Boiler problems in housing association property :(

my_two_boys

Hi, not sure where best to post this so sorry if its in the wrong forum.

Ive been in a housing association property for 4years now and for the majority of that time I keep having problems with the boiler & heating/hot water system. Some of them are minor things and easily sorted but the recurring problem is that the boiler pilot light regularly goes out (2-3 times a month) and either wont relight (meaning I have to call the maintanence team & wait home) or finally relights after trying for around an hour.

The maintenance team say there is nothing wrong with the boiler and wont do anything even though I get left with no heating or hot water. If the pilot light relit easily I wouldnt mind soo much but its a pain and I struggle to hold the button in and do the ignition switch as I have suspected rheumatoid arthritis in my hands. I am bipolar & have anxiety problems as well which doesnt help as I dont cope very well with things unfortunately. Today so far has been bad as my youngest wet the bed but I couldnt bath him (have washed him down for now) as have no hot water and now, instead of taking my boys out for the day with friends as planned, I have to stay here for 24 hours till the engineer shows up

Am getting really fed up with this but am no good on the phone (plus cant get to speak to anyone who is much help) so was wondering if any of you have suggestions on who could help/what I should put in a letter etc.

Thanks & sorry for rambling, stressed right now

Faye

Myser

Have you kept a log record of when the problem has occurred and when they came out to repair it?

The pilot light shouldn't be going out that often.

Might be helpful if you could post the make and model of your boiler.

In terms on an interim solution, have you considered using the shower facilities at your local leisure centre/swimming pool?

covmike

What you will need to do is send a letter to the housing association marked for the attention of the chief executive. Title your letter formal complaint. This will start their complaint procedure.

They will probably have 2 or 3 stages to their complaint procedure that you will need to complete. They will write to you at stage 1, you then need to escalate the complaint to the next stage. Continue to do this until you receive a final response from them.

Once you have a final response you can take your complaint to the Housing Ombudsman Service. They are the Ombudsman who independantly investigate complaints about housing associations.

Hope you get somewhere with it.

Good luck.