No Central Heating or Hot water

[alexmark]

Hi Everyone

I was wondering does anyone know how long a landlord can leave a family with a child under 12 years of age without central heating and hot water. The boiler is a combo boiler. The time is December which is middle of winter.

Regards

[Tools]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

Blatantly copy/pasted from here for you, hope this helps

http://www.thetenantsvoice.co.uk/adv...and-hot-water/

Your rented home requires a reliable source of hot water and it is the landlord’s legal responsibility to provide this. In most properties, the landlord is also responsible for providing reliable heating. However, if property does not have central heating and no alternative source of heating is provided by the landlord, tenants are responsible for any electric heaters they bring into the property.
The law
The law is clear-cut and simple – under the Landlord and Tenant Act (1985) your landlord is responsible for the repair and maintenance of “central heating, gas fires, fireplaces, flues, ventilation and chimneys.” Landlords cannot avoid their legal obligations to do major repairs and maintenance, but there may be a clause in your tenancy agreement that states flues and chimneys are your responsibility, so read it thoroughly to know what is expected. (For heating and hot water to be your sole responsibility your tenancy would have to have started on or before 24 October 1961.)
What the law means
Unless you have caused damage through maltreatment then it is the legal obligation of the landlord to ensure the property has heating and hot water at all times.
What to look for
• Faulty heating including leaking/inefficient radiators
• Blocked chimneys, broken grates, unsealed stoves
• Water that won’t heat properly or does not heat up at all
• Any clauses in your tenancy agreement which state that heating and hot water are your responsibility – it is illegal for your landlord to put clauses in your tenancy agreement which say that you have to do major repairs.
What to do if heating/hot water is not working properly
How quickly your landlord deals with repairs usually depends on whether they are emergency, urgent or routine. It is the landlord’s responsibility to tell you what will be done to fix the repair and how long it will take.
If the problem is not urgent, for example a radiator won’t turn on after you have bled the radiators, then report the problem in writing. This can be a letter or an email; include the date and keep a copy for your own records. You will find the landlord’s address on your tenancy agreement or if the property is managed send correspondence directly to the letting agent. It is always a good idea to follow up with a phone call to the agent; make a note of who you spoke to, the time and date.
If the matter is an emergency or urgent, phone the landlord/letting agent and document the call. Emergency repairs include a total loss of water or total loss of heating during cold weather; urgent repairs include plumbing leaks and central heating faults. Urgent issues are usually carried out within a day. If it is out of normal office hours, use the letting agent’s emergency number. It is good practice to have contact details for preferred tradespeople written down in a safe place such as your TTV welcome pack.
The tenant’s legal responsibilities
Once you have requested repairs you need to allow the landlord access to the property, time to find tradesmen and reasonable time to start the work. Repairs such as leaking taps and blocked drains, sinks or toilets are usually the responsibility of the tenant, so check your tenancy agreement. Remember to continue to pay your rent while waiting for repairs to be carried out.

[alexmark]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

Thank you for your reply. My problem is that in 2013 I rented a house for 950 pounds per month (Devon). I paid 6 months up front and the deposit through Fulfords (Country Wide Property Rentals)
We rented the property from the 28th November and did not arrive from USA until 13th December. In all this time they would not give the keys to who we asked even thought we had paid and signed papers.
When we finally did get the keys we found the boiler not to be working. We were never given any emergency phone numbers etc. to call so we had to wait the weekend out to call the agent.
Monday arrived and we called to say the heating was not working. They asked if we had tried this or that and even asked us to try to make alterations to the boiler to try to fix it which we refused.
Eventually they got a service engineer out 4 days later and he said a part was needed. They ordered the part and we received communication the part was faulty. 2 days later another engineer was sent out to the property with a Fulfords representative. We were not present and they reported that the boiler was fixed and working fine and did not need a part.
The day after, (we were staying else where because our son had had an operation and could not be in the cold) we visited the house and found the boiler not to be working. We called them again. this was the 24th December by now.
On January 10th 2014 we handed the keys back as they never got anyone round to try to fix the boiler and asked for our money back.
They refused to return it and we had to file with the courts.
We went to court and the Judge ruled we had not given them reasonable time to fix the heating which was a total of 23 days.
As of now we owe just shy of 100,000 thousand pounds in legal costs from the other side.

[Tools]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

£100,000 !!!! ??? Are you sure that amount is correct, it seems excessively high for a dispute over a boiler.

[alexmark]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

Yes just shy of one hundred thousand pounds for a house that I paid 6 months up front for and was never able to live in. Due to an agent being involved I had to sue both the landlord and Fulfords (Country wide property rentals) They would not go to arbitration or any type of negotiation at all. By the time we were able to get it into court etc their costs for solicitors and barristers were at that.
It seems the law is wrong somewhere. I would have thought that if you advertise a house with central heating and hot water it should have them. The landlords excuse was they were using their insurance coverage to have the repairs done because they were covered by insurance and did not have emergency coverage so had to wait until they could send someone out.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh yes sorry forgot to mention at no time did they offer to get alternative heating for us or anything at all.

[Tools]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

That is insane, do you have a copy of the court order to upload, remove any personally identifiable information first.

[Amethyst]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

What did you sue them for? Compensation or specific performance etc ?

Copy of the judgment please, and a copy of the costs certificate etc too. Is the Judgment reported ? ( for costs of that level I'd expect it to be )

I think to get some handle on what the heck has happened we'll need to see your original claim and have a bit more info about how the case was run.

[alexmark]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

Yes I can do that. Can you wait until tomorrow as I will have to blank out personal information etc on it.

[Amethyst]

Re: No Central Heating or Hot water

Of course. This must be incredibly stressful for you. xx