Hi all,
I am a first time Landlord, so new to this.
I have a question with regard to a problem with the boiler in our BTL property. Tenants have got in touch with us about a problem with the hot water. We arranged for a the gas engineer to visit the property, the boiler needed a part, the engineer fitted the part, shortly after the engineer left the property the tenant telephoned to say that water was running out from the boiler and down the stairs. The water has run onto some of their contents, who is liable for any damages to the tenants contents… Would that be the Landlord or the Gas Engineer?
I would have thought the gas engineer who should have his own insurance. But I am not an expert maybe someone else knows more.
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Thanks… The gas engineer has said that the leek is nothing to do with the part he fitted, it now needs another part for goodness sake.
It is the gas engineer’s fault and I agree he should have his own insurance as should the Tenant for their own contents
I was once advised by a solicitor that I am responsible for the inventory. The Tenant is responsible for their own belongings
It is unreasonable to blame the Landlord in this case. He employed an engineer in good faith and this was not intentional.
However this is the fault of the engineer but trying to get him to own it will be another battle if you have already paid him.
My personal experience when workmen are at fault the incidence of them owning it is equivalent to the incidence of hen’s teeth.
You could speak to Gas safe and ask them to speak to the engineer if you have no luck
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Get a second opinion as he may be trying to negate his own error
Last year I had a gas engineer tell me I needed a new boiler because it did not work after he replaced the gas valve ( it stopped working after he took off a radiator at my request but did not press the restart button as he didn’t know where it was)
I got a second opinion. He did not press the restart button. It probably didn’t need the part anyway
Second opinion ÂŁ30
Boiler replacement £2K…
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gassafe wont commit to anything but will work behind the scenes.
i had a gas technician (they are not engineers in my book) do my boiler tests then said he wanted a sandwich and would be back soon …then went and got high on heroin. he never came back. i needed the certs and i couldnt get in touch with him. so…
after a week i contacted gassafe and the following day a friend of his came round with the certs. having a sandwich must mean shooting up i thought…
i also had a heroin addict come to do a roof repair, he seemed really good and wanted some money up front. later that day his dad called me and said not to give hime any money cause he would shoot up.
i learnt that heroin addicts can appear completely normal and nice and hold down jobs … funny old life
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So it’s (probably) the gas engineers fault - even if he’s claiming it’s not, and ultimately his liability but your tenants can’t claim against him directly because they don’t have a contract with him.
They need to claim from you and then you claim from the gas engineer - claims of this nature usually need to follow the contract trail.
If the tenant has contents insurance their insurance company will also follow this route if they decide to chase the funds they lose on the payout. (Claiming reimbursement from you, then you need to chase the gas engineer yourself or claim on your landlords insurance if it’ll cover this and then they chase him etc)
All sorted… Thanks guys
This guy could be my ex-tenant. He was a gas safe engineer and an addict. He actually wasn’t too bad a tenant…