Diagnose and Repair Diverter Valve with No Gas Supply?

[RealPolitik]

Have an older Baxi Duo-Tec 28 combi boiler in a rented house - engineer attended because the new tenants had no heating or hot water (and supposedly had a leak on the boiler, but this wasn’t communicated) on the night they moved in.

Unbeknownst to me, a previous tenant had a gas prepayment meter fitted which was in debit, hence the boiler had no gas supply and wouldn’t turn on.

I’m being told that out-of-hours engineer who attended diagnosed a leak on the diverter valve, and fitted a repair kit he had with him, but “Upon testing the boiler, our engineer found there was no gas supply. Due to this, the boiler could not be tested.’

Does this sound realistic? Would you surely not try to start the boiler to begin with?

 

[RealPolitik]

Should say this is ringing alarm bells because I was initially told the boiler wasn’t working because the filler loop was dripping…

 

[Agile]

All responsible landlords would check gas and electricity supplies at the end/beginning of a tenancy to ensure then supplies are being paid for and that the new tenants have registered to be supplied.

One landlord lost about £2000 when the tenants never registered for the supply and the landlord ended up responsible for the year's consumption.

 

[RealPolitik]

It’s a managed property, it was a failure of the managing agent.

 

[oldbuffer]

1. If the engineer took the cover off the boiler and saw a leak from the diverter valve, he / she might well fix that before testing.
2. If you want to restore the property to a normal meter, you will have to pay the gas supplier (or meter owner) to change the meter, and they may not agree to do so. I once has a tenant who didn't pay the gas bill, and the supplier installed a pre-payment meter without asking me. From memory it cost about £120 to change back.
3. If its a managed property, I would expect the managing agents to check the meter (reading and meter number) at check out of the previous tenant, and raise the alarm if there were no match. The check out should have been done either with or without the previous tenant present, and the deposit not returned (or at least part of it held back) until any arrears / reinstatement costs had been identified and covered.
4. I'd suggest you check very carefully what the managing agents responsibilities are, and address you concerns to them while advising them you will be expecting them to pay for any shortfall.

 

[Madrab]

If the engineer visited, would the first thing be to see if it runs up? Possibly ... but it wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility that a leak could be fixed first before firing it up, it's a well known failure and fix with those boilers.

That being said, you have bigger problems than the boiler engineer TBH. I'd be ripping the management company a new one. Absolutely shocking behaviour .... what are you paying them for? If they didn't know what the previous tenant was up to re the meter then I would be making them responsible for getting that put right. Also they are being paid to monitor and inspect the property, do a proper inventory and regular inspections during and at the end of a tenancy and then to ensure everything is ok for the new tenant before entry.

Are there Electrical certs and a LGSC in place to cover the property, how about all the fire/smoke/safety requirements? I'd be looking at everything very closely if I was you.

 

[CBW]

Does this sound realistic? Would you surely not try to start the boiler to begin with?

Sounds realistic to me. Let’s say it was the pcb that failed, how would testing the boiler work then? Down to tenant to ensure they have enough credit, if there’s debt on the meter then it’s down to previous tenants to clear, or take up with supplier.

 

[muggles]

If the leak is on the heating side (as it most probably would be with a diverter valve issue) then the engineer wouldn't be able to get pressure into the heating system. No pressure in the system would prevent the boiler from working anyway, so it would be logical to fix the leak first

 

[RealPolitik]

Thanks all. The (large, national chain) agent is beneath useless and will be losing the business. I’ll hopefully find out if anything was actually done to the boiler when another gas engineer visits this week (apparently this same boiler was condemned six weeks ago at its inspection - only just found out…).

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

If the Boiler was condemned 6 weeks ago, then it should have been turned off, and that issue should have been addressed prior to anything else being done! Someone, somewhere is being rather economical with the truth.

 

[RealPolitik]

Failed the gas safety inspection, apparently not safe to use:

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Ok, it's AR so 'At Risk', will leave the Gas Safe Guys to explain the position there as I'm not 100% sure, but as the Landlord, I would have expected the Lettings Agent to have notified you at the very least. At minimum it needs urgent repairs, possibly better off to replace.

 

[RealPolitik]

And the “warning notice” (received along with a £3k quote to sort from the same in-house gas engineers):

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Get a trusted Engineer to look and advise accordingly. ASAP.

 

[CBW]

If the Boiler was condemned 6 weeks ago, then it should have been turned off

With landlords permission