Council tenants left with no hot water and very little heating for so far almost 2 weeks

unsureandconfused

Hi everyone

I don't know if I am posting in the right place so please move if I am wrong.

I am a council tenant and live in a block of 15 council flats. The block has communal central heating and hot water.

The hot water went down on 16th April and the heating has been sporadic. On Tuesday coming it will be 2 full weeks.

The council repairs dept have been informed by the entire block of our situation. Each time someone calls, they are given a different story to the previous tenant. One tenant called them in my presence 5 minutes after I had called and was given a completely different story.

I have told the council that I have not had a bath or shower for almost 2 weeks. Their reply is that I have to boil kettles of water to wash and to wash my dishes. When I asked if they would find it acceptable to have to live that way, I was told that of course they would not find it acceptable.

The outside company who had the contract for the communal system no longer have the contract and I firmly believe that the council workers are not qualified to tend to a communal commercial system. They don't seem to know what they are doing. At one point there were 6 council vans outside the block and a team of people all looking at the system. The result of this was that it was still not fixed.

The usual answer we are given from the repairs department is that they have to order a part which should be with them in a few days. I told them on my last call that if the number of parts arrive that they claim have had to be ordered, there will be a brand new system there are so many 'new parts'.

I had a council worker come to my door yesterday (Friday) and told me that we might just might get some slightly warm water today (Saturday). Of course there is none.

The emergency out of hours repairs have said that they will send no one out as it's marked that they are waiting for a part.

It just goes on and on with nothing being fixed.

What legal rights do we have to hot water and heating does anyone know? I am so sorry for the length of this post but I can't take any more.

elsien

Without wanting to sound unsympathetic, given the weather we've had lately, what impact has having no heating actually had? You may have had more of a case if we hadn't been in the middle of a heatwave.

unsureandconfused

elsien wrote: »

Without wanting to sound unsympathetic, given the weather we've had lately, what impact has having no heating actually had? You may have had more of a case if we hadn't been in the middle of a heatwave.

Thanks for your reply. To be honest the heating doesn't bother me so much though there are a lot of old age pensioners in the block who need to be warm at night.

It's the hot water that is my problem. No showers no baths no washing up.

pinkshoes

You haven't washed for 2 weeks??? Eewwww.

My boiler died in my last house and I had to get the entire heating system replaced which resulted in over 3 weeks with no hot water or heating.

I just boiled water to fill the bath or washed my hair over the bath with a bucket of warm water, and bought an oil filled radiator for my room.

So do you not have a leisure centre to go and take a shower?

By the sounds of it they are doing their best to fix it, so all you can do is wait, and perhaps ask for a heater to plug in if it's cold?

unsureandconfused

pinkshoes wrote: »

You haven't washed for 2 weeks??? Eewwww.

My boiler died in my last house and I had to get the entire heating system replaced which resulted in over 3 weeks with no hot water or heating.

I just boiled water to fill the bath or washed my hair over the bath with a bucket of warm water, and bought an oil filled radiator for my room.

So do you not have a leisure centre to go and take a shower?

By the sounds of it they are doing their best to fix it, so all you can do is wait, and perhaps ask for a heater to plug in if it's cold?

I am washing by filling kettles of water as I am doing for washing my dishes.

I am wondering how many kettles of water you used to have a bath?

This is a council block as I said. There is a central communal system as I said. It is not the responsibility of the tenants to pay for a new system.

I am TRYING to find out what legal rights we have as the Landlord is not fixing it, just procrastinating

Fire_Fox

What is the temperature at night? Measure and report this to the Council/ Housing Association. Many modern flats do not get cold enough to be unsafe.

Advise all the elderly tenants and those with babies to register with the Council/ Housing Association as 'vulnerable'.

Make as many reports as possible in writing - e-mail is fine - so that you have a paper trail. Consider involving your Ward Councillors.

unsureandconfused

Fire_Fox wrote: »

What is the temperature at night? Measure and report this to the Council/ Housing Association. Many modern flats do not get cold enough to be unsafe.

Advise all the elderly tenants and those with babies to register with the Council/ Housing Association as 'vulnerable'.

Make as many reports as possible in writing - e-mail is fine - so that you have a paper trail. Consider involving your Ward Councillors.

Thank you so much. I just didn't know how to go about things. Out of the 15 flats in the block, there are 9 very vulnerable old people. I didn't actually know that they could be registered as vulnerable. This block was put up in the early 70s and is cold. It was before there were laws brought in for insulation etc. The heating really doesn't bother me at all but us more able people are making sure the old ones have hot water bottles etc for night time to keep them warm before bed.

Thanks again for your help

elsien

The people who need heating should be provided with alternatives such as electric heaters. Have these been offered?
As far as the hot water goes, if they're genuinely trying to get it fixed, it's hard to see what else they can do to speed it up.
Have you contacted your local councillor to check what's going on?

unsureandconfused

elsien wrote: »

The people who need heating should be provided with alternatives such as electric heaters. Have these been offered?
As far as the hot water goes, if they're genuinely trying to get it fixed, it's hard to see what else they can do to speed it up.
Have you contacted your local councillor to check what's going on?

No alternative heating has been offered to any of the tenants.

I am emailing the local councillor now. I actually didn't think on the councillor to be honest. Everyone's time has been taken up trying to get something done by the repairs department but hopefully the councillor can help in some way.

Thanks so much for your help

Fire_Fox

unsureandconfused wrote: »

Thank you so much. I just didn't know how to go about things. Out of the 15 flats in the block, there are 9 very vulnerable old people. I didn't actually know that they could be registered as vulnerable. This block was put up in the early 70s and is cold. It was before there were laws brought in for insulation etc. The heating really doesn't bother me at all but us more able people are making sure the old ones have hot water bottles etc for night time to keep them warm before bed.

Thanks again for your help

It has made my day to read that you are looking after one another like this. Community is rare these days. :beer:

Definitely measure the night time temperature and inform your Ward Councillors of this and the number of vulnerable tenants. The more information/ ammunition they have the better.

Pandilex

Would be interesting to hear some legal timelines and recourse, e.g. rent reduction.

I can understand them having difficulties fixing it if there are contract issues and they don't have someone on hand, but that's their own fault and if it continues they need to pay for an expert contractor to come in and fix it, not just keep giving you the runaround indefinitely.

Maybe citizens advice can you give you some timelines of how long they have to fix it and you can use those to get some leverage and put some pressure on?