Landlord boiler repair issue

nickild

Hi,

I have the following issue and would appreciate your advice: I live in a privately rented property. Our boiler needs repair, it broke down yesterday evening. I've been in contact with our managing agent this morning to let them know. No one was in contact with me, so I had to contact the landlord around 1.30pm. I then had a call from gas safety engineer at about 3.30pm today to let me know nothing can be done as it's too late!! I have a 2 years old boy and it's really important to get the boiler fixed. Our managing agent has been really abusive all the time I was on the phone, and now refuses to even speak to me on the phone, but sends me a text messages. An appointment has been booked in for Monday, 26.05, however this leaves me for 4 days with no hot water and heating. My landlord doesn't pick up the phone as well, and I need to get it sorted. The problem is the boiler is under a warranty. I need to know if I can arrange for a plumber visit myself, and get the fees paid covered by the landlord? I suspect they want to keep the warranty valid, which I wouldn't mind, however I do need this sorted, as my son is only 2, gets dirty easily and do need hot water at all times. Thank you

Lily-Rose_3

Sorry, but you seem to be a bit dramatic.

Going from Thursday night til Monday with no heating or hot water in early summer isn't going to kill you. The timescale is more than reasonable, and if you have been ranting at the agent, then I am not surprised that he won't speak to you. They probably have 100s of other clients with more serious issues.

You can use the shower to wash and clean your son surely?

Or wash him in the sink for a few times over the weekend, with water heated in the kettle? Use a neighbour or family member of friend's washing facilities? Surely, there are other alternatives that you could use for 72 hours?!

Sorry, but I see no problem here. The LL and agent sound like they have done what they can. You have no reason to be calling a plumber yourself. If you were a homeowner, you would wait longer than 2 working days for someone to come out. And as I said, it's early summer and it's warm out there. I haven't even had the heating on for a month and a half now!

dancingfairy

Not having a boiler is a pain, granted. However you phoned up to report it and then chased them again at lunch time? I'm not really sure how much you expect them to have sorted in that very short space of time. It's not an emergency. You do have water. Presumably you have another way of heating water? ie kettle or stove/fire? It's not ideal but the landlord/their agent is dealing with it. Monday is not an unreasonable delay in my opinion. You are lucky that they are able to get someone out on a bank holiday weekend to be honest.
In answer to your question no you can't just go about doing the repairs yourself/ appointing someone to fix it for you.
df

nickild

surely, I may be a bit dramatic from someone's point of view, however this is really an issue for my family (everyone with 2 years old active toddler would agree). My main point here was the negligence the matter was taken care of, considering the first call back from the managing agent was in the afternoon. I phoned the manufacturer's helpline and was told if they were phoned in the morning an appointment for tomorrow would have been booked in. With so many plumbers around waiting until Monday is unnecessary, I just need to find out if I have a legal right to arrange the fixing myself, even if that would invalidate the warranty of the boiler.

sulphate

Sorry but you're complaining that you're left for hot water for just 4 days, and over a bank holiday weekend? Exactly what do you expect them to do about it before Monday?

If you need hot water in the meantime, boil a kettle.

mrginge

Sometimes things break and you have to wait for them to be fixed.

Put a jumper on and boil a kettle.

G_M

Plumbers are not just sitting around waiting for your boiler to break down.

And call outs at the weekend are harder to obtain as well as more expensive. They are used for emergencies. If this was mid-winter, I might agree, but waiting till Monday is not unreasonable.

You reported the fault. An appointment with an engineer has been made. Have a little patience. Life is not always perfect and we can not all always expect the world to jump immediately to our rescue, or compensate us for every little hitch.

Lily-Rose_3

nickild wrote: »

surely, I may be a bit dramatic from someone's point of view, however this is really an issue for my family (everyone with 2 years old active toddler would agree). My main point here was the negligence the matter was taken care of, considering the first call back from the managing agent was in the afternoon. I phoned the manufacturer's helpline and was told if they were phoned in the morning an appointment for tomorrow would have been booked in. With so many plumbers around waiting until Monday is unnecessary, I just need to find out if I have a legal right to arrange the fixing myself, even if that would invalidate the warranty of the boiler.

No frankly, I don't think you do have any 'legal right' to do it yourself. And I don't think anyone would disagree that you are being over-dramatic.

You have reported it and the agent and LL is getting someone out as soon as they can. Sorry but you don't have a leg to stand on. If you were to take action against the LL and agent, you would get laughed at by any legal representative you used. NOBODY would be able to get it fixed quicker.

And I have had children too, young/toddler,. You are not the first to have a small child, OR the first to have kids and have no heating or hot water for a short while. When me and hubby were homeowners, we went 3 WEEKS without hot water or heating IN JANUARY. We had to get plumbers out when they were in demand (in winter/cold weather.) So we struggled to get it fixed.

Seriously. You need to chill. Just wait til Monday. You have no choice. Like I said, even if you DID call an independent plumber, you would get NO-ONE out til after the bank holiday, and they may even refuse, if they know that the agent and LL has it in hand.

topdaddy_2

The agent shouldnt be abusive. But bank holiday for a repair means its been rushed through. It is a bank holiday after all monday. Otherwise it would be Tuesday at the earliest.

Monkeyballs

Hi,

If your annoyance is that they've not got back to you then (I'm guessing from your original post) the voice mail message you left was one of many that they'd be working their way through...

I'm sure if it was Monday then there wouldn't be a delay of a few days, it's just unfortunate that it's landed on a Friday.

MB

captainhindsight_2

Any repairs have to be dealt with win a reasonable time, contacting an engineer within a couple of hours and arranging an apointment earlier than the next working day seems very reasonable to me and I would have thought to most people.

You are not exactly hard up, it's not middle of winter and like some one else has said if you need hot water to wash there is the kettle and I assume your have friends and family who could let you use there bathroom.

I think you should be grateful you have such a good managing agent, many wouldn't get some body to come in on a bank holiday Monday, it would be acceptable if the engineer wasn't coming until Tuesday in my opinion.