Does the tenant have a claim?

atush

LL is at fault, 3 months is far too long for sorting out the boiler. Soounds like they faffed a bout trying to get it covered under warrenty/ for free. Which is fine if you don't have a tenant paying rent which includes such serivces.

Pupnik

3 months with no hot water is too much, especially with a child in the flat. I rented a place where the boiler was broken for a week and it was horrendous having to lug the kettle to the bathroom all the time and I ended up burning myself with the hot water- can't imagine having to do that for 3 months!

It was good of the landlord to offer up the £200 but what percentage of the 3 month rent is this? It doesn't seem like enough to cover 3 months of travelling (£18 for a weekly adult ticket in my region, not sure about the children's price but I believe they pay at 4 yrs so it depends on how old T's child is).

mynameisdave

I would think that given the problem occured in summer and the loss of heating is less of an issue the costs to travel have been covered by the £200.

The T has accepted the £200 offered already. I wouldn't think it worth going to small claims court. How much more would T expect to get compared to, say, £50 of lodging a claim and travelling to court etc...

2sides2everystory

may_fair wrote: »

There is no clear answer and I think the maximum T could hope to be awarded is about 25-50% of rent for a 10 week period.

Would it make any difference I wonder to quantum of likely settlement award if the tenant's name was Madonna?

Clearly the LL has conveniently forgotten what is in the contract and has gone immediately into rather unrealistic self-serving loss mitigation / what I'd do if I was living there mode without a proper thought for the tenant.

tbs624

Gorgeous_George wrote: »

If I was the LL I'd consider £200 more than reasonable. I'd expect a small claims court to agree with me and I'd have a new tenant at the earliest opportunity.

So as a LL you think it acceptable to leave a T with no hot water/heating provision fo 10 weeks and fob your T off with a measly 200 quid? Many Ts stuck with such a LL would look for a new LL at the earliest opportunity and make sure that any potential incoming T was aware of your attitude towards Ts.

Let's remind ourselves here - s11 (LTA85) requires the LL

"to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling-house for space heating and heating water." My bolding

It doesn't say that a LL can dodge those responsibilities because they are having a protracted dispute with the manufacturer of the boiler, whilst leaving the T with just their kitchen kettle and a lack of appropriate recompense. It does not say that the provision of a working heating system is limited to the winter months only. Note that the T had been ill and has a child.

LL's issues with the provider of the boiler is the LL's problem - he is still has to meet his repairing obligations and it is not "reasonable" IMO for a T to be without HW and CH for 10 weeks. It's a very basic amenity.

The LL should, as others have said, provided alternative means whilst seeing an early resolve to the boiler issue. Electric/gas water boilers can be hired by the day/week as can effective heaters.