Contractor left us without a cooker

keith94

I’m unsure if I am in the right place for this however hopefully someone has advice for me. 

I live in a council property and last week we had the floor tiles in the kitchen removed and floor screeded ready for new flooring. To do this the contractor removed 2 doors and had to have our gas cooker unhooked. This was on the 5/6/24. Today 11/6/24 we still have not had our cooker hooked up, doors still haven’t been re-hung and they have left big bags of rubbish from the job in our garden. We rang the council to inform them about the cooker to which they “couldnt do anything” so we spoke with the contractor who also “couldn’t do anything” in there words what do you want me to do about it. 

As it was the contractors who unhooked the cooker, is it their responsibility to re hook it? It’s been 7 days now without any means of cooking meals. 

I have kept all receipts from takeaways bought during this time, should the contractor reimburse us? 

Thanks in advance 

rob7475

does the gas cooker use a flexible hose with a bayonet fitting? If so, can you not connect it back up yourself? It's simple to do.

keith94

rob7475 said:

does the gas cooker use a flexible hose with a bayonet fitting? If so, can you not connect it back up yourself? It's simple to do.

I couldn’t tell you as I’m not at home at the minute. Would it not need to be someone who is gas registered or qualified? 

Risteard

keith94 said:

I have kept all receipts from takeaways bought during this time, should the contractor reimburse us? 

No chance. That would be ridiculous.

GDB2222

Risteard said:

keith94 said:

I have kept all receipts from takeaways bought during this time, should the contractor reimburse us? 

No chance. That would be ridiculous.

The contractor is responsible to the council, and the council is responsible to you. So, make your complaint to the council, although I am not particularly hopeful. 

When is the new floor going down? 

keith94

Risteard said:

keith94 said:

I have kept all receipts from takeaways bought during this time, should the contractor reimburse us? 

No chance. That would be ridiculous.

Why would it be ridiculous? A family of 4 haven’t had any means to cook meals in our own home for a week. As the screws would have to dry/set I completely understand a day possibly 2 but a week is unreasonable 

keith94

GDB2222 said:

Risteard said:

keith94 said:

I have kept all receipts from takeaways bought during this time, should the contractor reimburse us? 

No chance. That would be ridiculous.

The contractor is responsible to the council, and the council is responsible to you. So, make your complaint to the council, although I am not particularly hopeful. 

When is the new floor going down? 

We’ve spoke to the council who are trying to liase with the contractor to rectify the issue and have expressed they will aim to get the contractor to reimburse. The flooring is going down next week. The doors I’m not massively fussed about although it would be nice to use the toilet without the household knowing what I’m doing.

silvercar

I'd guess the contractors have taken the easy option of disconnecting at the start with the plan to reconnect after the floor has gone down. It may be that the council were aware of this plan or it may be they didn't know.

Any chance they warned you of this, so you could plan accordingly eg cook meals in advance that you could reheat in a microwave?

silvercar

rob7475 said:

does the gas cooker use a flexible hose with a bayonet fitting? If so, can you not connect it back up yourself? It's simple to do.

It may be simple to do, but it also needs to be checked for leaks. Not sure I would want to mess with gas and I'm not sure a landlord should expect a tenant to do it. If it was that simple, the contractors would have done it themselves, but I guess they need to call in a gas safe registered person to do it, hence the delay.

DullGreyGuy

keith94 said:

I have kept all receipts from takeaways bought during this time, should the contractor reimburse us? 

It is highly unlikely anyone will reimburse. 

For the sake of a week whilst still living in the home it would be anticipated that people can live on cold food and/or microwave etc. 

In my world if we put you in a hotel as your home is uninhabitable we would consider the difference between cost of home made food and eating out but we'd still expect you to be reasonable (eg supermarket meal deal for lunch not a 4 course meal/big takeaway) 

keith94

silvercar said:

I'd guess the contractors have taken the easy option of disconnecting at the start with the plan to reconnect after the floor has gone down. It may be that the council were aware of this plan or it may be they didn't know.

Any chance they warned you of this, so you could plan accordingly eg cook meals in advance that you could reheat in a microwave?

We were given no warning. We spoke with the contractors to ensure they knew they were only doing the screed not the floor as we’ve got someone else to do that. It would make sense to leave it disconnected until the floors down but 2 weeks is abit long.