Renting for 6 weeks, still no hot water in showers, legal advice please?

[housetips]

My daughter and her two friends started renting from a large housing company 6 weeks ago.

There was no hot water to the showers/ bath when they moved in which they were unaware of.

They have repeatedly asked for it to be fixed. Made countless phone calls usually waiting on hold for half an hour to still not get through or be fobbed off. Taken 4 days unpaid off work waiting for plumbers/ heating engineers who have failed to fix the problem and pass the blame to each other. The housing company is responsible for the heating/ water system as its a large block with many flats and so bills will be payable to them. The boilers are not located in the flats. They are not allowed to get someone in themselves to sort it out.

My daughter has made a complaint to the complaints department two weeks ago but has had no response.

They informed the company that they would only be paying 80% of the rent until the hot water was sorted out hoping that this would prompt them to rectify the problem. Their rent is paid by direct debit and unfortunately the full amount was taken out today as it appears they can not stop this.

They are in breach of their statutory duty under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 for not supplying hot water.

What can they do to enforce this housing company to sort out the problem or stop paying the rent? We would be grateful for any advice.

Do not underpay rent, it puts them at risk of eviction for non payment. Shelter can advise how to proceed.

Does the large housing company have any public pages like twitter or Facebook that they can start sharing their experience with?

Is there a physical office they can go to?

Contact Environmental Health department asap.

The company has a twitter page which appears to only advertise jobs with the company. There are no tweets from anyone else on there. The facebook page is different full of complaints from many people, some of whom have been waiting for ages to sort out their problems. Maybe she could post on their facebook page, although looking at the other comments it doesn't look promising.

There is a physical office, again means taking time off work.

Their overall online reviews are shockingly bad, its a shame we did not check their reviews before signing the tenancy.

What will Environment Health do?

Force them to fix the boiler or fix it themselves and charge them for it and fine them. I have done this with a landlord previously and it got them moving quickly

Complain in writing, sent by signed for post.

not signed for, they can refuse that - use normal post and get a proof of posting. That is then deemed delivered.

housing association? They are a law unto themselves so good luck I'm afraid.

The environmental health department are responsible for issuing notices to force the landlord to undertake repairs within a given timescale and if this is not done can take legal action against the landlord. These are called Hazard notices. She should contact EH at her local authority and ask them to take action. Also there is the Rics code of conduct which they should be following. There is also a housing ombudsman, so once the issue is dealt with and assuming no final response letter following her complaint, she can take it there for compensation. Hope this helps.

Environmental health. If its a HMO they are not complying with the management regulations. You'll find these online. If its not a HMO ask for a HHSRS assessment.

Is this the block in East London being reported on the news?

She has complained in writing and kept records of all the communication.

The flat is in South London and the Housing Association is London & Quadrant. There is even a facebook page run by tenants called Mistreated Tenants of L&Q. They are a huge organisation and appear to not care about their tenants or sort out their complaints looking at all the complaints.

Just found that the building my daughter lives in had an independent investigation report of 15 pages, after an investigation in The Observer newspaper stating the problems that tenants were constantly dealing with. They obviously have not listened to the recommendations in the report and the problems still exist.

@housetips L @ Q are notorious. The lady that set up the site you mention is a friend of mine. She has mobilised many L @ Q blocks around London and they are campaigning hard. There are issues in most of their blocks with cladding issues and many with fire safety. See fire at Barking Riverside for example.
Join National Leasehold Campaign Facebook group and post on there. Even though she is a tenant rather than a leaseholder, you will get some advice. Landlordzone is also a good site to ask.
Tweeting the issue to L @ Q and also leaving a review on Trust Pilot may push them to act as they hate the (astonishingly bad) publicity.

@housetips Meant to add that the hot water/heating issue is a well known, recurring issue with L & Q and they know it.
My friend had to sit on the kitchen floor next to her oven door most of this winter!