No heating or hot water - Compensation?

jenko

Hi - I rent a flat in London, at a cost of £320 a week.

For the last 3 weeks we have had no hot water or heating due to the boiler breaking down. I informed the agent on the day and she intstructed the company they employ to come and fix it. She also told us to buy heaters and bill them for it.

It took them 2 or 3 days to come and they diagnosed the problem. It seems to have taken 2 weeks for the part to come and it was the wrong one, so they ordered it again which took a further 3 days.

It is now fixed, but it took 3 weeks and I want to know if I am due any compensation for this.

The agent is saying they did everything in their power to get it done, so they don't have to pay anything.

Surely I shouldn't have to pay £1000 for a period where I had no amenities?

Any help will be gratefully received as the CAB is proving hard to get hold of.

Thanks

silvercar

jenko wrote:

Hi - I rent a flat in London, at a cost of £320 a week.

For the last 3 weeks we have had no hot water or heating due to the boiler breaking down. I informed the agent on the day and she intstructed the company they employ to come and fix it. She also told us to buy heaters and bill them for it.Did you do this, if you had you would have had heating at least.

It took them 2 or 3 days to come and they diagnosed the problem. It seems to have taken 2 weeks for the part to come and it was the wrong one, so they ordered it again which took a further 3 days.Don't know whose fault this is, could be the plumber

It is now fixed, but it took 3 weeks and I want to know if I am due any compensation for this.If they have done what they can and offered you the opportunity to buy heaters, I doubt you are due compensation.

The agent is saying they did everything in their power to get it done, so they don't have to pay anything.

Surely I shouldn't have to pay £1000 for a period where I had no amenities?

Any help will be gratefully received as the CAB is proving hard to get hold of.

Thanks

My comments in red.

clutton_2

as a landlady i always do my best to get workmen in as soon as possible if there is a problem - BUT i am in their hands, they have other jobs, other landlords, other sites to work on - and no they cannot just drop everything (unless in extreme emergency). If you were offered heaters and did not get them, you are responsible for being cold. RE hot water - it happens, boilers break down, parts get mis-ordered, it happens all the time to home-owners as well as tenants - should i go to my mortgage company and say "my boiler broke down i'm not paying my mortgage this month ?"

a landlord is legally bound to do his/her best to resolve a problem, sounds like they tried their best.

i'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but, the realities of getting tradesmen in needs a little patience ......

Alan_M_2

Sounds to me like they made a reasonable effort to get it all put right, if it had dragged on I would have been inclined to withold rent on the understanding that it was paid in full when the problem was recitifed.

The boiler broke down, it was fixed within three weeks, it's a bit crappy but it happens.

No cause for compensation there as far as I can see, no one is to blame, it's just one of those things.

iceman_2

When this happened to us, about a year ago, we were refunded fully for every day's rent whilst the heating wasn't working. The letting agent told us we were entitled to it as the house wasn't livable in (amazingly honest of them!!).

Good luck

Dormouse

I'm glad I found this thread. We're in a similar situation at the moment, the difference being that the letting agents haven't done anything for 3 weeks, and the boiler is still not working properly (on and off).

Grrrr I don't like confrontation either but they're going to get some from me.

clutton_2

of course a house is liveable in without hot water and heat !!!! you have the "enjoyment" of the whole of the rest of the house and its facilities. A landlord has a "duty of care" - if it is seen that s/he is clearly doing all that is possible to be done, no court would say this was negligent behaviour.

I might, offer a small reduction IF you did not have an electric shower and had to go to the public baths/gym to get washed in hot water.

i have zeroed the rent for major refurbishment around a tenant when they would not move out, and i am currently zeroing the rent for a water damaged ground floor - flooding due to vandals - now THAT is unliveable !


"Surely I shouldn't have to pay £1000 for a period where I had no amenities?"

the OP wants to not pay £1000 because of the lack of a tiny part of the amenities of the whole package - sorry, i just cannot see how that works at all

Alan_M_2

iceman wrote:

When this happened to us, about a year ago, we were refunded fully for every day's rent whilst the heating wasn't working. The letting agent told us we were entitled to it as the house wasn't livable in (amazingly honest of them!!).

Good luck

That's a result, I've never heared of that before, I actually though basic services had to fail for that to be enforceable, i.e. no water, no electricity, no gas etc.

Alan_M_2

clutton wrote:

of course a house is liveable in without hot water and heat !!!! you have the "enjoyment" of the whole of the rest of the house and its facilities. A landlord has a "duty of care" - if it is seen that s/he is clearly doing all that is possible to be done, no court would say this was negligent behaviour.

I might, offer a small reduction IF you did not have an electric shower and had to go to the public baths/gym to get washed in hot water.

i have zeroed the rent for major refurbishment around a tenant when they would not move out, and i am currently zeroing the rent for a water damaged ground floor - flooding due to vandals - now THAT is unliveable !


"Surely I shouldn't have to pay £1000 for a period where I had no amenities?"

the OP wants to not pay £1000 because of the lack of a tiny part of the amenities of the whole package - sorry, i just cannot see how that works at all

I see all the points above as quite reasonable.

There's growing culture of fault and Blame creeping into every aspect of British life, nothing seems to happen by accident any more, someone should be held accountable for everything....it'll all end in tears.

Gorgeous_George

The landlord is responsible for room and hot water heating. The time to resolve seems rather long.

Room heating was offered. Hot water could have been taken from a hot water tank with electric immersion heater if the flat has one (not possible if fitted with oneof those horrible combi systems).

As a LL I would offer a small discount (perhaps to pay for a meal out for two) to cover the inconvenience but I do not think that this would be a legal requirement.



GG