Married Quarters (MQ) Residents 18 June 2008 at 8:51PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in UK Armed Forces MoneySaving 421 replies 87.1K views

ldonald101

Grateful for any advise anyone can offer:
I was due an annual electrical check which was booked for the 16 Mar 10, unfortunately due to me being out of areas, I believe a reasonable excuse, I was unable to be present therefore, missed the appointment. On my return I duly phoned to explain and rebook. I am conscious of the protocol that no other repairs to the SFA will be carried out until this check is carried out. This is complaint number 1, why is there no discretion in this? I asked the help line to amend this as it was out with my control however, they stated they were unable to do this but would make a note.
A further appointment was made for PM on 25 Mar 10, at 1645 I received a call to tell me they would not be attending (complaint 2). A further appointment was made for PM 29 Mar 10 which they failed to attend without any notification as to why (complaint 3). I have not received a further appointment.

I recently returned overseas and returned yesterday to find the following bureaucratic, ridiculous situation.
The boiler in my house went U/S rendering the house without hot water or heating, a totally untenable situation with 2 young children. My wife called as an emergency and a technician attended and temporarily fixed the problem stating a new piece was required and would be ordered. The boiler went U/S again and a technician attended and temporarily fixed the problem. At the beginning of the week the boiler went U/S again and my wife called to call out a technician to have this fixed. She was now told this is NOT an emergency coupled with the fact you have not had your electrical check..we will not come out! She duly spoke to a supervisor who confirmed this (complaint 4 & 5), however said he'd call back, we are still waiting. The fact the electrical check has not been carried out is down to MHS not me, also I would like to know why this genuine emergency was treated as such on 2 occasions but not on the 3rd? THE EMERGENCY REMAINS. Can I go to the Chf lk and instruct him to with hold my rent? This may get them to focus.
Thanks everyone.

EmmEve

I don't think there is any such thing as an emergency for MHS! All they have to do is send someone out to make it safe. It then gets put under a new job number and treated as urgent (fix in 5 days) or routine (fix in 28days).

With regards to the electric check i have heard they can do that. However you should be given £20 compensation for any missed appointments, but you may need to read the small print! The info is on the MHS website.

Have you put in an official complaint? I would (and frequently do!) If you are unhappy with the outcome escalate it to defence estates. Again details on the MHS site.

It always helps to make a log of all your calls, times, names etc esp as they are all recorded and can be looked at if you complain.

Unless like in my case they mysteriously can't find a log of one of them!

EmmEve

Its worth a try but I have no idea how sucessful you will be. Officially you need to go through MHS but personally I wouldn't bother. I think you'd be better off ringing your local HIC and discussing it directly with them.

derbyjo

On the previous page there was a reference to contents insurance. We are moving quarters next week. Our insurance on the current place ran out a couple of weeks ago and because we are moving we didn't bother renewing it, thinking we would get insurance at the new place, but the removals company state that we need insurance as their cover is strictly limited (guessing it is a cost cutting move). No-one will cover the new place with the move in, so are we going to have to take out insurance for the old place and then change the address when we get there (and get a rebate as it is a much cheaper area)? Anyone else had the same problem? Thanks!

BLT_2

ldonald101 wrote: »

Grateful for any advise anyone can offer:
I was due an annual electrical check which was booked for the 16 Mar 10, unfortunately due to me being out of areas, I believe a reasonable excuse, I was unable to be present therefore, missed the appointment. On my return I duly phoned to explain and rebook. I am conscious of the protocol that no other repairs to the SFA will be carried out until this check is carried out. This is complaint number 1, why is there no discretion in this? I asked the help line to amend this as it was out with my control however, they stated they were unable to do this but would make a note.
A further appointment was made for PM on 25 Mar 10, at 1645 I received a call to tell me they would not be attending (complaint 2). A further appointment was made for PM 29 Mar 10 which they failed to attend without any notification as to why (complaint 3). I have not received a further appointment.

I recently returned overseas and returned yesterday to find the following bureaucratic, ridiculous situation.
The boiler in my house went U/S rendering the house without hot water or heating, a totally untenable situation with 2 young children. My wife called as an emergency and a technician attended and temporarily fixed the problem stating a new piece was required and would be ordered. The boiler went U/S again and a technician attended and temporarily fixed the problem. At the beginning of the week the boiler went U/S again and my wife called to call out a technician to have this fixed. She was now told this is NOT an emergency coupled with the fact you have not had your electrical check..we will not come out! She duly spoke to a supervisor who confirmed this (complaint 4 & 5), however said he'd call back, we are still waiting. The fact the electrical check has not been carried out is down to MHS not me, also I would like to know why this genuine emergency was treated as such on 2 occasions but not on the 3rd? THE EMERGENCY REMAINS. Can I go to the Chf lk and instruct him to with hold my rent? This may get them to focus.
Thanks everyone.

You could, but only if you wanted to give him a good chuckle. Chief Clerks have no ability to withhold your rent, it is paid direct from your husbands wages and will continue to be until you move out. The shoddy incompetent service provided is one of the downsides of paying a rental market value of, in some cases, less than 10% of the going rate.

However the plus side is you do get some amusing experiences. Such as the tiler who came into to do the bathroom, the following day the plumber came in to install an electric shower, ripping tiles off the wall in the process, the following day the tiler came back in to retile. You couldn't actually make it up

ldonald101

BLT wrote: »

You could, but only if you wanted to give him a good chuckle. Chief Clerks have no ability to withhold your rent, it is paid direct from your husbands wages and will continue to be until you move out. The shoddy incompetent service provided is one of the downsides of paying a rental market value of, in some cases, less than 10% of the going rate.

However the plus side is you do get some amusing experiences. Such as the tiler who came into to do the bathroom, the following day the plumber came in to install an electric shower, ripping tiles off the wall in the process, the following day the tiler came back in to retile. You couldn't actually make it up

Why would it give him a chuckle? Surely the only amounts (legally) they can take from your wages wthout permission is tax and NI. The terms of the licence state we must pay our rent on a monthly basis, however, these muppets are in breach of the licence therefore, I would consider it appropriate to with hold until such times as they fix my heating and hot water, The licence is another issue, they dictate "you will" under our obligations, DHE dictate "they will try to" under their obligations, surely this balance is wrong...Comments/advice please. 6 days now without hotwater or heating and no reply to my complaint!!!!!!!!

EmmEve

Have you had an acknowlegdment of your complaint? If not you could try to escalate it straight to DE. Unfortunately you have to do this in writing so will take time and they have 15 days to investigate.

Or you could try the Army Welfare Service or similar. I contacted my AWS after being left for 6 wks with no oven or grill. I had my cooker replaced the same day I saw them!

ldonald101

EmmEve wrote: »

Have you had an acknowlegdment of your complaint? If not you could try to escalate it straight to DE. Unfortunately you have to do this in writing so will take time and they have 15 days to investigate.

Or you could try the Army Welfare Service or similar. I contacted my AWS after being left for 6 wks with no oven or grill. I had my cooker replaced the same day I saw them!

Had acknowledgement but no action!!! I copied my complaint to DE too, still no action. The electrical check was completed today, but I am now informed I can't report the boiler/heating/water problem until they receive the paperwork..A classic case of "computer says no" I pleaded with them to apply common sense however, computer did not allow them to do this either.PRICELESS. We often forget as the licencee we are not the customer of MHS so they don't need to keep us sweet, DE are the customer but they seem disinterested too. We have no rights.

EmmEve

Oh I feel your pain, i've been there. Common sense does not exist in the world of MHS! I recently tried to report some broken equipment in a local playpark but struggled and had to try three times because said park wasn't listed on their computer system!

I think so many people give up on complaining because it achieves nothing and as you say they don't care! The whole process is so draining its often not worth the stress :mad:. I could rant about MHS allllll night long :rotfl:

Hope your paperwork comes through quickly and the boiler gets fixed properly. Do you have an immersion for your hot water?

peteuk

EmmEve wrote: »

Common sense does not exist in the world of MHS!

Like the time I called MHS to report a broken and overflowing gutter/drainpipe on my house. When reporting the problem I cleared told them it was a two story building and the gutter was not accessable without a ladder.

On the day of the arranged appt, the allotted time past, so I phoned them to findout what was happening. i was told the repair man would be with me in half an hour.

Dully 30 minutes later repair MAN turned up, knocked on my door said "youve got a gutter needs repairing" I showed him to the back of the house pointed the obviously broken gutter and he said "Cant do anything with that its a ladder and a two man job!" NS Sherlock.

So he left, I contacted MHS who stated the inital job is to assess the problem and fix if possible. After I finished telling them that I wanted to be compensated for the days leave I had taken for the work repairman to look at a drain (now im no plumber/drain expert but even I could tell you it was a two man job with a ladder).

They settled on £30 in vouches and an apology in writing