Loosing the will to live

outofmoney

Agrinnal - She resigned and is stepping down at the next election. She just doesn't care. Might try her replacement though.

Bogof_Babe

http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqownerocc.htm

Can a room containing a gas appliance still be used as a bedroom?
Since 31 October 1998, any room converted to use as sleeping accommodation should not contain the following types of gas appliances:

A gas fire, gas space heater or a gas water heater (including a gas boiler) over 14 kilowatts gross input unless it is room sealed.
A gas fire, gas space heater, or a gas water heater (including a gas boiler) of 14 kilowatts gross input or less or any instantaneous water heater unless it is room sealed or has an atmosphere-sensing device.
If a room contains one or more of the above appliances and was used as a bedroom prior to 1998 then you will need to do a risk assessment to determine if it can still be used as a bedroom. If you are unsure of the safety of any gas appliance you should get a Gas Safe registered link to external website engineer to check it for you.

Edit: Beaten by Xylophone!

outofmoney

We are not keen to involve the media. Firstly we're not people who like to be in the limelight, plus I don't think it is the best way to announce to our current LL that we are trying to move.

kinger101

Fair enough. It is possible that the newspaper would keep you anonymous, but this may be difficult given the specifics of your case.

moneyistooshorttomention

xylophone wrote: »

Not wholly accurate?

http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/faqownerocc.htm

"Since 31 October 1998, any room converted to use as sleeping accommodation should not contain the following types of gas appliances:

"A gas fire, gas space heater or a gas water heater (including a gas boiler) over 14 kilowatts gross input unless it is room sealed.
A gas fire, gas space heater, or a gas water heater (including a gas boiler) of 14 kilowatts gross input or less or any instantaneous water heater unless it is room sealed or has an atmosphere-sensing device.
If a room contains one or more of the above appliances and was used as a bedroom prior to 1998 then you will need to do a risk assessment to determine if it can still be used as a bedroom. If you are unsure of the safety of any gas appliance you should get a Gas Safe registered link to external website engineer to check it for you."

Must admit I'd never heard of that and thought didn't cross my mind not to use my living room as an occasional guest bedroom in my last house (despite gas fire there) and duly did so occasionally. Same in current house and I occasionally it as a guest bedroom (as I use my 2nd bedroom as a study). Now wondering whether I should put guests in my bedroom and myself in the living room.

What is the particular safety concern there? Do they think people would wake up ill on the one hand or "wake up" dead on the other hand? Do they think occasional use is safe, but deem regular use unsafe? Surely, if it were deemed unsafe to spend 8 hours at a time asleep in a room, then it would also be deemed unsafe to spend 8 hours at a time sitting around in that room?

But I am surprised to read that living rooms are often classed as bedrooms in other respects though - due to stairs and/or front doors often being sited in living rooms. Not to mention the basic fact of how is the person who is expected to use it as a bedroom supposed to manage to go to bed at night whilst there is still anyone expecting to use it as a living room (visions of one person expecting to watch tv at midnight, whilst another tries to sleep in the same room)?

silvercar

Most modern boilers are room sealed. Room sealed means that they draw air in from outside and vent to the outside. Unless they are back boilers and vent through a chimney they are very likely to be room sealed.

tanith

My daughter was told in no uncertain terms that she was expected to sleep in the living room on a sofa bed to allow her then 13yr old son to have her bedroom so he didn't have to share with his 9yr old and 17yr old sisters... in then end she partitioned off the dining half of her kitchen and made him a bedroom there.. he is still there now and he will be 18 this year.. The council are not interested as in their eyes they are not overcrowded..

agrinnall

outofmoney wrote: »

Agrinnal - She resigned and is stepping down at the next election. She just doesn't care. Might try her replacement though.

Slightly trickier then. Unless you are in a constituency with a rock solid majority for the incumbent MP's party then you'd need to contact all candidates with a reasonable prospect of getting elected.

outofmoney

I don't think the council class living rooms as bedrooms here. Dining rooms, yes, but not bedrooms. We have a back boiler in any case.

We were told to put our 14 year old in our bedroom. Apart from there not being space for another bed in our room, this is hardly an acceptable solution.

We are classed as severely overcrowded as we need two more bedrooms. But it wouldn't matter it seems because we just don't meet the criteria for being offered a house.

moneyistooshorttomention

silvercar wrote: »

Most modern boilers are room sealed. Room sealed means that they draw air in from outside and vent to the outside. Unless they are back boilers and vent through a chimney they are very likely to be room sealed.

Not quite sure what that means?

If a fire has the chimney behind it iyswim, then that presumably means they are deemed safe (whether there is or isn't a back boiler behind them), as they will receive ventilation from that chimney presumably?

I presume the ones that are just whacked straight onto A.N. Other wall in the living room (ie nothing behind them) are the ones that are deemed unsafe? In the main, that would be what I call the "pretty picture" (but not that effective) ones then.