Unfair Quote

boma7452

Can anyone help me with my problem.....We are a family living in housing association property,we recently moved into this property and it had storage heaters downstairs and panel heaters in the bderooms,they were hideious and bulky looking so i took them off the walls and put them into the shed,to cut a long story short we are now wanting to move to another county and we were told we had to re-install all of them back onto the walls before we could move,unfortunately i misplaced the brackets for 2 of them so contacted housing and they gave me a quote of £1400 to have new ones fitted,but i have the original ones in my house,they only need refixing back onto the walls,are they trying to extort/blackmail money from me by doing this,knowing that we are only a few weeks away before we can exchange if so can we contact a solicitor regarding this matter.

BaldPlumber

Why not contact the manufacturers of the heaters and get replacements from them? surely you must appreciate it's your responsibility to restore the house back to its original condition - i.e. before you started taking it apart and losing bits of it.

redped

You obviously still have at least one of the brackets (otherwise you'd have said you had misplaced them all), so visit some builders merchants to see if they sell similar brackets - I assume these brackets would all be similar in shape and size.

boma7452

I know its my responsibility,but what i`m saying is i still have the original heaters inside the home but have misplaced a bracket,so i went on the phone to my housing and they said its my responsibilty to put them back on the wall,so they gave me a phone number for there contractors and they gave me a quote of £1400 for new ones,now why should i purchase these new ones when i have the original ones and no way on this earth am i paying that,that to me is extortion and blackmailing me into buying new before they will allow me to exchange....thats like saying you get a mini with your house and because youv`e lost a few parts WE the housing want a rolls royce back in its place..

boma7452

This is what i am trying to do,so because i`ve lost a bracket or two they want me to buy new storage heaters for all the rooms from there contractors,when all is needed is for them to fix them back onto the walls which i`ve offered to pay for.

redped

I've obviously missed something here. You are complaining (understandably) about being quoted £1400 to return the heaters to the state they were in when you moved in. Both BaldPlumber & I have suggested alternative ways of getting the brackets at much less cost, so what exactly is the problem? The housing association only want the heaters on the wall - I doubt they care who puts them on again. So either phone the manufacturers (as BaldPlumber suggested) or speak to some builders merchants (as I suggested) and save yourself at least £1350.

boma7452

Thank you Redped and BaldPlumber this is what i`ve been trying to say, why should i ( or anyone else for that matter ) be blackmailed into purchasing new heaters when i have the originals in my house and only need to be fixed back onto the wall.

redped

For whatever reason, the contractors only supply & fit complete wall heaters - they don't supply individual parts. Only they could tell you why they don't/can't supply the parts - have you asked them? Did the contractors come out to look at what needs to be done? For all we know, you phoned the housing association and asked to get a couple of brackets; whoever phoned the contractor maybe didn't fully understand what you wanted, and just asked the contractor to quote for new heaters, hence the £1400 quote.

BTW, being given an excessive quote isn't blackmail - it would be blackmail if they threatened to publish "private" photos of you unless you paid them the £1400, but that's not the case here.

System

i would imagine that housing associations have contractors they use for this sort of things, and wiring in storage heaters will have certified so that the ha can rent out the house again - i would also imagine that as the heaters have been disconnected, are living in a shed and have parts missing, they will have to be fully tested again to ensure there are no defects
£1400 is quite a lot but now you have told them about removing them yourself, they will require to be reinstalled by a qualified person - you could ask the housing association if they will accept a certified install from someone you appoint rather than their own approved contractors, which would probably be cheaper

leveller2911

boma7452 wrote: »

Thank you Redped and BaldPlumber this is what i`ve been trying to say, why should i ( or anyone else for that matter ) be blackmailed into purchasing new heaters when i have the originals in my house and only need to be fixed back onto the wall.

Did you get permission from your Housing Association before you took them off the wall? if so what does the written reply from the Housing say?.

Just curious but what other form or heating is there in your house? What heating does the house have for when the Winter comes?

Francesanne

the_r_sole wrote: »

i would imagine that housing associations have contractors they use for this sort of things, and wiring in storage heaters will have certified so that the ha can rent out the house again - i would also imagine that as the heaters have been disconnected, are living in a shed and have parts missing, they will have to be fully tested again to ensure there are no defects
£1400 is quite a lot but now you have told them about removing them yourself, they will require to be reinstalled by a qualified person - you could ask the housing association if they will accept a certified install from someone you appoint rather than their own approved contractors, which would probably be cheaper

We recently had a large storage heater in our lounge replaced & moved slighty by a qualified electrician. With fitting it cost us just over £600.00. They don't come cheap.