Gas meter not working, boiler broken, lights tripped...

Jo-le-mo

My daughter has just moved into a student house.  The tenancy commenced 1/7/20, she moved in that day.  The gas meter is not working - they called gas company who classed it as emergency and came next day - fixed! Now the boiler doesn’t work, still no heating or hot water.  Should this have been sorted by the landlord before tenancy began?  The electrics are also dodgy.  The downstairs tripped off last night, then the power upstairs.  LL informed of all of this and has left it for the girls to sort out! Electrician came round this morning, couldn’t find the fault, but he was asked to check washing machine (also not working) the plug was wired up wrong.  Lots of faults in the property and only in 1 day - what should the landlord be doing? Any advice ?

Slithery

Until your daughter reports the faults in writing (paper, envelope, stamp etc) to the address 'for serving notices' the LL doesn't have to do anything.

[Deleted User]

If the electrics are still tripping, you might be able to locate the problem area by unplugging everything and then just plugging in one thing at a time to see when electrics trip.  If its a plug problem, this tends to show up fairly quickly.  Hopefully the problem plug has been located.  It may be that the electrics are dodgy but it could also be a dodgy plug as you have found. I had a similar problem and it turned out water was leaking from the work surface (in a bad state, sealant wasn't working) into the washing machine plug, causing the fuse box to trip.

The LL should be sorting out the boiler problem.  He needs to be notified and I am afraid the tenants need to wait until he does sort it.  Its not something they should be sorting out.  Neither is any of the other repairs really.

Google searching can be a big help with figuring out if a repair is actually a quick fix if you know how to do it.  Unfortunately it seems the tenants are having a harsh introduction to independent living and private renting.  

greatcrested

Pu it all in writing. A succinct letter to the landlord sent to the address provided "for serving notices", with a copy to the agent (if any). Email for speed too, but still follow up with letter. List all issue (bullet points) and request a date for resolution.

Has the tenant been given a

* gas safety certificate? Legal requirement for years!

* EICR (electrical cerificate? Legal requirement since June 1st 2020.

On the plus side, at least the LL has sent round an electrician  - or did the girls call him? If so, who paid?

I'm surprised the 'gas company' fixed the boiler. Presumably not the gas supplier! This was a gasSafe engineer perhaps via a maintenance contract? If so, the landlord has arranged this, and then gave the tenants the flexibility to arrange a mutually acceptable date/time for the visit.

HampshireH

Gas company may have disked the meter which would obviously cause the boiler not to work.

They would have left paperwork advising though.