Will explain so as not to drip feed..
Moved house at beginning of June into a rented house managed by the estate agents. It needed a LOT of work to make it presentable which the estate agents agreed with us on so they came to an agreement with the landlord to waiver the third months rent for redecoration. We are talking every single room needed stripping and filling and painting, there was damp in places, the kitchen ceiling was hanging down in one corner, you get my drift. money was spent on the redecoration ad well as plenty more of my own money.
I keep the house neat & presentable Inc gardens front and back. The issue is that the boiler is an old immersion heater. We quickly discovered after moving in that there was no hot water running. The shower was also broken. Me (pregnant), dp and dc who is 1 for the first three months had no access to running hot water or a working shower. Think no baths, showers and piles of dishes in the kitchen. grim! They got shower sorted which is electric. kept sending people out to fix the boiler but it has never actually been done (men not turning up or not having correct parts ect) and they are too tight to replace it. It has never worked. We have been fobbed off time and time again but I just want to cry.
We can only do dishes by boiling a kettle. We can only have showers. now winter is setting in its so so cold. Mil was brilliant and brought plug in radiators round which will obviously cost a lot to run and because one is permanently in dcs room the other has to be carried upstairs & downstairs every day & night. Since the weather has gone cold we have all been affected and usually a healthy family, we are now entering into week three of ill. We all have throats that are only viral but it feels like swallowing razor blades. mucous coughing up, blocked noses, struggling to breathe at times and it has been like this incessantly for the last fortnight not getting any better. docs confirmed it's just viral although my dc is now on antibiotics but as we still don't have heating I just don't know when it will end. I feel so awful. There's nobody we can stay with in the meantime.
estate agents after many many complaints have agreed to replace the boiler by sending our details to one of those free government schemes. They called me up and said would ring back and that was a week and a half ago. I was out shopping at the time I didn't even get the company name. I don't know how much longer this is going to take to be sorted out but it's a nightmare.
does anybody know how long these things take to complete? I'm worrying about bringing a new baby home to a house without heating and hot water. I've had other problems with the pregnancy and we're really skint right now. We're paying (struggling to pay) full rent for a house that is making us ill and miserable. I'm worrying about ending up in debt with energy companies through using the kettle and heaters so much. Please give me some mumsnet sensible advice because I just feel miserable. I want to ring my mum and have a good chat about it all but I can only whisper at the moment because my throat is still so bad 
. I know people have far worse problems but it feels like we are being taken the piss out of a little bit.