Help please. Heating in private rental house in scotland

jenniferfluff29

Hi there

I have taken over the rental of a house in scotland which consists of THTC heating. There are storage heaters in the living room and hall with panel heaters in the 3 bedrooms and an electric fire in the living room. All the heating runs at a cheap rate of 7p per unit 24 hours per day.

The panel heaters in 2 of the bedrooms are inadequate (we know this because a new heater was installed in the spare bedroom & we now realise how the heaters should perform). After the heater being on 4 hours, the temperature in the room is only 14 degs. The landlord has offered to put in portable oil filled radiators instead of the panel heaters. My only problem with this is that the oil filled rads will operate off the normal electricity rather than the cheaper rate.

This is a problem because our heating is already expensive. We are currently using £170 per month electricity. We are not excessive with our heating, we were on £67 per month for gas and electricity in our old 3 bedroom house which was a much older house.

My question is, does the landlord have an obligation to repair or replace the panel heaters on a like for like basis or does he only need to supply adequate heating irrespective of the cost?

We entered into the tenancy with the understanding that we had adequate storage and panel heaters and now we are going to be supplied with a more expensive type of heating. We knew storage heating would be be dearer but not that much dearer and we don't want to increase further higher bills.

I looked on the shelter website and it says that the landlord should have adequate heating which does not run up excessive heating bills.

Any advice would be appreciated as I do not want to upset the landlords if this offer is reasonable. Many thanks in advance.

Fluff

budgetflyer

67 a month is an exceptionaly low amount for gas + electric combined for a 3 bed house, DOUBLE to TRIPLE would be normal I reckon based on recent increases so I dont really think its OTT.
I live in a 5 bed detatched and am over 200 a month combined, (although , its well insulated)
Being in the heating game, for a living, I can confirm most folks fuel costs have DOUBLED over the last 3 years.
I dont think your landlord has any obligations other than to ensure that the heaters are working to their safety and efficiency levels.
Central heating is not an entitelment. If its there, then it must work to its design capabilities and be safe( and, if gas , verified via a landlord cerificate )
Your requirements may be greater than what is on offer, but your landlord probably doesn't need to fulfill your expectations.

As a landlord myself, I want happy = long term + responsible tenants.
Providing a comfortable environment,with any repairs done promptly is part of that strategy.
Other landlords operate differently

ruggedtoast

This is why I dont plan on living somewhere without CH again. Our last flat was a tiny 1 bed with convection heaters and an electric immersion water heater and our electrcity bills were off the scale.

We tried oil filled rads and that made things cheaper, but we were still looking at £300pcm in outside the 4 months of the year you dont need heating.

Now in a gch house and our power bills have basically halved.

IIWY I would learn a lesson from it, hope winters not too bad and move out next year. Spend the money you save on electricity on a nicer house.

jenniferfluff29

Thanks ruggedtoast. We have not storage heaters before and knew that they were more expensive but not this dear.

Budgetflyer - thanks for your advice. We are out at work all day so heating is normally only on for a few hours in the morning and then about 5 hours in the evening. Our house was roasting when heating was on.

The house that we are in now is a newer house and I would imagine that it should have better insulation so I am surprised that heating is costing so much.

We aren't looking for CH as there is no gas. Just want panel heaters that work and give out heat. If they worked, then the heating would not need to be on for 4 hours to achieve a temperature of 14 degs.

Thanks anyway for your advice.

Fluff

LoopsYorkshire

The laws in Scotland are slightly different to those covering England and Wales but Shelter does an advice line for people in Scotland - if you ring their normal helpline no 0808 800 4444 and Mon - Fri 9am -5pm you will be routed through to the Scottish helpline they may be able to give you some advice.

jenniferfluff29

Thanks LoopsYorkshire

I will give shelter a call for some advice.