Rented house - heating broke down - landlord slow

[Deleted User]

Friend of mine lives in a rented house with her 5 yr old girl. Heating and hot water broke down on Friday and she tried to get told of the landlord.

After leaving several messages, finally got hold of him yesterday (Saturday). Spoken to him again today and he says best he can do is try to get someone out tomorrow (Monday).

Just seems as if hes not making that much effort. In the middle of winter, a house with no heating and no hot water is surely a bit of an emergency. Especially, with a young child in the house.

Legally, how is a landlord obliged to cope with things like this?

ukjoel

Think your friend is being unreasonable.

Heating breaks Friday - Not landlords fault these things happen.
He finds out Saturday and phones a heating engineer who says soonest he can do it Monday.

Seems fair to me. I am a landlord and also live in a house and if my heating broke and I was phoning people on a Saturday I wouldnt expect someone to come until the Monday.

Only exception would be 24 hour callout which would cost hundreds and I would only do as a last resort ie water coming through ceiling due to burst pipe but even then to be honest I would turn water off at mains and wait until morning to make the call.

Not sure what you want landlord to do - He isnt a plumber all he can do is pick up the phone. If he had said a week Monday then that out of order but next working day seems ok to me.

Think your being too fussy.

socrates

You might want to suggest to your friend to suggest to her LL to get - Home Call + policy for future reference its about £130 and covers for most emergencies and she would be given a specific response time by the Company however lazy the LL is.

Might also be an idea to find out if there is a Gas Safety Certificate - which by the sound of this LL there is not...

socrates

ukjoel wrote: »

Think your friend is being unreasonable.

Heating breaks Friday - Not landlords fault these things happen.
He finds out Saturday and phones a heating engineer who says soonest he can do it Monday.

Seems fair to me. I am a landlord and also live in a house and if my heating broke and I was phoning people on a Saturday I wouldnt expect someone to come until the Monday.

Only exception would be 24 hour callout which would cost hundreds and I would only do as a last resort ie water coming through ceiling due to burst pipe but even then to be honest I would turn water off at mains and wait until morning to make the call.

Not sure what you want landlord to do - He isnt a plumber all he can do is pick up the phone. If he had said a week Monday then that out of order but next working day seems ok to me.

Think your being too fussy.

I completely disagree - if a tenant has children and their boiler breaks down I put myself in their shoes as if they were my own children.

What would I expect to do if it was my boiler and my children.

As a LL I never mess about where children are concerned.

The LL in question should have his network of repairmen and if not an insurance.

roses

I agree with ukjoel here. Monday is perfectly reasonable. Legally, a tenant is expected to put up with conditions as if it were their own house. How many people here would pay £x00 for an emergency call out when they can get it done on Monday for 1/4 the cost?

Just because the landlord is waiting until the next working day does not mean he doesn't have a gas safety certificate. The landlord also has to arrange for access to the house too.

Children coped fine without heating and hot water before the modern convenience of boilers were invented. I am sure they will be ok.

A_Nice_Englishman

Perhaps the OP could help their friend out by having her and her daughter stay for a day or two?

RainMaker_2

[quote=[Deleted User];discussion/1442155]

After leaving several messages, finally got hold of him yesterday (Saturday). Spoken to him again today and he says best he can do is try to get someone out tomorrow (Monday).[/quote]

I don't think your friend should expect a firebrigade response from the LL. Urgent and best endeavours yes, same day service at this time of year when heating engineers are up to their eyeballs, no.

50plusabit

I agree with the other posters, the landlord has done all he could so far. Although it is inconvenient for the tenant, it is not an emergency.
Maybe he could have offered her a plug in fire if he had one.
As long as the plumber comes tomorrow it will be fine. Maybe she could go to a relative or a friend?

Premier_2

[quote=[Deleted User];discussion/1442155]...Legally, how is a landlord obliged to cope with things like this?[/quote]

He should take out his 12 bore shotgun, find the nearest person competant to repair the fault, demand that that person drops everything and attends the property in question immediately, being drageed by their hair and under the threat of being shot, and demand that person repairs the fault immediately, even if it means them going down to the local plumbers merchant, breaking in on a Sunday to get the appropriate spare part, and returning to fit it. Let's hope the LL doesn't have to resort to shooting dead any un-supportive tradesman because that'll be even more time wasted, looking for the next culprit.

Or maybe not ... perhaps just wait til Monday when a suitable person can attend and hopefully repair the fault as any other person would expect.

Premier_2

socrates wrote: »

I completely disagree...

The LL in question should have his network of repairmen ....

Yeah, because a private LL letting out a single property employs a whole host of tradesman full time on a 4 shift continental pattern on the off-chance a fault develops and he needs to send one of them out at the drop of a hat. :rolleyes:

Premier_2

socrates wrote: »

...Might also be an idea to find out if there is a Gas Safety Certificate - which by the sound of this LL there is not...

How on earth do you come to that assumption?

A CP12 simply verifies the safety of the appliances & installation at time of inspection. A breakdown can occur at any time whether there's a CP12 held or not.