Can you stay with family if no heating or hot water?

[IsabelleSE19]

Our boiler has conked out and won't be replaced for another five days. At least four of those days are forecast to be temperatures around freezing. Is it reasonable to stay with family members until then? (They have a self-contained outbuilding, and no, I am not Dominic Cummings.) It is about a two and half hour drive from us. Government guidance says you can stay away from home if you have a reasonable excuse, but our situation is not really described in the list of those excuses. The closest one is 'if you are unable to return to your main residence', but that's not really accurate either. WWYD?

Christ, there's no way I'd be sitting in a freezing house and boiling a kettle to have a bloody wash if the option of a warm house with hot water was on offer!

If no one is medically vulnerable I would go to my parents house.

Go! But be aware that water pipes can freeze and split in minus temperatures. Not sure you can do anything to mitigate that though.

A hotel would be permissible in your circumstances. Would a 'self contained outbuilding' be warm anyway? Sunday nights are always cheaper so if nothing else I'd book that for you all to have one warm night and baths and showers.

I’d go!

Our boiler packed up on Christmas eve and wasn’t replaced until the new year. It was miserable & hard work with two small children 😭. Whilst we have family nearby none of them were in a position to take us in.

Yes I would go - it's going to be freezing next week.

Much, much sympathy. My boiler died on NY day while we were waiting for covid test results with a person symptomatic, so of course no one would come out... seven days without heating or hot water.

It's truly miserable but doable if you have no other options. Lots of hot water bottles, fan heaters, camping clothes, lots of blankets.

I probably would but then I’ve been working from home and have seen one other person outdoors in the last 10 days and got an online shop so my chances of taking anything with me would be slim. It’s also way too cold for me to work from home with no central heating!

Surely most house have either an electric shower or an emersion heater,we have both, madness not to have either.

Go for it.

Hypothermia still exists.

There's nowhere else to go for a good warm-up. No meals out/ school/ work/ libraries.

Life is fucking miseranble as it is, and the glow of martyrdoom isn't that warming.

Viral rates are plummeting rapidly, and if you're free to decamp for 5 days, it sounds like you're not heading out into high risk places to single-handedly undo all the work of the past month of lockdown anyway

Aldi are selling small oil filled radiators for £15. I've got a bigger one (guesing 50cm high).

When we had nothing but that in a front room we managed to stay warm enough to survive.

Heat from electic is more expensive than heat from gas, but the pysics is completely the same. It's just how much it costs the globlal enery suppliers that makes the difference.

The outbuilding is fully heated and has facilities as it was originally done up as a holiday let, so that would be fine.

I probably would light the fire and muddle by if it were just a few days, but if that's not possible then obviously you can't be freezing cold. If there are elderly or clinically vulnerable people involved I would just book a hotel.

Just clicked that you said it was self contained, so that sounds pretty risk free in an emergency!

My flat? No. No boiler or central heating. Still warm

Mums house: not a chance in hell of staying with no boiler.

I currently don’t have hot water. We are boiling kettles for washing up and baths. Heating you can buy fan heaters. No need to decamp and break the rules.

sorry about tyops. Got a plaster on my finger - hang nail

I'd go.

If you were in rented accommodation your landlord would have to fix within 24hrs or provide alternative means of heating and hot water.

But ReluctantHomeSchooler is it against the rules? That was mainly why I started the thread, as I don't think it's clear really

I don't understand people suggesting a hotel. That's riskier than going to parents as more people will be in a hotel.

No dont be so foolish. Last winter my family of 10 and I survived on nothing but a chicken to eat and one candle for everything else. When the temperature went below minus 10 we broke off Grannie's fingers and had them as ice lollies.....

Please OP go!! You'll regret it if you don't x

@Waxonwaxoff0

I don't understand people suggesting a hotel. That's riskier than going to parents as more people will be in a hotel.

An Air BnB/holiday let (if self-contained) would be ok though

You’ve got the competitive lockdowners on this thread. They will create rules and try to guilt people into deviating from them. Having an uninhabitable house (which in these temperature your house is) is a reason to find alternative accommodation.

In response to your latest message, yes, this is allowed within the rules.

We had this problem about a month ago and powered through with jumpers and an electric heater from Argos. Didn’t occur to me that we could go elsewhere, I sort of wish we had now! XD