Landlady's boiler service man made horrendous mess

Nixer

Not sure if this is the best place.

My landlady arranged for a boiler service man (it's oil fired boiler) to call last week. I said it was fine for him to come and that my neighbour would let the guy in (as I couldn't be here) which she did. She was present for some of the time, but possibly not the whole time. The boiler is in a utility room adjacent to the kitchen, the utility room also contains a washing machine, breadmaker, tumble dryer, assorted shoes and coats.

That evening I went to wipe down one of the kitchen surfaces and my fingers came away black. We found a fine film of oily dust over every surface in the kitchen and utility room. My partner thinks the guy accidentally turned on a blower or something and blew dust everywhere. He phoned the boiler man and got no reply and then spent several hours at the weekend doing a deep clean - it really was several hours, not something a quick whizz round with the hoover would have sorted. He took photos of the mess before he started.

The boiler guy turned up unannounced just now (my partner is not back yet) partly to apologise but also to reclaim something he left behind (I felt like holding it to ransom but did not). He said that the boiler was quite filthy and that he should have closed the kitchen door. He thinks it happened when he was trying to hoover up the mess but tried to blame the fact that it hadn't been serviced since it was put in (3.5 years ago). I wasn't quick witted enough to point out that he must have serviced dirty boilers before without getting filth everywhere (he's been doing it for years, though frankly having met him I wouldn't have left him in charge of a teaspoon) and that even shutting the door would have resulted in the utility room still being filthy. I didn't accept his apology but I didn't give him a hard time about the time my partner spent either - he caught me unawares.

I get the impression he isn't going to offer us anything other than an apology. Is there anything we can do to get compensation for my partners time (given that we have photos of the mess he made)?

Thanks.

Ionkontrol

No, get on with you lives.

aliasojo

I understand this would have been annoying but what on earth are you expecting to happen now?

The chap apologised but you didn't accept his apology.

I think you are being unrealistic in expecting some sort of compensation for your time in cleaning your own home.

G_M

Well, you could put in a claim for cleaning costs, and follow up with a Claim in the Small Claims Court, but is it worth it to you?

But I would certainly advise your landlord. A polite letter (with the photos?) thanking them for arranging the service but letting him know his contractor was pretty cr*p (find your own nice wording!!). This achieves several things:

* LL may be grateful to you for feedback
* LL may decide to switch contractors in future
* You may be covering yourself in case there is longer term mess/damage which affects return of your deposit when you move
* and hey ho - the LL himself might offer to come and clean/pay your cleaning costs/etc!!

Nixer

Thank you GM my partner suspected we could do a small claim but I wasn't sure.

The landlady has already been informed (we needed to get his contact details from her anyway) and we have asked her not to use him in future. She hasn't offered us anything (and I don't see why she should).

To the rest, this was not just a quick whizz round with the hoover, it took a bit of time in the week and most of Sunday, which we normally spend out walking. The dust got absolutely everywhere. I'm not doing this to be malicious but I don't see why we shouldn't get something for our time. Had we been able to contact him beforehand and he'd offered to come and clean it I would have agreed that he do that. It's not the money, it's the principle. Neither of us feels that an apology is enough in this instance. I am quite surprised at the "lie down and take it" attitude on a consumer site.

tbs624

Nixer - you yourself effectively "lay down and took it". The guy calls round post dust disaster and you fail to use the opportunity to raise the issue of this compensation to which you think you should be entitled? Rather than just simmering away (because your partner wasn't present?) you could have talked it through like an adult.

Has any permanent damage been done to either your property or the LLs?

The boiler guy obviously knew he had made a mess and so should have cleaned it up himself or at least perhaps returned with wine/flowers as an apology but on a scale of things to get worked up about, many would not give it the rating that you clearly do. You've raised it with the LL so that bit's covered.

If you really think it's "a principle" worth spending your time on then write to him and and request the compo figure you have in mind. You would have to send a Letter before Action anyway if you wanted to try your luck in the small claims court.

gomer

Oh poor you. It must be devestaing to have such terrible things to worry about. Right now i have a woman in the room next to me dying from cancer and i haven't bothered with cleaning the place for weeks. Some things in life are a bit more important than silly principles. The boiler man didn't destroy the place or kill anyone. Some people really need to get some perspective on life.






So you see you're not alone in your struggle sister. Hope that helps to ease your trauma. I can't begin to imagine how distressing it must have been to spend your 'walking' time cleaning a bit of dust off a few surfaces. You must be distraught.

aliasojo

gomer wrote: »

Right now i have a woman in the room next to me dying from cancer and i haven't bothered with cleaning the place for weeks. Some things in life are a bit more important than silly principles.

gomer, I'm sorry for your troubles. I can only imagine how stressful and upsetting it must be for you right now.

I don't think it's fair to always have to balance our own issues off against someone else's just to see where they sit on the comparison scale of triviality.

I agree I think the OP is treating this more seriously than many others perhaps would but I don't think there's any mileage to be had in the 'my troubles are more serious than yours so you should let yours go' type of thought.

poppysarah

Is it all cleaned up now?

If you'd have left it and got LL to come round and see it she might have got him to come back and clean it.

johnnie66

I had this same trouble with a engineer my landlord had sent around to fix boiler and had given him a key with my permission and his attendance as well while I was out to fix boiler.
when I came home after work there was several fag buts in my sink.He had been swigging milk out of the bottle in the fridge.(no tea cups used unless he washed and dried them, which I don't think so)big dirty prints all over the bottle.crap walked into the carpet.old greasy parts left on the window ledge and pushed up to the cloth blind staining it.And to top it off,left the front door wide open when he left.
when i got in and see what had happened and called the agent who came around straight away and said he left the engineer to it because he went to deal with another problem.I told them that it was unprofessional service and would be complaining to the real landlord of the property they were acting for.I did and he ended agreement with agent and gave me 2 weeks rent free.No problems since.

Slinky

Some tradesmen just don't think about the mess their work creates. We had a bathroom refitted and plastered whilst away one weekend. The plasterer must know how much dust his work creates, but did he bother to shut any of the adjoining bedroom doors? Did he heck. Pink dust over absolutely everything upstairs including my office and computer.