Advice for a family renting via estate agents, who have had no drinking water for nearly two weeks.

pjcox2005

I'd be annoyed if the tap didn't work too.

However, got to admit i never considered a bathroom tap not drinkable, and for more drinking water wouldn't you just fill a jug from the hot tap and keep it in the fridge? Not sure why you need to boil the hot tap water first, it's still fine isn't it?

AdrianC

Hot has been through the heat exchanger in the boiler - and may have been lurking in a hot water cylinder for a while, depending on the boiler type.

Brie

OK it may not be energy efficient but is there any reason you can't fill a bottle with the hot water from the kitchen tap and stick it in the fridge?  At least until the plumber does show up.

FindMyWayBack

The shocks never end on here, drink hot tap water? errrrr no

saajan_12

TG_2021 said:

caprikid1 said:

So you have one tap not working correctly and you want compensation for that ? Really.

After two weeks, yes really!
Out of the two taps we have, the Kitchen one is not working correctly and we were told the bathroom one was not suitable to drink from. And when you have a baby and a four year old in this heat it isn't an ideal situation having a cold drinkable tap that isn't working. Anyway, thanks for well thought out reply though, it really helped me a lot.

Remember three key points:
1. you're not entitled to a perfect house, just a house with normal issues that are repaired in a reasonable time. So some of that 2 weeks will be part of the reasonable time they are allowed; granted they are taking longer, but so far maybe an extra 1 week? 

2. The claim would be because you don't have drinking water - but you may have in the bathoom. Being told you don't doesn't mean you actually dont. Similar to if you told the LL / bank / someone that you'd be late paying but then ended up paying on time, they can't charge late fees / interest just because of your (non binding) statement. 
So maybe check out how the plumbing is set up and get an informal opinion whether the bathroom tap would be suitable for drinking. 

3. What are your actual costs as a result - you'd be making a trip to buy groceries anyway, so no additional time. Filtered water sold in bottles costs pennies. 

onylon

If you have a hot water tank then the water has been kept warm (but not boiling) for a long time and incubating all kinds of microbes. Even if you don't have a hot water tank it's probably a bad idea to drink from the hot tap. 

Torry_Quine

It never crossed my mind that the bathroom water isn't drinkable. I've certainly never been ill when I've drunk it.

sammyjammy

I fill up my water jug from mine every day, and my house is 122 years old (no water tank as converted attic)  if you didn't want to do that or use hot water from the tap then you could just cool boiled water from the kettle.  First world problems.

Ally_E.

AdrianC said:

TG_2021 said:

AdrianC said:

user1977 said:

Are you sure the other tap(s) don't provide clean water? Not all systems go via a pigeon-infested cistern.

Almost no properties have a cold water tank these days... Every tap is perfectly potable.

Thanks for your replies. This was actually one of the questions we first asked the estate agents about, to which the landlord replied saying she didn't think the water from the bathroom sink was ok to drink, so we didn't want to take any chances.

Yes, lots of people believe that - and it used to be true, back in the days of cold water tanks. The water sat in the tank, which was open-topped or inadequately lidded in the loft. The kitchen was the only tap fed directly from the incoming supply. But, now, every tap is fed directly. The only difference is the length of the pipework.

Just pause for a moment... where do you get the water for teeth-brushing...?

Are you referring to new builds? Our house was built in 1995 and it had a cold water tank.

oystercatcher

I wouldn't drink water from our hot tap as who knows what chemicals it has absorbed going round the hot water tank and system. We still have a cold water tank in the loft too so our bathroom water comes from a tank in the loft complete with mice etc (i think this feeds hot water tank too!)  We do have mains fed tap in downstairs loo and outside tap though but not all houses have this.

I thought you weren't supposed to feed babies bottled or filtered water either as the chemical balance can be wrong so if I was the OP I would be making a big fuss.