Council -' wait 'on broken boiler???

emmy05

Seriously, how cold does it have to be before the council call it urgent that an old ladys boiler has broken, she is nearing 90 yrs old, and im disgusted she was told it wasnt an urgent call as its not cold enough?? well i had my heating on this mornin to warm it up, and shes gotta be cold. she had a fan heater provided, i dont know if they were provided by her family or her warden, but thats not the point, its not gonna warm up her whole home! im so utterly disappointed with the council.
I mean, are they seriously expecting us to believe that as its not too cold, they would wait for their heating to be mended in their lavish offices?? i dont think so!
The lady was told it will be something like 5-7 days til someone comes out to do it!! i wish there was something that could be done..... some of us out here cares about the elderly!!

MamaMoo_2

I'm quite lucky as I have a child under five. I remember my nan, if ever her boiler broke, would always tell them there was a baby living there to speed them up.
It most definitely is cold enough though. I finally got around to using the heating for the first time since my new boiler was installed in May, and it didn't flipping work! Had an engineer out within 3 hours, who had to call an electrician out for the following morning, and the problem was all sorted within 24 hours.
Moral of the story? Tell them there's a baby at the property.
Also, the council do provide blow air heaters, but they're expensive to run and we were told not to leave them on overnight, so they were a fat lot of good.

gilly1964

Hi - the level of service will depend on the councils contract with the heating company.

My DF works for a heating company and their contract is to supply temporary heating until repaired which can be anything up to 3 weeks even in the middle of winter. The times involved depend on risk assessments, asbestos reports, availability of parts and lots of various other red tape which the gas industry amongst others is now subject to. However they do prioritise the elderly, infirm, disabled and those on low income with under 5s.

Please do not lie on her behalf - telling them she has a baby in the house is not fair as there may genuinely be someone in the same situation.

All I can suggest is that she follows the advice usually given to the elderly, wrap up, plenty of warm drinks etc and that you as a concerned friend/relative keep on to the council until resolved and ask the warden to check on her.

emmy05

maybe it depends on the councils, i had my youngest under 2, and i still had to wait, the engineer couldnt be bothered to come three hours out to check the boiler as he didnt have heaters to provide me as he'd already had to give them out, so luckily i had friends and family who provided them for us, and we waited four days, only to be told it was gonna take another week to get the parts!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

It depends upon how assertive (not rude) you are with the call centre people. Their first reaction always seems to be that it isn't a qualifying repair/not urgent. I always found that you had to interrupt them to tell them the information you needed to get a repair dealt with.


For example, in my old place, as a disabled person, additional work was covered compared to nondisabled tenants. When I phoned, the woman wasn't listening at all, but kept repeating 'it isn't a qualifying repair. It isn't a qualifying repair. It is a tenant's responsibility because it isn't a qualifying repair'. I had to talk over her and say 'I.AM.A.DISABLED.TENANT.IT.IS.A.QUALIFYING.REPAIR.FOR.DISABLED.TENANTS.' - she seemed quite miffed that I knew this. 'Oh. I suppose I'd better book you an appointment then'.

So, being polite but calling repeatedly, stressing her age and the lack of heating may help. Asking to speak to a supervisor can also get things done quicker.

Good luck.

merlin68

To be fair it's not cold. It's still technically summer till the autumn equinox. I got a suntan today. I also had to wait about 5 days as my pilot light went out on my boiler.

mummyoftwomonkeys

MamaMoo wrote: »

I'm quite lucky as I have a child under five. I remember my nan, if ever her boiler broke, would always tell them there was a baby living there to speed them up.
It most definitely is cold enough though. I finally got around to using the heating for the first time since my new boiler was installed in May, and it didn't flipping work! Had an engineer out within 3 hours, who had to call an electrician out for the following morning, and the problem was all sorted within 24 hours.
Moral of the story? Tell them there's a baby at the property.
Also, the council do provide blow air heaters, but they're expensive to run and we were told not to leave them on overnight, so they were a fat lot of good.

thats really good, I wish it was the same for people who privately rent, our last l.l left us a week with no Boiler in November! I had a child under 2 and another on the way at the time, My m.i.l being the hard woman she is said it wouldn't do our son any harm its better than being to hot!and I should bath him in the sink. I had a shower round hers the day b4 an app with my midwife and it felt like a sauner in her house. We got no apology from our L.L either

sharnad

the council have started doing the bathroom for my grandma to fit a shower and disable rails - they have been on two days have left a hole in the wall for the extractor fan, wires sticking out? panel off bath and the shower tiles have gaps in them as they are waiting to be seperated - they didnt turn up today and my mam rang. They wont come until friday, have to lend a neighbours bathroom for a few days so its going to probably be about 8 days when finished as they have said tuesday
Bloody hopeless and its freezing

arcon5

merlin68 wrote: »

To be fair it's not cold. It's still technically summer till the autumn equinox. I got a suntan today. I also had to wait about 5 days as my pilot light went out on my boiler.

Tbf you can't generalise whether it is cold or not. Everybody is different and temperatures to vary at different areas of the country.

I've been freezing most nights this week, but always get old off for putting the heating on!! 'its not cold', 'your paying the extra costs in our gas bill this month'. On the rare occassion the mrs agrees it is cold I get 'put another jumper on'!!! Fortunately she's at work tonight

sharnad

hope yours is sorted now its going to take the council 16 days for the shower

Rainbowchild

I hope the elderly lady got her heating sorted quicker than 5-7 days. I thought that certain faults in council properties fall under the "right to repair" which is to attend within 24hrs, Eg sole toilet blocked/no heating or hot water.