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.

The landlord can’t change that. As long as he supplies some sort of blow heaters for warmth, you'll be fine. Other than that, boil kettles.

I’m so pleased we don’t have tenants like the unrealistic idiots on here! The landlord came out as soon as reasonably possible, the day after it had been reported. If it was reported early Thursday then I would have expected them to attend the same day, I’m assuming it was later in the day which was why they came round the following day. As has been said by another poster in most instances we have resolved boiler issues ourselves on the visit, sometimes it’s repressurising the system, sometimes it’s the overflow that’s frozen. Lots of little things that are resolved without a plumber. If we can’t fix it then we ask a plumber to attend that same day as an emergency which is what they’ve done. The plumber needs parts that aren’t available until next week. It’s unfortunate it’s happened over the weekend but that’s life, and yes this would and absolutely has been the same case in our own home before. How do you think they’re going to magically make parts appear sooner?
they absolutely should have been leaving the op with oil fired radiators and reimbursing the additional heating costs. Beyond that anything else is unreasonable.

The landlord shoud have provided electic temp heaters and should look into putting in an electric shower so if this happens again then at least you can bathe.

Slowly............

You could try your local council. Ours loans out oil filled radiators to people in your situation.
Your local gym/ swimming pool will have showers you can use.

No, not slowly. At the speed it takes. Parts have to be ordered. That's how it works.

Bloody hell there are some entitled people on here. Sounds like a good landlord to me. The fact he's not offered to put you all up in a spa hotel for a week hardly makes him a cunt.
I'm amazed he even found a plumber that quickly. I'm always stuck for weeks even if it's urgent.

Well that's not true 🤣 I work in repairs for a social housing company and sometimes parts can take over a week to arrive if they need to be ordered from the manufacturer.

At this time of year there are guidelines on timings. Your landlord should have provided you with electric heaters. Hot water bottles are good for warming the beds up.

it depends on the part needed as if it’s not a specialist part then it may be on order.

Your LL should have provided heaters.

He can't magic up a plumber though, this is their busiest time of year. A friend of mine recently had the same problem and couldn't get a plumber in earlier than a weeks time.

Do you have any family where you can go for a shower and to fill a couple of flasks?

DH gets calls like this all the time, usually from Insurance companies, they can’t seem to fathom that, No, he doesn’t keep every part for every boiler on his van OR that Plumbers merchants aren’t open after 12 on a Saturday ( if at all).

Social housing repairs are notoriously slow and poor though. That's really not a good point of comparison.

A plumbers merchant is a plumbers merchant regardless of who the plumber works for. The same timings for parts apply to all.

Thank you so much for explaining this. I had no idea 🤦🏻‍♀️

Pretty certain your landlord is obligated to provide you with alternative heaters to use, electric radiators or similar and pay for their use until
Your heating is fixed. I would tell him this us down to him to provide you with this.

It's happened to us twice or actually even 3 times, our boiler is 20 years old and the landlady just keeps throwing parts at it, instead of replacing it. Always dies in November time as well, not in summer. There is nothing you can do though, we did exactly as everyone else has said, used portable heaters for the bedrooms, we already had one and my sister lent us hers, the kids and I showered at my Mum's house, my husband just had a cold shower, and boiled water for washing-up.

Funnily enough this is coming up on my watched threads right next to one on people trying to keep their heating off voluntarily to save money. I do think it's a shame anyone is having to make that "choice" in 2025.

Hope you are doing OK @Throwaway1999 , and that the part comes through today.

So on my boiler that is leaking - the plumber came out yesterday to diagnose the problem, he concluded a new part was needed. I am now waiting to hear when he can get the part and then when he can come back to fit it. So I reckon it will be at least two weeks from discovering the problem to fixing it and I am a home owner who is prepared to throw (relatively) decent amounts of money at the situation.

It’s tricky though because heating engineers have always told me a boiler is only as good as the available parts. The not-so-good boilers have to be replaced sooner as they haven’t been as successful therefore the parts stopped being made. I replaced a five-year-old boiler with one that was still good when I moved out last year so 20 years old. My parents’ boiler is original from 1969 and I do worry but their engineer said it’s a great boiler and the parts are still available!
I rented my house for a while, had a Meile washer-dryer which developed a fault, I got a Miele specialist to repair it as it’s such a great brand. That cost a lot, but only lasted a few months then I bought the tenants a new (but cheaper) one. It’s sometimes a gamble!
Also my partner had his dad’s boiler serviced last month (2 years old) then last Tuesday it developed a fault and the engineer can’t come till tomorrow but may still need to order a part!