can anyone help heating/water issue in rented accomadation?

[addictedtomn]

right this a bit of a long story so please bear with me.

i live in a privatly rented house through an agent. last friday our boiler broke down. the agency sent round a plummer to fix it, and he had to order a part. in the mean time we were given 2 heaters to heat up our 7 room house and we have no access to running hot water.

the part arrived today (i week later) but its the wrong part, so the plummer has to re-order the part which is going to take another week. the boiler is also showing another fault and the plummer is almost positive that they arent related. (i should probably add that if this is a new fault this is the 4th fault in 4 months)

the landlord doesnt want to replace the boiler he just wants to fix it. (if it were repalced it would all be sorted by the end of the day!) in the mean time we have got hold of 3 more (crappy) heaters to heat our 7 room house (which currently stands at 13 degrees with all heaters on full blast)

we still dont have access to hot water and adiquate heating. i've spoken to the agency who have said that if the heating doesnt get above 19 degrees its classed as uninhabitable, but its the councils responsibility to sort it not the landlords.

is this right? i'm at breaking point, i cant go another week shivering with out a shower. or am i being unreasonable expecting the landlord to do more to make sure we have adiqute heating and hot water?

sorry about the typos and spelling mistakes, but i am literally shivering as i type this

What does it say in your contract? I'd ring the council housing office for advice, or maybe the CAB>

You do have rights as a tenant and the agency should be sorting this out for you

CAB have said that as long as they are taking reasonable steps to fix it, there isnt much we can do. its not teh fixing i'm bothered abotu its the heating and hot water issue i'm angry about

Complain to the Council? We're renting at the moment and had a woman round to check some building improvements as the previous tenants had complained. Not sure how long it took the landlord to sort though.

The other option is to look at moving elsewhere - if the landlord can;t be bothered fixing the boiler do you want this hassle every winter?

you could call the council, and you could possibly get offered alternative accomodation if your home is deemed inhabitatble but it would likely be a B&B.

Are you getting compensation or a rental reduction and the extra electricity for the heaters paid for?

Shelter might be able to provide you with more advice.