Heating and Landlord Obligations?

Weyhey

Anyone know landlords obligations with regards to heating?

Our bathroom (shower room really) is seriously freezing with or without the small fan heater on. I swear it must be warmer outside. Landlord says because the house has only electric heating he can only put in a small fan or glow heater in there - anyone know if this true?

The bathroom is also full of damp which landlord is currently painting over with anti-damp paint (there is also a window and extractor fan in there too).

Rest of house has crappy electric storage heaters in the sitting room along with a electric fire. The bedrooms have no definite heating but landlord has recently supplied a plug in heater for one of the bedrooms.

During the night when storage heaters are on the sitting room can be warm but in the morning and by the time I get home from work the sitting room is barely warm (warmer than outside but cold enough to sometimes keep your coat on even with 2kw electric fire also on). We also have cold air blowing out of a dehumidifier we have to keep on during the day due to damp issues.

If I want a warm bedroom I have to manually plug in the bedroom radiator an hour or two beforehand but while not ideal I can live with that.

Our biggest problem is the bathroom though brrrrrrrrr.

Cookie_Monster

that sounds like an absolute ****hole, why are you living there?
Its a renter market, there has to be better out there for the same or less money

cherfp

ha ha i hav same prop as for my livin room is al open plan and e says e cant do much

djimi

cherfp wrote: »

ha ha i hav same prop as for my livin room is al open plan and e says e cant do much

No offense but I had to read that about 4 times to understand what you were saying.

OP, if the place is not adequately heated then the landlord is failing in his obligations. Get him to check the storage heaters to ensure they are working properly. While they are (in my opinion) just about the most pointless means of heating a house as they give off most of their heat during the day when noone is there to appreciate it and cannot be controlled, there should still be enough heat from them in the evening/ at night that the room will still be warm. Its also possible if its a big house that they are simply not powerful enough to warm the place, in which case they need to be upgraded.

There is no excuse for the bedrooms being cold. If the accomodation has storage heaters then the bedrooms should have electric heaters installed, which are capable of being controlled by a timer. There should be no need for plug in heaters and even if there is, they should have been provided for every bedroom before you moved in.

Im not sure what else the LL can do about the shower room; ours is also quite cold although the blow heater does a good job of heating the room quickly while having a shower.

As said above, the place does not seem the most pleasant to live in, and the landlord does not seem particularly bothered about your standard of living. Theres no shortage of rental properties out there, so if you can then you would probably save yourself a lot of hassle in the long run by getting out of that place and moving to a place that is properly heated.

ztoical

Weyhey wrote: »

Anyone know landlords obligations with regards to heating?.

Current standards state they must provide heating appliances for every room lived in and that they should be capable of providing effective heating. If you think the heating provided isn't up the minimum standards you can ask the local authority to make the landlord comply with these standards.


Do you know how long they've been renting the property for?
If it's been rented at any time between 1 September 2004 and 31 January 2009 it doesn’t have to meet the new standards for sanitary, heating, laundry, food preparation and storage facilities until 1 February 2013.

Weyhey

Thanks folks. I am thinking of leaving but it is not that easy to break a lease without proper reason. I love the area and the street the house is on. There may be lots of rental properties out there but any of the one's I've seen were the pits. It is like landlords don't give a damn any more.

ztoical wrote: »

Do you know how long they've been renting the property for?
If it's been rented at any time between 1 September 2004 and 31 January 2009 it doesn’t have to meet the new standards for sanitary, heating, laundry, food preparation and storage facilities until 1 February 2013.

I've only being renting it since May and it was empty for a few months before that but rented before that. I definitely won't be renewing the lease.

I find it so hard to believe that there is nothing he can do about the heating the bathroom other than a small fan. It seems crazy.

odds_on

HOUSING (STANDARDS FOR RENTED HOUSES) REGULATIONS 2008

and the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses)(Amendment) Regulations 2009.
This Act is outside the scope of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, so no claim can be brought to the PRTB in this respect.

7. Heating Facilities

7. (1) Every room used, or intended for use, by the tenant of the house as a habitable room shall contain:
(a) a permanently fixed appliance or appliances capable of providing effective heating,
(b) suitable and adequate facilities for the safe and effective removal of fumes and other products of combustion to the external air.
(2) The operation of any appliance referred to in sub-article (1)(a) shall be capable of being independently manageable by the tenant.

Graces7

odds_on wrote: »

HOUSING (STANDARDS FOR RENTED HOUSES) REGULATIONS 2008

and the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses)(Amendment) Regulations 2009.
This Act is outside the scope of the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, so no claim can be brought to the PRTB in this respect.

7. Heating Facilities

7. (1) Every room used, or intended for use, by the tenant of the house as a habitable room shall contain:
(a) a permanently fixed appliance or appliances capable of providing effective heating,
(b) suitable and adequate facilities for the safe and effective removal of fumes and other products of combustion to the external air.
(2) The operation of any appliance referred to in sub-article (1)(a) shall be capable of being independently manageable by the tenant.

We don;t have that here and really it is not needful. We knew this when we moved in and that is fine. Never been used to that kind of heating.

Weyhey

Graces7 wrote: »

We don;t have that here and really it is not needful. We knew this when we moved in and that is fine. Never been used to that kind of heating.

???

Is this a mixup of threads?

shoegirl

Weyhey wrote: »

Anyone know landlords obligations with regards to heating?

Sadly, somewhere cllose to nil. AFAIK they have to provide a "means" of heating, not an effective heating system. In practice I think that means any kind of ould electrical heater is considered fulfilling their legal obligation. It has improved a little - until 2004 it was sufficient to have plug socket where you could plug in a heater purchased at your own expense.

Weyhey wrote: »

Our bathroom (shower room really) is seriously freezing with or without the small fan heater on. I swear it must be warmer outside. Landlord says because the house has only electric heating he can only put in a small fan or glow heater in there - anyone know if this true?

Yes, unfortunately he is within the law on this. He is not obliged to give you A-rated heating, however if there is mould or obvious damp the place could be regarded as substandard and he would be required to do something about this. If this is the case have a chat with Threshold and take evidence. He cannot let a house with severe ventillation and mould/rot problems but he's not obliged to provide heating beyond the very basics.

djimi

shoegirl wrote: »

[/B]
Sadly, somewhere cllose to nil. AFAIK they have to provide a "means" of heating, not an effective heating system. In practice I think that means any kind of ould electrical heater is considered fulfilling their legal obligation. It has improved a little - until 2004 it was sufficient to have plug socket where you could plug in a heater purchased at your own expense.

Im not sure if this is entirely true. As far as Im aware they have to provide a heating system that is adequate to heat the accomodation, ie, they cant just hand you a candle and tell you to sit around it! The heating system in place has to be sufficient to actually heat the accomodation, otherwise there is no point to it.

BostonB

What exactly is effective heating? Is there a minimum temp? How much should it cost to achieve the temp and maintain it. Or it is just vague.

delllat

who pays for the electric the de-humidifier uses ?

thats not a tenants responsibility for sure

BostonB

djimi wrote: »

I.... The heating system in place has to be sufficient to actually heat the accomodation, ...

How do they measure that?

Graces7

delllat wrote: »

who pays for the electric the de-humidifier uses ?

thats not a tenants responsibility for sure

Sadly seems to be. We have always had to pay for that. Stopped using it now in consequence; never thought of asking the LL to pay costs; nice idea;) We just got through dealing with the electric fence around the fields now empty of cattle being switched off for the winter. Yep; on the house power.

BostonB

How did you switch off the electric fence?

Shades799

Hey, I'm a landlord and my tennant reported a smell of Gas on Monday. I rang the Emergency team and the called out and confirmed we had a gas leak and turned off the heat.

On Tuesday I called out an RGI plumber and he told me the job that needed to be done and quoted me. I called down and brought them down and electric heater and there is a fireplace in the house that they could have a fire. There is an immersion for hot water.

I got two other plumbers to call around on Wednesday and give me a quote and booked one of them, Wednesday night. He was at another job and would start the work on Friday morning.

As a good will gesture I also offered to pay for a doctors visit as they said the smell was pretty bad for two weeks and they were complaining of headaches.

They text me today complaining of the cold, saying that they had throat infections and were basically hinting at getting money off their rent.

As far as I'm concerned I've gone above and beyond my obligations and I'm working as if it was me living in the house.

Am I correct in thinkning I've done everything possible in this situation and they have no right to ask for anything else?

Spiritofthekop

Who pays for the electricity bills for all this extra equipment??

Its just bizarre why would you want to live in a place like that in this day & age??

BostonB

BER

End of.

Shades799

Spiritofthekop wrote: »

Who pays for the electricity bills for all this extra equipment??

Its just bizarre why would you want to live in a place like that in this day & age??

Is this referring to my post??

Spiritofthekop

Shades799 wrote: »

Is this referring to my post??

No to the OP.

You seem to be doing everything you possible can, as long as you have people on it fixing the situation just like you would were your living presently if the same thing happend then there is no problem.

Just take note of all calls & comunication to cover yourself as that side of things could get serious.