To be tired of neighbour controlling the temp of my radiators?

[BibiBlocksberg]

Background, I live in a town house that is divided into two flats by addition of a fire door in the hallway.

Everything else is just like it would be in a normal house.

Including heating which has hot water tank & programme panel upstairs in my part & boiler downstairs in neighbours part.

Problem lies with downstairs neighbour turning the temperature on the boiler down to one she is comfortable with.

Which results in my radiators running lukewarm at best. No issues w (bleeding, sludge, rust etc as confirmed by a professional & boiler temp adjustment has been confirmed by neighbour previously.

Each time i report this to LL she has a word w downstairs & temps improve for one or two nights then back to lukewarm radiators.

Nearly 11pm & I’m freezing, wandering around in thermal long sleeve top, jumper, leggings under trousers & scarf & still not warm.

AIBU to be annoyed at my home temperature being subject to my neighbours heating preferences & how would you go about solving this once & for all?

Surely this does not constitute ‘reliable’ heating under LL responsibilities?

Definitely electric throw/blanket/both and a decent portable oil filled or oil free radiator - I leave mine on all the time in my garage which has no heating of its own and it's toasty warm in there :)

I agree with past posters.. pick up a couple of cheap electric heaters, especially given your bills are inclusive.

Well @Wreath21 you can always do that the opposite and strip down or, given it’s January, open a window.

OP, if you’re satisfied the set up is legal and you want to stay there, I’d request a meeting with LL and other tenant to discuss resolution. whether it’s as others have suggested, turning off radiators downstairs rather than the boiler or installing thermostats on each radiator. In the short term I would certainly get an electric heater (or however many is needed) and I would expect the LL to refund for this as there is otherwise insufficient heat source. I wouldn’t want that to be long term solution though as a bit ugly and takes up space.

Haven’t measured temp in here but cold enough to need double layers w oven going for an hour earlier too.

What do you mean by double layers? I'd expect to wear an absolute minimum of two layers this time of year anyway.

@RiversOfFish

I would be banging knocking on the neighbour's door right now to get the heat on. The only way they will change their attitude is if you make it their problem immediately.

Your landlord needs to sort this out. As you have hopefully been a good tenant for 6 years they will hopefully put their hand in their pocket.

The neighbour is just as much entitled to have her home at the temperature she requires as the OP

I would echo what other posters have suggested - oil filled plug in electric radiators are very effective, especially if you can get one for each room.

@Wreath21 Quite right and one of the many reasons I prefer Winter to Summer!

Also meant to say that I would be plugging in enough heaters to run a cannabis farm

I bet the LL will do something then.

Buggered if I would sit there cold!

Good luck OP.

Your neighbour is also increasing the risk of legionnaires disease growing in the boiler water. Hopefully your boiler has a safety protocol so that it can override and heat up when it needs to.

I had something a teeny bit similar years ago where the thermostats were in a shared hallway but were mislabelled. The barmy debates I had with the guy that kept cranking my heating to hellfire. 🙄

It’s a difficult situation as both you and the neighbour have a right to be comfortable and in control of the heating. I hate a hot house and don’t set my thermostat above 20 ever. For some people that wouldn’t be enough.

I agree that the LL needs to sort this, and there are ways as have been suggested, but definitely seek out a separate heater in the meantime.

If the neighbor is too hot she can open the window or turn off the radiator. But OP can't conjure up heat in a freezing upstairs. So I think OP is well within her rights to insist on heat. Electric heaters will heat the room, but what about the water? Does that operate on a different system?

I'm confused. What if she goes on holiday and turns the boiler off. What if there's problems with the boiler and she refuses to let any maintenance in? There's endless situations I can think of that make this a crazy setup.

I agree with PP, plug in electric heaters seeing as you're not footing the bill!

Changing the current main set up will take time and money. I'm wondering if taking advantage of more modern technology might solve the problem. If something like a Hive system were installed with Hive thermostatic radiator valves the system could be set to run continuously with each having access to their own thermostatic valves controllable from a phone. Running around turning individual radiators on and off manually would I imagine be a pain and hence neighbour controlling heating as they are currently which doesn't work for you. It would be a relatively small investment for the landlord and avoid the potential high electricity bills if you start using oil filled rads. Ultimately the 2 properties should have completely separate systems to avoid this type of issue.

If all bills are included and your neighbour is too hot, surely she could just turn her radiators down and leave the boiler as it is?

This sounds insane. I can’t believe it’s legal!? You should have your own heating system. I hope your rent is very cheap.. I think you should move tbh x

@GoodPrincessWenceslas

Haven’t measured temp in here but cold enough to need double layers w oven going for an hour earlier too.

What do you mean by double layers? I'd expect to wear an absolute minimum of two layers this time of year anyway.

You wear TWO layers of clothing, INDOORS?!?!?! What on earth for? Have you never heard of heating?!

Its hard to tell who's being unreasonable. DP has to have a boiling house and sets the shower to freezing. I on the other hand like a colder house or I suffer severe lethargy and a perpetual headache and have to set the shower to scolding hot.

It took us nearly 10 years of compromise and slow adjustment for both of us and now seem to be able to agree on a moderate room temperature.

But as you don't have 10 years; I would go with the plug in heaters option. Its easier for you to heat than them to cool and its all inclusive so why not.

@christmascharade

Is this even legal?!

No.

Plug in heaters , in every room

Bills are included so abit confused why you havent already done this?

Honestly This heater is the best one iv ever had

Is very light, heats up and cools down mega quick, is light and easy to store but heats the room to a nice temperature

www.argos.co.uk/product/9190629

Sounds like an illegal HMO

Plug in heaters.

Stomp downstairs with proof of your flats temp and tell downstairs neighbour how to turn their radiators off if they're too hot. Do this every time, even in the middle of the bloody night.

This would drive me nuts, once I get cold I cannot get warm, I can sit in a hot room, and I know the room is hot.. and im still shivering and cold, its weird and really not pleasant at all (currently still up waiting for the bedroom to heat up with our oil filled radiator as it got too cold cos someone forgot to shut the window, and if I go to bed in there now ill get very cold and be unable to sleep, cramp up and suffer a fair bit of pain).

Be a pain in the ass, to the other tenant, to the landlord, either way.. something will change!

@Wreath21

Actually it is easier to deal with being too cold in your home (when it's a matter of different temperature preferences rather than living in a house with inadequate heating or being unable to afford heating) - put some more clothes on - than it is to deal with being too hot.

In your opinion. The woman can simply open a window. Some people, especially the older generations literally die if the room is too cold. I do not have good temperature regulation. Putting more clothes on in a cold room when I am too cold and/or snuggling under a fleece duvet with fleece sheet does not warm me up. I need external warmth and have to run a hairdryer on me until I warm up.

Even so, surely common sense would dictate that you would turn off your radiators if too warm to save your neighbour from freezing rather than turning down boiler temp?

Definitely not common sense at all.
I'm generally a really warm person. I don't have my boiler up high, when I have the heating on it's because I like to feel comfortable.
I wouldn't feel comfortable by having really hot radiators and then turning them off so that I had no heating!