Tenants void warranty on new boiler – who pays now?

Tenants void warranty on new boiler – who pays now?

11:15 AM, 2nd January 2015, About 9 years ago 11

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I was called in by the tenants in one of my properties because they were having problems with a shower, and was horrified to see a large pool of water outside the front door which seemed to be coming from the condense pipe of the boiler.

The tenants admitted that they had been having trouble with the boiler for a while and were repressurising it at least once a day to get it going. I asked why hadn’t they reported this and they said they didn’t think it was an issue but they had started to worry that the discharge from the condense pipe was making the doorsteps slippy in the recent cold weather.

The boiler is less than two years old so I called in the manufacturer under the boiler’s guarantee but by not taking action sooner, the engineer says the boiler is ruined and will now have to be replaced.

My question is who is responsible for paying the £1600 cost of doing this? Is it down to me as the landlord or can I charge this to the tenants?

I have been a landlord for years, and I have only once been taken to MyDeposits tribunal and that was by some tenants who through their total stupidity trashed a brand new washing machine within a week of it being installed. I deducted the cost of another new one from their deposit.

They objected and took it up with MyDeposits and, to my complete shock and horror, they won on the grounds of no paper trail informing them that I was going to do this and giving them the option of replacing it themselves. I don’t want to go down the same route again.

I know the tenants are going to argue that central heating is a landlord’s responsibility, which it is. But had they told me at the start that there was a problem with the boiler, or had they called Ideal themselves because the boiler was still under warranty, it could have been fixed before the damage became irreparable.

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Comments

Barbara Gwyer

13:02 PM, 3rd January 2015, About 9 years ago

No it's me getting the wrong end of the stick - the boiler was fitted correctly and it was the overflow pipe that was leaking due to th build up of excess pressure. It's all sorted now

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