year old. Do you have an electric cooker or gas supply to your cooker still? With a few pans of water you could make a shallow bath.

When I was a kid we had two winters with no central.heating so got used to getting dressed under the duvet. We had two duvets each, hot water bottles and slept in socks and hats if really cold.

I think some people have been a bit harsh, ignore them, there have been lots of helpful posts on here to make up for the few.

Hope they get it sorted soon for you.

OP sorry this has happened to you. I hope it gets better soon

Sorry about some of the extremely nasty people on this thread. Blimey I wonder if they are same IRL? Heavens hope not. Sound grim to live with. Keep your head up OP, hope it gets better.

I apologise to korma for being rude to her yesterday, my post was rightly deleted. I am still pretty gobsmacked that a desperate woman with a disabled child should be told she is "fucking entitled" though. Yes the repair time is probably reasonable given everything but if you have a child with autism it can feel impossible and so you might just vent and make a suggestion which seems mad to others.
Plainly being in social housing IS an issue for korma and others n this thread or there wouldn't have been comments like "repair being done for free" and as people have pointed out this is 1, not true, it's paid for with the rent, and 2, it's people like the OP who DO need the security and support of social housing so even if the repair issue is not accounted for in the rent of her council or HA it shouldn't matter to anyone NOT coping with an autistic or otherwise disabled child.
Right, that's it, I am out of here now. Hope it all gets sorted smoothly on Friday for you OP and look forward to now warm you will feel.

I'm coming to this thread late and haven't read any replies but assuming you are living in a HA or council property:

Have you asked them about their 'Qualifying Repair - right to repair' policy? It may be that you can organise the repair yourself and recharge them?
Of course, if that is the case, you still may struggle to find an engineer on a shorter timescale and you may not be able to access funds to pay upfront before you reclaim.

Best of luck anyway. I work for a HA, organising repairs and it is a horrible part of the job when you just physically cannot get someone's heating repaired quickly, knowing they have kids or are elderly etc..

OP, I feel really sorry for you. It's freezing. I don't think it's too much to expect heat and hot water in the winter on a house you pay rent for.
I hope your DS is coping ok.

Sadly you won't be able to speed it up, the council have in a way fulfilled their obligations by coming out very quickly, identifying the problem and providing some sort of heat.
The trouble is, If they are waiting for a part and a person to fit it, it is really out of their hands until the part arrives.

When our boiler broke we used the leisure centre for a couple of days, swim/gym and shower.
Would that be possible or would that cause distress to your son?

I would keep ringing the council for updates as well, just so you know what's going on.
The fan heaters are quite expensive to run but try and wrap up in lots of layers and don't have them on all the time.

Please ignore all the nasty comments, yes of course people coped back in the day without heat and hot water but thankfully people now are not expected to live in those conditions any more.

Good luck I hoped it gets fixed soon x

On the cost of running the heaters.. You are entitled to claim back some of these costs. Ask them for the form or what the procedure is and get the ball rolling.

Hi. Hope you're ok today.

I noticed that you said you worked until your child was diagnosed and are now their carer, but also said that the only benefits you get are carers allowance and his dla.

You do know that you are entitled to housing benefit, council tax benefit, income support, child tax credits etc, don't you? How are you surviving if CA is your only income? If you haven't already applied for those things - please do so.

I have two children with disabilities. My eldest has autism and erbs palsy and my youngest has autism and adhd. I know what you are saying about routine! If your child can't cope with dinner a bit late, then he will NOT cope at all with moving to temp accom.

If your problem is no heat or hot water then wear several layers, tuck up under quilts, boil kettles for bathing and hunker down until the boiler is fixed. That will be far less distressing for him than moving to a different home - probably a hostel or b&b, tbh.

I also know what you mean about the working. Me and my husband have our own businesses partly because we simply can't be employed. It doesn't work for us. Employers don't let you let it out of work because the school's phoned and you need to go. Or let you take time off for the eleventy million appoinments your children need! It's doable, many people do, but it's really hard!

When you've got your head round the diagnosis, you can start to look at self employment options as well as employment options.

I know that councils do consider no heating to be a priority (pre children I worked in the housing and repairs dept of a council) and they will be doing everything they can. Keep asking - but keep it polite - and ask them for timescales for repairs, etc. find out what is holding this repair up.