Tennant needing help with Landlord poor service...

Stevied

I recently moved into a property through a managed letting agent and noticed a problem with the central heating system, Most of the radiators downstairs never warmed up.

I informed the Agent immediately who sent a plumber to fix the problem, he didn't. They sent him back and he diagnosed the problem as the radiators needing to be flushed.

I spent 2 weeks calling the agent who kept telling me she is waiting for landlord to confirm going ahead with the work to be carried out.

During this time I have had to have the remaining heaters on 24/7 to keep the house from freezing and also have the gas fire constantly on as we have a 2 year old.

This has resulted in a gas bill of £340 that the landlord is expecting us to cover for a 4 bedroom house in a 4 week period... it's ridiclously high!

The gas company said the average cost this time of year should be between £50-£80.

What options do I have as I feel like taking money out of the rent due to be paid to cover the gas bill.

I feel that had the landlord had a working GSH system we would not have this happening.

Also, even though we have a £340 bill, we have never actually felt warm.

Please help/advise?

hellokitty08

I would just go to the lettings office and tell them if it doesnt get sorted today, that you will call someone out to fix it and you shall be sending them the invoice. If it doesnt get sorted, do just that.

If you have the landlords details, you could phone them direct? If they just need flushing couldnt you do this yourselves? I have no idea about Radiators, so not sure if this is feesible. But you could look it up on the internet?

RainMaker_2

Stevied wrote: »

This has resulted in a gas bill of £340 that the landlord is expecting us to cover for a 4 bedroom house in a 4 week period... it's ridiclously high!

The gas company said the average cost this time of year should be between £50-£80.

What options do I have as I feel like taking money out of the rent due to be paid to cover the gas bill.

I would strongly advise against doing any work to the heating system yourself, because if you puck it up it's then down to you.

Get 3 written estimates to flush the system (if that is indeed what's wrong) and send them to the LL. Give him 7 days notice that if he doesn't arrange his own workmen you'll be going ahead with the cheapest quote and deducting the cost from the rent.

It will be difficult to prove a) The £ 340 gas bill was excessive and b) was caused by inefficient radiators. Though there's no harm in asking for a contribution. Good luck.

Stevied

They have arranged for the engineer to come out next week and flush the radiator (which means they take them off the wall and flush it with water from a hose pipe to unclog which allows water to past through it).

The rooms that have a working radiator stay warm... mainly the bedrooms upstairs, apart from my little boys who is directly above kitchen which is the coldest room in the house.

We have a downstairs shower room that has a fully working radiator and that is constantly warm. Only Living room, hall & kitchen are cold downstairs and they are the rooms without working radiators... so has got to be that.

I can't afford to pay £340 for gas and don't feel I should, I used to be a landlord myself and I would have never expected my tenant to firstly be in that predicament, let alone pay for it!!!

Have I no legal rights for the landlord/letting agent to compensate???

tbs624

Don't withhold rent without getting appropriate professional advice: to do so places you at risk of eviction proceedings. You should not simply deduct the costs of repair work from rent without following a very specific procedure & timings.The repairs and your rent are separate issues.

Did this property have an Energy Perf Certificate? ( it should have done if your tenancy began after Oct 08) Does the property have DG and insulation etc, and were you shown a valid gas safety cert?

Have you actually measured the temperatures in each room at different times of the day? Is there any damp/condensation in the property?

You could contact the private sector rentals team at your local council - they can help you with issues such as these, and can speak direct to the LA/LL if necessary. They can arrange for assessment of the property under the HHSRS (Housing Health & Safety Rating System) and help check whether the heating system is inadequate.


Edit: there are a couple of heating engineers who post on here - one is EliteHeat who may be able to offer specific suggestions.

Premier_2

Stevied wrote: »

.. I used to be a landlord myself and I would have never expected my tenant to firstly be in that predicament, let alone pay for it!!!...

Is that why you're not a LL anymore and are having to live in rented accomodation with dodgy heating?

You used the gas, you'll have to pay for it.

An engineer is coming to repair the heating. In the meantime, deal with it.

sooz

Premier wrote: »

You used the gas, you'll have to pay for it.

I agree. Not sure quite why you thought that with 1/2 the radiators not working that keeping the heating on 24/7 would help. So you heated the top of the house constantly....how would this help to heat the ground floor? As for the gas fire...well most of them are purely decorative, & the heat that they give off is a little less than a light bulb.

Why did you not put a small electric heater with a thermostat in your living room?

Stevied

Thanks TBS624... will try a few of your tips...

Premier... that was probably not best typing from me... I still am a landlord but I was thinking of a previous tenant... the boiler broke down and with in a 2 days I had the boiler man who in the end had to replace the whole system... this cost me £3500... during that time I provide electric heaters and offered to cover the cost of bills.

I live in rented at the moment as I currently own a number of properties and until I sell I can't afford the mortgage to buy the house I currently live in.

I may have used the gas but I also moved in to the property on basis it had working GCH system... it doesn't, so surely they misdiscribed the propery when letting out... I should not be expected to be cold in property I move into ecspecially with a young child.

Premier I can't work out if you are being sarcastic or just unhelpful!!!

sooz

Stevied wrote: »

...during that time I provide electric heaters and offered to cover the cost of bills....

I still don't understand why you didn't do this in the place you are renting? Your would have used much less electricity than you did gas, & it would have actually heated the rooms you needed heating...rather than just heating the upstairs.

And as you know, from your own experience as an LL, problems do occur. Heating engineers can't be summoned out of thin air.

Premier_2

Stevied wrote: »

...Premier I can't work out if you are being sarcastic or just unhelpful!!!

Let me explain. Neither.

Stevied

Because I would have to pay for electric heaters for 5 rooms which would have cost just as much plus the electric bill would have gone up so would have been replacing one cost with another when the manage agency should have sorted the problem.

It's not a case of magically producing an engineer, the company is Tucker Gardner who employ engineers... my agent deemed the problem not important so actually didn't really treat as a concern and just did nothing.

This has cost me and I find it unfair... and they still are sitting on it saying they will get an engineer to me for next week... costing me aprox £10 per day to live in a house that is not far from freezing majority of rooms.

As a tenant the minimum you would expect is to be able to heat your house. But I am looking at £340 for no real benefit apart from not suffering from hyperthermia... but not far from it...