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?

It's pretty horrifying how many people are defending the LL even when they think he's done this on purpose. He's chosen to be an energy reseller with all the risks that entails rather than setting his tenant up with her own supply, he needs to face the consequences of his own poor financial decisions (that's what we say here to people who are struggling, right? Or does that only apply to people who don't own spare houses to profit off?) Though I suspect he's just cocked up here rather than anything more sinister.

I don’t use an immersions heater in my current house but had one in my old house. Used it when the aga was off for the summer but I had it on twice a day, two tanks of hot water a day was enough for two of us.

Fairly standard imo to have it on a timer. Just speak to the man if it doesn’t suit you. If he’s paying the electric bill two tanks of hot water a day is fair enough to me.

Our hot water (family of 4) is on for the same timings and we are able to have four showers a day, more if one of us has got sweaty.

Absolutely, I am a landlord and would never do that !! What a bloody cheek !

The energy costs are included in OP's rent, so it's entirely reasonable of the landlord to ensure that the immersion heater is not on all day. It's absolutely standard to only have it on morning and evening, and the amount of time he is offering is actually really generous. When we had an immersion heater it was only on for an hour or so morning and evening.

Clearly there's something wrong with either the controls or the lagging or both, and the landlord needs to get someone in. But otherwise his actions are fine. The alternative is that he puts OPs rent up to cover the increased energy costs which I imagine won't go down well.

he needs to face the consequences of his own poor financial decisions

Yes, because he should have predicted that energy costs would soar, right? So everyone whose energy bill is doubling or tripling should be blaming themselves for their poor financial decisions?

What kind of hot water system do you have? I set our timer for the water to be heated from 6-8 am then again in the Afternoon, and that gives enough hot water for a family of four. One of our showers is electric, so heats up itself, though.

Your landlord is being ridiculous. You need to talk to him again, firmly, and say that hot water is included in your rent. If you have no joy, I'd talk to the CAB.

Nobody runs their immersion all day and it shouldn't be necessary to. Need the electrician back.

No idea what sort of heating system you have but if there's a decent-sized hot water tank and an immersion heater then heating the water for two hours twice a day should be enough for you to have hot water throughout the day. So either the timer isn't set properly or you don't have an immersion heater and hot water tank...

You don't have to be an electrician to set the timings, so either the water heating system is broken or he's just having you on.

Check your tenancy agreement and see what it says about your hot water situation. If it just says you will have hot water, he's in contravention of it because clearly you haven't got hot water. Make a note of all the times when there has been no hot water and list them in a letter/ email in which you also remind him of his obligations in the tenancy agreement. You might like to point out that it'll cost him more if you have to keep boiling kettles for baths etc.

Do you have controls for your hot water and heating in your property?

I’m assuming you are on a combi boiler with no hot water tank.

It must have been set with a timer to only be on at those times. It should be on constantly as it only heats the water once you turn a tap on.

Gosh, you sound like hard work.

I presume you’ve never had the responsibility for home ownership or maintenance? You sound young, inexperienced and petulant.

Of course, absolutely, you should have access to hot water in the morning and evenings and everything you’ve we told us suggests that it what the LL is trying to achieve? But something is clearly not quite right yet and needs to be fixed. He’s embarrassed and trying to sort it out. No sensible landlord thinks they’d get away with providing no hot water!

”No electrician has appeared” Listen to yourself!
They’re not magic genies you know, they have to be scheduled and booked in advance and strangely many are very busy at the moment doing autumn boiler checks and fitting energy saving devices. We’ve booked an engineer to upgrade our radiator valves and it was a 5 week lead time …

seriously OP, calm down and work with (not against) your LL to help get it sorted.

If he's like this regarding hit water what are his plans for the heating during winter?

The hours are reasonable but if the water isn't hot then it's a fault. If the landlord doesn't have a clue then can you ask if you can call someone to look at it because clearly there is an issue?

Don't go all hostile - it will make someone like this dig their head in the sand further. Help them out and you will get to a solution quicker.

The water should stay hot. If it’s not ask them to look at it. I think he’s reasonable to do this- especially if the other alternative is raising your rent. You understand his bills are going up right?

That's crazy. Tell him you are going to be boiling water in kettles until it's fixed.
Get one of those big hot water urns

Our tank is heated 2 hours morning and 1 hour evening.
We are a family of 4 and always have hot water.

Your tank/heating element is broken.

Ours is the same @thesootherfairy we heat it for 2 hrs in the morning and 2hrs on the evening. There's always enough hot water for showers and my dd often has a bath in the evening

Do you have a hot water tank on your property, OP?

Make it the landlord's problem. Knock on his front door every time you need a shower / hot water. that'll get his attention

This would be my guess too.

This is unknown territory for me (can only speak of what I know -not of what I THINK I know). There are laws that Landlords and Tennants HAVE to follow. Get a solicitor or ask CAB for advice. Look at the contract you signed -you might have agreed to something but beware it might be unfair or illegal. You have rights in UK as tenant. You need proper legal advice. If you’re looking for free then I think solicitors for 1/2 hour free to see if they would take you on. Try that if it’s still a thing.

She says in the OP that it's an immersion heater. So there's a tank and it's not a combi boiler.

@Wildrosa

something isn't right.

either you have a combi & he's restricting your usage of it or you have tanks and it's not set to a high enough temperature or the tank is exposed and going cold ridiculously quickly.

you need to look to see what you have first.

I'd go to the main house daily for a shower.

id also ask for updates on the gas engineer/electrician daily. I'd also be saying I'd find one & he can pay whoever gets there & gets it sorted first!

this can't continue.

i can understand him restricting hot water & heating, because a tenant paying 'all inclusive' is not going to be mindful of the cost, but he'd be far better getting 'the barn conversion' it's own meters. Reducing rent & having the tenant pay their own bills! In the meantime he needs to ensure you have reliable hot water & come the colder weather, reasonable heating!

nothing to stop you getting oil filled radiators (run off electric) if he doesn't sort the heating out.

I'm still not clear if you have a separate water tank just for your rental/barn conversion or if you're sharing with the landlord/the main home.

With those timings, and only one person, there should be hot water.

So
The heating element/electrics are faulty, so the water is not heating at all.
or
The water is heating, but the tank is so poorly insulated that it cools rapidly. (Though to cool quite so fast would still require other people to be using it?)
or
The water is heating; the tank is insulated; but multiple other people are drawing water from the same tank. Do you share supply with your landlord's home?

Inclusive of bills does mean less control, and it's perhaps understandable that the landlord is acting to protect himself from energy prices. I hate not being able to control the timings and supply of heat and hot water though. You have to work out if the benefits of inclusive bills are worth that loss of control for you.

I'm confused as to where the immersion heater is. Presumably it's not within the OP's property as when the electrician was there doing the work, she didn't see him, nor was she aware of the landlord switching it on manually, which you'd assume he'd need to enter her property to do.

Can you explain a bit more, OP?