Faulty Boiler

PrincessPlaty

Asking on behalf of a friend and im not 100% sure on all the ins and outs of the situation so bare with me!

Friend moved into privately rented 3 bedroom house 2 weeks ago with her partner and nearly 1 year old daughter.
When they moved in the boiler wasnt working they contact the LA who gave them the LL's telephone number and told them to contact LL directly.

He said he would send someone round to get it sorted. Last thursday they smelt gas and phoned National grid who sent someone out straight away. They condemned the boiler and said it was unsafe to use and if they had flicked a switch then the whole house could have gone up in flames :eek:

They phoned LL straight away and informed him and he said he would try and 'find' a plumber She heard nothing from him until this morning and all her phone calls to him went unanswered. When he rang this morning he said that he had found a boiler and was waiting to see how much it was going to cost before giving the plumber the job She still has no time scale on when this is going to be fixed.

At present she has no heating, hot water and cant cook as the cooker is gas. I have told her to contact the environmental health and ask them what she should do, as to go that long without a boiler with a baby in the house doesnt seem right to me

Is there anything else she can do, and is there anybody she can contact, is there a timescale on how long it should take for them to replace the boiler?

If anyone can offer any advice that i can pass on to her it would be much appreciated.

Cannon_Fodder

Put everything to the Landlord in writing.

Tell him you are contacting the Council's Private Rented Housing Officer - then do so, and follow their guidance.

And ask him where his Gas Certificate is...and if he would like the Council/Environmental Health to call at all his properties...

PrincessPlaty

Thanks will pass that on to her

BitterAndTwisted

Landlords are obliged to attend to repairs and maintenance in a "reasonable time" although I'm not clear on how that is defined. As this has all happened very recently I think it would be premature to threaten the LL with the Council and Environment Health, especially as the LL has already said that they are taking steps to remedy the situation. Your chums should put their concerns to the LL in writing (so they have an audit trail for later should they need one) and request that the LL provides alternative, temporary heating and cooking facilities as is required by law

Fire_Fox

It's been two weeks, that is long enough to see some progress!! Assuming they haven't seen a gas safety certificate I'd report the landlord.

olly300

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Landlords are obliged to attend to repairs and maintenance in a "reasonable time" although I'm not clear on how that is defined. As this has all happened very recently I think it would be premature to threaten the LL with the Council and Environment Health, especially as the LL has already said that they are taking steps to remedy the situation. Your chums should put their concerns to the LL in writing (so they have an audit trail for later should they need one) and request that the LL provides alternative, temporary heating and cooking facilities as is required by law

No it is not premature to threaten the landlord.

Even if the landlord cannot get the boiler fixed for a couple of weeks, he should have called a plumber out as an emergency to see what is wrong with it. And that would take a maximum of 48 hours.

BitterAndTwisted

olly300, the boiler has been condemned and the LL has sourced a replacement, allegedly, so it's not a straightforward case of the LL not doing anything. How long would it take you to arrange for a new one to be fitted? I don't know myself but if you give the appearance of having some patience, you might get what you want instead of reading the riot-act straight off the bat.

RobertoMoir

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

olly300, the boiler has been condemned and the LL has sourced a replacement, allegedly, so it's not a straightforward case of the LL not doing anything. How long would it take you to arrange for a new one to be fitted? I don't know myself but if you give the appearance of having some patience, you might get what you want instead of reading the riot-act straight off the bat.

I'd agree with that, but I'd also point out that 2 weeks and counting in november to be without a working boiler is perhaps a little different from 2 weeks and counting in july.

tbs624

It's not a question of "having some patience".

It's absolutely not acceptable for a T to be without heating and hot water , especially at this time of year and with a baby. The LL can hire space/water heaters by the day or week and should get that in place whilst he dallies around trying to skimp on his plumber fees.

The fact that the boiler wasn't working when they moved in 2 weeks ago, and was then condemned last Thursday, suggests that there was no gas safety certificate in place from the start of this tenancy. Criminal offence if that was the case, separate offence to not have had the boiler checked, further offence to not be able to produce GSCs for the past 2 years if property rented out for that period.

Failure to comply with S11(1) (c) repairing obligations :

"to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for space heating and heating water."

Talk to the council - Tenancy Relations Officer/Landlord Liaison Officer in private sector rentals section and the Env Health Officer.

Please don't plead for a T to be reasonable when the LL has not been: taking rent from a young family when the heating and the property is not working is shoddy behaviour. Being slow to rectify the matter after the boiler has subsequently been condemned drops it to the "totally unacceptable" level.

Fire_Fox

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

olly300, the boiler has been condemned and the LL has sourced a replacement, allegedly, so it's not a straightforward case of the LL not doing anything. How long would it take you to arrange for a new one to be fitted? I don't know myself but if you give the appearance of having some patience, you might get what you want instead of reading the riot-act straight off the bat.

The person who condemned the boiler wasn't sent by the landlord, they were from National Grid. The landlord claims he has sourced a boiler but given his failure to act or return phone calls for two weeks, I would not take that as gospel. I'd expect a phone update every second day, plus at least one tradesperson sent by the LL to show his face within that two week period, plus an offer of temporary hot water if not heating.