Landlord has made it so I only have hot water at certain times of the day

[Wildrosa]

I’d be so grateful for some advice.

I currently rent, been in the same property almost two years. Last Friday I came home from work and noticed my hot water wasn’t working. I messaged my landlord, he said he’d put on the hot water manually until he could get an electrician out. Yesterday, my landlord messaged, “electrician here setting clock for emersion. What times do you require hot water each day?”. Confused I replied mornings and evenings and then asked if this was temporary. He messaged to say “time clock and power switch were replaced yesterday. Tubes are set daily from 4 - 6am and 6 - 8 pm.”

Am I being unreasonable to think this is ridiculous? I got up early this morning at 7am and had 8 minutes of a lukewarm shower, I’ve come home from a sporting event and the water’s freezing, I’m watching the clock so I can have a hot shower?

Does the landlord live in the property? I'm confused how his hot showers have anything to do with your hot water!

But no that doesn't seem right, are bills included in the rent?

Does your rent include your hot water and heating costs?

Everything’s included in my rent. I live on the landlord’s property, a barn conversion to the back of their home.

Council have a private housing officer for “stuff” just like this

if you’re a tenant you do still have a right to hot water

Did he show you how it works? I think you have the automatic times it comes on but then you can manually override it if you need hot water outside of the set times. It's usual to have it set for a couple of hours in the morning and evening because having it on all day would be very expensive.

That's pretty much what we have our water on and we always have hot water. Your tank must be rubbish if it is cooling in between.

Can you access the boiler? Is it a separate boiler to theirs?
Giving the LL the benefit of the doubt, maybe it's bee done as a temporary setting while the plumber was in the lift or whatever & you can manually adjust it?
Has he said you can't change it?

You should be able to change times manually. Do you have a hot water tank? Our hot water only comes on in the morning and the evening and heats the water in the tank, which gives us constant hot water - unless the teens go crazy with the showers and baths.

Also yes as PP said my immersion used to be on for a couple of hours & water stayed hot in the tank for ages. Why is it cooling so quickly?

2 hours in the morning should have given you plenty of hot water at 7am. Is the hot water cylinder insulated?

My water comes on morning and evening but this doesn't mean I only have hot water then - it means there's hot water in the boiler ready whenever I want it. Are you sure you've understood op?

We need more info.

• Are bills included in your rent?
• Is the controller in your property (if so, you can probably override it)?

Heating water with the immersion heater (rather than a boiler) is the most expensive way. Is this a temporary fix while he gets something else replaced.
If you're using an immersion heater you just tend to put it on for a short period when you need it.

For reference, in our own house the hot water only goes on between 7am-9am then again for an hour at 4-5pm, so it doesn't sound unreasonable, but perhaps the timing isn't quite right yet?

I live on the landlord’s property, a barn conversion to the back of their home.

you still have a right to hot water

get on the shelter and your local council for the private rental housing officer

Do you share a hot water tank with the LL or something? I can't see how it cools down so fast unless someone is using it and it's refilling with cold?

I agree with PP’s something’s up with the water tank if it’s cooling so quickly. 4-6 a.m. seems too early to heat water anyway, unless you get up early. Perhaps 6-8 would be better.

Most people don’t have it on all day, it’s simply too expensive.

Does it state in your tenancy all bills are included? What about council tax? Is that written down as he pays?

4 hours of immersion heating should give plenty of hot water. My hot water is only on 1 hour per day at the moment although my shower is electric and heats its own water

Is it set with a Smart device?

It doesn’t matter when the water is heated, it should stay hot until you use it (I mean not days and days later but certainly up to a full day) so a shower at 7 should be nice and hot.

oh FFS! No need to 'get onto Shelter' just yet 🙄

Clearly just needs some communication with the landlord and some fine-tuning!

Perhaps he needs to turn the thermostat up?

Do you have your own tank and access to the timer, or is it coming from LL property?

Normally we have it on 2 hrs morn and eve and have plenty so if you're not getting any he needs to adjust the timer so it get longer in the morning for sure ...

If you share it, how many of you are on this boiler?

Have you spoken to the landlord and told him about the problem? It's possible the plumber/whoever has changed the timer/clock thinking that's the issue with the hot water and it actually isn't? As pp said if the immersion was on for two hours your water should be plenty hot enough for a decent shower so maybe it needs looking at again.

Sounds to me like he was trying to be helpful asking what times you wanted it rather than just leaving the electrician to guess.

Should be plenty of hot water AM and PM from what you have said so you need to let him know it's still not working.

I’m just as confused everyone. I came home last night around 11pm, hadn’t been in the house all day, water freezing. I ran water earlier to wash dishes and it didn’t heat up at all.

Landlord’s being quite “ass-y” about it all.

That’s pretty standard we do the same. Surprised there was no hot water after the boiler being on for two hours. There must be a problem