Cold shower anyone??

missdee85

Hi,

My OH and i privately rent in Scotland, our shower has completely given up to be honest i amn't surprised as it looks as old as the house, the water is cold if you want any sort of water pressure and only just above cold if you dont mind loosing a lot of pressure.

The LL was suppose to come round to see the problem for herself but something else came up and we politely said we couldn't do that day but said any other time and we would make sure one of us was in as she normally lives in London so obviously is not very convenient for her to just pop up. Since then we have heard nothing from her at all no efforts to make contact despite our efforts and being honest anyway we have pointed out repairs to her and she pops up and looks at it says she will have to get it fixed and doesn't bother doing anything about it.

My question behind this whole situation is how can we force her to get the repairs done i have a shower which can be ready to be installed in the middle of next week ok yeah its a second hand one from my dad its not old and it actually works! I dont mind paying for the repair to be done and taking this money off the rent if she cant afford it or doesn't want to but it isn't fair on us since this problem started i have had 3 viruses and cant help but wonder if it more than a coincidence but i shouldn't have to be showering in cold water.

Plus because of this we have to have our heating on full blast to get the house roasting so it is sort of bearable so as a result our heating bills will be up which i am stressing about all ready!

Please help, does anyone know about withholding rent, just purely for the purposes of the repair nothing else that is not required.

Thank you in advance
xx

BitterAndTwisted

See the Shelter site for guidance on how to arrange a repair and deduct it from the rent. There are very strict guidelines about how to go about this but in the first instance you must WRITE to the landlord.

To be fair, it doesn't sound like the shower is actually broken. Perhaps you sourcing another one and the landlord paying for installation would be a reasonable compromise if they are unwilling to get it repaired. Do you have any other facilities for bathing?

menollyke

We lost the hot water in the shower, there was hot water coming out of the tap though, just didn't make it up the shower. It was a water pressure problem. Not long after that our boiler broke, so not sure if they where related to each other. Since replacing the old system with tank up the loft to a combi boiler we have had no problems with loss of pressure anymore and can have a hot shower again.

missdee85

I have a bath but it is huge so this just adds to the stress of the dreaded gas bill as i dont want to overuse things then not be able to afford to pay my bills as i am having to be very cautious with money due to me only having a temp job and most likely going to be unemployed in February i have worked out my bill should be due end of Jan or start of Feb.

I have no problem getting a shower and her paying for it to be installed i just want some reasonable outcome out of this so it is fair for both parties, it worries me that she is avoiding the situation i would rather she just come to us and say ok sorry to say i have cash flow problems at the moment so if you could get some quotes go with the cheapest send me a copy of the invoice and deduct that from the rent. Not a problem with that at all, everyone has financial troubles at some point and they just need a little help to ease the stress of it.

I will look at that website and see what it says so thank you for that.

menollyke you have raised a good point i know we have had problems with water pressure in the boiler as it drops quite often and needs to be boosted somehow (my OH does this so i have no idea what it involves) my OH does this quite often so i would imagine that would have sorted it. Although my LL has the boiler protection thing so i will call them to see if they could come out and have a look to see if it is anything to do with that.

Thanks for the help guys xx

BitterAndTwisted

If you also have a bath the landlord is fulfilling their obligation to provide bathing facilities. Unfortunately, that you prefer not to use it isn't the landlord's fault.

missdee85

Hmm in that case i think i will keep having cold showers then lol

G_M

shelter scotland site here.

because of this we have to have our heating on full blast

????? If you're worried about the bills, a quick hard post-shower rub down and a cup of tea will soon warm you up!

since this problem started i have had 3 viruses and cant help but wonder if it more than a coincidence

It is! You don't catch viruses from water, hot or cold. Typhoid, yes, virus, no.

missdee85

Not being funny, i do appreciate the advice but i am a female with long, thick hair a 5 min shower would get my hair shampoo'd but nothing else and as i tend to shower before bed time i dont drink warm drinks before bed.

I know you dont catch colds from water but i cant help but think that due to the difference in the temperatures going from one extreme to the other it isn't good for me.

G_M

In many places (Scandinavia?) that's exactly what they do to invigorate themselves! Steam room to snow!

Hang you beautiful locks over the bath to wash them while keeping the rest of you snug?

But seriously, check out Shelter for how to deal with the landlady.

missdee85

lol well needless to say i wont be joining the Scandinavians in that one lol, i have done that most of the time but it really hurts my back as it is generally in quite bad health sadly then run about mad after freezing me head lol oh wow this sounds like one of these comedy threads.

Yeah i am going to call them Monday morning for some advice, i can understand that as i have a bath it is not really her problem but it is expensive to fill and i would have never moved to any rented property without a shower over the bath.

cheepskate_2

missdee85 wrote: »

Hi,


Plus because of this we have to have our heating on full blast to get the house roasting so it is sort of bearable so as a result our heating bills will be up which i am stressing about all ready!


xx

It would probably be a lot cheaper to heat up the bath water, you dont need the bath full to the top, or share it