Callout charge

DylanR98

We have had issues with our landlady/letting agent for a while. These stemmed back from September 2019, and lasted for about 3 months whereby all disputes and issues have been resolved.

I am a student living in a student property and sometime at the back end of 2019, we noticed our oven had been playing up. It was taking 1.5x the amount of time to cook things. For example, if something was needed to go in the oven for 30 minutes, it’ll need 40+ minutes.

This was only a minor issue, however we raised this with our student letting agency. They sent a contractor out who quite literally opened the oven door, pulled on the seal and said it’s fine.

Fast forward 3 months and we have just received an email saying we have been billed the ~£66 callout fee.

Is this fair? Are we eligible to pay it?

SmashedAvacado

Regardless of the advice given your starting point should be 
1. no
2. no
let them explain to you why they think you should be obliged to pay it. 

eddddy

Also, it might be worth spending a few pounds on an oven thermometer - and putting it wherever you position your food in the oven for cooking, to see if that part of the oven is reaching the right temperature.

If the oven isn't reaching the right temperature, you'll have something concrete to tell the letting agent / repair person.

With 'cheaper' ovens, different parts of the oven might be reaching different temperatures - especially if it's gas or it hasn't got a fan. (The top of the oven is generally the hottest part.)

Something else to investigate:  normally an oven takes 15 to 20 mins to heat up, before you put the food in.   But I had an electric oven that was taking 30+ mins to heat up, because it had 2 elements, and one had failed.

theartfullodger

Simply decline their kind offer that you pay.  Don't bother to discuss the matter further with them.

Artful: Landlord

[Deleted User]

As advised, ovens (particularly if not a fan oven) need time to warm up to the required temperature, then you start timing the cooking from that point.  I tend to allow some warm up time even for my fan oven because in spite of what the manufacturer says I know my oven is a lot hotter when I do this.