Repairs during Covid-19?

Thanks all

The advice to my company from more than one source is to only do work such as emergency call outs.
I have already postponed works for the next few weeks and will only be responding to things that are safety related

We need to put the brain in gear- for example – a safety check in an empty property is OK but less so in an occupied one.

On the same topic, can anyone help with this please? My tenant informed me late Friday night that they had no hot water. I responded within 20 mins to get details and said I would contact boiler insurance company Saturday morning which I did. They have arranged for someone to come out on Monday. She has now sent me a formal letter of complaint plus a letter to the council, that I am being unreasonable because I haven’t arranged to get it fixed within 24hrs. Any ideas on how to respond to this? Should I be getting another plumber to come out as an emergency? With her informing me that she is entitled to withhold rent while this problem exists, I feel I have to tread very carefully in these days of tenants rights :-/

Reply to the comment left by Linda Price at 29/03/2020 – 14:07
Ignore and continue with Monday’s fix. Should be repaired before Council can act (not that you haven’t handled it immediately and reasonably anyway).

Reply to the comment left by Linda Price at 29/03/2020 – 14:07As Luke says, your responsibility is to act in a timely manner and you have done so, nothing to worry about – other than an unreasonable Tenant. I may have called my plumber on the Friday night but whether he would be available who knows? If parts were needed, Saturday (Or possibly Mon/Tue would be the earliest available anyway unless calling the manufacturer repair service and they rarely work out of hours.
On a side note, I’ve just replaced my personal boiler and was without heat and hot water (Other than a kettle) for seven days, imagine what a Tenant would make of that. Lots of them don’t live in the real world!

Where is the 24 hour repair turnaround stated. Is it in your rental agreement.
To me it seems she is being unreasonable.

Reply to the comment left by Porky at 29/03/2020 – 15:25I googled it and this came up. It seems this is what she’s found.
Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, you have the right to expect your landlord to carry out repairs in a ‘reasonable time’. If it’s an emergency repair as you’ve got no heating or hot water, your landlord should fix this in 24 hours.
If they don’t get back to you, make sure to send them a letter about the problem and ask for them to fix it. And if you still don’t hear anything back, follow this up with a second letter.
You can also speak to the environmental health team at your local council – they can force your landlord to fix your boiler. You can only do this once you’ve tried to go through your landlord though.

Reply to the comment left by Linda Price at 29/03/2020 – 16:23
If this is a direct cut and paste then the emphasis is on the word “should” this is treated as best endeavour whereas if “shall” were used it is incumbent on the landlord to be fully compliant. You have taken all reasonable steps to have the problem fixed in the shortest practical realistic time it seems. Secondly she has jumped the gun if she simultaneously sent a letter to the local council rather than giving you the opportunity to resolve the issue first.
She doesn’t sound a very nice tenant.

Agree, would suggest replacing her at the earliest opportunity!

I have a few oil filled electrical heaters that I can deliver to my tenants should they experience similar problems and I have to keep these up to date PAT tested otherwise you open yourself up to other potential problems. For hot water most tenants have electric kettles and a cooker they can heat water on for washing and in one of my two let houses they have an electric shower. So basically it’s only heating that it’s worth having some back up solutions for.