Advice Needed (boiler broke - no money can't fix it)

specsappeal

Hello everyone!
Am after some advice from you good people please. Basically here is my situation. I applied for a warmfront grant that I have been told I can have. Their surveyor came round and said we could have a new boiler and the next step is to wait for a contractor to come round to do a quote for the work. this then gets sent back to warmfront and then we get a date for the work to be carried out.
On Friday, my boiler finally gave up the ghost and we now have no hot water or heating at all. The timescales for warmfront to do the work is up to 6 months. obviously i cannot go up to 6 months with no heating etc.
My boilers condensing unit has broken and the ignition switch has also gone. I have no money to get it fixed until we get the new boiler put in and am really worried about what on earth i am going to do.
Do you guys know if there is any grants or loans that the DSS could help me out with so that i can get temporary repairs done on my current boiler. My DH is disabled and needs to bath regularly. I am worried sick about the possibility of having to go the winter with no heating or water.( although i can heat the water electrically but apart from being VERY expensive the amount of hot water isnt even enough to half fill the bath).
Any advice would be appreciated.
PS - I am going to contact warmfront in the morning but in their literature it states that they cannot speed up the process but i will see what they say just in case.

FROSTYFRECKLE

Hi Specsappeal,

You say your DH is disabled - in what way? The reason I am asking is - what charities/support groups are there for your husband. These chairities may have a better idea re grants/dss benfits etc to get temp repairs done. Are you or your DH retired - there is a scheme run near me (Ayrshire) to help OAP's with repairs and maintenance to their homes (including heating) perhaps there is one near you - check your local councils website. Hopefully someone will be along in a mo with better info.

Krystaltips

This very same thing happened to me, warmfront granted me a new boiler and the old one conked out completely... I called up but they told me because everyone they deal with is in a vulnerable position they can't give anyone priority, we had to wait it out from July until January but made do with showers (Self heating, not reliant on the boiler) and plug in oil filled radiators.... And DD had baths at a friends every couple of nights...

tattoed_bum

hi i was in the same position last year with the grant ,they cut the boiler off in aug last year i eventually had it done in march this year ,i have a disabled 5 yr old in the house the state the house got into through damp issues was unbeliveable we are still trying to sort the house out now ,i hope you get it done soon ,it's not easy living through the winter with no heating or hot water

KellyWelly

The same thing happened to us last winter last year. The hot water part of our boiler stopped working but the central heating was ok.

We had previously been awarded a Warm Front grant which gave us a 5 year cover for our boiler, so I phoned them up and asked when they could come and fix or replace it. I was told there was a 6 month waiting list and that they were not a repair service. We simply couldn't wait 6 months, we have no shower and with a disabled husband and two small children popping up to the leisure centre for a shower was out of the question!!

We didn't have the money to repair it up front and there was a ridiculous waiting list in our local area to get anybody out to fix it anyway (most local firms weren't taking on new customers at all) so in the end I phoned British Gas and bought a policy - telling them that the boiler was already broken - and they divided the call out charge to repair the existing fault into 12 payments and added them to the monthly policy.

Warm Front did contact us about 6 months later but because we had paid for it to be repaired and it was all in working order they couldn't do anything. To be honest I think the whole thing is a waste of (government) money. Somebody has been given the money from the grant my husband was awarded to provide cover for the boiler and they haven't provided that service and unless you have a shower and are fortunate to be in need during the summer, it's meaningless because vulnerable people cannot do without hot water and heating. My mother was given a grant as well and had a new boiler fitted and the company employed by Warm Front charged twice the going rate and used up all her grant so that she couldn't get insulation or anything else with it - she wasn't able to choose who did the work either.

I've thought for a while it was another stupid mismanaged gimmick by the government.

I do hope you get your boiler fixed, OP.

specsappeal

Thanks for the replies. phoned warmfront this morning to be told that "hundreds of thousands of people in this country have no heating or hot water" and we will have to lump it for up to the 6 month wait. They havent phoned a contractor to come and quote for us yet and couldnt tell us when they would.
I dug out my boiler manual and went through all the trouble shooting tips and i think that the ignition electrodes are broken( the pilot light will not ignite). Then i went through yellow pages and found a heating engineer with no call out charge and i am expecting a visit after 3pm this afternoon. Hopefully he will be able to give me a quote so i can at least see how much temp repairs will cost. you never know it may only cost a small amount (wishful thinking i know). I can forego the monthly gas and electric payments (about £90) and am praying that this will be enough to cover it. fingers crossed!!

geekgirl

Good luck with this hope it goes well with the contractor. It is a horrible position you are in.