Boiler condemned

[tessie2025]

Hi, first time posting so please be gentle with a girl that doesn't know much about this sort of stuff!
I will try and be as clear as possible.
I live in a HA property. A new boiler installed in August 2023 by the HA contractor. In Ideal Eco (something).
Install was messy and rushed by the contractor. Connected to existing flue or used same boxing as old flue (it runs horizontal above my bed). Had a leak from the boiler/pipes which resulted in repainting my living room ceiling after 2 weeks.
Had yearly boiler check in July 2024, nothing noted and I had no problems.
Early December 2024, I started to hear an intermittent high pitched noise (kettling), sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes during the day. Called HA who were to send someone out a week later. Before this happened, my condense pipe froze so I had an emergency call same day. The HA gas engineer found a small amount of water in the boiler but also said the valve needed replacing. He thought the water could have been a back up from the frozen pipe. As the boiler was under warranty with Ideal, I waited for their engineer to come the following week. He replaced the valve noting that it was very rusty inside and that there must have been a leak in the past.
It all worked well again until 2 weeks later when the kettling noise started to happen again although much quieter and only on initial firing up of the heating.
HA sent their engineer again (last week) who couldn't pin point a problem (he came on an afternoon and the heating was on so it didn't make the kettling noise).
Ideal engineer came yesterday morning (the same guy who had replaced the valve) and after taking my boiler apart found it full of water and turned it straight off (luckily I'd had a shower by the time he came ) citing that it was dangerous to use. I called HA while he was there, explained the problem and the Ideal engineer spoke to them twice. He says the reason for the flue flooding the boiler is because it has been positioned under a drain pipe hopper and close to my neighbours wall so the rain drives into it when blowing in that direction. He says I need a new boiler as this one it too far gone for repairing.
I'm not really sure why I've done all this - mainly because I am frustrated and annoyed but also to see if the Ideal engineer is right about the flue position. I don't want to be fobbed off by my HA or their contractor when they finally attend my property.
I have been without heating and hot water for 28 hours now (with a child and it's half term) and my HA still haven't got back to me despite 3 calls and 2 emails!
Thanks for reading if you got this far!
Tessie

 

[johnny2007]

Get on the phone with HA, tell them you need hot water and heat NOW.
Keep calling every 15 minutes.
Go to their head office if you can.
Bother them to the bones, send emails to the ceo, make noise on social media, do everything to make them do something.
They do not care about you and your child, but they don't like being bothered and exposed on social media.
Good luck.
BTW, whatever the engineer told you to condemn the boiler, is correct as far as you are concerned.
They're the experts, not you.

 

[CountryFan]

The boiler flue shouldn't be positioned where it can be affected by water ingress. The problem lies with your HA, not you or Ideal. As above, need to get onto them, ask to speak to their gas manager to find out what they're doing whilst leaving you without heating and hot water for longer than 24 hours.

 

[Madrab]

If the boiler is damaged beyond repair and is either Immediately Dangerous or At Risk because of its internal condition then it should have been turned off, with your permission and a report written up as to why.

Are you in England and is it the housing executive you have the tenancy with? You can use that engineers report to beat your HA over the head with. They will have a service level agreement in place as to how quickly they have to be to ensure you have proper heating and hot water re-instated, unfortunately though each section is categorised differently - emergency repairs are typically 24hrs (no heat in severely cold weather), urgent repairs 4 days - no hot water (unfortunately don't forget kettles/pans to heat water may be considered suitable) and other repairs @ 4wks. That will all be in your agreement with them though.

Go and look through all of that, find the specific clauses that cover your situation and then pick up the phone. Ask to be put through to the advisers supervisor or manager, just state you have already been in touch with no progress to date. Once you are through to the management quote the clause(s) in the agreement to then verbatim and ask them to specify when it will be dealt with, within those timescales, then you need to hold them to that.