Moved into new rented house, oven not working

Lavendyr

We literally just moved in to our new rented home yesterday. Everything else is lovely and the landlords have taken great care to leave everything in good condition - unfortunately, we tried to use the oven today and it doesn't seem to work.

It seems to be a problem with the circuitry, as even when everything is switched on (at fuse box as well) the oven doesn't turn on - and when the oven is switched on at the fuse box, it knocks the boiler heating/hot water timer system (Honeywell) out. The landlords only moved out of the house themselves a couple of weeks ago when we presume it was working fine - it was even cleaned before we moved in. It was not tested by the inventory clerk during check-in.

In any case, I just wanted to ask - are the landlords required to get it fixed/replaced? It is the only means of preparing hot food and was supplied by them with the property. We will report it to the managing agent as soon as possible tomorrow, but we are slightly nervous about it, as we like the landlords and wish we didn't have to start off by reporting a problem!

Thanks in advance

BobProperty

Make sure the oven is on manual. It's a common mistake to think the oven isn't working because it's in automatic or timing mode and needs a start / stop time setting. Been puzzled by this myself in the past and you're not the first person to ask a question like this on this forum.

Lavendyr

Hi, thanks for your answer I don't think the oven is as complicated as to have a timer setting, it is a pretty basic electric oven and doesn't appear to have a timer. What we found strangest was that if the oven fuse is set to "on", the heating/hot water timer cuts out - obviously not ideal! It's just a baffler as we can't believe that the landlords would have moved out leaving a broken oven behind, given the care & attention they have given to all other areas (spare loo rolls in the bathroom, folder full of instruction manuals, etc) - especially because they cleaned the oven, which I'm sure they wouldn't have bothered to do if it wasn't working! There was also an electricity safety check sticker on the fuse box so it seems someone has supposedly checked all the electrics out.

Because we can't believe that it was broken when they left, we're also worried that the landlords will think that we have broken it - we honestly haven't, we just tried to switch it on and it simply won't switch on. I'm really hoping we've missed something obvious here.

maxmycardagain

ring the landlords, its their house and cooker, your not responsible for anything in the property, you cant repair it, and it may only take a phone call to resolve the situation. ive had 4 private lets, all with horror stories from carbon monoxide emitting boilers to bonds/deposits being held back/robbed off us.

Lavendyr

Thanks We were so relieved to be getting out of our current rental (which has been a horror story from start to finish) and so far the new landlords seem to be much nicer, we just hate that we have to start the tenancy by reporting a problem! But I'm sure you're right, and I'm sure that if it really is broken and it's not just some knack to the wiring, they will sort it for us.

Gorgeous_George

BobProperty is almopst certainly right. Even the most basic oven can have a timer. Is there a clock on the cooker?

GG

Lavendyr

Nope, no clock at all that I could see. Unfortunately the one instruction manual missing from the landlord's renting folder was the one for the oven! And if it is a timer, how come it knocks out the heating/hot water timing system when the fuse is set to "on"?

tsstss7

hi ...is it possible that the landlords have taken out a more swanky model and put in a basic one (maybe even second hand) recently? In that case it may be either faulty, or wired in wrong...

In any case dont worry about it too much I expect it's common at the start of tenancies for slight "glitches" in the house to come to light. When I moved into mine I had both electrician and plumber/odd job chappy here within a month!

I expect your LL will be fine - apologetic even!

Lavendyr

Hi, thanks It's the same oven that was in there when we viewed the property and they were in the process of moving out at that point (and was dirty at the time - I had a peek!) so I think it's the same one they were using.

Thank you for the reassuring words, I am sure you are right, we just really want this tenancy to go smoothly after the nightmare that has been our previous tenancy (we like to be good tenants!). Thankfully we have a 2-week overlap between moving into this new tenancy and leaving our current one so we can still cook at the old place until we suss out the problems with the oven in the new one.

daphne_descends

Lavendyr, are you me? Just moved into a new house after a nightmare tenancy, two week overlap in ASTs, found a fantastic landlord who's been really thoughtful, but a dodgy oven to go with it!

I'd tell your LL that you can't figure it out - as opposed to 'it doesn't work' - just in case there is a knack to it or you need to do a specific something. Also google the manufacturers and see if you can find a manual online? We did this and have a half-working oven now - which is a start...

Lavendyr

Hehe, does sound very similar (though I'm not expecting a baby as far as I know ). I've just looked online and found what looks like the user manual - unfortunately it only says what we already thought, i.e. if it's not working at all it's a problem with the wiring or the fuse. My OH is going to call the agency tomorrow and I will suggest to him that he phrases things as you say, as we do think it's possible that we're just missing something!

We'll be back there tomorrow evening so we will have another look bearing all the suggestions from here in min, but hopefully by then we might have some feedback from the landlords as well.