Gas safety check fiasco

AliceBanned

Hi

Wondered whether anyone can offer advice. I rent on an assured shorthold tenancy from a "social" landlord - housing association. Every year without fail they muck up the gas safety check, causing me to take time off work not once but twice. There is a history to this due to previous tenant not organising to let them in to do the statutory safety check - nothing to do with me. I have always obliged but live 40 miles from work and can't easily organise it, but due to previous tenant they put in a timer which means the heating stops working until it is re-set by the landlord's gas engineer! So every year I go without heating for a few days or in this case two weeks, although it happens to be mild now it hasn't been a problem, but this has been happening for five years since I moved in. On top of that every year without fail they have sent round an engineer who can't reset the timer, as it is not the usual timer that their households have, and despite this being their mistake they refuse to give me a timed appointment and ask me to wait in for another half day. I try to refuse and they are quite happy to leave me without heating and rant down the phone at me, and this time slam the phone down, because I haven't accepted their treatment. The landlord refuses to change the timer - this would save time and money for everyone in the long run and make everyone's life easier. They are just being difficult about it and their staff are defensive, obstructive and rude even when you speak to them in a reasonable way. They seem to have prejudice against their own tenants, and I'm furious still even today that I have been treated this badly yet again and can't seem to get anything changed, and because they have treated me with so much disrespect when i pay my rent on time and am a good tenant. I have emailed saying I'm going to the Housing Ombudsman but they phoned back saying it was now a "stage 1 complaint". Why don't they just put in the usual timer, which most tenants have and as I deserve?! I've complied with them, taken more than one half day off for five years once a year and they still won't oblige. It's so upsetting and stressful, in particular as I have no power to do anything about it.:(. If I can't get it changed I will be dreading next early spring - heating stops, then I arrange time off work for safety check, then get abuse because it doesn't work and I don't want to take more time off. This gas engineer even blamed me for not having a manual, which is a complete lie because I gave him the manual and this does not include instructions to reset, deliberately of course because they wanted to take this out of the hands of the previous tenant and have carried this over to me as well, with no grounds to do so.

If anyone can suggest a way to properly kick them up the backside I'd appreciate it, as all I get is refusal to meet me on my terms or listen to my distress.

poppysarah

Write to them and ask what's going on with your "stage 1 complaint"

Then involve local councillor.

AliceBanned

poppysarah wrote: »

Write to them and ask what's going on with your "stage 1 complaint"

Then involve local councillor.

Thanks poppysarah - it only happened yesterday, and due to their annual leave it won't be dealt with by a manager until early May. They at least phoned me to let me know this as they could probably tell I would go ballistic if I didn't hear sooner.

I have lost the plot with it - my patience with them will not stretch beyond five years - it may be that they give in and agree to change the timer but I;m worried that if they don't, I'll be in this mess again and again! I need to wait for their response and see whether they put something in place to prevent it happening again, but after so long I don't trust they will stick to the right procedure. I suppose all i can do is wait. I could try local councillor but I've contacted him about previous problems and been either ignored or just given a whitewash answer. I think I will email them again though and say I am keen to know what will happen and explain more clearly that the way I have been treated is the issue - the rudeness is what upset me but the inconvenience is not bearable if this continues..Thanks.

poppysarah

AliceBanned wrote: »

I could try local councillor but I've contacted him about previous problems and been either ignored or just given a whitewash answer.

If they can't help then go to the MP. Sometimes a letter from the MP has them in a spin. Some organisations seem immune to everything though.

The local govt ombudsman can help sometimes.

You will have to also be very calm in dealing with staff though - no matter how irate you are about it.

Let them be rude to you - but get names of staff when you speak to someone. That generally helps.

Mankysteve

Next time the gas engineer calls to reset bribe him with lots of tea and biscuits and ask him to clam the timer is broken and needs replaceing.

AliceBanned

Mankysteve wrote: »

Next time the gas engineer calls to reset bribe him with lots of tea and biscuits and ask him to clam the timer is broken and needs replaceing.

Ha ha the second one who came round yesterday did say he wished he could just replace it but he had to try to reset it. Unfortunately he did reset it very quickly! Good idea though, bribery might be my only option. You've got me thinking now about how that timer might "break"..

AliceBanned

poppysarah wrote: »

If they can't help then go to the MP. Sometimes a letter from the MP has them in a spin. Some organisations seem immune to everything though.

The local govt ombudsman can help sometimes.

You will have to also be very calm in dealing with staff though - no matter how irate you are about it.

Let them be rude to you - but get names of staff when you speak to someone. That generally helps.

I had more serious problems with them in the past over serious antisocial behaviour from a neighbour - even prompted the police to come and give me bars for my front door to protect me, and their response - "computer says no" as always. - it had to get to the stage where Shelter were about to take them to court. This organisation will stop at almost nothing - barr being sued!! Shelter is such an amazing organisation with so much clout.

I can't stay calm when they are more irate than me - I did get a name and have put her name in my complaint.

rexmedorum

Maybe I am missing something here but I would think that
a. they should sent somebody out BEFORE the certificate expires. Hence this should also be before the timer needs resetting?
b. isn't it possible for the landlord/council to provide a key for the engineer? I thought that was standard practice?

sKiTz-0

If the timer isn't standard practice, and was there due to the previous tenant then I can almost certainly guarantee that you will be able to have it replaced if you complain enough.

When a tenant moves out of a property, the housing association have the keys returned. This then goes to the empty property team, commonly known as the 'void' team. While the property is void, somebody will carry out a full inspection and make a list of any work required. This includes general maintenance to bring a home up to a lettable standard - i.e. doors, windows/fixtures/fittings all work fine, plasterwork, boiler service etc.

But this also includes any previous tenant's own fittings - i.e. if they have put their own light fittings/kitchen/bathroom etc. Now this is for 2 reasons - 1. It may be that things like light fittings etc don't comply with current regulations - may be spotlights fitted in the bathroom or some such other, and also 2. The HA will only maintain their own fixtures and fittings. This again is both due to regs, and things like being able to cheaply and easily source parts etc.

Still with me so far? Well, the exception to this rule would be, lets say a tenant has fitted a nice bathroom suite. They will have asked for permission from the HA and signed a waiver to say that they will now be taking responsibility for the maintenance of the bathroom suite as it isn't that HA's standard fixtures and fittings. Which is fine. However, if you then move into the property, you should be made aware that these fixtures and fittings aren't standard and asked to sign a similar document agreeing to take ownership of the previous tenants fittings and responsibility for the maintenance of them. If you have signed no such document then the HA is at fault and is obliged to carry out the maintenance or replace with their own fixtures and fittings.

Going slightly off tangent there, but my point is this - in the period that the property was void, everything should have been set back to standard. Standard as in - no timer to switch off the gas supply. It sounds most likely to me that the voids team have not picked up on the timer being fitted, and have therefore not supplied you with a 'standard' supply for it. It will be easily missed by the voids team, as it will be a different team responsible for the gas who know about the timer. They will sub-contract all the gas work out to another company - hence the engineers not being aware of it when they arrive annually. Easy mistake to make when it will most likely not be documented on the system anywhere for the voids team that a timer like this is fitted - remember, when the property is void, the gas wil lbe turned off by the sub-contractors. it will then have a 'turn on and test' when it is re-let, so the voids team won't normally touch or look at the meter.

I would think you have a reasonable argument to say that due to the timer being fitted due to the previous tenant's behaviour, and you not being supplied with the standard fittings - you have acted fairly so far, booking a half day off to allow them to carry out a test every year - it is unfair that you are punished (having to book more than the one half a day off) for the previous tenant's failures. It is only fair for the housing association to supply you with a standard meter.

If you do not get a very good outcome from the stage 1 complaint you will be able to escelate to stage 2. This will then open a new complaint that somebody higher up in the organisation will be able to assess and rule on. You may get a better answer here, as they will try to avoid going to a stage 3 complaint as this involves the ombudsman and looks very bad on them. Again, you are not asking for anything unreasonable here so it would be silly of them not to rule in your favour.

The way to achieve this though is to not get irate. The people on the phones are very busy taking calls, sometimes from very irate tenants, with issues that 99% of the time are not the call handlers fault. They will be much more likely to help you if you are nice towards them and patient with them. Same applies to the complaints person - if you have a dedicated complaints manager etc assigned be aware of the fact that every call they take will be from somebody who is stressed out and irate and shouting at them about things that have happened before or are beyond their control. They are trying to help you solve your complaint, things will be much easier all round if you are able to amicably agree a solution rather than bickering. You want the complaints manager on your side.

Source - I work for a housing association.

Apologies for the essay, but I hope this helps somewhat.

sKiTz

ETA - P.S. let us know how you get on

Mankysteve

Do you know how to get the timer to trip out the boiler on purpose. Keep doing it and call them out to reset the boiler and hopefully eventually then'll get fed up.

rexmedorum

But do you really have to be there? Can't the gas fitter just go & get a key from the council? This seemed to be the standrd practice when renting privately?