charging landlord for boiler repair

[Bearington]

Hi all,

 

I've posted before regarding my idiot landlord and ive got another problem.

 

Thursday night while at work, I get a call saying boiler has packed in- no heat/hot water.

 

I get landlords voicemail.

Friday morning, voicemail again.

Friday afternoon, I book an engineer.

Saturday morning, still again, landlords voicemail.

Engineer attended that afternoon and fixed it to the tune of £130.

 

We have a 2 year old in the house and I really couldn't wait for some 20 year old to be bothered to turn his IPhone on.

 

Where do I stand witholding/deducting this from the rent?

 

Cheers all

 

Bearington

[mariner51]

Without a sympathetic LL you are prob on your own & liable for £130.

Whilst LL may be resp for boiler repair, requests for repair should be made in writing (letter, not voicemail, sms) to AST address for 'service of Notices'. LLs are allowed to switch off mobiles occ.

£130 on Sat PM suggests a minor fault (pilot light out, boiler switched off etc) which may not be fault of LL.

Any cost deduction from rent should be agreed in advance with LL, pref in writing.

You contracted and paid the engineer (hopefully Gas Safe registered, did you check?) so are resp for his bill.

A sympathetic LL may agree to pay part/all of charge, given the circumstances. Ask nicely.

[Bearington]

Luckily I worked for a very well known domestic repair company for nearly 10, all our clients were major insurance companies and service providers, I has Gas Safe on speed dial.

 

The boiler suffered mechanical breakdown the pressure sensor had blown causing it to register the system being depresserised. British Gas fixed it for the aforementioned price.

 

While I appreciate his phone is allowed to be off- it always is, I last spoke to him in June. His work will always tell me they cannot take a message for him- he will never return a call.- and he's given up just randomly appearing. With that in mind waiting the length of time I did was entirely reasonable considering no contact from him or a representative. The contract we have states he is responsible for the boiler/central heating system.

 

With that in mind, paying for the repair was the only choice. Ive transfered 50% of the rent this evening and will be speaking with the CAB / local council in a few hours.

 

I'll update later.

 

Cheers

 

Bearington

[Conniff]

I think you are correct in passing the bill to the LL, but not so sure about stopping some of the rent, that means you have broken you tenancy agreement and could go against you.

 

You should send him the bill by recorded delivery letter asking for reimbursement.

[Steve__M]

As I understand it a landlord is allowed a "reasonable" time to arrange a repair. For example, if getting BG in on the Monday were cheaper than the Saturday it might be argued that Monday was reasonable and that £130 was therefore excessive.

 

Hopefully you have a clear explanation of the fault (on the BG receipts I have, the engineer only tends to write a couple of words at most).

 

It may be worth paying full rent now and stating that you think it would be reasonable for you to deduct it from a future payment, which gives your wide-boy landlord an opportunity to discuss things.

 

If your landlord is realising that being a landlord is turning out to be a pain in the wotsits you could politely suggest he gets a service agreement including landlord certificate for his peace of mind. I pay just under £30 a month for my service agreement, and the service provider has come out in under 24 hours each time I've needed them.