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Thank you for your letter dated 10th December. Unfortunately it appears that you believe we had a Co2 spike or 'Carbon Dioxide' spike?
It was actually a 'Carbon Monoxide' Spill that we suffered, twice since we moved into the property in July 2009 and not 'Carbon Dioxide' or a spike.....
I am also confused by your comment of, "I have at no time said I am not dealing with this situation."
Maybe I'm wrong, but didn't you say on the telephone, "I'm not dealing with this, the Landlord is dealing with the HSE directly"....?
As you are fully aware we have 3 very small fan heaters, supplied to us by the Landlords gas engineer from Heatek. Unfortunately these are in No way enough to heat this property. At most we can partially heat 2 rooms using these. After the 5-6 inches of snow that have fallen overnight along with the outside temperature dropping to freezing, it is all the more apparent that these heaters are just not enough. We are also having to run them for 15 hrs during the day just to keep a few rooms inhabitable. We have been lucky enough to have concerned family and neighbours who have loaned us a couple of convection heaters to help keep our 18 month old son, my fiancee, myself and a 'looked after child' warm.
I have today spoken to the HSE, who have informed me that the Landlord has already been advised what is required to rectify the heating problem. They could not understand why it has taken so long for the Landlord or yourselves to contact us, or to rectify this situation. I noted that you said on your letter that, 'As soon as they can tell us what needs doing we will sort it out.'
After 4 weeks of waiting for Central Heating and Hot water so far, in a very cold November and December. We were just wondering when we should expect to see a safe and working gas central heating system again?
Until the central heating is restored to a safe and functioning state, we shall be deducting the huge financial cost of running the heaters required to heat the minimum usable space within the property. We are currently only heating the kitchen, lounge and 3 bedrooms to keep the heating costs to a minimum. The rooms that are too cold to use are the hallway and landing, the downstairs toilet, the downstairs office, the laundry room, the dining room, the largest upstairs bedroom and the family bathroom. Both the bathroom and toilet would be too dangerous to use any kind of electrical heating in them.
Then there is the lack of hot water, also now heated by an electric immersion heater that we have to turn on and wait for an hour to heat up. We are having to run this for approximately 6 hours a day just for showers, let alone washing up, etc. Again costing a small fortune to run and again we are using the minimum amount possible to save on costs. We will also be deducting the cost of heating the water from the monthly rent until the boiler is safe and fully functioning.
I have spoken to Southern Gas and Electricity to calculate the cost of running the fan heaters your Gas Engineer supplied us with. The 3 small fan heaters use 6 KWH and the 2 convection heaters we have managed to borrow also use 4 KWH. We can only heat 4 rooms to a minimum habitable temperature, out of all the rooms in this property. We have been forced to close the doors to the other rooms due to the extremely low temperatures making them uninhabitable. We are even having to wear extra clothes, jumpers, coats and even shoes indoors to keep warm.
We have been forced to take the difficult financial decision not to run further heaters and heat the house properly, as it would be with the central heating working.
We are currently living within the minimum amount of rooms possible. We are running the heaters only for about 15 hours out of every 24 hours. This is due to safety concerns about leaving them running at night whilst we sleep, as well as keeping the cost to a minimum.
Southern Gas and Electric have estimated the 10 KWH used, over 15 hours, to heat the minimum living space we are using, is £17.28 per day. So far this will be £483.84 for the heaters alone, as of todays use.
I will try to ascertain the cost of heating the water as soon as I can find out the amount of KWH it uses to run the immersion heater. I have been told a 3 KWH immersion heater will cost approx. £3.50 a day to use.
We also cannot run anymore heaters than we are as it constantly causes the breaker switch to trip out even if we use the kettle. So we are having to turn off 2 heaters to use the kettle. So it is also impossible to use the heaters with a tumble drier, dishwasher or washing machine at all, without all of the downstairs sockets tripping out.
With Christmas less than a week away now, we expect you would be aiming to get the boiler and Central heating to be safe and fully functioning by then. As it is costing you more than £17.28 per day for the electricity to heat this property, without the cost of heating the water yet. We believe it may be the cheapest solution for all concerned. As we did offer to arrange for the replacement of the boiler from the rental money in our last correspondence. This would again have saved money on electricity as well as everyones time.
I believe we have been more than patient waiting 4 weeks without any contact from the Landlord or any real help from yourselves. Neither yourselves nor the Landlords have contacted us once to see if we are okay. No calls to let us know what is happening, nothing!
Yours Sincerely
It was actually a 'Carbon Monoxide' Spill that we suffered, twice since we moved into the property in July 2009 and not 'Carbon Dioxide' or a spike.....
I am also confused by your comment of, "I have at no time said I am not dealing with this situation."
Maybe I'm wrong, but didn't you say on the telephone, "I'm not dealing with this, the Landlord is dealing with the HSE directly"....?
As you are fully aware we have 3 very small fan heaters, supplied to us by the Landlords gas engineer from Heatek. Unfortunately these are in No way enough to heat this property. At most we can partially heat 2 rooms using these. After the 5-6 inches of snow that have fallen overnight along with the outside temperature dropping to freezing, it is all the more apparent that these heaters are just not enough. We are also having to run them for 15 hrs during the day just to keep a few rooms inhabitable. We have been lucky enough to have concerned family and neighbours who have loaned us a couple of convection heaters to help keep our 18 month old son, my fiancee, myself and a 'looked after child' warm.
I have today spoken to the HSE, who have informed me that the Landlord has already been advised what is required to rectify the heating problem. They could not understand why it has taken so long for the Landlord or yourselves to contact us, or to rectify this situation. I noted that you said on your letter that, 'As soon as they can tell us what needs doing we will sort it out.'
After 4 weeks of waiting for Central Heating and Hot water so far, in a very cold November and December. We were just wondering when we should expect to see a safe and working gas central heating system again?
Until the central heating is restored to a safe and functioning state, we shall be deducting the huge financial cost of running the heaters required to heat the minimum usable space within the property. We are currently only heating the kitchen, lounge and 3 bedrooms to keep the heating costs to a minimum. The rooms that are too cold to use are the hallway and landing, the downstairs toilet, the downstairs office, the laundry room, the dining room, the largest upstairs bedroom and the family bathroom. Both the bathroom and toilet would be too dangerous to use any kind of electrical heating in them.
Then there is the lack of hot water, also now heated by an electric immersion heater that we have to turn on and wait for an hour to heat up. We are having to run this for approximately 6 hours a day just for showers, let alone washing up, etc. Again costing a small fortune to run and again we are using the minimum amount possible to save on costs. We will also be deducting the cost of heating the water from the monthly rent until the boiler is safe and fully functioning.
I have spoken to Southern Gas and Electricity to calculate the cost of running the fan heaters your Gas Engineer supplied us with. The 3 small fan heaters use 6 KWH and the 2 convection heaters we have managed to borrow also use 4 KWH. We can only heat 4 rooms to a minimum habitable temperature, out of all the rooms in this property. We have been forced to close the doors to the other rooms due to the extremely low temperatures making them uninhabitable. We are even having to wear extra clothes, jumpers, coats and even shoes indoors to keep warm.
We have been forced to take the difficult financial decision not to run further heaters and heat the house properly, as it would be with the central heating working.
We are currently living within the minimum amount of rooms possible. We are running the heaters only for about 15 hours out of every 24 hours. This is due to safety concerns about leaving them running at night whilst we sleep, as well as keeping the cost to a minimum.
Southern Gas and Electric have estimated the 10 KWH used, over 15 hours, to heat the minimum living space we are using, is £17.28 per day. So far this will be £483.84 for the heaters alone, as of todays use.
I will try to ascertain the cost of heating the water as soon as I can find out the amount of KWH it uses to run the immersion heater. I have been told a 3 KWH immersion heater will cost approx. £3.50 a day to use.
We also cannot run anymore heaters than we are as it constantly causes the breaker switch to trip out even if we use the kettle. So we are having to turn off 2 heaters to use the kettle. So it is also impossible to use the heaters with a tumble drier, dishwasher or washing machine at all, without all of the downstairs sockets tripping out.
With Christmas less than a week away now, we expect you would be aiming to get the boiler and Central heating to be safe and fully functioning by then. As it is costing you more than £17.28 per day for the electricity to heat this property, without the cost of heating the water yet. We believe it may be the cheapest solution for all concerned. As we did offer to arrange for the replacement of the boiler from the rental money in our last correspondence. This would again have saved money on electricity as well as everyones time.
I believe we have been more than patient waiting 4 weeks without any contact from the Landlord or any real help from yourselves. Neither yourselves nor the Landlords have contacted us once to see if we are okay. No calls to let us know what is happening, nothing!
Yours Sincerely
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