Pipes frozen in rented house

michellen34

Lol totally agree with you Heliflyguy, my LL is no better.
OP as suggested look on the shelter website

clutton_2

""heating your house to ensure internal pipes dont freeze is not prevenative and should not be the resposibility of the tenant.""

what a silly response.....

legally it is a tenant's responsibiity to act in a "tenant like manner" - and that means looking after the property and making sure no damage comes to it

that includes heating it.......


""Surely it's the landlord's respomsibility to ensure all exposed pipeworks are correctly lagged??? ""

yes of course it is

martindow

goldengirl28 wrote: »

until i can get to B&Q and how water and antifreeze down the drains.

I don't think pouring antifreeze down drains is a good idea and is very unlikely to help. Antifreeze lowers the freezing point when mixed with water but it won't thaw ice.

Bexter

Over Christmas our hot water went off twice (in a privately rented 4 bed house). The heating was on 24/7 - we got hot water back after about 24 hours each time by dint of blasting a fan heater under the sink and running the oven.

On Wednesday last week we lost all water supply - hot and cold - so presume now the pipes are frozen somewhere outside the property.

We took the call to move out temporarily as don't imagine this will change until the thaw, which could be some way off and lord knows what state the pipes will be in then. We have a 6 month old baby so it's a real hassle - the landlord was initially trying to say not his problem but we pointed out that in fact he has an obligation to maintain the property and without water it's legally uninhabitable.

My understanding via shelter is that either they would have had to bring in tanks of hot water or bottles of cold - or rehouse us. Neither looked likely so we have advised LL we'll seek an abatement of rent for the time we can't live there. Obviously this weather is highly unusual but we still need a water supply and are now having to pay for short term accomodation. No idea how long for either - not ideal. We have also told LL we won't be paying the bill to heat the house while we can't live there!

Anyway thought it may be useful - shelter advised that we could apply to the council for emergency accomodation but that could be anywhere and that ultimately if the LL wea taking no action to remedy the situation then they could be reported to LL registration.

Also found this quite interesting article

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article4954290.ece

clutton_2

much as i really sympathise with you Bexter - you are but one of many millions of people who have been caught out in this excessively severe weather...

many people are house-bound/snow-bound, have no heating, or power in some cases ... under such severe circumstances, i find your attitude less than helpful... this is not the fault of the landlord, it is an "act of god" if you like.

we all have to make compromises when situations like this arise...

""tanks of hot water" ?? what planet is Shelter living in... there are many many folks who have to make do with a kettle to produce hot water in times of extreme emergency...

i can understand a LL bringing in some bottled water for you.....



""if the LL wea taking no action to remedy the situation"" -

if the pipes that are frozen are underground outside, there is nothing a LL, or anyone, can do - IF it were possible in these huge degrees of frost to dig them up in this weather i suspect that would only make things much worse as what little heat there is in the ground surrounding the pipes would have lost in the digging....

Landlords have to be seen to be acting in a reasonable manner... and in these current weather conditions "reasonable" takes on a different hue....

have you and the LL taken meter readings to establishe the usage while you are living elsewhere ?

Bexter

Clutton, I'm sorry to hear you found my post unhelpful. Not sure there are millions without any water mind you

Yes - there are many people in a similar situation - and I hope my post helps some of them. I'm concerned about my family though and our compromise was that we didn't expect the landlord to bring in water - clearly that would be ridiculous and so we made our own arrangements and found temp accomodation. I was just pointing out what shelter would suggest and I agree that in these conditions everyone has to try and meet halfway. However it could be weeks before we get water again.

We'd managed for 48 hours with bottled water to cook with, wash dishes in and drink, buckets of melted snow to flush toilet with and microwaved bottled water to try and wash us and the baby in. And of course we could have gone to the launderette to wash our clothes but frankly we were running out of bottled water and time since we both work. Act of God or not, we needed running water and we can't afford to pay for 2 properties and nor do I think we should have to really.

Oh and yes, we've taken meter readings thanks, our LL is in contact and that's fair enough for now - we appreciate completely there is nothing more that can be done with regard to fixing it until the thaw as I said.

clutton_2

""Not sure there are million without any water mind you."" i didn't say there were - i said " many millions of people who have been caught out"" in a variety of ways....


i have not been outside since last monday lunchtime because i am snowed in... i dont expect my LL to come rushing to my aid to get me out..... altho they have phoned to see if i am ok, and offered to do shopping for me (they have a 4 wheeel drive) - but as i listened to the weather forecasts a week ago, i stocked up myself on water, candles and food...

its severe weather and we must all make the best of it -

it will be very interesting to see what financial compromise, if any, a deposit protection service Arbiter comes to at the end of your tenancy

Bexter

Clutton I'm sorry for the misquote. I guess in the end this is a matter for personal choice. I wouldn't expect our LL to come dig us out either but I do expect him to reduce the rent if we can't live in the property because it has no water - and the law would generally seem to agree. I think there's a difference between being snowed in and having no water.

We obviously have different viewpoints but our LL has already agreed to the rent rebate and so I'm hoping there won't be any problems with the deposit.

clutton_2

i just wonder if our BTL policies will cough up for alternative accommodation for this... insurers find ANY excuse not to pay out....

poppysarah

http://www.unitedutilities.com/5386.htm
Hot tips for frozen pipes.