Frozen Pipes / Flood

googler

To all those who say that the tenants 'couldn't have been expected to know it would get so cold' and the like -

They were going away for the WINTER break, which was taking in the CHRISTMAS period

Why is the song titled "White Christmas" rather than "Sunny Christmas" or "Warm Christmas"???

Why do Christmas scenes always feature snow, ice, etc. rather than beaches and sun???

Couldn't they figure out what MIGHT happen while they were away?

Tenant's fault and blame, IMHO......

clutton_2

. ""A landlord shouldn't have to nanny students - they are adults afterall! ""

thank you rosemary !!

i see too many tenants here trying to wriggle out of their responsibilities

Health and Safety - which is what we are talking about here - is a JOINT responsibility...

if the LL has done all the lagging and left boiler instructions, and included clauses in the tenancy agreement - that is his legal responsibility fulfilled

then the tenants responsibility is to read the Agreement and read the boiler instructions - which will DEFINITELY say dont switch the boiler off....
that is his legal responsibility ..

If tenant chooses to not to those things, and is not behaving in a tenant-like manner, then he must bear the consequences.....

IF this was one of my properties i i would take a guarantor to court for this without any reservation at all....

I get really sick of folks saying "part of landlording - bear the cost" - yea - right - another £1000 down the drain - that could well be an entire year's profit on one property......

kmmr

chodges84 wrote: »

"I have many many young tenants. and have NEVER had any of them turn heating off when away... they use their common sense...."

But if they don't know what will happen (i.e have never experienced it), then how are they to know to leave the heating on?

The logical extension of this is that you will have to perform an assessment of each tenant to determine what they have an haven't experienced, and be responsible for their lack of experience if you don't retrain them.

I am Australian, and have zero knowledge of central heating, so therefore if the water freezes in winter, can I just say 'but i didn't think of it', and get out of any responsibility? I am guessing not!

Students want to be treated as adults in most areas of life, including being allowed to sign contracts, so they have to realise it comes with risks and responsibilities.

hard lesson - but such is life!

clutton_2

""Students want to be treated as adults in most areas of life, including being allowed to sign contracts, so they have to realise it comes with risks and responsibilities. ""


you have summed up the whole thread in one sentence....

silvercar

The point is that the students, in mid December, may have left the heating on low for a few a few hours at night and then disappeared home miles away. The landlord, presumeably local, will now know that the weather has turned cold and the sensible thing to do would be to check that the heating is on for a sufficient time.

clutton_2

silvercar - but these students in OP say they switched OFF the heating to save themselves money......

poppysarah

Pitlanepiglet wrote: »

Sometimes I despair! Why do people need to be "taught" everything, what happened to learning and applying existing knowledge?! This is quite a basic one isn't it? .

You can only learn by yourself if you have been taught how. Sadly not every parent is equipped to do this.

For instance: your (young) child is released from the classroom by the teacher who mistakenly thought you'd turned up. Your child wonders off and gets run over. Who's to blame? The parent for not explaining to the child that they shouldn't leave school without them, or the teacher?

A blame the teacher response might be partly right - but you've got to equip your child to have the skills to cope in such a situation.

I read somewhere yesterday about someone wondering if they could leave their 14 yr old alone for an hour in the house (morally as much as anything else)

How in 4 years can you expect people to go from not being left alone to knowing to leave heating on over winter?

Pitlanepiglet

silvercar wrote: »

The point is that the students, in mid December, may have left the heating on low for a few a few hours at night and then disappeared home miles away. The landlord, presumeably local, will now know that the weather has turned cold and the sensible thing to do would be to check that the heating is on for a sufficient time.

I suspect (and it would be climate and property specific) that even leaving the heating on for a short amount of time on low would be sufficient to avoid the place freezing solid.

The Landlord of course has no right to enter unannounced to check the heating - the LL could enter without consent/notice in an emergency but the possibility that the heating might be off isn't an emergency.

clutton_2

how did i know someone would raise the thorny question of tenant access here sooner rather than later ???


""the possibility that the heating might be off isn't an emergency. ""

In these temperatures of course its an emergency...... as entry into the property and switching on the heating will prevent a lot of damage to both landlords property and tenants possessions

we, as LL, really cannot win can we ?

If we go in to turn the heating on, to prevent the tenant from huge bills for water damage.. that is not an emergency ?

if we dont go in - we should have done so to stop the tenant getting charged for water damage.....

poppysarah

A landlord could ring the tenants and make a general enquiry as to the heating working ok in the house (An offer to take an extra heater around if it was very cold, would probably get you landlord of the year award)


And a belated "what to do in very cold weather" leaflet wouldn't hurt (And could be given to future tenants too)