No heating or hot water for a week in rented house

missprice

Skiddaw1 wrote: »

To be fair to the OP (and to other posters in rented accommodation who have raised similar issues) I do think that it's much less stressful when you're (to some degree at least) in control of the situation (as you are when something goes wrong in a property you own). When you're in a rented property you're right down the food chain aren't you? Reliant on the agent/landlord/landlord's contractor for your issue to be resolved. That's a whole heap more frustrating (especially coming up to Christmas, with two small children, etc). I'm pretty sure I'd be feeling equally churned up and panicky if it were me in that situation.

Its stressful no matter who you are or what your housing is. Pre gas engineer living in days, I have variously called a billion million plumbers/builders/locksmiths etc etc and had to wait for just one to get back to me. In fact I'm currently waiting for a carpenter type person to visit me about internal doors (not urgent by any means and not the same as being cold) last seen in April.

The good ones are fully booked, the bad ones do a crap job 🤷!♀️

I also rented previously for years in fact. Yes with no communication and you feel at the bottom of the chain its bloody frustrating. I only ever comment on these kinds of threads cos someone always comes along to say homeowners have it easier.
Fact is they really dont.

Smodlet

Fact is plumbers, heating engineers, electricians, whoever take as long as they take to show up. The former two categories tend to be busier at this time of year as pipes don't freeze in summer and heating problems are less urgent or undetected.

Skiddaw's point that owner-occupiers are at least autonomous whereas tenants are at the mercy of their LL's/LA's is well made but, in the OP's case, the LL seems to have responded very promptly.

The fact remains unless you, yourself are a gas engineer, you are at someone else's mercy when your boiler packs up. Renting does not give you a right to instant repairs; not even homeowners get those... Unless they happen to be gas engineers/plumbers...

Skiddaw1

True enough Smodlet. And isn't it Sods Law that whatever decides to pack up always does so at the most inconvenient moment?

lookstraightahead

I wonder if it would be done any quicker if you reported it to environmental health.

lookstraightahead

bouicca21 wrote: »

Good grief, I was without heating for months last winter while a problem was being fixed. When I was a child the house was so cold that we had ice on the inside of the windows.

Wear more layers, borrow an oil filled radiator and/or heated throw. Boil a kettle and strip wash or shower at the local leisure centre.

Do you rent because that's awful if you do. How did the landlord get away with it? If you own your property that's a completely different matter as you are in control.

We always had ice on the inside of our windows but our house was never cold - it's to do with the cold windows not the house. This was in the sixties and seventies and I lived in an old mining house. Always warm and when we were cold it was as bad as it is now. You shouldn't have to put up with it.

Op I feel for you. You are in the hands of others which is stressful in itself. It makes no odds whether others think they're doing it quickly from the comfort of their own homes.

SnooksNJ

AdrianC wrote: »

It's also very different in other parts of the world.

In the UK, those "seniors" would have various grants available if they were home owners, and priority access to social housing with heating installed if they weren't.

I looked up grants for one of my neighbors and they only cover a new unit and installation. Her house never had central heat so she would have to pay for duct work, radiator's plus all the redecorating.

Smodlet

SnooksNJ wrote: »

I looked up grants for one of my neighbors and they only cover a new unit and installation. Her house never had central heat so she would have to pay for duct work, radiator's plus all the redecorating.

If the terms of the grant do not cover the items you mention, she would still receive a highly subsidised, new heating installation. It is her choice whether or not to pay for whatever extra works are deemed necessary. A grant is still a privilege, imho and not something to be taken for granted.

Decorating costs would never be included in such grants: It is not part of the process of installing a heating system so is not covered, nor would I expect it to be.