No heat or hot water in rented flat with children

[Throwaway1999]

Hi, heat and hot water have been off since Thursday. Landlord came yesterday and couldn't fix it, then plumber came today and said he needs to order boiler parts but everything's shut and we will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday.

Is this true, do we definitely need to wait until then? This will be 5-6 days of no heat or water. It is literally freezing and we can't have baths, kids are wearing their winter coats and just lying in bed.

Has the landlord provided electric heaters for you to use?

Ask your landkort for electric heaters and him to pay for the use. They are pretty expensive.

Can't you stay with friends or family?

If you have outdoor friends borrow some winter sleepingbags? We have been sleeping in -10C in ours.

The thing is, if this was your house it would be the same. It happened to us last Christmas-except we’d been away a week so the house was brassic. Blankets on beds, showered at neighbours. It’s shit but noones fault.

I used to email my landlord with the message that he could either sort out the boiler or book us into any nearby hotel. Once there was a knock on the door shortly after my email ,a plumber had been found. Tell him you will be letting the local news for BBC and ITV as it will be the sad story at the end. No landlord would want the adverse publicity. It is not unreasonable to expect he either deals with the issue or books you in somewhere.

I’m not sure your landlord could make it happen faster - if it was his own house it would be the same.

Ask him for some electric heaters?

Ditto above, if the landlord has come out within 24 hours, organised a plumber immediately who has assessed and will return with parts as soon as he can get hold of them then yes you need to wait, just like I had to when my owned boiler broke (was over 2 weeks to get the parts) it’s not nice but just one of those things.

if your landlord hadn’t acted at all that would be different but he seems on the ball

Last Christmas we spent 10 days with out heating and hot water. Our landlord provided us with electric heaters. For baths we bolied water in massive pots we had to make it work.

That is ridiculous
the landlord has called someone immediately - parts can’t be magicked up
mayne the tenant can ask for heaters whilst they’re waiting

If you lived in your owned property you wouldn’t do anything like move to a hotel for two or three days

@madaboutpurple. Not helpful, the landlord has called the plumber who can’t get the needed part until Monday/Tuesday. That’s all you can do, calling the media is a non story which any editor or producer would realise (if this was 3 weeks on quite different). Even to fully replace the system takes days as you need to order the boiler (only the small ones are usually in stock, mine took 10 days to arrive) and they take more than a day to install

Christ, no need to escalate to talking about calling the press (and indeed boiler broke down and landlord can’t magically arrange for parts to come sooner is NOT a story). If you say that to your landlord in the situation you have described where it sounds like he is genuinely trying to resolve the situation, he would rightly consider you to be a bit bonkers and unreasonable.

Absolutely fine to do what others have suggested though - explain you and the children can’t manage with heating or hot water until things are fixed and ask him how he plans to deal with this. He should be buying heaters, at the very least, and offering to pay the cost of running them.

I’m sorry you are all cold, OP. Our boiler broke last winter and it took a couple of weeks to be fixed. It’s pretty miserable, especially with kids. Hope you find a solution soon.

Get some electric heaters, keep at least one room warm, you can boil the kettle for washes. But if the parts need ordering there really is nothing else your landlord can do

Totally unrealistic expectations for the landlord on this thread. Is he a plumber himself? No. He should have got someone qualified that same day. Not on to wait days for parts. I doubt all of you landlords would think it's fine if you had no heating or hot water in your own home for a week. This is the responsibility you take when you rent out a property. If there's a major issue, you have to sort it fast or offer people alternative accommodation.

Make it an adventure. Boil kettles and have sponge baths rather than full soaks. Cook hot meals and leave the oven door open after you’ve finished. Hot water bottles, extra blankets and lots of hot drinks. Family jumping jacks to get the circulation going. People have survived much worse, I promise you.

As someone whose own boiler has been playing up for the last two weeks I can confirm that parts need ordering in, apparently there are so many variables on parts that look pretty much the same that even plumbers' merchants don't hold much stock any more. It's not nice to have to wait days for parts but that's how it is.

Unless you're really broke, lots of good deals on heaters in Black Friday. Order a couple, they are always good to have anyway. Oil filled portable rads are economical.

Plenty of people, myself included have examples of having to wait for parts in their own homes.

Sometimes, thats just the way it is, if the boiler can't be fixed there and then, then there may be a wait.

I don't think the time scale is unreasonable or unrealistic

I do think the landlord should be providing plug in heaters for warmth though.

The plumber is his friend, not an emergency plumber, that's why I ask. I know there are emergency parts services as well but sounds like this is just going through the regular 9-to-5 service.

He is tackling the issue. Yes he should be providing a couple of heaters but beyond that you just have to wait a few days for the part.

Google Section 11 of landlords and tenants act. It’s supposed to be legally done in ‘reasonable time 24-72hrs’

Can you go for a swim and have a nice hot shower there? And yes, your landlord should be providing heaters and covering the cost. What an absolute Cunt that he hasn’t offered

I think the landlord has done a pretty prompt job - notified on Thursdsy, and hopefully fixed on Monday. I think you'd struggle to go faster if parts are required. And yes, we've had that long (and longer) to ger our heating back and running before.

In the meantine: do you have a hot water tank? If so, find the immersion heater switch - remember to switch it off again when not needed!!

Get some electric heaters - ideally provided by the landlord, but otherwise beg, borrow or buy some for yourself.

I have boiler insurance with British Gas and I still had to wait several days for them to visit and then more days to get parts in to fix the boiler. I’ve also been a landlord and needed to find a boiler repair person/company myself and in the winter time of course their service are more in demand so these things will take time.

Landlord hasn’t done anything wrong as he came to check it himself the next day as sometimes it is a simple thing/quirk of the boiler that can be sorted quickly but even so the boiler repair guy came the very next day and you can’t magic parts out of thin air. I think YABU in your expectations. The only thing LL should do if he hasn’t already done so is provide alternative electric heating appliances.

Its always a good idea to have one or two small heaters in the house for such emergencies. You can get small compact ones on Amazon. I have even taken one away on holiday when I suspect the hotel was not going to be warm enough (with suitable adaptor). This can happen to home owners too and takes the time it takes to get the parts.

One of the reasons why we got out of renting out a property was that actually half the time the tenants reported a problem, it was them being incompetent. I don't blame the landlord for wanting to come round first.

We had all sorts - the light isn't working, we need an emergency electrician (turned out to be a lightbulb that needed changing and the tenants hadn't actually checked this), the heating isn't working, emergency plumber (not switched on)

And yes sometimes we have been without heating as owner occupiers for a week. Especially this time of year, it's not that easy to get parts fast.