Renting Without A Working Boiler - Advice Needed

mobileron

lozza97 said:

Hello,

I have been renting a property for just over a year now, and last Wednesday evening (23/02/22) our oil boiler stopped working (a lock on light is on, and cannot be overridden). 

I reported it straight away via the maintenance portal and via the phone the next morning - we are a fully managed one so everything has to go through our estate agent.

A plumber wasn’t sent out until the following Monday (28/02/22) and all they did was a service. They told us it needed some new parts, and then they left.

I contacted my estate agent on Tuesday (01/03/22) and told them what the plumber had done, and reiterated to them that we still had no hot water and no heating. They told me someone would get in touch, but nobody has contacted me since.

We cannot use any hot water nor any heating, and we haven’t been offered any form of temporary heating either. We have had to go out and buy 2 convection heaters which were costly, and our electric bill has gone from an average of £1.50 per day to £4-5 per day on top of this. If we want to get a hot shower, we have to drive to our family almost 1 hr each way just to do so. 

The convection heaters don’t heat the whole house, and so it isn’t really ideal given the additional cost it’s causing. My other half has become seriously unwell with flu, and I haven’t a clue if it’s because the house has been so cold even with the little heaters (it’s a pre-90’s house and the windows leak galore). 

I understand landlords have a ‘reasonable time’ of 24 hours to rectify boiler issues - but I don’t feel that it is ‘reasonable time’ any more with it being almost 1 week now. Does anyone know where we stand with this, or if we can ask for some contribution towards our increased costs caused by their delays in fixing the issue? With my partner being off work with no pay due to sickness, and the current economic climate, extra costs are not good! 

Thank you

You cant catch the flu from cold weather,its a virus thats caused it.

pinkshoes

lozza97 said:

Thank you for all of your replies.

I was reading this 

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 states that repairs should be carried out in a ‘reasonable time’. Emergency repairs should be fixed within 24 hours as having no hot water or heating constitutes a hazard under the law

It also states in our contract that emergency repairs should be done within 24 hours.

The above refers to you having no means whatsoever to heat water nor heat the house. The boiler may not be working, but you do have an electricity supply so CAN heat water and heat the house by other means.

When you asked the landlord to supply you with heaters, what did they say? 

As for washing, do you not have a bath in the house that you can fill and use hot water from a kettle?? This would be far easier and cheaper than a 2 hour round drive.

Finally, flu is a virus and nothing to do with temperature so would not be caused by a cooler house.

ripplyuk

I’m sure OP knows that flu is a virus and not caused by cold temperatures. The point is that if the person is in a cold environment, their immune system won’t work effectively to fight whatever illness they have. Hence why hospitals are kept very warm (Far too warm for the visitors!). 

With the boiler issue, I’d contact the agent and let them know you’ll be reporting it to environmental health on Monday. Then go ahead and do that, if the agent/landlord is still not offering any help. No one expects them to be able to magically produce boiler parts but at the very least they should be supplying extra convection heaters and offering a reduction in rent to cover the extra costs. 

lozza97

Hello.

Just want to provide a quick update - I’m not a qualified doctor so I can’t say if it’s flu or not but he is coughing galore and looks like a human zombie. I wish I could give a diagnosis but he hasn’t been able to get a doctors appointment because they haven’t had any slots open. He has had to take a week of work unpaid and the cold conditions of the house really aren’t helping whatever it is

It has now been 11 days and still nothing. The contractor came out Monday and gave the LL quotes, and the estate agent emailed me Thursday saying the LL still hasn’t accepted them/authorised the work and hasn’t been in contact with them

As for temporary measures, I enquired about it and mentioned the increased costs we are facing. I was told they ‘might’ be able to compensate and can ‘ask’ the LL to sort out temporary measures…heard nothing. Whilst I understand we aren’t using oil at this point - we recently paid out £400 to fill the oil tank and now we are using significantly higher amounts of electric so in effect i’m still using more

There isn’t a bath in the property, and I don’t fancy showing publicly. I don’t want to sound rude but I’m not paying £1250 in rent per month to sit in a freezing cold house and shower in a local swimming pool…

I know we can use a kettle (as we have) but if I wanted to live in the victorian era of pot washing I’d build a time machine. Next the toilet will break and I’ll be expected to build an outhouse in the garden…

I understand contractors cant pull parts out their backsides and things can’t be fixed next day but the LL has had the quotes for almost 7 days now but is ignoring my estate agent and not giving authorisation - so now I blame him entirely! 

Would it be unreasonable once the boiler is finally fixed to ask for a reduction in this months rent? I don’t see it fair to pay such amounts to then be forking out extra on top because the LL is sitting around thinking of saving pennies rather than helping his tenants. To have no on-tap hot water and no heating - to have to seek warmth and water at someone elses property and pay out for heaters at £25-35 a pop with more electric on top - for £1250 a month? Doesn’t seem right to me.

lincroft1710

You can of course ask for a rent reduction, but if one is granted, don't expect it be the equivalent of one day's rent for each day you were without a boiler.

deannagone

You could follow this, but it needs to be followed exactly.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/what_to_do_if_your_private_landlord_wont_do_repairs