No hot water or heating- IT'S SNOWING!!!

tbs624

Goingmad wrote: »

I'm hoping somebody can help me as I am freezing and really need some advice.
I live in a rented house, I rented this from Townends and on Wednesday I turned the heating/hot water on and it started making very very load banging noises then it turned itself off. I contacted Townends who advised it had nothing to do with them as Landlady was in charge of all maintenance on property. I then called the landlady who told me to get a plumber out and she would pay.

Plumber came out on Thursday afternoon (my partner took a day off work to wait for him) he gave us a bill for £105 (which immediately come out of my account) and quoted £550+VAT to fix the problem. On my second call to the landlady, her words were, "he saw you coming!"
She then said she would contact a properly qualified plumber to fix it.

Friday (my partner took another day off work) plumber did not turn up until 7pm and said exactly the same. He then said he could not fix until Monday night!!
That's going to be 6 days with no hot water and no heat!

I called the landlady to try and get a plumber out sooner and she went crazy shouting that it was our fault and worked fine before we moved in (7 months ago) and we were lucky she didn't charge us! Every time I tried to reason with her she kept repeating, "NOT MY PROBLEM" and then she hung up!

Well I am now freezing with no hot water or heating and have no idea what to do??

Any suggestions would be great as have no idea how to deal with her.

LL is very clearly obliged under the LL and T Act 1985, s11, to keep the systems for space/water heating in good working condition. If s/he cannot get the system fixed within a "reasonable time" then she should supply you with temporary means of heating both space and water, these can be hired from the day from places like HSS.

clutton wrote: »

OP if the property up the road is vacant - i would do a runner.... i VERY rarely advise this.. ...

MSE Forum rules; If you're discussing a topic you have a professional knowledge of you can make that clear but please don't give "advice".

Rather than "doing a runner", which IMO is a foolish suggestion, you could confirm to the LL *in writing* what has happened so far (yes she knows but this is about placing it formally on record) Add that she has a strict legal obligation to get it fixed and that, given the current weather, you would like her to arrange for alternative means of heating . State that you are happy to arrange this yourself and deduct the costs from your rent.

Copy the letter to the Council's private sector Tenancy Relations Officer and/or Env Health Officer and state that you have cc'd them at the bottom of the letter to the LL.

It sounds as though you have an amateur LL who has (a) a poor understanding of LL&T law and (b) failed to maintain a contingency fund for repairs. Don't let her fob you off.

Wee_Willy_Harris

ayrforce1 wrote: »

A properly qualified plumber , who can only come in the evenings, sounds more like someone working cash in hand. If this is a gas appliance , to my knowledge, it should be inspected annually and your landlord be in possesion of a valid landlords certificate.
If the plumber is working with gas he should be registered and carry a card to varify that he is covered to work on the appliance.

It's also worth remembering that if the gas supply/pipework is disturbed while a repair is effected, an NEW gas safety cert is required. But a registered gas safety engineer should know this already.

Dave_®f©

Tell her you are moving out to friends due to lack of heating and tell her to expect burst water pipes soon to repair as well. Unbelievable attitude from your LL.

Goingmad_3

After taking on board some of the advice I received from here this morning I called Shelter who advised me the Landlady can get it fixed in a reasonable amount of time (he mentioned 3 weeks). He also said if I wanted I could save my expenses and take her to small claims court.

I tried calling her this morning, as I thought she may of calmed down and with it dropping to -4 over night and everything outside being frozen she may of reconsidered, her phone was off. I then called the Estate Agents to ask them to try and reason with her. She then called me back about an hour ago telling me to pack up my things and get out now as it's her house!

I understand she obviously can't do this, but what a mess. I'm very concerned now that she's never going to fix it and I'm reluctant to serve her with 2 months notice until she does.

I haven't a clue why she is going mad at me. It's hard to imagine as she sounds like the Queen!
I can't stress enough that we have been ideal tenants.
All I can think of is I'm paying rent £850 (if I withhold this Townends will keep my £1,300 deposit), I had to pay for first plumbers bill (£105-she didn't believe his quote so got another), I have no heating and have electric heaters plugged in that aren't doing anything except increasing my bills. Also my partner had to take 2 days annual leave to wait in the house for the 2 plumbers to arrive. We can't book into a hotel or stay around friends as we have a dog.

I can alert the Environmental Health Officer Monday morning, but then surely he will say the same that she can fix in a reasonable amount of time.

SHIVERING!!!

PasturesNew

Goingmad wrote: »

I tried calling her this morning, as I thought she may of calmed down and with it dropping to -4 over night and everything outside being frozen she may of reconsidered, her phone was off. I then called the Estate Agents to ask them to try and reason with her. She then called me back about an hour ago telling me to pack up my things and get out now as it's her house!

The woman's a loony.

mustrum_ridcully

Clearly this "landlady" is pretty ignorant about the law. Based on her behaviour and ignorance I suspect she's probably not informing HMRC about the rental income, could be worth informing HMRC if you also think this might be the case.

Out of interest does the boiler have a gas safety cert.?

Might be worth you changing the locks, just in case she tries to do something stupid.

BitterAndTwisted

There's a plumber coming on Monday, so the landlady appears to be attempting to get the system fixed within a reasonable time.

If you signed a 12-month AST then the landlady can't get you out for another 5 months unless you are in rent arrears. I'd most definitely be looking to move out at the end of the fixed-term: she sounds like a lunatic.

clutton_2

The woman certainly is a loony

However, i CANNOT believe that anyone at Shelter has told you 3 weeks in this weather !! thats madness..... 3 weeks in the summer is one thing... in this weather... utterly unacceptable. The law says LLs have to finalise repairs in a "Reasonable" time - and i am darned certain that any judge would say that 3 weeks aint reasonable in this weather.

Again i rarely advocate this... but just leave.... and dont pay any more rent.... explain to the new landlord of the new flat why you have had to leave... (I would not mention EHO to him tho - just the refusal to fix the heating)

nothing you can say to this woman will make any difference and you wont get your deposit back from such a dip-stick... so stop paying rent and go....

clutton_2

duplicate post

PasturesNew

One can't just go... it takes ages to find somewhere to live - and the OP's already paid rent this month and has their deposit held to ransom.

Going seems great, but the financial implications are greater than just popping down Argos for a couple of heaters and a bit extra on the leccy bill.

Hot water's the tricky one, assuming it's for baths. For washing up you just boil kettles and adjust your cooking habits for awhile (don't cook stuff that creates a lot of washing up). For baths - get a weekly swimming ticket and use their showers.