No heating for 6 weeks Housing Association Orbit.

knightstyle

I wonder if the house is the same as my DD had a while ago. She is in the Army and it was a brand new married quarter.
The underfloor heating never worked properly and cost her a fortune to keep any heat in the house, poor/non existant insulation, huge gaps around windows did not help.
The "state of the art" heating system was designed and meant to be installed by a German company but then due to cost cutting the equipment was bought from a French company and a UK company installed it. This UK company went bust soon after and cut so many corners! So she was very glad to be posted away to an old fashioned traditional house with a conventional gas boiler and radiators.
She did get a lump sum when she presented her utility bills though this olny covered about half the extra she reckons she paid.

missphilippa2890

This email I sent to an unknown alias will give you a breif run down of what has been happening since my last post in March. I am now 3 months without heating or hot water....

I have had no heating nor hot water ( not running from an immersion heater ) since March 2018. I have had appointments booked and cancelled and subsequently a sub contractor ( Swale Heating ) lost there contract the day before a repair was due on my heating. This appointment was on March 28th, even after numerous calls that they would be turning up never did.


I have asked Orbit for all records of the issues but they continue to send Freedom of Information forms which will cost me and not the ICO on myself personally.


I am now in the month of June with no work carried out or progress, and only just to be told the company who fit the Ground Source Heating went redundant 2014. This means for months of appointments, waiting in for contractors to show, contractors showing then ordering parts that non of it was true as the company no longer produced them even before I moved in. They have now suggested that I have electric storage heaters put in but going back on renewable energy as a cheap scape goat to a long term issue isn't going to help me as a tenant. I point blank said I refuse electric storage heaters and I am disgusted how you only admitted this lie. I was told a new ground source heater would mean burying into the foundations of the house and the unit being the size of the cloakroom it is kept in. HOW ON EARTH CAN THIS BE ALLOWED.

I was moved into this property away from DV via my police force, Orbit, and as a side issue I was given nothing in the 24 hours to move here. It has cost me dearly building this home with just a mattress and the clothes on our back alongside maintaining a home with 2 children on Employment Support Allowance due to my PTSD after having to leave work it has cost me in more ways than one. The stress alone has brought what was supposed to be a safe house after being moved here an absolute nightmare. I have not only been lied to for months, but when I first moved in brought up many more issues before I out down carpets and creating a home but they never happened.

Mark Hoyland refuses to speak to his tenants, Orbit themselves refuse to open a full complaints procedure until the issue is resolved this then leads to the housing ombudsman to not get involved until they have opened a complaints procedure.

My final conversation with the Head of Heating at Orbit (who has now taken on my case) was that they need to move me again if I refuse storage heaters ( I have ), after 3 years re building our lives here keeping my children safe I am disgusted that this even allowed. I have received £192 in compensation just for March to April as agreed and the rest to be discussed. After hearing this news I will be looking 1k's, in moving cost, re decorating and stress I cannot even believe that this is happening.

Do you think it will be worth contacting a law firm to help me as I honestly do not know where to go from here?

G_M

Why the duplicate post?


I have no idea why you have not followed the complaints procedure (see post 6).


Why are you refusing all their offers (eg storage heaters)? They are at least attempting to provide heatting.


Why are you having 'conversations'? Write to them. Apart from anything else you'll then have a compete record and not have to faff about with Freedom of Information requests which is just absurd!

missphilippa2890

G_M wrote: »

Why the duplicate post?
Apologies


I have no idea why you have not followed the complaints procedure (see post 6).

I have followed this but as stated it is still an open case


Why are you refusing all their offers (eg storage heaters)? They are at least attempting to provide heatting.

Storage heaters are extremely expensive and they will still have to remove the ground source heating and they will still need to do work on the home and foundations.

Why are you having 'conversations'? Write to them. Apart from anything else you'll then have a compete record and not have to faff about with Freedom of Information requests which is just absurd!

I suffer dyslexia and find it incredibly difficult to articulate.

diggingdude

If they are offering you a different form of heating, i would guess they are meeting their duties to you. Without owning the home I wouldn't have thought you had a right to a particular heat source.Many properties in the private sector have no heating and no offer to install by the landlord.

Whilst this has been a delayed process, I can't help suspecting that you are contributing to this delay also.

Best of luck with it though, I hope for your sanity things get sorted one way or another

missphilippa2890

diggingdude wrote: »

If they are offering you a different form of heating, i would guess they are meeting their duties to you. Without owning the home I wouldn't have thought you had a right to a particular heat source.Many properties in the private sector have no heating and no offer to install by the landlord.

Whilst this has been a delayed process, I can't help suspecting that you are contributing to this delay also.

Best of luck with it though, I hope for your sanity things get sorted one way or another

They have only JUST admitted to the lie that I have drafted in an email. Electric storage heaters are expensive this has been thrown at me as get out of jail for free card. My home will still need to be upheaved, the fact they are willing to move me speaks volumes.

AdrianC

Heating has not been relevant for almost all of the last three months - and you admit that you could have taken the heating offered, but rejected it. You also admit that hot water is available, from the immersion heater.


Obviously, the delay in sorting the problem is excessive - nobody is saying otherwise. But reasonableness comes from both sides. GSHP is a niche product in the UK, and competent specialists are hard to find. Installation is, by the very way in which it works, an intrusive process.

BrassicWoman

storage heaters are only extremely expensive if you don't use them properly. say thank you and let them instal!!

Norman_Castle

missphilippa2890 wrote: »

the company who fit the Ground Source Heating went redundant 2014. This means for months of appointments, waiting in for contractors to show, contractors showing then ordering parts that non of it was true as the company no longer produced them even before I moved in. They have now suggested that I have electric storage heaters put in but going back on renewable energy as a cheap scape goat to a long term issue isn't going to help me as a tenant. I point blank said I refuse electric storage heaters and I am disgusted how you only admitted this lie. I was told a new ground source heater would mean burying into the foundations of the house and the unit being the size of the cloakroom it is kept in.

Putting the delays to one side, how do you expect them to resolve the heating problem? Original unit cannot be repaired, replacement unit is large, expensive and involves an amount of disruption (has one been offered?), storage heaters are not what you want.

Realistically, what can they do?


Personally, assuming its cheap to run, I would love ground source heating and forgo a cupboard for it and appreciate the expense to them of installing it. Once you have functioning heating most of the delays will be forgotten about.


The delays aren't unusual when dealing with a large, non commercial organisation using contractors and sub contractors. Resolve the delays from the lack of heating separately.

[Deleted User]

It may be that the HA have been shafted just as much as you have been. Remember the repairs team are no more expert than you are (in my experience, less so lol). I know when I had a problem with something, in between dealing with inexpert customer support, middle'man' and messages filtering through to the contractor, I got no where for months.

You have three options 1) move 2) storage heating (still means disruption) 3) new installation, major disruption but inexpensive heating system once installed

None of these options are without problems, but only you can decide which one you prefer. I doubt the HA are the bad guys in this, just a little inept. I know you don't need this.., but concentrate on the end goal (picture yourself at this end goal), a stable warm home, and decide which option you can live with. i get stressed about things, particularly injustice but have learned that it only damages me. Quite often you just have to move beyond what has happened and concentrate on the end goal. Not doing so won't make an impression on them and make you unwell. Doing this will enable the HA to work with you. Concentrating on what's gone wrong actually gets in the way, however much you were a victim. I really have learnt this from experience.