Renting problems

huwwatkins

Hi
I've just moved in to a rented house with my girlfriend. We're having some issues with the house and our letting agency seem to just be dragging their feet.

We are both first time tennants so are pretty unsure where we stand, whats reasonable and how far we can push them.

So we moved in on the 14th of Feb, everything fine except the house seemed cold even though the heating was going.

The c/h system runs on oil. The boiler is a stanley super star stove/boiler arrangement.

The only way to get the house even remotley warm and by this i mean around 18-19c is to turn the heating up max which obsolutley drinks oil. In the first week the guage on a 1200litre tank dropped 5cm. We note that the radiator in the living room never gets hot and living room is especially cold (between 14-16c)

So we contacted the letting agency who sent round a plumber. Boiler tested fine, however we did learn that it was at least 30-35 years old! Crazy considering the house looks like it was built in the mid 90's. Plumber also verbally pointed out that none of the radiators looked big enough to heat the rooms properly.

Plumber concludes that some of the thermostatic valves on the radiators are faulty and need replacing. This was on the 21st of feb.

On the 25th of feb I visit the letting agency to confirm that the plumber has passed on his findings. Leting agency say they have given him the ok to carry out job when the plumber can fit the job in but hopefully should be the same week.

Friday the same week I return to ask when the plumber was coming and to complain about the general coldness of the house - according to our thermomiter when i went to bed the night before its was 16c in our bedroom with the heating running and then the next morning 12c - which to me is freezing!

They phone the plumber and leave him a voice message so that they can arrange to phone him back and tell me that they will phone me as soon as they know anything.

Follwing monday (3rd march) I got back to the letting agency to see if they have arranged anything. The owner of the letting agency (bearing in mind i was talking to somone else who works there in all my dealings previously) now tells me that the quote the plumber has given them is expensive and that they can't do anything untill they get the landlord permission but that he would be seeing him this week.


That takes us up to friday the 7th of march when I went back in to see what the outcome of. This time i spoke to the owner again who when asked if he has spoken to the landlord replied to the following effect 'give us chance!' rather curtly!

So now im bing told that they will talk to the landlord either monday or tuesday this week.

What steps can we take? I'm getting fed up of living in a cold house. We are having to substitue/supplement the c/h with eletric ratiators which no doubt is costing a fortune and we dont seem to be getting anywhere.

Are my expectations on how long this should take unreasonable?

We have had to limit the ammount of time the c/h is on due to the heavy oil usage which is somthing we have raised with the LA - at the rate we were going we would have used 400ish litres in 3-4 weeks.

Any advice would be most welcome.

sorry for the long post!

Huw

IveSeenTheLight

Best advice you should take is to take advise from the Citizens Advice Bureau

tbs624

You mention that you’ve recorded the actual room temperature: over the next couple of days, check and record the room temperatures again in different parts of the property, both with and without the heating on ( obviously give the heating time to raise the temperature.) Do you have a tenant copy of the original plumbers report or were his comments just made verbally to you?

The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 Section 11 refers to an implied covenant on the part of the LL: “to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the dwellinghouse for space heating and heating water” Find out from the agent/LL when the whole system was last fully serviced. If you visit the LL/agent or phone them, make notes on date, time, who you spoke to, what the outcome was.

Give them until the end of this week, put it all in writing to the agent/LL (keep it polite) and refer to the relevant law above. Although it is the LLs responsibility, as an extra spur to keep him moving you could always say that you are quite happy to personally arrange for a couple of other plumbers to give a quote for him to follow up.

A good LL would arrange to loan you a couple of freestanding radiators until the problem is sorted out.

Keep it polite, be persistent and let the agent/LL know that if there is a heating system in place they are legally obliged to have it in good working order. (This would also be a requirment of his insurance policies)

If you cannot get it resolved within the next 10 days - 2 weeks, see the private tenancies officer at the Council Housing Dept for further help. Good luck.