4 days without hot water (boiler issue)

user1977

I agree expecting 100% of the rent to be waived on the relevant days is completely unrealistic (though I'm not sure what any "correct" percentage ought to be). The flat isn't uninhabitable, you just have a bit of hassle to create hot water. I'd be showering somewhere else, but I appreciate that might be easy for everybody.

sheramber

I had no hot water for 7 days during the summer heatwave because all the plumbers were booked up. 

saajan_12

So far, they've done significantly unreasonable. There's always going to be a day here or there when communicating between parties, and not chasing an email within 24 hours is fine. Similarly a homeowner might wait a until they get off from work to contact a plumber etc. Overall the repair could take a few weeks to diagnose, get quotes, decide, get parts, and get a repair appointment. Probably not in this case but other issues could take longer if its a complicated repair, hard to source parts or at a time of high plumber demand. 

LondonNoob said:

We’re obviously getting upset as it’s been a significant amount of time without heating or hot water. 

It’s not necessarily the time it’s taking to fix the boiler, it’s the negligence of the agency that annoys us the most. 

Disagree, I think 4 days is within the bounds of 'normal', no judge is going to look at exact timestamps and if they could have done things a few hours earlier considering this overall timescale and this severity level. Once it gets to weeks / months, you'd have a complaint. 

LondonNoob said:

We are paying rent in full as usual, of course, but I’ve read that tenants can get refunds on part of the rent if they’re left without hot water. We have requested 10% of the month’s rent refunded by the agency for the inconvenience which has so far lasted 10% of the month - but this was obviously denied by the agency. 

A tenancy doesn't come with a guarantee the property will be perfect, just that the LL will repair issues. So the (reasonable) time taken to repair wouldn't be compensible at all. Once you get after a reasoable time, then the clock starts. Also the hot water is only a part of the benefit you get from the property - you also get to sleep there, cook there, store belongings there, spend your evenings there, wash in cold water.. Perhaps 15% of the rent for those days would be more relevant. 

MEM62

LondonNoob said:

We appreciate that we’re lucky it’s not happening during the winter, we’re just quite annoyed at the way the agency have (not)handled it (until we did it ourselves).

You may not have faired much better in terms of a timeline even if you owned the property.  My boiler packed up a few years go in a freezing December and it too a week to get it sorted.  In terms of time it takes what it takes - whether you are a tenant or an owner does not necessarily influence that.