Married Quarters (MQ) Residents

ruthem215

An update on my ridiculous situation, 4 weeks before I give birth and getting more and more stressed by the minute with the whole heating and water system. It was turned off a week ago yesterday due to it being totally !!!!!!ed and unsafe. We were told it won't be treated as priority as we still have a gas fire downstairs and an electric emersion in the cupboard. Well as I wrote earlier the emersion is dodgy and the switch sparks, which I reported, electrician came out and told me the switch was gone and needed replacing as did the thermostat on this, as it was faulty and unsafe!!! He still said to keep the emersion switched on constantly (our gas engineer advised us NOT to leave it on constantly) and I thought ok if it was just going to be for one day as our heating and water system was going to be fixed yesterday, but hey ho it wasnt!!!! Our gas engineer couldnt fix it because his van broke down yesterday! So no fix yesterday he finally decided to come today this afternoon at like half 3!!! He fixed the parts he was originally supposed to and then found another problem, and we were told we would need a new boiler, and again this would have to be ordered and we wouldnt have anything sorted by about tues/wed next week - so again another week so thats two weeks without the system working. Then of course the emersion is faulty, so engineer came out to sort this this evening, he is currently changing the faulty switch but has told us that this would be a temporary fix as its the wrong switch, just so fed up of being left and left and not being prioritsed, we have no form of hot water at the moment as every god dam thing in this house is faulty, where do we stand with complaints procedure and getting this sorted out ASAP they don't seem to be listening to me!!!!!!! Tks x

Sparky29

ruthem215 wrote: »

Our gas engineer couldnt fix it because his van broke down yesterday!

Small consolation, if the gas engineer didn't show up for an appointment phone MHS and complain and you will get £20 of vouchers to spend. Worked for us. He was called out on an emergency after the wife had booked a day off work to wait for him :mad:

EmmEve

ruthem215 wrote: »

An update on my ridiculous situation, 4 weeks before I give birth and getting more and more stressed by the minute with the whole heating and water system. It was turned off a week ago yesterday due to it being totally !!!!!!ed and unsafe. We were told it won't be treated as priority as we still have a gas fire downstairs and an electric emersion in the cupboard. Well as I wrote earlier the emersion is dodgy and the switch sparks, which I reported, electrician came out and told me the switch was gone and needed replacing as did the thermostat on this, as it was faulty and unsafe!!! He still said to keep the emersion switched on constantly (our gas engineer advised us NOT to leave it on constantly) and I thought ok if it was just going to be for one day as our heating and water system was going to be fixed yesterday, but hey ho it wasnt!!!! Our gas engineer couldnt fix it because his van broke down yesterday! So no fix yesterday he finally decided to come today this afternoon at like half 3!!! He fixed the parts he was originally supposed to and then found another problem, and we were told we would need a new boiler, and again this would have to be ordered and we wouldnt have anything sorted by about tues/wed next week - so again another week so thats two weeks without the system working. Then of course the emersion is faulty, so engineer came out to sort this this evening, he is currently changing the faulty switch but has told us that this would be a temporary fix as its the wrong switch, just so fed up of being left and left and not being prioritsed, we have no form of hot water at the moment as every god dam thing in this house is faulty, where do we stand with complaints procedure and getting this sorted out ASAP they don't seem to be listening to me!!!!!!! Tks x

All you can really do is go through the official complaints procedure, just don't let them fob you off. First thing i would do is make sure you put your complaint in writing so its all official. You will find the complaints pricedure on the MHS website. When you ring ask to speak to a customer care manager and as much as possible make sure you speak to them every time you ring so they know your ongoing situation, plus they get fed up with you harrassing them

Another option is to contact your local Army Welfare Service. You'd be amazed what a call from them can do! After having wks of problems with my oven not working one call from AWS and it was replaced at 6pm that day!

Another option although it won't solve anything in the short term is to make your local MP aware of the situation. Its a long drawn out process but again i have done this in the past and MHS got a kick up the bum for it which totally satisfied me . The problem will probably be fixed long before the MP can do anything but if we don't make people aware i guess no one can do much to help improve the service we receive.

Another option is to ring the AFF (army family federation) and speak to their housing specialist to see what advice they can offer you.

I often find the only way to get through to MHS is harrass harrass harrass!

Good luck x

ruthem215

Thanks for your replies and help everyone but its still not sorted even now after 3 weeks!

I really am tearing my hair out now. So we finally had a new pump, a new thermostat, a new tank, and the vent was moved yesterday after waiting 3 whole weeks. So the engineer went away and left everything heating up. So obv we were very pleased at the thought of having hot water and heating again.

But the dreaded system still isn't sorted. We found that after all this messing and replacing various parts it STILL has the same problem. Which is that firstly once the heating is switched on the 3 radiators we have upstairs are instantly hot which of course is great, then it takes a further 2 hours or more for the heat to reach the downstairs radiators - ridiculous I know!!

Then downstairs the living room radiator just never heats up at all for some reason, stays cold. Then as the heating is set on a timer, once the timer switches off, the heating is supposed to switch off too! But oh no not with ours. Once the timer switches off the heating still carries on heating the house, all through the night and the morning, which is obv ridiculous, I've tried switching down the thermostat to 0, and the heating is still on!!!

It is a lovely sunny warm day today and this is unbearable, any one experienced any of these issues before? and know what could be causing it? I'm just fed up of engineer after engineer coming in messing with it then going away for it still to have the same issues, and it takes soooooo long to get an appointment for them to come back out as I say only to mess with it and go away again. I'm due to give birth within the next 2 weeks and can't stand any more stress!!! No wonder our gas bills are EXTREMELY high!!! Its just been problem after problem with this system I'm fed up with it all! Do these gas men know what they are doing????????? I will be reporting the problem today once again, only to have to wait another what 3 weeks for them to sort it if it even gets sorted, theres never an urgency x

kitchpoo

Sounds like a few pemaining issues, Probably a motorised valve stuck which diverts flow to the hot water from the heating. Secondly, I wonder if there is sludge in the heating system - stopping flow to the ground floor, requiring a flush through and system treatment.

System

Hi Kitchpoo, my question is slightly off topic but we have been offered a MQ in Rowner in Gosport and we want to refuse because Rowner is not one of our preference areas. We currently live in Scotland and was wondering if you knew how I should word my Refusal. Many Thanks Len

kitchpoo

Hi Lennymfo, the only times I used to get involved with refusals was when the occupant refused upon entering the property. A very messy and drawn out method! If you are able to request a different property via the HIC in advance it is preferable, though I was not involved in this process.

Upon turning up - I have had refusal on the failure of the property to be properly cleaned, or in one instance where a family member had an allergy to pet hairs. In the first scenario it only delayed the eventual entry to the property once it was re-cleaned. The second one ended up in a different property.

Madmummy_3

Hi Kitchpoo I would be greatful for any advice,
Have been offered a nice house just round corner (due to the neighbours from hell DE are moving us ).As its one road away we were able to have a good look through windows down stairs and the kitchen is i quite a state. Rang them to say yes to house but there are a few things that need doing. They said that the usual cleaning and garden would be done but if we feel more needs doing to put in a covering letter listing items for attention. Just would like to know how to word " It needs a new Kitchen " and do they act upon the list ?
Thanks for your time

kitchpoo

Sorry, they wont act on anything on your letter to be honest. Their should be an inspection list carried out by the housing officer jointly with MHS at the move out of the house. You may be able to get hold of this through MHS. The responsibility of replacing the kitchen will be a tough one to get anyone to own up to. The criteria for MHS is that it is functional, ie the doors open/close, the drawers line up and the worktop is hygenic. Beyond that DE need to pay for it, by an INW, which DE will try and not do as it is almost an admission and opens the flood gates for kitchens in a similar state. The age of the kitchen is taken in to consideration in the condition survey and in turn reflects in rent, resulting in DE's attitude being, 'well you are not paying for it so it isnt a problem'. Frustrating I know. If it was me, I would point anything that doesnt work and anything that is unhygenic.

laurenjade1402

Hi Kitchpoo, we moved into our quarter 6 years ago when the house was about 3 years old. It still had the initial builders paint on the walls (the paint that rubs off) and still does to this day so as you can imagine its a bit of a mess now. Should they be painting this and also the carpets are 9 years old and beige should i be entitled to a professional clean on them? We will be in this house until 2012 if this makes any difference. Thanks