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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

No heating or hot water since Christmas day morning - landlord seems in no hurry to help, aibu if I get cross now?

100 replies

PiperBeeley · 27/12/2017 10:19

Landlord has only text me to say his plumber (who is useless but he won't use anyone else!) is waiting for his van to get out the garage then he'll call me to arrange a date/time - probably next week!! Our house is freezing and I have 2 asthmatic children! Anyone know what 'rights' I have??? TIA X

OP posts:
Greenshoots1 · 27/12/2017 10:49

Phone environmental health at the council. I have done this before and funnily enough the landlord fixed the boiler very quickly once the had contacted them. They will fix it themselves and charge them if they do not comply.

This is good advice, if the land lord is dragging his feet, but in all honesty, it doesn't sound as if the land lord is dragging his feet, and I doubt the council would get it done any quicker.

The land lord has said it will be fixed next week! This is the holiday period! I honestly don't think it is possible or likely that anyone else could fix it any quicker!

youarenotkiddingme · 27/12/2017 10:53

Plumbers are working today green. I'm pretty sure it can be fixed before next week - or at least looked at so a part can be ordered if necessary.

IvorBiggun · 27/12/2017 10:53

Of course the op expects heating and hot water. She rented a property with heating and hot water and that is what she should get!

I know better than most how long people can manage (we don’t have a boiler or central heating at the moment) but that’s totally irrelevant to the op’s situation.

I’m a landlord. My boiler packed up at the same time as my tenants’ boiler had a fault but was still working. The tenants’ boiler got fixed within a day because that’s my legal obligation. As it should be.

Youcanstayundermyumbrella · 27/12/2017 10:57

The landlord is insisting on using one plumber, who is not available for feeble reasons. He should be finding an alternative and getting them round there asap.

We are renting out our house and are tenants elsewhere at the moment. Both arrangements involve substantial rent and funnily enough neither we nor our landlord would go a week without sorting out a plumber in the absence of heating or hot water in winter. It's not just the way things are. It's to do with your landlord's (lack of) priorities and needs to be called out on.

Environmental health should have an emergency number if needed. Councils run skeleton services at this time of year but someone will be on duty.

LakieLady · 27/12/2017 10:58

I can’t believe your LL would be happy waiting til next week if it was his own home without heating or hot water

When my boiler packed up on Dec 23 one year, we couldn't get it fixed until well into the new year. My boiler engineer came round and diagnosed the problem first thing on Dec 24, but we couldn't find a company that could get the part dispatched that day, everywhere seemed to be closed until January and we ended up without heating or hot water until about Jan 5.

A couple of years later, my friend's heating packed up just before Christmas and even though she has a service contract with British Gas, all they could do was lend her electric heaters.

PinkyBlunder · 27/12/2017 10:59

I know Xmas is exciting and no one wants it to end Greenshoots but I hate to break it to you, it isn’t actually the holiday period anymore. Xmas is closed for another year where a lot of business are concerned and most people will be trudging back to work today. I know - it’s sad.

Plus plumbers also work on bank holidays (Xmas day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day) and certainly wouldn’t complain about being called out considering they get rather a pretty penny.

So really it comes down to yet another tightfisted landlord.

minisoksmakehardwork · 27/12/2017 11:06

If nothing else your landlord should surely be providing you with electric heaters until the heating can be fixed? While inconvenient, boiling a kettle fixes the hot water issue. The heating IMO is a bigger problem due to asthma, time of year etc.

Having recently become tenants ourselves we follow issues with landlords closely so we know what is and what isn't reasonable to ask/insist on. I would be insisting on electric heaters being provided if nothing else. Op should not have to pay out for these herself as her landlord is obliged to ensure the property is adequately heated.

We have to endure our heating is on all the time from October to March. We also have to keep and eye on hot water due to issues with legionaries , or something else beginning with l. Make sure once your hot water is back you run the taps right through op.

LakieLady · 27/12/2017 11:10

Environmental health should have an emergency number if needed. Councils run skeleton services at this time of year but someone will be on duty.

Having spent over 20 years of my working life in local government, imo very few councils would treat this as the sort of emergency that would require immediate action. The sort of things that they will have an emergency response to are homeless families needing emergency shelter, child protection (generally EPOs), serious adult protection and emergencies such as flooding that involve the evacuation of homes and/or the implementation of the local emergency plan.

Last time I had to refer a no heating/hot water case to the EHOs, it was 2 weeks before they got round to see the tenant, and that wasn't during a period when half the country was closed down.

Youcanstayundermyumbrella · 27/12/2017 11:12

Fair enough.

fizzicles · 27/12/2017 11:13

Lakielady but you didn’t wait a week to call your favourite plumber did you? You got a plumber straightaway, then had to wait for it to be resolved. OP has been told to wait til next week for the plumber to even come and look at the problem. I cannot believe that a homeowner would make this choice for themselves.

LakieLady · 27/12/2017 11:15

I would be insisting on electric heaters being provided if nothing else.

And that is the advice that my local EHOs would give a tenant, if you could get hold of them, which you couldn't as both county and district councils here are closed until 2nd Jan.

letsdolunch321 · 27/12/2017 11:16

Text/call landlord to say you will get an engineer around and deduct how much you have to pay from next months rent.

UserXRay29 · 27/12/2017 11:17

My wife and I went without heating or hot water for six months. He was a crap landlord. We got so ill so often.

Original poster
PiperBeeley · 27/12/2017 11:18

Thank you all for your replies - really helped a lot!! I've just sent my landlord a text politely stating 'our house is freezing, I have two asthmatic children and we can't wait any longer. If your plumber is not available then another needs to be found today!' No response as yet... :/

OP posts:
Spartaca · 27/12/2017 11:19

Heating and hot water are one of the things that a LL has to act quickly on, especially at this time of year. If his plumber isn't around there are plenty who are, every day of the year, so he has no excuse.

BoneyBackJefferson · 27/12/2017 11:21

Greenshoots1

The OP is renting (paying for) a place with hot water and heating, it is a legal requirement for the landlord to sort out quickly.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 27/12/2017 11:26

The landlord is actually obliged (as you say!) by law to send someone within 24 hours. No, that isn't a law!

Landlord has only text me Only? It is a pretty instant form of communication.

to say his plumber (who is useless but he won't use anyone else!) is waiting for his van to get out the garage then he'll call me to arrange a date/time - probably next week!! Your LL is entitled to use a preferred trader. Work vehicles can break down, But it is utterly shite that you are having to wait, with no other intervention.

Our house is freezing and I have 2 asthmatic children! Anyone know what 'rights' I have??? TIA X You should ask your LL to provide electric heaters, available from ARGOS etc, immediately!

As for no hot water, well you do have access, via the kettle! Sounds bad, but that is how any tribunal would see it.

DO NOT WITHHOLD RENT! All that will ensure is that you will get a s8 and/or s21 and no court would disagree with a speedy resolution - your tenancy ending.

So text your LL back and ask him to supply you with heaters, today, whilst you are waiting for the plumber. You will need them whilst waiting for any parts to arrive, so it isn't unreasonable to insist,

www.gov.uk/private-renting/repairs

CuriousaboutSamphire · 27/12/2017 11:28

it is a legal requirement for the landlord to sort out quickly. The wording is "reasonable time" and at Christmas a day or 2s delay would be considered reasonable - as that is the same delay as a home owner would also experience!

Greenshoots1 · 27/12/2017 11:29

good advice from curiousaboutsamphire

Greenshoots1 · 27/12/2017 11:31

it is a legal requirement for the landlord to sort out quickly. he is sorting it out quickly. At least he says he is. If he hasn't done anything within a couple of weeks THEN you have cause to complain he isn't sorting it our quickly.

But as pp posters have said, getting a plumber there is not necessarily going to mean instant resolution anyway, it could be a big job.

Doyouthinktheysaurus · 27/12/2017 11:35

Our heating and hot water went on Christmas Eve last year and we didn't get our boiler replaced until January 18th. We own and had a boiler insurance policy but even with that, there were delays and parts to be obtained and shit boiler people. Eventually we spent £1800 on a new boiler but had to wait for it to be fitted.

You landlord needs to get a plumber round ASAP, even if it isn't his usual one but just be aware that not all boiler problems are easily fixed. We survived with lots of fan heaters and can now laugh about our 'shitmas'.

FrancisCrawford · 27/12/2017 12:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Sugarhunnyicedtea · 27/12/2017 12:51

Pinkyblunder unfortunately the landlord does not have to have someone round in 24 hours, that's totally incorrect.
OP please don't take any advice to withhold rent or get it sorted yourself.

Original poster
PiperBeeley · 27/12/2017 13:01

Have NO intention of withholding rent - I know nothing will be resolved that way. As yet still no response from him re my earlier text though...
House is so cold Sad

OP posts:
Greenshoots1 · 27/12/2017 13:01

We have a contract with them that covers services and repairs.

However. Regardless of this we were originally told it would be several days. When they learnt a family member had specific medical needs, they then said that meant we were vulnerable and as a direct consequence of that British Gas said off their own bat* that we were a priority and came out within a couple of hours.

That is exactly what I said, you are very lucky that they agreed that specific repair fell within your contract. We also have a contract, we also had a "vulnerable" resident ( British Gas's definition) however, they decided our repair didn't fall within the contract, due to a law changing which affected positioning of boilers.

In spite of our contract, and in spite of our having never owed then a penny in quarter of a century as their customer, our credit rating was too poor for a payment plan.

so 18 months without heating and hot water, whilst we saved up.

So British gas will move "vulnerable" households up the list of waiting households, (to the detriment of other households who have paid equally into their insurance - obviously)

This is a purely commercial decision.

They do it because they make money out of it, no other reason.

They are not obliged to, there is no law to say they have to, it is in their contract as a selling point only.

Really don't see what bearing this has on the OPs land lord.

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