No central heating/integrated AC for 11 months in rental property

misterchai

Hi All and thank you for reading,
I rent a 1 bed apartment in London W6 with my wife. Our rent is 1575PCM. It is a mid-spec new build, built in late 2018. About 6 weeks after moving in, a problem developed with the integrated heating/air conditioning. The block has a centralised system, controlled by an LCD panel in each apartment. After months of waiting and several visits from maintenance staff and block managers (most of the block is owned by Asian investors, and managed by a sole lettings agent with offices in both London and Hong Kong), they determined that there was a leak somewhere in the building. Several months later, and now into Autumn last year, the leak was (apparently) repaired, but the problem has persisted- no heating/ no AC. Small 2kw portable fan heaters were supplied, which I assume was the bare minimum legal requirement to us. As you all know, these are extremely expensive to run, and with our current electricity supplier (Ecotricity) would cost approximately 55p/hr to operate. Another smaller problem in the block is that there is no recycling pickup or designated bins. I have spoken to the council and block managers several times over the year, and nothing has been done.
I understand that these heating problems are slightly out of control of the landlord, as it is a centralised system, and not just an issue with our apartment. I have been told that the leaseholders of the units are in legal dispute with the building contractors and block managers over the issue, but I am wondering what my rights are. I have told the agent that I will shortly be contacting the council environmental health, to try and obtain an improvement order, but is there anything else we can do legally, such as file a civil dispute, attempt to claim for increased heating costs, or anything relating to breach of contract? During the virus, they have offered a lowered rent of around ~11% to 1400PCM.

Thanks for reading.

greatcrested

Post 2: Repairing Obligations: the law, common misconceptions, reporting/enforcing, retaliatory eviction & the new tenant protection (2015), plus the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018

AdrianC

misterchai said:

I rent a 1 bed apartment
...
About 6 weeks after moving in, a problem developed with the integrated heating/air conditioning. The block has a centralised system, controlled by an LCD panel in each apartment. After months of waiting and several visits from maintenance staff and block managers ... they determined that there was a leak somewhere in the building. Several months later, and now into Autumn last year, the leak was (apparently) repaired, but the problem has persisted- no heating/ no AC. Small 2kw portable fan heaters were supplied, which I assume was the bare minimum legal requirement to us. As you all know, these are extremely expensive to run, and with our current electricity supplier (Ecotricity) would cost approximately 55p/hr to operate. Another smaller problem in the block is that there is no recycling pickup or designated bins. I have spoken to the council and block managers several times over the year, and nothing has been done.
I understand that these heating problems are slightly out of control of the landlord, as it is a centralised system, and not just an issue with our apartment. I have been told that the leaseholders of the units are in legal dispute with the building contractors and block managers over the issue, but I am wondering what my rights are.

Your rights are to move if you don't like the property.

Simple rule of thumb: If you were an owner-occupier, would you be in any different position? No. Except it would be a lot harder for you to move.

BTW, if a 2kw heater is costing 55p/hr to run, you are on an utterly comedy tariff. My current electricity tariff is 12p/unit, so 24p/hour for a 2kw heater operating full-blast (which they rarely do).

staggered

Ignore this - your situation is completely different to that of an owner-occupier.  You signed a contract to rent a flat with a heating system, not one with poxy fan heaters.

If it were me, I would ask the Council to obtain an improvement order.  You could try the other things you suggest, but I think they would be too costly and time-consuming to be worthwhile.

[Deleted User]

staggered said:

Ignore this - your situation is completely different to that of an owner-occupier.  You signed a contract to rent a flat with a heating system, not one with poxy fan heaters.

If it were me, I would ask the Council to obtain an improvement order.  You could try the other things you suggest, but I think they would be too costly and time-consuming to be worthwhile.

Emotive language but not helpful. An unfortunate and inconvenient situation but reasonable that fan heaters have been provided. Tenant has never written to state they are inadequate, for months he's got by.  Has never purchased something better. Hasn't had to move out or take drastic action to survive this.
So what detriment financial or health wise is actually being suffered here? He's frustrated. Understandable. But heating and AC is just one aspect of the enjoyment of the property. One very small aspect, not the major compensation you might be thinking. Where substitute heaters can be provided no issue at all. Your time and effort to argue otherwise.

[Deleted User]

staggered said:

Ignore this - your situation is completely different to that of an owner-occupier.  You signed a contract to rent a flat with a heating system, not one with poxy fan heaters.

If it were me, I would ask the Council to obtain an improvement order.  You could try the other things you suggest, but I think they would be too costly and time-consuming to be worthwhile.

How exactly would an improvement order help?  It's a heating system for the whole building so an improvement order from the council isn't going to make things go any faster than they already are, there's no magic wand the council can wave to get the freeholder to sort this.

Strongly suggest you read @greatcrested's repairing obligations link.

AdrianC

staggered said:

Ignore this - your situation is completely different to that of an owner-occupier.  You signed a contract to rent a flat with a heating system, not one with poxy fan heaters.

Perhaps you missed that the HVAC is a building-wide system? It's provided and maintained as part of the service charge to the leaseholder.

A leaseholder has no more power to get it fixed than a tenant.