help needed please

itsakidsworld

Please, please, for your own safety and the safety of your children and everyone in the property, don't use any gas appliances including boiler for hot water until you have a certificate.

Gas really is a danger if it is not handled correct. The weather is nice at the moment so you can manage for a day or two until this is sorted but it HAS TO BE your number one priority today.

PLEASE

EasilyAggravated

unfortunately its a back boiler and the only way of getting hot water. its a necessity. like i said above environmental health are going to get involved and if i get enough proof that links the gas fire to my sons illness to say that i will hit the roof is an understatement.

clutton_2

This is not about proving negligence re asthma at the present moment (this can come later) - it is about your safety.

I agree with Itsakidsworld, that the gas inspection has to be done asap.

A friend had his gas boiler blow up a few months back, fortunately, no one was home in the block of flats it was in - the damage was stunning.
It had not been maintained.

I am sure that none of us are writing this to scare you, but you HAVE to make a fuss about this, and if your landlord will not do it, do it yourself and deduct the cost from the rent. It usually costs me about £45-85 for a inspection (depending on how many applicances are in the house). Please, do this. Your local council private housing officer should be able to help, but, if all else fails, phone book "Corgi Gas Engineers" - phone your nearest one

or this is the link

http://www.corgi-gas-safety.com/section_gas_law/about_installer_find_installer.asp

Litigation can come later.

do let us know how you get on.

EasilyAggravated

finally got someone from environmental health coming tomorrow to decide if this house is fit to live in. he seems rather eager to get an electrician here to check the electrics and a gasman here to check the fire and boiler.
finally things are going to get sorted. tried again to speak to landlady and its like trying to get a conversation out of the dead. just out of interest, would she have any grounds to evict us if the environmental health tell her to get the repairs done???

lynzpower

Its a funny one really, I dont know the legal answer but I was in a similar situation as this some time ago. You certainly didnt need an expert to say it was unfit for hiatation, with live wires hanging out of the walls and massive lumps under the ceilings of human sewage under the loos. It was a bloody pit. ( how we didnt notice on viewing I dont know but Thats another story)

Heres what happened with us

EH came round and condemned the place as unfit for habitation.
they bascially told the LL to make good and put us in hotels till the work was completed
LL refused to do so
We just packed our bags and moved out, finding a quality place locally, with a landlord who had certs, morals the lot :beer:
the original slumlord then started chasing us for the rent while we werent living there
We told him in no uncertain terms to sod off
He threatened to take us to court for non payment as the AST seems to say that the tenant is obligated to pay the rent "whether they live there or not"
EH dropped thier case as the slumlords uncle was a councillor of the local council and obviously had a word with EH.
We saw, a couple of weeks later, another gang of students moving thier gear in there was literally NO WAY the work could have been completed on time
We got harassed by the slumlord for a while till we threatened to call the police ( he was throwing stones at us at one point)
And then the whole matter went quiet.

If the same thing happened now Id be dragging him over the coals, but i WAs a student adn we were very poorly advised I think at the time

Im sure we didnt do the right thing, but getting out of there was priority. And money wasnt.

IM actually sure this doesnt help you at all, but just a demonstration of how nasty it can get.

nickinoo

My neighbours had a similar problem, bodged electrical jobs by previous tennants, woodworm etc. She even had a (small) fire once but the landlord wasn't interested. Environmental health came & had a look, said things were not safe & to get an electrician in who then said it wasn't safe but nobody would actually put anything in writing.

When she demanded repairs or she would move out the landlord basically said "bye, bye". The house has stood empty for the last 6 months & the only work that's been done is they have finally replaced a couple of rotten windows in the last week or so but there's not been any electrical work done. There was a family meant to be moving in a month ago but they didn't in the end, I'm glad as I feel I need to warn people what to expect (but daren't).

I think part of the problem was this was the 1st time in years that this house had a decent tennant, most of the previous ones have been scumbags.