renting - landlord will not fix non working rads

jonsmile

We have just rented a house and some of the rads do not come on.
The agent sent around the heating engineer (once they got agreement from the landlord) and they scratched their heads and said that they could not fix it as the system was a mess plumbing wise and that they have told the owner this fact over 12 months ago when they came around to fix the same issue.

So we complained to the agent as some rooms are without any heat. After a bit of email comms, the owner has come back and said that they will not do any repairs to the heating as it works and the 'main living areas' will get hot - but not all the house!

So the question is where do we stand - 80% of the rads work, but in some rooms we need to use our own oil filled electric rads to make the rooms useable.

I thought that it was the responsibility of the landlord to have all radiators working?

Jon

anselld

The LL statutory obligations include "To keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwelling house for space heating and heating water."

That would include radiators unless the L provides some alternative means of space heating in the rooms where the radiators have failed.

thesaint

What rooms are the non working radiators in?
What temperature do those rooms get to when the heating is on?
Is there any form of secondary heating in those rooms?

kinger101

The LL should provide some form of heating, but even if they're made aware of their legal obligations, they may just provide the oil-fired radiators you're already using.

I'd be looking for somewhere else once your contract is up. What happens when something else breaks?

Did the agent advertise the property as including "full central heating". I might complain if they did. It might drive a wedge between them an LL.

jonsmile

So the heating is set to 20 and most of the house gets to 20. The dining room is as cold as outside - despite 8 year old double glazing. The rad in that room does not even get warm, let alone hot. There is no other heating source in the house.
In the lounge are two rads as it is a fairly large room - one works and one does not come on at all. The room will get up to temp eventually, but the working rad has to have the thermostat set to 5 to get the room warm.
The house was listed with a working heating system but it does not work correctly.
The heating engineers who can out to 'fix' it have been here a number of times in the past and have done temp fixes in the past - they told me that they have already told the owner the heating is a mess and needs a long term solution - one that will not be cheap. It does not help that the owners are in the process of getting divorced and looking to also sell the property at some time in the future.

theartfullodger

You write (Yes, WRITE! - keep copy) to landlord, copy agent, noting all the issues. See here for very good guidance including a draft letter.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_private_lets

PasturesNew

Can you leave the doors open so the heat distributes? We never used to have heating in the house when I was growing up, just one fire in the living room and single glazed windows. It wasn't pleasant .... we'd have killed for some working radiators and leaving the doors open!