Repeated Breakdown of Boiler

misssarahleigh

My partner and his family live in a rented house. They have an oil boiler and suffer repeated breakdowns (we are now on the 7th time this year alone). Getting it fixed can take between 1 - 4 weeks each time.

At one point the boiler was letting off soot, which damaged the house as it was subtally pouring in without notice for some time (as well as the fact we were all breathing this in for weeks)

What i would like to know are a few thing. Can we make them replce the boiler. It has been 'fixed' over 10 times in the last year and the boiler means no heating and no hot water. or, can we get a rent reduction for the time we do not have use of the boiler. The family haver had to take 8 days off in 'holiday' time so far due to having to have somebody at home for yet another repair.

Last Christmas they did not have a boiler and i do not want it to come to this again. what rights do we have?

princeofpounds

Quite a few, although applying them in this situation is not black and white. (You are in England and Wales right?)

[Edit: Sorry, just realised it's not you but your partner, the content is still relevant though]

Firstly the housing act make it a criminal offence not to repair heating and hot water systems. You might wish to remind them of this.

Secondly as a tenant you do have a right to repair (searchthe forums for Lee-Parker vs Izzet 1971) and offset against future rent if the LL is unreasonably slow.

It gets a bit trickier when repairs do come but are inconsistent and lead to repeated faults, as your rights are more to ensure functional repairs than any established level of quality.

It's a shame too it's an oil boiler, as gas would probably be condemned during the annual check.

My suggestions?

- Refuse to take time off to let them in for repairs. You have wasted eight holidays so far, it is not your responsibility to be there an orchestrate the repair. This will only work if they have access (another key set) and you are ok with not being there when work is ongoing. If they do not fix it, then they will be guilty of a criminal offence, so it's not your problem.

- Every time there is a serious breakdown, involve the council's private sector renting team and environmental health office. They have the power to condemn old equipment and issue repairing notices. The LL will not like having them on their trail every time, but it will work better if there is a nasty visible problem like the soot or if the unit is generally falling apart.

- Ask for serious rent reductions for every day it is offline. Be assertive about this - in theory you should receive compensation but you would have to go to small claims court and quantify your losses to receive it. You could threated such a court action.

- Threaten to leave. Seriously, it's one of the joys of renting, that you can hit a bad LL where it hurts - in the wallet.

misssarahleigh

Thank you for the help. When it was pumping out soot we were told by one engineer that it would do us no harm, although another said, well, 'what do you think? same as being a chimny sweep'. The whole house needs redecorating. The carpets are ruined from trapsing the soot in and out, the walls are stained. we have tried washing it off but their is no chane.

the landlord told them to claim on their home insurence although they dont want to do this. I personally believe that the landlord should be held responcible.

I thin at this point they have replaced nearly every part in the boiler, although it's still breaking down. I dont understand why they cannot sort out a new one!

I think the idea of getting the council involved is very good thank you. I shall print all this information off to tell them. And as for compensation, i believe it's just as everyday the family have to stay off is a day out of their holiday entitlement which is being wasted. once or twice fair enough but when it's such a recurrent issue like this!