Private Landlord Tenants with no heating

Amethy5t

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but i am desperate for advice. My son and his familiy live in rented accommodation with a private landlord managed by an agent. Their only gas fire has been condemned and the landlord refused to replace it as ;they have central heating'. All well and good but now teh centrasl heating has stopped working. They have boys aged 4 and twins of 16 months and the weather is as you can see freezing. The agents have said they will try to get someone out today but can't guarantee to get the hearing repaired today. They have no hot water either as it is a combi boiler. Where do they stand? They have no way of making the house warm at all.

BitterAndTwisted

Where they stand is that the landlord is obliged to arrange for the heating boiler to be repaired or replaced within a reasonable time. With the best will in the world tenants cannot expect miracles.

If the electrics work in the property then they have have access to hot water, just not gallons of it for the moment.

RupertTheCat

The most sensible thing for them to do is buy/borrow some electric heaters to keep them going. The landlord can't magically fix boilers sadly - it may take a day or so. When the boiler went in my rented property I immediately went out and bought an electric heater which kept me going quite happily until the boiler was fixed.

I've had my boiler break a few times in my own home, and it's taken a few days to fix. Parts aren't always readily available, and at this time of year boiler repair people are very busy, so it may take a day or so. You can heat up water in the kettle, and, as I said, use an ordinary heater to keep your going. Hot water bottles and duvets are also useful!

G_M

They could request the LL provide an alternative source of heating eg an electric fire, but to be honest not worth doing this till they know how long the boiler will take.

If the engineer comes out today/tomorrow, and fixes it, well it'll probobly take the LL 24 hours anyway to provide a heater.

On the other hand if the engineers are all busy and can't come for several days, or he comes but has to wait for a part for several days, then ask for an alternative heat source.

By all means phone the agent regarding all this, but always follow up with a letter addressed to the LL at the address "for the serving of notices" outling the problem, and the telephone calls you've had, so it is on record.

Okydoky25

The boiler broke in my rental in Dec and even tho I have 2 babies one of which was a newborn my LL took 3 weeks to get it replaced and it cost us a fortune heating the house with fan heaters in that time. I didn't even get an apology.