Loss of services in apartment

The Wild Bunch

Hi guys

Myself and my partner are renting a 2 bedroom apartment in Dublin City Centre. We're 8 months into a 12 month lease. Everything was rosy the first 6 months, but there's been a few instances of disruption to services over the past few months:

*In November we were without a working toilet for a week and had to manually fill the cistern with a bucket of water every time we used it

*A week later the heating system broke which meant no heating for approximately 11 days in the middle of winter.

*Last Monday the plumbing failed which means no hot water, shower or washing machine for the past 9 days. It's still not fixed, the landlords intermediary guy is in Monte Carlo (we've still never met the landlord or spoke to her), and the only contact from him is a text saying the plumber will call (this text was yesterday morning, and still heard nothing from plumber).

Is this acceptable and what is a reasonable outcome.

I also want to add we were late with rent by a week just before Christmas and she kicked up an absolute fuss about it apparently, yet we've yet to make a big deal of any of the above.

Any advice appreciated

Michael D Not Higgins

A few questions:

When the toilet broke and was fixed within a week, was it a case of someone coming out fairly soon and having to then get a part or was it a week delay for someone to see to it? Similarly for the heating system.

Is the plumbing failure in any way connected to the heating problem from before?

Some comments:

The landlord (or intermediary guy) should have provided some electric heaters while the heating system was down.
The intermediary guy should have a secondary contact while he is on holiday and not leave his clients hanging.
The kicking up a fuss about a once-off rent arrears is unprofessional, they should issue a warning first with reasonable time to remedy followed by 14 days notice of rent arrears, then 28 days notice of termination of the lease. To get worked up about it is getting personal.

The Wild Bunch

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

A few questions:

When the toilet broke and was fixed within a week, was it a case of someone coming out fairly soon and having to then get a part or was it a week delay for someone to see to it? Similarly for the heating system.

Is the plumbing failure in any way connected to the heating problem from before?

Some comments:

The landlord (or intermediary guy) should have provided some electric heaters while the heating system was down.
The intermediary guy should have a secondary contact while he is on holiday and not leave his clients hanging.
The kicking up a fuss about a once-off rent arrears is unprofessional, they should issue a warning first with reasonable time to remedy followed by 14 days notice of rent arrears, then 28 days notice of termination of the lease. To get worked up about it is getting personal.

Thanks for your reply.

The toilet WAS working before he came out, it was just making an ungodly constant noise.

When he called to fix it, he fixed it, left, and an hour later it broke completely which rendered it completely unusuable.

At the same time, on the same job in our apartment, he said our heating boiler needed a new part, even though it was working fine. He removed the part and said it would still work while he was repalcing it.

After he left, the heating stopped working, same as the toilet - both working beforehand, and now broke when he left. He was also extremely rude, but was a friend of the intermediary guy between the landlord, hence why he got the job.

He came back a week later and fixed the toilet, but claimed he still had not gotten the part (he received the part and fixed the heating 3 days later).

The heating problem now appears to be a general problem and has affected 3 of the 6 apartments in our building.

Thanks

Michael D Not Higgins

Outline these in a registered letter to the landlord and intermediary. Their repair guy is obviously breaking more things than he is fixing.

The Wild Bunch

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Outline these in a registered letter to the landlord and intermediary. Their repair guy is obviously breaking more things than he is fixing.

Thanks

And am I entitled to anything in terms of compensation off the rent for 3 weeks and counting of loss of services?

Lantus

I can't imagine a scenario where you can remove a part(s) from a gas boiler and then tell the user to keep using it until the new one arrives. I doubt you will find anything in the manufacturers manual that says anything along the lines "sure we only added some bits fun and you can take them out and the thing will still work fine!"

Is this guy gas registered? RGII.ie to check.

Also, if each apartment has its own heating system how is it a general problem? Is there an inherent fault with every system? If so what is it?

Michael D Not Higgins

The Wild Bunch wrote: »

Thanks

And am I entitled to anything in terms of compensation off the rent for 3 weeks and counting of loss of services?

Not legally, no. Also don't try witholding rent as a bargaining chip, that will leave you open to being evicted. You are entitled to repairs being conducted in a reasonable time period, which you should outline in your letter including recourse of getting your own tradesman in to perform repairs if that date is passed and issue the bill to the landlord or intermediary for payment.