I rent a house in Harlow, where the WAU appeared to have suffered from excessive overheat and its front plastic cover deformed badly, without me going into a long story, that would need about 2 whole pages, so here is the final cause of the original fault!
Today I managed get a WAU qualified RGI to issue me with much delayed and needed safety record. Thank God for that!
The first engineer condemned it rightly, and sealed off and capped the gas supply at the meter, but was no longer interested in repairing it, full stop! The cooking and hot water is electric, just as well it was!
So I managed to find a second engineer, who went to the place to have a look what needs to be done, but could not test it as the gas meter was now not only capped off but also she did not have any credit left in it, so he advised me that he thinks it must either be the fan switch failure or the limit switch failure, and possibly the fan motor, so he recommended that because of the age of the appliance, i would be better of replacing the two sensors any way, and he could check the motor which he did by applying ac voltage to it and it ran smoothly, so I told him to go ahead and order all the necessary parts as I was getting in serious issues with tenants an my lettings agent.
So when the parts arrived, he went along and replaced them, and again he could not test as the tenant had mislaid or lost her Pre-payment gas card, so the meter could not be turned on and he left charging me full amount but without issuing a safety record and said he would come back to issue me one, once the gas supply has been restored or the Tenant gets a new pre-payment card. he left the meter still capped for safety.
The tenant managed to order a new prepayment card last week, but the guy who was servicing it is now abroad on a month long holiday
My Lettings Agent was also getting restless, and the tenant threatening to report me for not able to supply space heating, I was right in the middle of this loosing battle!
But the lettings agent wasn't interested in what I said and thought I was making stories and wasn't deliberately trying to restore the heating! far from it!
So finally today i managed to get hold of another WAU RGI, who happens to be in the area and he would be glad to help!
So there we go, I met him at the premises, I explained to him that the unit has been restored by an engineer who is now on holidays and is not due back until middle of January, and I need this thing going! i am being crucified left right center with threats from both the tenant and the lettings agent! tenant would seek her rent clawed back, and the lettings agent accused me of committing a criminal offense by not being able to provide heating under the housing act 1985! I just couldn't win, you have already read my why i couldn't progress with replacing the WAU whilst the tenant is still there because of the asbestos, all the liability issues! the removal company wanted everything out including her belongings!
So i managed to ring a 3rd WAU specialist, I tried to be as truthful to him as I could, as he wanted to know why it was capped off, I told him that I have been told it was a fan switch gone wrong that caused some overheating issues and it needed a new fan switch, but while he was going to replace a new fan switch, he might as well replace the limit switch to be on the safe side, and also advised me to replace the thermocouple. So he had done all that, except he couldn't test the appliance as there was no gas available at the meter due to pre-payment meter card mislaid by the tenant!
I told the guy that I am not asking him to take any risk, but that he should check the appliance weather it is fit for the purpose or not, if it is unsafe then he fails it or if it is safe then he should issue a landlord's safety record.
fine he said, but he will need to service it again, he won't just issue a safety record without a service, I said fine, go ahead and his price was very reasonable, I actually paid him 30% more as I was well pleased that he conducted a just and honest test and it passed all aspect of WAU.
Test included ventilation and flue inspection right all the way from the appliance to all the way inside the loft!
The tenant had blocked all the permanent vents along the exterior wall and was cautioned by them not to do that again! or the consequences will be lethal!
Later on as they were checking all registers, (heat emitting vents) they found that the tenant had stuffed a thick jacket inside the vent duct to stop heat being emitted in one of the rooms!
This is what I think caused the WAU to overheat, as the duct was bunged up with this bloody jacket! as we took it out the tenant was in the room, and as she saw us pulling that jacket out, she exclaimed loudly oh that where my jacket went! I was wondering where it had gone!
cheeky cow, could have burnt my place down if that jacket had caught fire! That is tenants for you! Block the vents and stuff the ducts! and expect landlords to provide safe heating!
So I told her never ever do that again, this stupid tenant has cost me all this aggro for nothing!
When second engineer who restored the appliance with new parts, he let me have to old parts as I said I am really curious as to really what went wrong with this heating, not only from the safety point of view but also as a way to avoid it happening again!
so when I took that fan and the limit switch home, I put them on test, blew hot air from a hot air gun, could not find anything wrong with them! the heating must have therefore overheated, because the first floor registers were bunged up!
I am thinking was the tenant trying to save on heating costs by stopping the heat being fanned upstairs! crazy!
Clearly says on my registers "do not block"
Today I managed get a WAU qualified RGI to issue me with much delayed and needed safety record. Thank God for that!
The first engineer condemned it rightly, and sealed off and capped the gas supply at the meter, but was no longer interested in repairing it, full stop! The cooking and hot water is electric, just as well it was!
So I managed to find a second engineer, who went to the place to have a look what needs to be done, but could not test it as the gas meter was now not only capped off but also she did not have any credit left in it, so he advised me that he thinks it must either be the fan switch failure or the limit switch failure, and possibly the fan motor, so he recommended that because of the age of the appliance, i would be better of replacing the two sensors any way, and he could check the motor which he did by applying ac voltage to it and it ran smoothly, so I told him to go ahead and order all the necessary parts as I was getting in serious issues with tenants an my lettings agent.
So when the parts arrived, he went along and replaced them, and again he could not test as the tenant had mislaid or lost her Pre-payment gas card, so the meter could not be turned on and he left charging me full amount but without issuing a safety record and said he would come back to issue me one, once the gas supply has been restored or the Tenant gets a new pre-payment card. he left the meter still capped for safety.
The tenant managed to order a new prepayment card last week, but the guy who was servicing it is now abroad on a month long holiday
My Lettings Agent was also getting restless, and the tenant threatening to report me for not able to supply space heating, I was right in the middle of this loosing battle!
But the lettings agent wasn't interested in what I said and thought I was making stories and wasn't deliberately trying to restore the heating! far from it!
So finally today i managed to get hold of another WAU RGI, who happens to be in the area and he would be glad to help!
So there we go, I met him at the premises, I explained to him that the unit has been restored by an engineer who is now on holidays and is not due back until middle of January, and I need this thing going! i am being crucified left right center with threats from both the tenant and the lettings agent! tenant would seek her rent clawed back, and the lettings agent accused me of committing a criminal offense by not being able to provide heating under the housing act 1985! I just couldn't win, you have already read my why i couldn't progress with replacing the WAU whilst the tenant is still there because of the asbestos, all the liability issues! the removal company wanted everything out including her belongings!
So i managed to ring a 3rd WAU specialist, I tried to be as truthful to him as I could, as he wanted to know why it was capped off, I told him that I have been told it was a fan switch gone wrong that caused some overheating issues and it needed a new fan switch, but while he was going to replace a new fan switch, he might as well replace the limit switch to be on the safe side, and also advised me to replace the thermocouple. So he had done all that, except he couldn't test the appliance as there was no gas available at the meter due to pre-payment meter card mislaid by the tenant!
I told the guy that I am not asking him to take any risk, but that he should check the appliance weather it is fit for the purpose or not, if it is unsafe then he fails it or if it is safe then he should issue a landlord's safety record.
fine he said, but he will need to service it again, he won't just issue a safety record without a service, I said fine, go ahead and his price was very reasonable, I actually paid him 30% more as I was well pleased that he conducted a just and honest test and it passed all aspect of WAU.
Test included ventilation and flue inspection right all the way from the appliance to all the way inside the loft!
The tenant had blocked all the permanent vents along the exterior wall and was cautioned by them not to do that again! or the consequences will be lethal!
Later on as they were checking all registers, (heat emitting vents) they found that the tenant had stuffed a thick jacket inside the vent duct to stop heat being emitted in one of the rooms!
This is what I think caused the WAU to overheat, as the duct was bunged up with this bloody jacket! as we took it out the tenant was in the room, and as she saw us pulling that jacket out, she exclaimed loudly oh that where my jacket went! I was wondering where it had gone!
cheeky cow, could have burnt my place down if that jacket had caught fire! That is tenants for you! Block the vents and stuff the ducts! and expect landlords to provide safe heating!
So I told her never ever do that again, this stupid tenant has cost me all this aggro for nothing!
When second engineer who restored the appliance with new parts, he let me have to old parts as I said I am really curious as to really what went wrong with this heating, not only from the safety point of view but also as a way to avoid it happening again!
so when I took that fan and the limit switch home, I put them on test, blew hot air from a hot air gun, could not find anything wrong with them! the heating must have therefore overheated, because the first floor registers were bunged up!
I am thinking was the tenant trying to save on heating costs by stopping the heat being fanned upstairs! crazy!
Clearly says on my registers "do not block"