Sovereign housing- AIBU to think we should be able to flush the loo?!

[NonOrangeCarrots]

NC for this.
Has anyone had experience with Sovereign housing?

Currently renting through them, we've been in the property for nearly 6 months and during this time we've had to contact their repairs team on 3 separate occasions to get them to fix the water pressure upstairs.
Basically the water tank gets air trapped inside, resulting in us having next to no cold water supply upstairs. This means using hot water to brush teeth ect, and being unable to flush the toilet more than once every few hours.

Last time the plumber said the issue was caused due to Sovereign cutting corners when the bathtub was ripped out and replaced with an electric shower.

Now, for the fourth time, we've "run out" of cold water upstairs. The same thing has obviously happened again. WIBU to request a permanent fix to this? Last plumber suggested reversing the whole bathroom and putting a bath back in.

I know MN can be a bit funny towards council houses/ associations ect so I'd like to make it clear I don't expect them to revamp it all if there are other options- but the fact that this keeps happening and leaving us with no toilet can't be acceptable?! They haven't offered an alternative solution yet, though the plumber said they'd be more likely to move us to a different house instead of fixing it properly. We've spent so much on this house! No plans to move for at least 4 years!

I had the same problem and wrote about it on here and got slaughtered for it. How dare people in council houses expect a working toilet!!

Hence why I put the last paragraph @Chocolatecoffeeaddict !
The repairs I mentioned are all covered by the rent I pay according to Sovereign- but if they're not actually fixing it then where do I stand?!

Apparently not having a working toilet is acceptable- wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't 8 months pregnant with hyperemisis!

Do you have another toilet in the house? This is how they used to priotise non working toilets in the HA I used to work in? If you did it was a lower priority.

A temp solution for is is the chucking a bucket of water down the loo to manually flush it. Whether you're able to at 8 months is another question, my spd was so bad then I couldn't have

No other toilet, just the one upstairs.
Though their records aren't great, after the second repair I spoke to them about how long it had taken to get someone out when we haven't had a toilet for over a month, they seemed surprised that we didn't have a second toilet.... but that's been updated now to reflect the one toilet we have.

I'm not sure I physically could tip a bucket of water down the loo- I could do it in pints I guess but that'd mean running up and down stairs to get the water...

Getting fed up of having to vomit into a bush/ fill another bowl because the toilet has waste in already.

I think this is awful, of course you should have a working toilet and a decent water supply.
Have you tried contacting the HA in a formal written letter, stating the facts you say in your op, and asking for a permanent solutions? Send a copy to the CEO of the HA and the local council housing senior officer ( you should be able to find their details online). Recorded delivery and ask for a response within 14 working days. Maybe even send a copy of the letter to your local council member and MP. Put this 'copies to ('cc') on your letter to the HA.
Sometimes this sort of formal letter is more likely to be acted upon, than a verbal or email complaint.
Do your neighbours have the same problem? Maybe a joint approach from a group of tenants might have more effect.
I don't understand why the subject of council or HS housing should result in unpleasant responses on this forum. There but for the grace of God etc.
I hope you can get this sorted, OP, and best wishes with the new baby.

Contact Environmental Health. I had an issue with something in my HA property. Sent an email to EH, they assigned a worker within a day, problem was sorted within a week! They were brilliant at getting it done, they threatened to fine the HA and all sorts. I would definitely think a non working toilet would be an EH issue.

if you rented from a private landlord you could get the.council to kick their sorry arse.large companies and associations seem to be exempt from all standards and enforcements, which is worrying as the eventual plan is that they will be the only landlords.

a letter as above sounds a good idea. use free proof of posting.

Escalate it if you can.

You don't want a bodge job. Threaten to call an independent plumber for a quote.

Non working loo is an emergency and should be dealt with as such. Do as recommended above. While on the phone to repairs mention u told a friend who was horrified and said she'd be speaking to the local paper for you and giving them the photos. Threat of embarrassing publicity can be very effective

I forgot. Call environmental health at council.

Non working loo and lack of water upstairs is an emergency, absolutely! Call environmental health at the council too, and contact CAB, see if they can force them to do anything.

Absolutely it should be fixed quickly, but just in case you are able, you can force air out the system if you have a hosepipe and a gravity fed system (i.e cold water tank). Attach one end of a hosepipe to a mains pressure tap and the other to a tap fed from the cold water tank. Turn on water tank tap, which will be low pressure and then the mains pressure tap. Mains pressure water should force the airlock to bubble back into the tank.

That's the theory anyway - when I tried it I got soaked, but I watched a plumber do the same thing successfully...

Should I give them another chance to fix this? The last lady I spoke to was lovely and said she has raised this as urgent and put notes on regarding what the previous plumber said so they will be looking into a permanent fix this time hopefully.

They have also said though that the loo isn't urgent because it can still flush, either with the aid of a bucket of water or just waiting the hour or two it takes to slowly refill itself

@Hereward1332
If that didn't mean having to trail hosepipe through the newly carpeted house then I would totally try that 😂

Try this, it has worked for me previously. Open / turn on every tap in the house, ensure that no plugs are left in. Opening all the taps "should" push the air lock out of the system.

Only one loo in the property that can't be flushed, nor cleared by you due to being heavily pregnant and not being able to lift a full bucket, let alone carry upstairs, is an emergency. Don't let the HA fob you off.

" or just waiting the hour or two it takes to slowly refill itself"

Ask them if they can shit to order to suit a timetable After all thats what they are expecting you and your family to do.

This does not surprise me at all.

They are on Twitter.

I was pregnant when it happened to me and had another three kids, one with a disability. It was a different council to yours but they told me that made me a priority but it otherwise wouldn't have been. I think that's unacceptable. It's a basic human need to have a working toilet, whether pregnant or not.
I would get a plumber to do it and give them the bill.

Also forgot to say google your local councillors details and email him or her.

Is there a decent pressure in downstairs taps/shower etc?
If it is all low then it may be a stop valve has not been turned on enough.
If the pressure is good downstairs and other places then either there is another 'isolating' valve (tap) not turned on enough or something squashing the pipe somewhere.
There are standards that should be met You can test how many seconds it takes a tap to fill a 2 litre bottle for example. Look it up online.

Downstairs water supply is fine, only the kitchen sink downstairs. That runs off the mains supply apparently hence why it's unaffected by the cold water tank upstairs. Opening all the taps won't work because there's only the two in the bathroom sink upstairs!

Going to see if I can find out what the standards are re how long it takes to fill a pint glass ect.

Getting a plumber out and charging them after isn't really an option as we don't have spare money to front the bill first or in the event they refused to pay.

A cold tap and toilet upstairs would usually be direct off the mains but it didn't have to be. You could look in the cold tank and check the outgoing pipe is not blocked with anything, then check there are no 'valves' on the run of piping from the cold tank to your toilet.
Are the upstairs sink taps running OK?
If the piping is old metal as opposed to plastic it was common to have blockages at the junctions as different types of metals are used for the fittings compared to the pipes. In 'hard' water areas (I think) this causes 'fur' inside the pipes which eventually choke it.
Do you get bad limescale in your kettle? If you do that could be the issue. Plenty of 'investigation' to do.

There's a housing ombudsmen you can go to but I think you have to go via the housing associations complaints process

A non flushing loo is not an emergency, not having a flushing toilet is not life threatening nor is it risk to property as there is other ways to flush a toilet without using a handle.

However it hugely unacceptable to wait weeks ,let alone months. yanbu and you now need to raise a formal written complaint!

Oh god my last LL was sovereign. The day I moved in I reported 16 repairs and the list never shrank from that. In the end I got environmental health to condemn the property so I could move!