Commmunal heating and Hot Water

sheilabelmont

 Could anybody tell me who is responsible for the cost of draining down the system in a communal private block of flats in order to replace the radiator in my flat. I pay £200 pm for maintainence for the block which includes central heating and hot water and is managed by a management company and directors. There are 36 flats in the block and the communal system includes central heating and hot water.

HampshireH

Surely you have an isolation within your property and replacing one radiator doesn't require draining down a whole block of flats?

You need to read your lease to determine who is responsible. Your service charge would usually only be for maintaining and upgrading the actual system not the radiators within your individual flats.

sheilabelmont

No there isn't an isolation switch within my property which I have owned for 34 years. The block consists of 36 studios and yes the whole system was drained down yesterday in order to change the one radiator in my flat ( which I am paying for ) I understand the service charges cover for the maintenance of everything that is communal including the communal boiler but the management company is telling me that I will have to pay for the draining down of the system and the re filling up next week and that includes going into every flat to bleed the radiators. The 4 pent houses on the top floor are the most important to gain entry to. 
The central heating and hot water is provided and covered by the maintenance charges that I pay every month.
I don't understand why I would have to pay for the draining down of the whole system just because of the infrastructure of the block that I'm stuck with. Maybe previous Management Companies should have insisted that we all have our own isolation switch in each flat.