urgent help required about heating and water

tracy jackson · 18th May 2007, 19:32

we currently rent our property through a letting agent we have had our annual gas inspection today and have had our fire and boiler condemnd resulting in us having no heating or hot water. we took the sheets into our agent this afternoon to be told they would have to contact the engineer. then the owner of the owner of teh property then get back in touch with us. the office closed at 5pm for the weekned and we havent heard from them.

the problem we have is that the owner of the property is in the army and may well be serving overseas. we have 2 children one who is nearly 3 and one who is 18months. we have taken them down to my mums as they cant be here at the moment. we dont know how long we have to give them to get the work down. any information will be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance tracy

MrShed · 18th May 2007, 19:35

I would give them until the end of Monday, no later. Do your letting agent not have an out of hours number? Technically the property is uninhabitable currently, by the legal definition.

tracy jackson · 18th May 2007, 19:37

our out of hours number is for transco and the water board and electric not the agents direct

MrShed · 18th May 2007, 19:42

Bloody useless agents lol. So they have no out of hours number whatsoever? Nothing at all you can contact them on? My suggestion would be this. Give them the "benefit of the doubt" of the weekend. Go down first thing on monday morning. Ask when it is getting sorted. State you want it sorted by the close of business on Monday, otherwise you will be forced to get an emergency engineer to come out and rectify the problem, either Monday night or Tuesday morning, and bill the letting agency - the bill for which will be deducted from the rent, as is your legal right of offset. State that if the issue cannot be resolved immediately, you will be forced to move into a hotel temporarily until the property is made habitable again, and that they will be liable for the bill - again remind them that you can deduct this from the rent. Remind them that a "reasonable" MAXIMUM timescale for being without heating and hot water in the industry is 48 hours, you have already been reasonable in giving them longer than this(ie the weekend). Also remind them that technically the property is uninhabitable until the hot water and heating is sorted. Also, put this in writing and give them a copy of the letter(preferably in front of a witness). Then, if they do not sort it, do exactly as above.

This "hardball" method will almost certainly see you evicted at the end of the fixed term, but will get the issue resolved swiftly.

tracy jackson · 18th May 2007, 19:47

thank you for that we dont have a fixed term tennancy but speaking to the owner of the house he says he is happy for us to be here for at least the next 6 years. he isnt overly happy with the agents either but due to having his fingers burnt before in letting the house he has kept the agency to protect his intrests.

MrShed · 18th May 2007, 19:48

No problem. Be aware that if you do not have a fixed term tenancy, following the above steps I would fully expect an eviction notice served very quickly.

tracy jackson · 18th May 2007, 19:52

ok thanks

demon_x_slash · 19th May 2007, 13:22

Agents throw their toys out of their pram if tenants are firm about their rights. It makes you sick, but what can you do...?

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