Gas leak in housing association flat; what are my rights?

hitchhiker61

Hello,
I am a H/A tenant with an assured tenancy agreement.  We had a gas leak in a flat underneath me on Sunday (five days ago) and the gas supply into each flat above and below the flat with the leak had to be capped off.
The company responsible for the infrastructure supplied a hotplate, oil-filled radiator and a 10l(!) bucket with rechargeable shower head for the two of us to get clean each day.

Has anyone on this forum gone through this experience?  If so, what and how did you claim from the HA.  I'm thinking rent reduction, contribution to increased electricity bill and compensation for inconvenience.  But how much is reasonable?

A fellow tenant reckons £130/day but I find this is far too much.  I'm in a one-bed flat in London.
Many thanks, all!

tacpot12

£130/day is way too much. I would have thought that £40/day would be about right, but it depends on what your rent is. I would have said you should be receive about 50% reduction on the rent, plus the actual cost of the extra electricity used, plus £10/day for the inconvenience. 

user1977

I'm not sure how you'd even get to £40 a day when all that you've got is (as far as I can tell), no central heating (at a time of year when you presumably don't need it), no instant hot water and no hob (I'm guessing the other cooking facilities are electric). But it doesn't hurt to ask I suppose...

Aylesbury_Duck

As above, no harm in asking but your actual costs will be fairly minimal, so it comes down to what goodwill they might provide for inconvenience.

bris

So each flat doesn't have it's own gas supply? I find that hard to believe.

The gas emergency control valve would have been turned off and the meter capped, Can you tell us why this didn't happen?

MattMattMattUK

I would imagine the actual costs are a minimal extra amount. I live in an electric only flat, my monthly consumption does not exceed £2 per day on average at this time of year. I would imagine it is a mild inconvenience, you could even use the immersion heater rather than the rechargeable shower head and that would give you hot water through the taps as well.

£130 per day sounds far too much, even £40 sound excessive. I would imagine no more than £5 per day, mostly to cover costs, anything more will depend on the exact circumstances and the duration of the cut off, but it certainly does not go into the hundreds per day.

If your gas supply is cut off

The company responsible for the gas pipes connecting to your home is called a 'gas transporter'. You must be given 5 days’ notice if they plan to cut off your supply to do work. You can claim £20 compensation if they don’t, but you must claim within 3 months.

If you’re on the Priority Services Register, your supplier must arrange alternative cooking and heating facilities for you.

You’ll be entitled to compensation if your gas is cut off for more than 24 hours - but you must claim within 3 months. This amount rises depending on how long it was cut off for.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-supply/get-compensation-if-you-have-a-power-cut/

TELLIT01

bris said:

So each flat doesn't have it's own gas supply? I find that hard to believe.

The gas emergency control valve would have been turned off and the meter capped, Can you tell us why this didn't happen?

I'm guessing that the leak is somewhere in the main supply pipe rather than in one of the units beyond the individual meter box.

hitchhiker61

Thanks, everyone; you've all been most helpful.
Much appreciated.

born_again

MattMattMattUK said:

If your gas supply is cut off

The company responsible for the gas pipes connecting to your home is called a 'gas transporter'. You must be given 5 days’ notice if they plan to cut off your supply to do work. You can claim £20 compensation if they don’t, but you must claim within 3 months.

If you’re on the Priority Services Register, your supplier must arrange alternative cooking and heating facilities for you.

You’ll be entitled to compensation if your gas is cut off for more than 24 hours - but you must claim within 3 months. This amount rises depending on how long it was cut off for.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/energy/energy-supply/problems-with-your-energy-supply/get-compensation-if-you-have-a-power-cut/

Bit hard to give any notice when a gas leak is reported. 

>> 

Unplanned interruptions

In the event of an incident, we do everything we can to restore gas supplies as quickly as possible. However, after the first 24 hours, affected householders will be compensated for time without gas. You will receive £60 for each 24-hour period without gas, which is paid automatically through your gas supplier. Small businesses will receive £100 for each 24-hour period without gas, which will also be paid automatically through your gas supplier.

https://www.sgn.co.uk/help-and-advice/customer-service/guaranteed-standards/compensation

So would be a question as why it was not repaired at that point.

bris

TELLIT01 said:

bris said:

So each flat doesn't have it's own gas supply? I find that hard to believe.

The gas emergency control valve would have been turned off and the meter capped, Can you tell us why this didn't happen?

I'm guessing that the leak is somewhere in the main supply pipe rather than in one of the units beyond the individual meter box.

Well we will never know as the op seems to have ended the thread. But if the leak was in the mains the whole block would have to be switched off at point of entry to repair the leak.