Private Landlord - No Hot Water

[Angi]

Anyone with any advice to this one?

Quick details-
Daughter rents a house, from a private landlord, the boiler for the hot water was not working, so she has No hot water, plumber came needed a part, 5 weeks down the line still without hot water, plumber still waiting for part. many excuses not to call her back.

Smoke alarms? not working when she moved in
Who is responsible?

Daughter also has a 2 years old child.

So if anyone can give me some advice on this one, I would be grateful

[blacksheep1979]

Landlord is responsible - write (recorded delivery) telling them to sort the problem imediately and that you want some form of compensation for the period without hot water/fire alarms - also if there are any gas appliances these have to be checked every year by a corgi reg'd gas person. Get in touch with the council and get them to send someone to check the situation (you then have recorded proof as well).

You should get compensation for this and the landlord could face heavy fines and I believe a possible convistion if he doesn't fix everything (and have a corgi cert).

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

Angi,in reply to your post and in my view:

1.As Blacksheep1979 has mentioned it is the landlord's responsibility to maintain the boiler and the gas appliances.It is a very serious criminal offence for not having a valid CORGI gas certificate for the property.
Also to maintain alarms and electrics - every 3 years.

2.Your daughter should be compensated for not having hot water.The amount to specify is a bit tricky.

By the way how long has your daughter and her child lived in the property?

The answer to this question should enable me to hopefully assist you further.

[red1]

Get in touch with the council ASAP. They will then contact the landlord insisting that the repairs are done within 7 days or they will begin court action. The house is considered unfit for human habitation without hot water.

[demon_x_slash]

Good advice all round. The Housing Officer is the guy/gel to see at the Council, make an urgent appointment and stress that you have a young child living there. I've heard that there's a proviso for fire alarms, though - argh, I'm not at home, so haven't got a ref. to hand...it's if the property was built before or after 1992 - but I can't remember which way round it is...hang on...

EDIT: found it: Smoke alarm is required if it's a property built after 1992. That's according to First-Time Tenant by Patricia Barber. So for smoke alarms it depends how old the property is - if it's older that 14 years you'll have to supply your own - they're only a few pounds from Wilko or Woolies though

[Angi]

Hiya

Thank you to everyone who has replied

My daughter & my Grandson have only lived in the house for 6 weeks, For the past 4 weeks I have phoned (5 times) the landlord to ask about the hot water, he promised me that this would be sorted out. I have been away for a week, when I came back nothing has been done, & I am now as mad about this as I dont know anything about private landlords.
The house is an old terraced house, the smoke alarm is no longer a problem as my hubby has sorted this out. Its the hot water thats the main problem, my daughter will be here tomorrow, so I think the advice that we have been given is the action we will take. The landlord has had more than enough time to sort this out. my only worry will be, if he decides to end the tenancy with my daughter, but we will cross that one if or when it comes.

Thanks again for all the help with this one

Angi x

[red1]

Hi Angie
The landlord cannot end your daughters tenancy because she has asked for neccessary repairs to be carried out. It is illegal.

Re Smoke Alarms
We have 5 properties which my father in law left us. Our local council insist that they are wired into the mains. Battery operated alarms do not suffice.

How long your daughter has lived at the property, or how old her children are is irrelevant. Without hot water the house is unfit for human habitation.

Contact the Housing Officer immediately. The landlord wil then have to carry out the repairs or he will be faced with court action.

He will also have to produce the gas certtificate to say that all gas appliances hace been declared safe by a corgi registered plumber.

Hope this helps

[demon_x_slash]

I mention pushing the 'young child' aspect because Councils, as we all know, tend to drag their heels if they think they can get away with it. Having a young child, an elderly/fragile relative, a disabled dependent etc does seem to put a rocket underneath them

[sea-sidelady]

Hi Angie,

I was in a similar situation a few years ago. (mine was the heat).
I went to the local council housing office, even though i was private. The guy came to look, and got in touch with the landlord. Also as i had a tenancy agreement the landlord couldnt throw me out, as that was my main worry.

Even if he does he has to give 8 weeks and even after that she cant be forced out if she cant find a suitable home.

[Angi]

Update on my daughters problem

We well more me, rang the Landlord, after I rang the Council ( Monday Morning) about the no hot water in her property
The nice lady gave me lots of info & told me that I should ring the landlord again to tell him that there was no hot water in the property & to give him 48 hours to fix the problem, if the problem was not fixed we had to ring her back & she would then send the Enviromental Health Officer to check the property & to have the work done & bill the Landlord. This I did & by 3pm Monday afternoon my daughter had the boiler fixed, she now has hot water. I also mention to the Landlord, that I had been in touch with the Consumer Action Group( Well it was True) who had put me in the right direction(must have scared him a bit) So we would like to say & HUGE thank you to everyone who helped out, who replied to the thread & gave us advice.
Thank You All So Very Much
Angi x

[demon_x_slash]

Great news.

[Nightmare4banks]

Angi,

I am really happy for you,your daughter and grandchild.

It is totally unacceptable that they had to live like that in the first place.

Anyway,enough ranting!

PS Shall I send the landlord a message with compliments from CAG?lol!

[FreezingTexan]

I'll start by saying that I like my landlord and the agency that he uses. Everyone very nicely tries to fix things for me quickly and logs repair calls.

Now the problem - My boiler is broken AGAIN.

This happened just after I moved in and I was left without heat or hot water in March for 5 days. I asked for compensation and was given nothing. I had no money for a hotel and no gym membership. After 3 days without heat or hot water, the agency finally let us use a shower in the unoccupied home that we had just vacated. Because we were at least able to shower, I didn't press the issue.

Now my boiler has gone out again. I am currently on day 4 and my toes are numb from the cold in my flat. I had a cold which has turned into a chest infection over the weekend. I stayed in a hotel last night, but am still being told that there is no compensation and can't afford another night.

From everything I've read, a flat is considered uninhabitable without hot water. How can a tenant be required to pay for rent as well as a hotel when the flat is uninhabitable?

As I said, the agency is very friendly about all of it and very responsive. The problem appears to be that the contract is with British Gas and they refused to come out and fix the boiler today when they were told there were no 'small children' at the property. They are scheduled to come tomorrow, which is good, except that I have had to take the day off work to be at the property because British Gas apparently refuses to call when in the area - meaning the agency cannot come and let them in.

In the end, I'm out the money spent on a hotel for one night and the intrusion I caused by staying with friends another night as well as the money I lose by having to take off work to be here for the repairman - in a freezing cold flat. I have looked everywhere online and cannot find anything in regard to compensation for days that the property was uninhabitable. I don't want to cause trouble for the landlord or the agency - I just want something credited toward my rent for the inconvenience and money that I have lost because of this problem.

Can anyone help me with what the laws are and whether or not I have any rights? I know it's only a few days, but I pay a lot for this flat and expect to be able to live in it while I'm paying rent. I'm concerned that, if the landlord and/or agency isn't penalised in some way financially, there won't have any reason to switch to a repair company that can either fix the problem permanently or at least be willing to call when in the neighbourhood so the tenant isn't required to sit in the flat for 8 hours waiting on the repairman in addition to the inconvenience already cause by being without heat or hot water.

To clarify - I've been in the UK for 3 and a half years and I'm not looking for any more compensation than what I would get in the states - a credit for the period of time that the flat was uninhabitable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Nightmare4banks]

Freezing Texan,

In reply to your post and in my view:


1.Personally,I think that you should notify the agent/landlord in writing regarding the problem regarding the heating(send the letter by Recorded Delivery Post - this is so you have proof that you have contact them) and at the same time get your local Environmental Health Officer or your private Tenant's Officer from the Council involved(landlords and agents loathe them I can assure you!).This costs you nothing and the main thing you is that you should be able live more comfortably in the end because they will make the landlord/agent sort this out pronto.They also have the powers to prosecute landlords in extreme circumstances for disrepair and harassment mainly.

2.The contract with British Gas is not your problem and anyway that sounds like a load rubbish.They will only attend to a property if there are children living in the property!! That does not make any sense!
A responsible landlord would hire a CORGI fitter to sort out the problem at his expense regardless.

3.Regarding the compensation,you should bring this up once the heating issue has been rectified.

4.Sort out the heating and hot water then come back to us and we will suggest what to do then.

5.You should also read what has been previously posted within this thread mainly the fact that your landlord is committing a criminal offence by not providing you with hot water and heating.


In brief,do not tolerate living in these conditions!

I hope you find this information useful.

If you have any questions,just ask.

Keep us posted.

All the best!

[Ed999]

Read this thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...mmodation.html