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

BitterAndTwisted

I believe that Clutton may have overlooked the part in the OP's post which mentioned that the heating-engineer will be calling back on Monday and perhaps focussed on the landlady's incredibly unhelpful attitude.

Or of course, judging by Cluttons' last post perhaps she hasn't overlooked anything at all.

Six days with no heating or hot-water in the current cold-snap would be horrible but perhaps not life-threatening with alternative but expensive electric heaters in use. But I totally agree that this unspeakably unreasonable landlady deserves a far worse fate than to be freezing-cold.

Gothicfairy

clutton wrote: »

By the way Cold kills more tenants than any other cause......

Really ? Can I have some proof of that please as I really don't believe it.
You can buy a very cheap duvet, blankets, hot water bottles etc
Heating is not the only way to keep warm and how did people manage without it then ? the human race did not die out and there are plenty of countries colder then here without central heating as standard.

again....I did NOT say the landlord should not fix the problem what I said was the whole idea that a healthy couple would freeze because they had no heating over the winter just sounds so extreme> Can't remember hearing that on the news all the years I have been alive.

The heating should be fixed and they should be able to use it if they wish but all this talk about them not getting through 3 weeks (as shelter said that was resonable ) is silly.
How do homeless manage then ?

Just put it into some perspective please..Thousands die for want of clean drinking water, medication, food etc

clutton_2

Death by fire/carbon monoxide poisoning used to be the number two killers in the Private Rented Sector. ince the use of the HHSRS regs (brought in via 2004 Housing Act) - they have identified that cold is now the number one killer.

Thousands of pensioners die every year in this country because they cannot afford to buy enough power to keep warm... in spite of the Winter Fuel Allowance.

I am fully conversant with the horrific statistic of 4,000 children who die every day due to dirty drinking water - it is truly grotesque.

Here we are not geared up for the cold in the same way that the Scandinavians are and we are blase about the cold. Most street-dwellers nearly always find some shelter at night. (dont get me started on that benefit-deprivation-if-you-have-no-fixed-address-nonsense)

However, here on this thread we are talking about a private rental property in which the LL has a legal obligation to keep her tenants warm, and which obligation she is refusing to accept.

The law does not allow the tenant to do their own repairs (and why should they) without a long rigmarole of getting three quotes, blah blah - and in this weather that just means them getting colder and more miserable.

This type of person should not be a LL and that is why i am advocating such extreme behaviour....

I accept it is unlikely OP would die from the cold.....

bitsandpieces

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!

I understand she obviously can't do this, but what a mess.

She certainly can't evict you in this way and changing the lock barrels seems like a good idea (you don't want to come back at some point and find your stuff piled in the front garden). However, if you both agree to end the tendency early (get this in writing!) then it can be ended.

Don't feel under pressure to leave if you don't want to. However, if there are other cheaper places available (with luxuries like heating!) your best bet might be to try to leave early by mutual agreement. You would be quite within your rights to force the landlady to get things repaired. This may take a while, though, and it is cold!

In the meantime, you should be able to get an electric heater from Argos or one of the DIY stores for under the £20 mark. You shouldn't be having to pay for this yourself, but in this weather it may be a good idea.

Gothicfairy

clutton wrote: »

Death by fire/carbon monoxide poisoning used to be the number two killers in the Private Rented Sector. ince the use of the HHSRS regs (brought in via 2004 Housing Act) - they have identified that cold is now the number one killer.

Thousands of pensioners die every year in this country because they cannot afford to buy enough power to keep warm... in spite of the Winter Fuel Allowance.

I am fully conversant with the horrific statistic of 4,000 children who die every day due to dirty drinking water - it is truly grotesque.

Here we are not geared up for the cold in the same way that the Scandinavians are and we are blase about the cold. Most street-dwellers nearly always find some shelter at night. (dont get me started on that benefit-deprivation-if-you-have-no-fixed-address-nonsense)

However, here on this thread we are talking about a private rental property in which the LL has a legal obligation to keep her tenants warm, and which obligation she is refusing to accept.

The law does not allow the tenant to do their own repairs (and why should they) without a long rigmarole of getting three quotes, blah blah - and in this weather that just means them getting colder and more miserable.

This type of person should not be a LL and that is why i am advocating such extreme behaviour....

I accept it is unlikely OP would die from the cold.....

I am really not disagreeing with you..honest. I do think the landlord should be responsible etc it was just the "freeze to death " thing.
I would however point out that the death stat is not as simple as it first seems
My father died at 83 from lung problems ( ex miner) but because he died in early feb ( of the worse winter on record for 30 years ) he went down in the stats as a cold winter death..The weather though had nothing to do with it.
I think that maybe we have lost the art of keeping warm and expect to much from our heating when 50 years ago we would not have been able to do that.

As I said though, I am not trying to argue with you or make light of the op's situation

clutton_2

i recall ice inside my bedroom windows as a child when no one had central heating... thank goodness we have moved on ! i would hate to go back to that time. An owner occupier can certainly choose that, but a tenant is paying for the privilege of living in a home that by law has to have heating and hot water that work....

I would not be opening a book as to whether this heating is fixed by Tuesday.......

Catblue

I agree with Clutton.

If you booked into a hotel for 2 nights in winter and found no hot water or heating, would you think "Oh well, in 1892 this was perfectly common so not worth worrying about. Let me pay the entire bill immediately". Or would you complain as quickly as possible, and if no solution was found within an hour, check out immediately without paying a bean? I can't imagine any sane person doing the former.

The tenant is PAYING for hot water and heating and the landlady should be doing her utmost to provide the service that is being paid for.

Not quite sure how some folks find this really difficult to comprehend.

BitterAndTwisted

All Gothicfairy appeared to be saying was that there was little danger of the OP freezing to death and illustrated this by reminding us that our parents and grandparents were most likely raised in homes without central heating. I agree with her. The OP said that they had electric heaters so I expect that they most probably won't expire from exposure between now and Monday, despite having to tolerate a miserably chilly weekend

PasturesNew

The OP might not freeze to death, but if you're paying for a house with heating and hot water, then you should have it. Choosing to opt out of using these, by choice, is an entirely different matter... the fact is, if your heating is on you can swan about in your grundies, study, work, relax. If you're huddled under a duvet for 2-3 weeks wearing hat/scarf/gloves, then you've been robbed of the quality of lifestyle that you're paying for.

If it's cold, you can't even face braving the kitchen to make hot food. ... you just rush into bed and huddle.

Once this loony has fixed the heating and the OP has moved on .... I wish they'd come back and publish the full name/address of the landlord/property so others will know how shoddy and loony the LL is.

sammyjammy

I get the feeling the OPs landlady doesn't even know what an Section 21 is!