tenant needing advice please

[msbonce]

Hi

I am a tenant needing advice on boiler/heating issues with my landlord.

British gas came to service my boiler as it had stopped working they said as over 25 years old and the parts were no longer available my landlord should replace.

He has decided to repair it himself (bg said this would void my policy) if not completed by a gas register engineer.

My landlord said he is a trained plumber but not gas safe registered and the work he will be doing does not involve touching the gas or boiler.

he will be doing a power flush
putting on new radiator valves
and an external timer switch as the one on the boiler does not work.

please could someone confirm if he can do the work himself as he says they are wrong and only saying this to get money out of him or if bg are right in saying only a gas registered engineer should complete the works listed.

thanks

 

[londonboy]

He doesnt need to be gas safe registered to do anything you have listed.

 

[msbonce]

ty londonboy I guess that means I can allow the man who can't even put on a u-bend pipe loose on the heating hehe

 

[spraggo]

He doesnt need to be gas safe registered to do anything you have listed.

True, but he has to be electrically competent to do the electrics.

 

[SpecialK]

Why cant BG do any of these? Are you sure there is not something else wrong with the boiler, ie part needs replacing? Do you pay BG to service the boiler when its the landlords responsibility?

he will be doing a power flush
putting on new radiator valves
and an external timer switch as the one on the boiler does not work.

 

[msbonce]

the landlord pays for the home agreement sorry not me. My boiler stopped working I had no heating which is needed to heat the water. It would not spark up and the timer has gone.

They gave him a quote for a new boiler as the parts needed were no longer available.

My landlord doesn't want to pay bg to do the work or replace the boiler (I can only get hot water if the heating is on so have to have on all night so we can wash in the morn etc with hot water).

He said he can fix the problems himself by doing a power flush and putting an external timer so I can set it to come on at certain times rather than have on constantly, and new valves so I can turn off my radiators to save money.

I think it's more to do with him not spending money than anything else which is why he wants to do the work.

The thing that worries me is by him doing the work bg have told me he will be voiding the warranty so they will not come out to repair if anything else goes wrong.

thanks again for replying.

 

[expertgasman]

I think it's more to do with him not spending money than anything else which is why he wants to do the work.


it's perfectly reasonable for the lanldlord to carry out work for which he is competant. I obviuosly don't know your rent level os condition of your home, but the bill from BG would take big chunk of his rental income.

 

[bengasman]

He doesnt need to be gas safe registered to do anything you have listed.

True, but he has to be electrically competent to do the electrics.

No, he does not.

 

[SpecialK]

What I don't understand is BG has said they cannot get the parts and your landlord says he can come and fit them?

 

[garethpa]

What I don't understand is BG has said they cannot get the parts and your landlord says he can come and fit them?

I think the parts required to fix the boiler are not what the landlord is intending to fit.It appears he is fitting a "workaround" to the problem.
From what I gather the fault means that the hot water does not work on its own, only when the heating is on.
What the landlord is intending to do is fit a timer for the heating, and TRV's for the radiators so that the heating can be left on timer for there to be hot water, and radiators turned off as necessary to try and save on heating costs.

I wouldn't be happy with this.

 

[msbonce]

What I don't understand is BG has said they cannot get the parts and your landlord says he can come and fit them?

I think the parts required to fix the boiler are not what the landlord is intending to fit.It appears he is fitting a "workaround" to the problem.
From what I gather the fault means that the hot water does not work on its own, only when the heating is on.
What the landlord is intending to do is fit a timer for the heating, and TRV's for the radiators so that the heating can be left on timer for there to be hot water, and radiators turned off as necessary to try and save on heating costs.

I wouldn't be happy with this.

sorry you can tell i'm a complete numpty and have no idea on this which is why I needed some help.

the parts are no longer available so british g say it's an elite 50 boiler. My landlord was going to buy the external timer and rad valves from wickes to by pass the system and do as garethpa says. Thank you for explaining it properly for me ;0)).

I am happy for someone competent to do the work it doesn't have to be british gas but the few jobs he has done in the house have only been small it took 6 hours and a huge pot of gloop to fit a u-bend pipe to the sink ;0)) so i'm dreading him attempting this unaided.

 

[bengasman]

....I am happy for someone competent to do the work ...

As long as your landlord does not work on the boiler, the flue or the gaspipe, he is well in his rights to do it himself, whether you like it or not.
However, he must provide you adequate heating and hot water, and can not leave you without this for any significant period of time because he wants to save some money.

 

[kirkgas]

the landlord MUST either be competant or employ someone who is competant to carry out electrical work in a tenants home, the tenant must be protected from any danger, are you saying the landlord can get anyone he likes to carry out work in his tenants home?
i thought we advocaate these landlords ONLY using competant people to protect their tenants

 

[tryitandsee]

Just out of interest, have you got your 'pink copy' of the gas safety certificate for this boiler. This should show you who and when checked it last.

 

[bengasman]

the landlord MUST either be competant or employ someone who is competant to carry out electrical work in a tenants home, the tenant must be protected from any danger, are you saying the landlord can get anyone he likes to carry out work in his tenants home?

Exchanging simple like for like items on flex does not require the hiring an electrician. The same goes for changing lightswitches and that kind of thing.
That leads to the bizarre situation that you can replace an existing roomstat yourself, you can replace the existing cable yourself, but you can not install one yourself, or replace the cable AND the existing stat.

It makes perfect sense (if you bear in mind this stuff came from the same place as the ludicrous gwn, epc, and such. Indeed, out of (now LOrd) Prescot's office)

i thought we advocaate these landlords ONLY using competant people to protect their tenants

We may advocate that, but in reality no one is really interested as long as nobody gets hurt, or in the case of social housing: as long as the targets are met.


Typical example is the big bang on the social housing project recently. Major explosion, but after the dust settled, the item disappeared from the headlines.

The main reason I advise clients to get the job done properly by someone who knows what he is doing, is that it is much more convenient, and in the long run cheaper as well.

As social housing (like all work done by civics) is run on a year by year budget, nobody cares if it is cheaper or better in the long run. By the time the negative effects of their incompetence show up, the responsible people will have moved to a different (better paying) job.
Those then dealing with it, can either say they didn't know, or that they were just following orders.