You Can Tell It's Friday When

[lancsdave]

The boiler packs in. Not for the first time the boiler has gone kapput. The landlords site manager will probably give me a call back at about 4.30pm to say it's too late to get anyone out now so it will be Monday. Thats of course if he calls back at all, still waiting for a return call from 2 weeks ago.

No heating and hot water again all weekend and to cap it all I've just had to go and pick my daughter up from school because she is unwell.

How come these things never go wrong on Monday ?

[Wynonie Harris]

...and, like us, you don't even a match to take your mind off it tomorrow!

[Ianto.W.]

Commiserations lancsdave s**t always happens in that manner, threaten to report them to the Council as bad Landlords, they should have emergency cover under the new 'good landlord' agreement they will have had to sign with the council. If all else fails (if you can afford to pay to have it done yourself), do it and bill the Landlord.

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by Wynonie Harris

...and, like us, you don't even a match to take your mind off it tomorrow!

I love your wit Wynonie, I read the one about Hollands pies tasting of (polish) it slayed me.. Apologies for the thread wander lancsdave.

[***Mr D***]

I would ring them back and cause merry hell.

Child, Not well, Freezing temperatures, Not good.

[flashy]

go down to there office or there house and kick seven bells of sh!t outta them

[cherokee]

OMG dave i know what its like ..ive just had no heating or water for three days and it was freezing........apparently it was the control panel on the boiler ...hope you get it done today ....good luck

[Wynonie Harris]

Originally Posted by Ianto.W.

I love your wit Wynonie, I read the one about Hollands pies tasting of (polish) it slayed me.. Apologies for the thread wander lancsdave.

Glad you like it, Ian. One of these days, I'll be round to "polish" off your Merlot!

[chav1]

ring them back dave and tell them that if they dont get it sorted you eill get a plumber in an deduct it from the rent

thats what i would do especialy in weather like what we have at the moment

if they say you cant do that just say well watch me

[Billcat]

Originally Posted by chav1

ring them back dave and tell them that if they dont get it sorted you eill get a plumber in an deduct it from the rent

Good thought, chav1! I would also consider a deduction from the rent for each day without heat - "Well, if you can't be bothered to supply heat until Monday, I won't be bothered to supply rent for that same period of time!" Don't know what the laws are over there, but over here there are some pretty stiff penalties for landlords who fail to supply heat.

The only silver lining is that, with no heat, one does not have nearly as much need for a shower to smell pleasant!

[jambutty]

It’s all very well paying for the repair yourself and then billing the landlord Ianto.W. but if he won’t mend the boiler he is unlikely to pay the bill. The thing is he will claim that what you paid is far above what he would have paid and thus starts another argument. So what are you going to do then? Small claims court I guess. Even if you win you still haven’t got your money if he still won’t pay up and it will cost you even more money to go back to court and eventually get the Bailiffs in.

If you do go to such lengths and get full satisfaction you have made an enemy of your landlord and he WILL find ways of making your life miserable and eventually kicking you out into the street.

If you try withholding your rent that could get you kicked out. But that would depend on the terms of the rent agreement.

With a child in the house I would contact Social Services or Health and Safety.

If you don’t fancy doing that because once again you are making an enemy of your landlord you are left with one option. Stick it out. But in the meantime try and borrow a Calor gas heater or an electric fire and just heat one room, where the telly is. Even if you have double-glazing keep your curtains drawn. The oven on the cooker is a good source of heat with the door open and if your kitchen is adjacent to your living room it could supply some warmth.

Don’t forget that those of us who lived through the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and even 60’s only had one fire for the whole house and we survived.

[Billcat]

I'm not sure that I would want to use the oven on the cooker unless I had a carbon monoxide detector working. That CO can kill!

[lancsdave]

Originally Posted by jambutty

It’s all very well paying for the repair yourself and then billing the landlord Ianto.W. but if he won’t mend the boiler he is unlikely to pay the bill. The thing is he will claim that what you paid is far above what he would have paid and thus starts another argument. So what are you going to do then? Small claims court I guess. Even if you win you still haven’t got your money if he still won’t pay up and it will cost you even more money to go back to court and eventually get the Bailiffs in.

If you do go to such lengths and get full satisfaction you have made an enemy of your landlord and he WILL find ways of making your life miserable and eventually kicking you out into the street.

If you try withholding your rent that could get you kicked out. But that would depend on the terms of the rent agreement.

With a child in the house I would contact Social Services or Health and Safety.

If you don’t fancy doing that because once again you are making an enemy of your landlord you are left with one option. Stick it out. But in the meantime try and borrow a Calor gas heater or an electric fire and just heat one room, where the telly is. Even if you have double-glazing keep your curtains drawn. The oven on the cooker is a good source of heat with the door open and if your kitchen is adjacent to your living room it could supply some warmth.

Don’t forget that those of us who lived through the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and even 60’s only had one fire for the whole house and we survived.

And to sum it up 'over a barrel'.

Outcome of todays phone calls is that they will TRY and fix it sometime next week. The threat to withhold rent also resulted in the counter threat of 'you can't do that or we can evict you'. The threat of phoning the HSE on Monday morning to inform them that I still have no gas safety certificate 3 months from moving in was met with the response 'Thank you' and the phone being put down.

The problem is if I move out now then I will probably have to move out of the catchment area of the school that my daughter wants to go to and defeats the object of moving here in the first place, something I now regret but of course hindsight is a wonderful thing, and above anything else my daughters future comes first even if we have to put up with greedy bastard millionaire landlords who don't give a toss.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Billcat

I'm not sure that I would want to use the oven on the cooker unless I had a carbon monoxide detector working. That CO can kill!

I assume that you use your oven for baking cakes, roasting roasts etc. so how come you haven’t succumbed to C2O poisoning so far?

As you say lancsdave the landlord will always have you over a barrel especially if he is a private landlord. Housing Associations and the Council have got emergency engineers on standby for such occasions.

I found that when sat down watching TV, raising the legs off the floor and wrapping a blanket around them helped a lot. Of course you would have to wear an extra jersey.

There is a plus though. A cold bedroom doesn’t half encourage you to get undressed and into bed sharpish instead of loitering around. The same goes for getting up.

[lindsay ormerod]

Don't know if this is any help Dave but Wilkinsons have halogen heaters in at a tenner a piece;they work a treat,take it from someone with the worst circulation in the world!