To expect a working toilet?

[demirose87]

I moved into a housing association maisonette about 6 months ago. So far I've only had one repair which was a leaking window which meant whenever it rained one side of my bedroom ended up saturated. It took them 4 weeks to repair. Yesterday I noticed the toilet wouldn't flush and wasn't filling up at all, the flush mechanism completely broken. I rang them up and asked them to fit me in for a repair, I expected it to be that day, but they told me it could take up to three days. I said that is completely unacceptable, I'm 8 months pregnant and have been in and out of hospital with suspected early labour and have three children, one with a disability. Their response was ' it's not an emergency, use a bucket'. I said I can't believe you're telling an 8 month pregnant woman to use a bucket. I was absolutely fuming and got very upset. When my partner came home he explained it all to them again and they did come out four hours later and repaired it. Another part won't be able to be fixed till next Monday but it's working again for now so at least I've got a working toilet.. But I've looked online and saw that a toilet repair is always classed as an emergency and has to be responded to within four hours. I rang them up again this morning and ended up with the woman on the end of the phone sounding very aggressive and nasty, told me that I'm lucky I got it fixed because "old people" are the priority. So what about someone heavily pregnant and a disabled child? She told me no other tenants have had a problem with having no working toilet for up to a week. I find this really hard to believe. I've been so upset and stressed over this, maybe its just my pregnancy hormones.

You 've got a partner. Stop being so dramatic!

You could flush it by filling a bucket with water. Usually the fault is either with the handle ( metal link inside cistern dislodge or broken) or the ballcock isn't resetting. Either of which are easy to resolve.

Honestly, things seem out of proportion when you're that pregnant. A bucket is a totally ok solution for a couple of days. I'm privately renting and i wouldn't expect my landlord to class that as an emergency

Just flush the toilet with a bucket. It's not a high-priority repair. You still have a toilet you can use, you aren't being asked to use a bucket as a toilet. You just fill the bucket with water and pour it down the toilet. Ok, it's not terribly convenient but not excessively onerous either.

What an overreaction. Just fill a bucket of water and pour it down.

I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt in that they said "use a bucket" to flush with, not actually to wee in!

Did you think he meant for you to actually go IN the bucket?

Drama fucking lama.

All that is broken is the flush yeah? Just pour a bucket of water down the toilet to flush it after you've been. FFS it's not difficult.

A broken toilet that you can't use because it is leaking sewage - yeah that's a priority. Not being able to flush? Deal with it.

Could you not have called a plumber yourself? Had your partner look at it? Or like the council said, use a bucket to flush it.
Not meaning to sound mean, but it's not an emergency, an old person with no water heat or electric is an emergency. Able bodied people who could use alternatives are not.
Calm down no take a deep breath. They did fix it.
You are living in housing association properties, you need to live by their policies, if you don't like it, off you pop to private rented and wait six weeks for a landlord to get off his arse to help you.

They never explained what they meant by using the bucket til I phoned this morning. They said to use it to fill up the cistern. That was the first thing we tried, but it was all just filling up to the top. What else were we meant to use then? My partner's only lived with me two weeks, not sure how that changes anything.

They never explained what they meant by using the bucket til I phoned this morning. They said to use it to fill up the cistern. That was the first thing we tried, but it was all just filling up to the top. What else were we meant to use then? My partner's only lived with me two weeks, not sure how that changes anything.

As soneone with MH issues i couldnt use a bucket so its not 'simple' to assume everyone can. My friend got a quote of 2 WEEKS when her loo broke and quite rightly asked where in the house they wanted her and her 3 kids to piss and shit. They came out next morning.

You don't use the bucket to fill the cistern, you just pour it down the toilet and it does the job of the flush for you.

i'd have just poured the bucket down the loo. You can normally manually lift the flush mechanism inside the cistern to make it flush. The ballcock may have got stuck and need resetting.

Should also mention, it was the whole flush mechanism that had to be replaced and a dislodged pipe round the back of the property, so its not something we could have repaired ourselves at short notice.

Jill, a broken flush isn't the same as a broken toilet. You still piss and shit in the toilet and then pour water down it. For a few days that's perfectly reasonable.

Could your partner or a family member of tried to fix it? A toilet that doesn't flush should be a pretty easy fix

Can't you tip some water in the toilet to flush it each time?

I don't think being pregnant should make you a priority tbh, and even having children imo doesn't automatically mean priority.

I think it's an over reaction

Why did you phone them again? They had temporarily fixed it and explained about the missing part. If you wanted to have a go about them initially saying they could not fix it then fair enough,but write or email a complaint that is then in writing and can be dealt with by the right person. Phoning and getting antsy with a random voice on the phone who probably has no power to deal with your complaint is a waste of time ,yours and hers. No wonder she got annoyed with you.

I'm shocked by the aggression being shown to the OP here - whether you agree with her or not she's obviously emotional and not finding this very easy. A toilet is a basic human necessity, whether easily flushed with a bucket or not. I agree to an extent that it's not a long time to wait really but she wasn't asking much, especially with a disabled child in a small space - why all the anger?

I did think OP was told to use the bucket as a toilet. I quite forgot that you can pour water into the pan to flush. I imagine that when stressed it would be easy to misunderstand.

And no I'm not a drama llama, but I'm 31 weeks, I've been bleeding and contracting for a few weeks but because my cervix is closed, they've sent me home to rest and go back if the bleeding starts up again and having no toilet and three kids is just another thing on my plate right now.

Fill the bucket in the bath and pour it straight into the toilet. Works exactly the same way as flushing. Plenty of heavily pregnant women are lifting an older baby that weighs about the same as a bucket of water so it's not an unreasonable suggestion and is an easy fix in the short term.

Try being healthy working age adults with no DCs. You don't get to the front of the queue for weeks when there are more vulnerable people waiting, which is almost everyone else.

We had no heating for 10 days in an extremely cold winter once because all the heating engineers were working flat out, and prioritising the elderley, disabled and those with DCs and rightly so. We thought that it would never be our turn.

I don't understand why you're getting a hard time. I put up with a broken toilet for two weeks when I private rented, but I was a student! An 8 month pregnant woman with 3 kids needs a working loo. Filling up a bucket with enough water to flush is heavy and might not fit under the taps properly anyway.

Flushing the toilet wouldn't do anything. Outside pipe was blocked.

I get that you're having a shit time. There was really nothing to be gained from calling them back though, they'd been round and put a temporary fix in place. What else did you want them to do?
I think you're best bet now is to just forget about it. There's no point getting wound up about it and will only stress you out more.