Heating in rented house

laurabrown04

My heating system hasn't been working at all and I reported this at the beginning of October making it about two months now. My letting agents have provided me with portable radiators and there has been constantly people coming in trying to fix it but apparently it is one of the worst cases of sludge build up they have seen in a system and have confirmed it wasn't caused by me.


What has really bothered me is that I have been asked to run the heating as much as possible to flush chemicals through the system, but as it doesn't produce heat I have also had to run the portable heaters.


I have asked my letting agents for some compensation, mainly towards bills and they agreed and asked the landlord to give me a weeks worth of rent. But the landlord has refused to give me anything, not even £50. His reasoning is that its going to cost him thousands to fix.


Is there anything I can do??

G_M

If the problem is sludge (do you have this confimd in wriing?) then the solution is a power flush. Not 'running the heating'.

Write to he landlord, enclosing or referring to wherever you got the 'sludge' diagnosis, and ask for a power flush to be arranged wihin the next 10 days. Ask the LL to confirm to you by return of post with a date for the powerflush.

laurabrown04

It has already been completely flushed out as a system and then each radiator separately (or something along those lines). I've spoken to the plumbers on two different occasions and they've told me that the whole system needs to be replaced as they have tried everything they can, but then I get the news that the landlord wants to try something else before that happens.


It's basically going round and round in circles! All the while I have no heating and am being told to run double heating!


I have now told the landlord I will no longer be running the heating when asked unless he reimburses me.

Norman_Castle

If the boiler isn't providing much heat it may not cost much to run. It could just be the pump that is running.

How long does the landlord expect you to keep running the heating. Days, months, years?

teddysmum

A couple of years ago, a replacement boiler ,piping and 7 radiators cost us less than £3000,so all the callouts (assuming not part of a service plan) will soon have cost nearly that.


If the system's so bad, replacement would have been the cheaper option, so he sounds like a penny pincher and one wonders how many corners he will cut, elsewhere.

G_M

laurabrown04 wrote: »

It has already been completely flushed out as a system and then each radiator separately (or something along those lines). I've spoken to the plumbers on two different occasions and they've told me that the whole system needs to be replaced as they have tried everything they can, but then I get the news that the landlord wants to try something else before that happens.


It's basically going round and round in circles! All the while I have no heating and am being told to run double heating!


I have now told the landlord I will no longer be running the heating when asked unless he reimburses me.

Then you need to escalate the issue.

Everything in writing (but of course you've been doing that).

Read:

* Repairing Obligations: the law, common misconceptions, reporting/enforcing, retaliatory eviction & the new protection (2015)