No heating at the property for 5 days

JohnBravo

Hi All,

    I hope you are doing well.

I have a question: What in your opinion be a correct way of escalating this issue?

A company called Switch2 is responsible for the heating system in the building - it's a communal heating system so there is no boilers at the property just some valves allowing the flow.

I had no issues with the heating for over 5 years but recently a 3rd party - another company has been introduced to the mix - Imtech that does maintenance works on the heating systems (and in the middle of winter!) and so far their interventions which usually end up in a !!!!!!-ups lead to no heating in the building. Last one was back in January 2022.

This whole estate is managed by One Housing so social housing mixed with private apartments.

I cannot deal with Imtech myself as this has to go through Switch2 but them sending engineers is a waste of maybe not their time but mine. Two engineers have visited so far but because it's outside their control it's down to Imtech which IMHO is rubbish.

I reckon What I am facing (no heating and no hot water) is a result of their most recent !!!!!!-up when Imtech's maintenance in the downstairs ground floor apartment led to a major leak from the heating system (water gashing through an overflow pipe outside the property onto the pavement).

They've must have shut a number of valves to stop the leak but they've must close my valve as well. They fixed the issue downstairs but left me with no heating and no hot water and now I have to go in circles for them to FINALLY arrange an Imtech guy to go into the loft and open the valve they closed last week.

This supposed to happen today but I reckon there is going to be another day with cold feet.

It would not be a problem if it was spring or summertime but now the temperatures are between 4-9 centigrade Celsius.

I am going to file a complaint to Switch2 via Resolver but I don't think this will have much effect on them and these Imtech !!!!!! will keep coming and breaking things.

canaldumidi

Presumably there is a management company that manages the estate. And you pay them an annual service charge. This may or may not include energy costs, or they may be billd seperately. But either way i'd expect the Manco to have responsibility for appointing the energy company/maintenance contracts,so you should direct your complaint to them.

Combining with your neighbours for a joint complaint should add weight to it.

JohnBravo

I sent a complaint to One Housing which is managing the estate, let's see what they say.

But I reckon they will turn around and say that because I am only a tenant this complaint can only come from the landlord.

The heating came back the same day in the evening but only when I had a heated conversation with Switch2 representative. They book you an engineer the same day but overall they are pretty reactive not proactive and chasing them 3 times a day is the only option.

canaldumidi

JohnBravo said:

.....

But I reckon they will turn around and say that because I am only a tenant this complaint can only come from the landlord.

The heating came back the same day in the evening but only when I had a heated conversation with Switch2 representative. .....

And have you also written to the LL?

But good news it's working again!

JohnBravo

Yes, I have copied the landlord in the email complaint to Switch2 but since the LL is like in warm/hot West Coast US I don't bother him.

Carrot007

JohnBravo said:

Yes, I have copied the landlord in the email complaint to Switch2 but since the LL is like in warm/hot West Coast US I don't bother him.

It seems silly to disregard the only person liable for your issues. Where he lives is his problem. He can claim other people all he like but if you accpet that you are enabling his bad behaviour. Landlord is noy hands off, even if he has some companty/person maintain it, he is legally liable.

JohnBravo

I understand however what LL is going to do is to send an email to the same customerservice@ mailbox to raise the issue and Switch2 is not very responsive to emails.

Do you want me to ask LL to raise a complaint himself?