To not want to wait all week for heating and hot water?

[Comealongpond89]

I rent my house and my boiler has just stopped working. I phoned British gas and they said the soonest they can come out is Saturday afternoon. Is this normal? I explained I have a 2 year old and it's ridiculous to make us wait all week with no heating or hot water. I'm bloody fuming but I've never had to do this before so don't know if IBU. Also it's started snowing so that's helping

It is a busy time of year. However it is your ll who should be chasing them and asking for priority due to your small child. Has ll offered heaters etc?

Can you contact your landlord?
Have you checked for low water pressure and that the radiators don't need bleeding first?

I'm just about to call my agent and say about heaters. I had the radiators bled not long ago. The flame doesn't light in the boiler

Our boiler broke down overnight Sat into Sun - we called Sun morning and had someone out by 3pm Sun afternoon. It only actually got fixed today because they needed to order parts, but they did come out quickly, and on a weekend too.

Our youngest child is 7 so no really wee ones here and we didn't say anything about children when we called.

We do have the boiler covered however with the Scottish gas homecare service and I think that often speeds things up.

Might be worth checking with your landlord if they have homecare?

Also - check if there is an immersion switch anywhere - we have one separately for water heating. We don't ever need to use it normally, but it's a lifesaver at times like this. You can cope with cold temps if you have hot water to shower/bath/wash up in.

Extra blankets, hot/warm drinks, cook lots - get a pot of soup on the stove and then get your oven on later - preferably with something that takes about an hour to let it build up a decent amount of heat. Tumble drier also good for generating heat if you have one

I have home are with British Gas I book on.ine and they are usually out the next day, have you tried to book online?

We had this last week was horrible (lack of hot water was worse than no heating) and still waiting g for plumber but bleeding the radiators seems to have sprung the boiler back into life so try that again just in case? I've rented a house where I had to bleed one radiator constantly to keep boiler working .
Landlord should def be sorting this though and providing electric heaters in the mean time

I think I recall seeing small print on that BG guaranteed same day thing which basically said "same day unless it's peak period, then it doesn't count"

And peak period is obviously when its cold and everyone's boilers break!

I wouldn't dream of those homecare contacts. Put the same amount in a savings account and then you have a ready made pot if the worst happens, and cash in your pocket if not!

If your house is rented then it's up to your landlord or agency to sort this out. You shouldn't be doing it and I would imagine that LL or agency would have someone who can do this. My boiler broke when I was renting and the agency sent someone same day who fixed it.
They have a responsibility to do this and might not like you doing it.

Very busy time of year. Get some supplementary heaters and boil kettle for strip washes.

Have been speaking to my agent and they are going to bring some heaters in the morning. They've also been on to British gas but got the same answer so they're trying to contact the landlord to see if he'll be happy to have someone else come out to fix it faster