House is FREEZING. Does the LL have any obligations?

Gorgeous_George

New rentals require the Energy Performance Certificate.

Hopefully this will eventually lead to improvements across the board. LLs will want a good EPC to show their prospective tenants. Homes with poor EPCs should have longer voids and LLs will do something to improve the situation.

GG

silvercar

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

New rentals require the Energy Performance Certificate.

Hopefully this will eventually lead to improvements across the board. LLs will want a good EPC to show their prospective tenants. Homes with poor EPCs should have longer voids and LLs will do something to improve the situation.

GG

More likely homes with good EPCs will command a higher rent. Those only able to afford or choosing lower rents will end up in homes with lower EPCs.

mchale

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

New rentals require the Energy Performance Certificate.

Hopefully this will eventually lead to improvements across the board. LLs will want a good EPC to show their prospective tenants. Homes with poor EPCs should have longer voids and LLs will do something to improve the situation.

GG

Sorry to say I dont think EPC's will make any difference, i've just rented some properties out & not 1 tenant asked to see a EPC or even if the property had 1.

dannymccann

Thats because few people know about them. I would like one done on our current rent, as the bathroom and kitchen is very cold and draughty, there is no roof insulation in the single story part of the house they are in, the rest of the house isnt cold though, its toasty when I want it to be, so its unlikely the LL will get one done

Premier_2

TJ27 wrote: »

...
This may be useful:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/142631.pdf

Here's a bit of what it says:

Heating should be controllable by the occupants, and safely and properly installed and maintained. It should be appropriate to the design, layout and construction, such that the whole of the dwelling can be adequately and efficiently heated.

It's extremely easy to find a standard by which a dwelling can be shown to be "adequately and efficiently heated."...

Could you tell me which page of the document the part I have highlighted is shown on please?

I would suggest to you that defining such 'standard' is far from easy and if one were suggested, a counter arguement could easily be given.

In regards the heating be controllable, then allowing the tenant the possibility to turn it on or off is controllable.

There is nothing to suggest the heating as installed is not done so in a safe or proper way. NSH requires little or no maintenance usually.

NSH is a common way to heat many residential properties.

sarah_elton

I have two night storage heaters in my flat - one in my lounge and one in the main bedroom. About a year ago, the one in the bedroom packed up and the lounge had never really been warm enough for me, so I replaced the storage heaters. I changed the one in the lounge for the next size up, and replaced the bedroom one with the equivalent new model.

This cost over £800. :eek: Storage heaters are damn expensive to buy so you're not likely to get far trying to convince the LL to change them unless they actually die (mine were the original ones from the 1986 build so had managed 20 years).

Also, I take withabix's point but my lounge is now even warmer than I'd have expected based on changing the size of the storage heater. I swear my 20 year old one wasn't as efficient, even on max setting. Maybe older ones are using less power and not getting as hot...?

mlz1413

My flat has the original 1960's storage heaters and they kick out loads of heat. Best way to use is heat on high, when you go to bed shut down the output or leave on as low as possible, when you get home at night open up output to full.

This means the storage heaters kick out the heat when you are home rather than when you are work.

If the house is cold then you need to check if the loft is insulated, if doors and windows fit properly, if the house has little or no insulation then keep doors shut and put a daught excluder at bottom of door when closed, draw curtains and block up any chinmeys that are not in use. Any room without a heater will need a seperate source of heating like an oil filled raditor.

IMO I'd move out at end of tenancy, this problem is not going to 'go away' and if the LL doesn't want to tackle the problem its not worth persuing. If there are 6 weeks left, write a letter now saying she won't be re-newing and get looking for somewhere else.

For future if your friend has a problem and it's ignored or forgotten when she phones, follow up in writing, don't expect the LA or LL to jump to action, badger them. The problem effects her no one else so the importance of it can only be stressed by her.

TJ27

Premier wrote: »

Could you tell me which page of the document the part I have highlighted is shown on please?

I would suggest to you that defining such 'standard' is far from easy and if one were suggested, a counter arguement could easily be given.

In regards the heating be controllable, then allowing the tenant the possibility to turn it on or off is controllable.

There is nothing to suggest the heating as installed is not done so in a safe or proper way. NSH requires little or no maintenance usually.

NSH is a common way to heat many residential properties.

The bit you've highlighted isn't in the document. They are my words. Environmental Health Officers have been using heating standards for many years and they are detailed in several CIEH guidance documents. I haven't done it for a while but our standard used to be something like, "The heating must be capable of raising the room temperature to 20C when the outside temperature is 0C." (I've made that up because I don't have it to hand, but it's along those lines.)

If the council visit they might typically serve a LL with a notice saying something like the above. Yes of course the LL can then disagree but will have to come up with a reason for the notice to be altered. If the LL refuses to do the work, it might ultimately end up in court and the judge will decide who is correct. The council would then be backed up by several authoritative bodies and guidance. So any counter argument needs to be pretty good.

If you can convince a judge that turning a switch on and off means your heating is controllable then fine. But I bet you I could find a different definition in some or other guidance. And I would go double or quits on who would win such a case.


The content of notices served by councils is not just picked out of the air. It's usually taken from guidance such as British Standards, Approved Documents, CIEH studies, etc.

This is a fairly good bit of guidance for example:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/pdf/138355.pdf

Have a look at page 18.

I don't think anybody has said that NSH heating isn't a suitable method of heating. But whatever form of heating is used, I quote the guidance:

"a landlord must be sure that the home is warm enough for the occupant."

IlonaRN

This is a real bugbear of mine.

The maisonette I rent is not very old. It has large rooms, and electric heating. There is very little insulation in the loft cavity.

There is one storage heater just inside the front door, one on the first floor landing and two in the (very large) lounge/dining room. In the two bedrooms (one quite large, one very large) there are small electric heaters... one in each room. These two heaters do have a timer, but are not storage heaters. The bathroom has a small heater (on/off, no timer) and the kitchen has a blower heater on the wall.

The main problem with the place is the fact that the doors and windows let in massive draughts. If you look at the window frames from an angle, you can see where light comes through, and of course if light is coming through, cold air will be too! The gaps are several millimeters.

Due to the draughts, there is no point in putting on the heating in any room other than the lounge, as it never manages to make any difference. I have an electric blanket, hot water bottle and two duvets on my bed to keep warm at night.

Accommodation such as the place I'm living in would not pass building standards in Denmark (where I lived for many years). In DK, houses have to be draught-proof. Even my old student accommodation was better built than a lot of the houses I see here! I miss having a warm house

jenniferfluff29

These replies are interested but in the real world when your rental house is cold, there seems to be no where to turn.

Firstly, I have total heating total control which means that our storage heaters charge 3 times per day and the fire in the living room and the panel heaters in the bedroom are on a low electricity rate (0.774p) 24 hour a day.

Our situation is similar in that the storage heaters and panel heaters are working but they do not provide enough heat (10 year old heaters). I live in Scotland and when I contacted Shelter they said that they can only provide advise when LL have heating that they refuse to repair. My LL provided one oil filled radiator instead of the low rate panel heaters in two bedrooms. Shelter said that they only concerned when LL don't meet the repairing standard. I contacted the Private Rental Housing Panel and they said that I could appeal to them but it takes around 6 weeks for them to get out to assess the house and going from the info that I gave the guy, he thinks that it may not be successful.

I pay £180 per month. When it is -2deg outside my house is around 17 degs in the living room (with storage heaters on full), 13degs in my bedroom with oil filled rad on 2 1/2 hours. I didn't think this was acceptable but I was told that it is subjective as to how much you should pay to obtain heating and the minimum temperature which should be achieved in a reasonable timescale. Any advise that anyone has on how I could fight this with the LL would be great. I have gave up and the moment and sit in the living room with a fleece on and a blanket around me.

All you get told is that the LL has met his obligations by providing heating, whether it is effective or not is irrelevant. There is no way to prove if the heaters need repaired as they do work. They are just not as effective as new heaters and this is possibly what the OP will be told.

Good luck. Roll on spring when hopefully a house comes on the market that I like.