Boiler not working, no hot water

purple-smartie

Woke up sunday mornng to find the gas boiler isnt working so Ive no hot water or heating, not bothered about the heating for now because we arnt using it anyway. Ive been ringing the landlord since sunday but I can only get through to her mobile answering service, i dont have her home number. Ive yet to recieve a reply back from her and Im not sure if shes on holiday because she does seem to go away quite alot.

Should I call out someone to take a look at the gas meter? I only have the boiler that runs off gas so I cant check to see if the gas meter is to blame for the fault. Is it transco who I call? or do I phone up npower who I get my gas from? Also will they charge me if I call them out and there is nothing wrong with the meter?

Farway

Very unlikely to be gas meter, and yes you will be charged if no fault with it

Does your boiler have a pilot light or is it a combi type?

If pilot light type then could just be the pilot has gone out

adprob

do you have a gas cooker? is it working? if so it's not your meter.

thommy

if it hasn't simply switched off somehow or the pilot light hasn't gone out as above then you probably need a 'gas safe' registered engineer to look at it- that's the official, legal body that took over from corgi - someone who is legally qualified to work on a gas boiler.

your landlord may well have boiler breakdown cover but as you can't get hold of him/her you could try to get someone local out who doesn't charge a call out fee (they do exist!)to look at it first. if he says it needs work doing then you might have to get it done and pass the charge on to the landlord later (if your relationship is a good one!) make sure you ask to see an engineer's 'gas safe' card.

look up 'gas engineer' in yellow pages or https://www.yell.com
also - https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk

Fire_Fox

Write to your landlord.

Gerrard_8_lfc

Get a local gas safe engineer to do the work and invoice your landlord you are paying them remember.

Farway

Is there a letting agent? Or did you just answer a "To let" ad in a newspaper / window?

If you went through a letting agent get onto them, they should be handling the landlord's problems as that is what the charge for, among other things

purple-smartie

Sorry for taking so long to reply, i couldnt log in for some reason. The boiler is a combi type one and I have no other gas appliance to see if the gas supply is at fault. Ive tried phoning again but Im still waiting for a reply back. I'm not sure if I can phone someone out myself yet, I think I need to send a letter by special delivery and then if my landlord still doesnt reply then I can go ahead and get the work done and deduct the costs from the rent, I will look into that when Ive got kids tea sorted out and hopefully get a letter off to them tomorrow.

Ive lived here 6 years and Ive never actually seen my landlord, its always been his girlfriend who Ive delt with and I rent straight from them not a letting agent. I do get on ok with the girlfriend but they are rubbish when it comes to fixing things and Ive always had to nag and wait months before anything is done. Luckily its never been anything urgent in the past but Im not prepared to wait months for some hot water.

Thanks for all your replies and help

dunloadin

I could be wrong, as it's not my area of expertise, but arnt landlords obliged to carry out annual inspections of boilers etc to ensure they are safe to use? If so you should be given a record of these checks, on which you will have the name of the company the landlord uses (perhaps a sticker on the boiler somewhere). If so give them a ring, there might be some sort of arrangment in place for emergency work.

thommy

dunloadin wrote: »

I could be wrong, as it's not my area of expertise, but arnt landlords obliged to carry out annual inspections of boilers etc to ensure they are safe to use? If so you should be given a record of these checks, on which you will have the name of the company the landlord uses (perhaps a sticker on the boiler somewhere). If so give them a ring, there might be some sort of arrangment in place for emergency work.

great advice above because you ought to make sure the boiler is safe - especially if you have children (hope that doesn't overly worry you, it's just you can't be too careful with gas, especially if your boiler goes faulty. e.g,carbon monoxide is odourless, and you won't know if your boiler is chucking out this deadly gas unless your boiler is serviced annually or you have a carbon monoxide detector).

digimate

Hiya

Regarding your post, have you checked your gas meter - is there any error messages or faults showing on the front of your meter?

Cheers
Dee