Frozen Pipes / Flood

jennifernil

Turning off the heating should not over-ride the frost thermostat. On our heating, the frost stat reigns supreme, you cannot over-ride it, it operates regardless of anything else. If this is not how it is wired then there is something wrong.

Turning off the water supply is something else. I would agree that if you leave a property "unheated" in winter, then you should turn off the water supply.

However........students do not have the knowledge to do this........they are used to their parents taking care of everything. If I was a LL I would have left instructions regarding this, possibly even gone round and checked/spoken to them.

penguingirl

I've always had something in contracts about informinng the LL if the property is going to be empty for more than 7 days.

Also when I was a student I remember a LL emailing everyone before christmas asking them to a) turn off water if leaving (and they were happy to come and show us how) and b) make sure heating was on enough. Although by no means a requirement I guess it gave him piece of mind (and had anything happened demonstrated he had taken reasonable steps)

silvercar

However........students do not have the knowledge to do this........they are used to their parents taking care of everything. If I was a LL I would have left instructions regarding this, possibly even gone round and checked/spoken to them.

A landlord to students should be aware that the students will have zero experience of looking after a home and should advise/ visit accordingly.

Also the landlord should be aware that the property is likely to be empty during uni holidays.

G_M

clutton wrote: »

Is there not some coverage from LL buildings insurance?



Even if a LL were to agree to do this - the LL can then charge the tenant for the "excess" on the policy which is often £1000 on claims for tenant damage on landlords policies

Every home insurance I can remember (residential or landlords) stipulates that empty property must be heated if temp drops below x. Insurance will almost certainly be invalidated. Every rental contract I've issued has a clause mirroring the insurance clause. That's one reason why LLs should not just automatically accept an agent's standard contract.

However without that clause in the contract the LL relies on 'tenantlike behavior' which is open to interpretation.

clutton_2

lynz - a good LL should make sure that the tenants understand how to operate any equipment which is in the house.... boiler manuals are one way of doing that.... but actually explaining and showing tenants is often more use as manuals tend to be quite technical... altho i have tenants who love to fault-find first with the manual before talking to me...

silvercar

G_M wrote: »

Every home insurance I can remember (residential or landlords) stipulates that empty property must be heated if temp drops below x. Insurance will almost certainly be invalidated. Every rental contract I've issued has a clause mirroring the insurance clause. That's one reason why LLs should not just automatically accept an agent's standard contract.

However without that clause in the contract the LL relies on 'tenantlike behavior' which is open to interpretation.

The problem is that the students couldn't be expected to know, at the end of last term, that the temperature would drop by so much for so long. They may have kept the heating on for a short time in the middle of the night in case there was a cold snap, but they wouldn't have known that the weather would turn as bad as it has. A landlord, letting to students, would be expected to realise that the students would go home for the holidays before they knew the extended weather forecast and should therefore have taken remedial action.

Jowo_2

Landlordzone has good info on this - they advise that landlords send a letter to tenants at the beginning of winter reminding them of their obligations with regard to adequately heating/ventilating the property and instructing them how to avoid burst pipes. They used to have a sample letter. If not, one should be available on the internet somewhere to help tenants understand how to take bad weather precautions.

Mankysteve

IF your lucky and its just a spilt pipe with no other damage it can be repaired for £30 max DIY style very easy fix.

clutton_2

""repaired for £30 max DIY style very easy fix. ""

but then there are the consequential losses of possibly replacing flooring, kitchen units (which soak up water like blotting paper if they are the old fashioned sort) checking electrics etc etc

if this is a leak upstairs it would be very easy to rack up £5k-£10k of damage

since OP tells us ""Place flooded on return."" it is quite possible a bill of this size could be presented....

anselld

clutton wrote: »

if this is a leak upstairs it would be very easy to rack up £5k-£10k of damage

since OP tells us ""Place flooded on return."" it is quite possible a bill of this size could be presented....

I am asking on behalf of a colleague, so I havent seen the full extent of the damage but that is my fear. Significant flooding was certainly mentioned.

On the other hand, need to make sure the LL doesn't see it as an opportunity to refurnish at T expense!