Minimum temperature in rented flat?

Fire_Fox

"Health and safety in rented accommodation
Housing standards

A property should be safe and healthy for occupiers, so responsibility should be taken to ensure that:

• the dwelling is capable of providing adequate heating, which ideally means controllable central heating and insulation, with equipment and the fabric of the building in good repair
• electricity and gas supplies, and the sanitation (drains, basins, sinks, baths and WCs) are in working order
• there are no fall or trip hazards
• water heating equipment is in working order
• the property is free from damp."

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/HomeAndCommunity/BuyingAndSellingYourHome/RentingAHome/DG_4001394

Given that the property in question DOES have heating in the form of a single storage heater, I would argue the landlord has to ensure that the heating provided is capable of producing adequate heat, which it patently is not.

clutton_2

Aslam v. Ali – Birmingham County Court – 10 June 2009

Here the tenant and his family lived in a four bedroomed house, but because of the lack of heating and general poor condition of the property, the family had to sleep in just two rooms and use extra blankets to keep warm.

The Judge awarded damages of 50% of the rent of £60 per week for the period they had suffered, and special damages to cover the extra cost of the blankets and for some repair work the tenant had carried out.

BitterAndTwisted

Very sensible judge but I'd like to know how and where you could rent (an unsuitable) 4-bedroomed house so cheaply. Or perhaps I wouldn't

Fire_Fox

I'll take a wild guess .... an area of Birmingham that is heavily populated by ethnic minorities?

chappers

Judging by the names of the plaintif and the defendant they were probably cousins or something. I know an Indian guy who was taken to court by his father over less than a thousand ponds.

BitterAndTwisted

And said ethnic minorities who don't know or care about their responsibilities under English law and may erroneously believe that the laws here are the same as their home country? I sincerely hope that said landlord found out the truth extremely expensively. "Special damages" which I also hope were extremely special.

Pitlanepiglet

clutton wrote: »

Aslam v. Ali – Birmingham County Court – 10 June 2009

Here the tenant and his family lived in a four bedroomed house, but because of the lack of heating and general poor condition of the property, the family had to sleep in just two rooms and use extra blankets to keep warm.

The Judge awarded damages of 50% of the rent of £60 per week for the period they had suffered, and special damages to cover the extra cost of the blankets and for some repair work the tenant had carried out.

This is another summary of Aslam v Ali - the central heating installed in the house had failed and there were disrepair issues ie the landlord failing to keep the property in repair.



Very different to the case in hand, where the tenant rented a property with only one heater and still has a property with only one heater.


Aslam v Ali, Birmingham County Court, 10 June 2009.
The Claimant, his wife and eight children lived in a 4 bed house. From 2003 to 2006 the central heating only worked in two rooms. The windows were rotten and draughty in the kitchen and bathroom. There was penetrating damp and defective plaster in kitchen and hallway. During the winter, the whole family had to sleep in two rrooms and use extra blankets. The boiler was replaced in 2006. Windows were replaced in kitchen and bathroom by the tenant but the other defects remained.
Damages:
50% of the rent of £60 per week from 2003 to 2006
33.3% of the rent from 2006 to 2009
Special damages including costs of extra blankets and the replacement windows and doors.

clutton_2

""Very different to the case in hand, where the tenant rented a property with only one heater and still has a property with only one heater."

not at all.. the HHSRS regs specify what temperature a property should be capable of reaching and clearly this property will not reach that with one heater.... it is still my belief that a LL has to provide an adequate form of heating - OPs is clearly not adequate

Pitlanepiglet

It is very different ,you quoted Aslam v Ali to back up your view that there is a minimum standard for heating to be provided by a LL.

Aslam v Ali wasn't about minimum standards it was about disrepair so a property being let with heating which then failed and the LL's failure to repair the heating and to keep the property "in repair" that's why it was a civil case between the landlord and the tenant.

I don't think the guidelines quoted are anything other than guidelines. If Aslam v Ali backed up your suggestion surely it would have been a case brought by a Local Authority against the LL rather than a contractual case between LL and tenant.

roses

I only got central heating installed in my house 8 years ago. I coped with electric heaters just fine for the 3 years I lived before. My electric bill was the same cost as what it now costs for my gas boiler.

Central heating is not a legal requirement.