Landlord controls heating and bans portable heaters

captainjon

HappyMJ wrote: »

The room temperature needs to be no less than 18 degrees at all times whilst you are in the room.

It should be up to 21 degrees for a living room.

Get yourself a good digital room thermometer (not the cheap one) and complain if it ever drops below 18 degrees in your bedroom.

It must drop below 18 at night, in winter. Is all night?

captainjon

Guest101 wrote: »

You can walk away if you can convince a judge that the tenancy was for 1 / 2 months.

It was agreed to be for 2 months

HappyMJ

swindiff wrote: »

It is quite usual for a tennancy agreement to have stipulations such as no smoking or no pets. The tennants therefore cannot do whatever they like.

Neither of those can actually be enforced properly.

If you let a property to someone who states they do not smoke and do not have pets yet a week after they move in you check on the property and find they've been smoking on the property and have a dog or a cat there's nothing a landlord can really do. You can't ask them to leave immediately nor force them to stop smoking or get rid of the animals.

Of course a landlord can issue a Section 21 notice requiring possession at the end of the fixed term which can be no less than six months away at which point if possession is gained you've got to repaint the property to cover up the damage from smoking and treat the property for any infestation from fleas. The tenant has now moved on and become untraceable and all these costs now fall on the landlord. The deposit may or may not cover it.

HappyMJ

captainjon wrote: »

It must drop below 18 at night, in winter. Is all night?

Must "not" drop below 18....

All night yes. A bedroom legally has to have the facility to be heated to no less than 18 degrees at all times including at night. A living room needs to have the facility to be able to be heated to no less than 21 degrees at all times.

You of course can set the temperature lower if you find it more comfortable but you must be able to heat the bedroom to 18 degrees.

andybenw

As it's an HMO 'room only' tenancy by letter of the law you should have ability to control your heating to 18 degrees. Effectively this means control of heating via radiator TRV's.

However if the boiler was running 24/7 practically this would inevitably lead to your rent being increased due to the landlord receiving large heating bills.

A sensible landlord will keep heating on at times/temperatures to limit the use of portable heaters. Unfortunately yours seems a bit dim, and is pinching pennies where if everyone started making use of electric heaters it would cost him pounds.

You need to be proactive and talk to the landlord. Hopefully after discussion he will agree to sensible heating. If not then you have 3 choices.

1. Threaten to get the council in. Obviously this has the risk of s21 action.
2. Do nothing. You will be cold but not looking for a new home.
3. Get a portable electric heater even if banned. Hide it away when not in use.