Tenant charge electrician call out charge

Rosemary7391

Do they have an office? If you're not at work during the day, I'd go and sit there. At least you'd be warm. And you can hand deliver any letters you need (try and get a witness for that though, in case they lose them). It might also get some action out of the manager if they wish to get you out of their office!

Jonboy_1984

I would also ask the letting agent for the electricians NICEIC ( http://www.niceic.com/ ) or equivalent body's registration number and a copy of his liability insurance.

They should have this as part of their due diligence in appointing contractors and you should report them for poor workmanship. The registration body will likely wish to check this out.

ilovepoppydog

The latest thing they have thrown at me:

"You are in breach of your tenancy agreement part 4.15 'Where the tenant requests a repair and on inspection the problem has been caused by a failure on the part of the tenant (for example a blocked drain with the tenants waste or boiler repair claims caused by not having any credit on a utility meter), the tenant agrees to be responsible for the reasonable costs of the contractors visit.'
We would also like to point to you that in part 4.1.6 you will be require to 'pay a fee of £25 including VAT being the reasonable cost of the Landlords agent for each letter the Landlords agent, acting reasonably, has to send to the Tenant concerning breaches of the tenancy agreement' If we are required to send you a letter about this matter it will bring the total owed to £104.00"

Scared now, I dont have £104! I only reported the fault as I genuinely thought (still think) there was a dangerous fault and now I owe £104 and still the heater doesn't work.

I switched the electric off at the mains and looked inside and the thermostat looked burnt - the electrician said it was slightly scorched but that it was ok as electric was still going through?
I was hoping for a reset button to be honest but there wasnt one

clark24

The only item that it is acceptable to have sparks and smoke coming out of is a log or coal fire. Anything else that sparks or smokes is dodgy and potentially very dangerous.

Their electrician is obviously a numpty who got his certificates out of a cereal box, and the LA are muppets for believing him over you. I would turn it on and video what happens, or get a independent witness to see it. And ring environmental health to ask if they have council approved electricians who can do their own checks.

ilovepoppydog

Thing that bugs me more than anything is when it first had a spark, how was I supposed to know that it is (apparently) normal? How am I supposed to make that call with no electrical training? How can this be 'caused by a failure on the part of the tenant'? I thought it was dodgy and dangerous because to most people sparks & smoke mean danger so how is this a failure?

Meanwhile we have no heat and will have none tomorrow or all weekend, great for a sick mum & her sick child!

ValHaller

ilovepoppydog wrote: »

Scared now, I dont have £104!

You don't need £104. Your call out was justified, the whole argument from the LA is a pile of poo. Don't be scared.

tberry6686

Mokka wrote: »

' From Energy Saving Trust website:

Electric storage heating is one of the most expensive heating options in the UK, and it also emits more carbon dioxide than most. It is also harder to control electric storage heaters than radiators, especially with older systems.

Another quote from another website on ECP:
Storage heaters are recommended as they are cheaper to run, (PROVIDING YOU HAVE ECONOMY 7) making use of low-rate night-time electricity. However the total amount of electricity used by a storage heater system is greater than that used by conventional panel heaters.

OP cannot replace her landlord's storage heaters anyway, so the previous posters' advice is rather useless.
TBERRY- are you by any chance a storage heater seller?

No Connection with any heating industry whatsoever. Storage heaters are 100% efficient which is higher efficiency than any non electrical heating system in existance.

Mokka

Check this out:
https://www.gov.uk/private-renting/your-landlords-safety-responsibilities

No harm asking Environmental Health officers in your council. They usually deal with work safety but you could argue that the state of the heater emitting smoke is a statutory nuisance.

EHO can take the offender to the Magistrates Court and impose a huge fine and a compensation to the victim.

Trust the posters here:
sparks, smoke and melted parts in electrical equipment are NEVER safe.

Take pictures and get someone over to witness what's going on in case there is a court case in the future.

Good luck!

Kynthia

G_M wrote: »

Forget the call out fee for now, this is a side issue which you can, and will, contest later.

The matter in hand is the repair. All the advice above is good, so try a multi-pronged approach.

* fire brigade
* (I doubt the police will be interested!)
* local council - EH and/or private tenancy officer
* Shelter/CAB
* if you feel like it, you could pay your own electrician to inspect - but expect a real battle later if trying to claim this back! (see below)
* you could use the Shelter process for paying for repairs and deducting from rent, but it is slow, and the process MUST be followed. There are good sample letters on their site
* document everything. By all means use email/phone for initial contacts, but always follow up with a letter to confirm. When writing to, for example Environmental Health, cc the landlord and agent.

Please follow G_M's advice as they are an experienced and knowledgeable poster. I would put everything in a letter, send photos too, and tell them you will be contact Shelter, the CAB and Environmental Health. Then contact theses organisations.

Keep a log/file with a record on incidences, dates, photos and copies of correspondence and keep it somewhere safe. If they try to charge you for anything you can refuse to pay. Then when they try to take it out of your deposit in the future when the tenancy ends, you can dispute it to arbitrator with your evidence.

ilovepoppydog

Ok so yesterday morning I re reported the heater as it was stone cold, I had an email from the letting agent saying that whilst the electrician confirms the heater to be safe & working the landlord has agreed to pay for a new part for the heater to put my mind at rest.
Think this is the thermostat as it was scorched on the 1st call out.
The Electrician text to say the part was on order and he would fit it at some point next week.
When I pointed out that meant no heat for a week (including weekend) and it's due to be freezing temperatures soon I got a very snotty text saying "how can you have smoke without heat? You told the agents it has been smoking since last visit?!!!"
I tried to point out that it smoked and now is stone cold but was just told again, some time next week.
So we are without heat for, in total, 5 days minimum but he could take much longer to fix it.
If there is no fault why is a new part on order? And if they had listened to me when it was reported 9 days ago it would be fixed.
I'm still not convinced it will work when he changes this part as I have no faith in this Electrician whatsoever.
Its so cold my hands, in gloves, hurt & it's really painful to breathe this cold air with pneumonia but I just don't know what to do.
Shelter said to put my complaint in writing to agent but we're freezing in the meantime