There is a clear track record of this government appeared to be unreliable in almost every possible aspects, so… Jokes aside, “turn off” is probably inconveniently vague and misleading? As people could turn it to anti-freeze mode or completely shut the circulation to that section by turning off the in-flow and temperature control valve (or on radiators with no control valve, both in and out flow). I found many similar stories after having this incident where tenants “turn off” their radiators/ heating to save energy but causing serious problem, some involving £20,000 worth of damage due to burst pipe & flooding.
And as noted above, mold and condensation have significant damage on tenants’ health and housing elements such as window seal, paint, and plaster etc… The house does have rather unpleasant mold problem and it took me 1.5 bottles of bleach + hours to clean, but that’s a different issue.
I don’t think they have ever tempered with or checked the boiler. At this point I have given up to find out what was the exact cause - the tenant got very defensive + they knew close to nothing about boiler/ heating system, so I don’t think we can ever find out what exactly went wrong. I just hope the system isn’t damaged and that the tenant is still and will continue to enjoy adequate heating + hot water.
Yes, I agree that its possibly poor advice from the Government. It sounds as though the effect of turning off radiators or not running the central heating at all varies from property to property depending on the pipework and possibly the boiler. If that’s the case then I think there is now a new requirement for us landlords to understand our central heating systems well enough to know the impact specific to our properties. I now intend to speak to my plumber so that I can send a warning email to the tenants about what will happen if they do either of these things and any damage that could result. That’s the only way I can see of covering ourselves and potentially claiming damages from tenants who ignore the advice.
what a bozo!
1 clause in AST to say set no less than 10C if tenant is away
2 check all pipes carefully for any linear cracks , monitor pressure drop for a few weeks.
3 ensure tenant knows how to top up water pressure, he needs to do it with you present
4 yes there should always be one radiator with no TRV, often in the bathroom confirm both lock valves open
5 these service people are technicians, engineers design boilers techs fix and repair.
I can relate to this. Many tenants, especially first time tenants or tenants that are new in the country, do not know anything about the workings of the boiler/heating system. It is important that the letting agents do some little education while handing keys to new tenants. With this done, the minimum temperature should be embedded in the tenancy agreement.
A lot of naivety here. The vast majority of the population know nothing about how to maintain a boiler and radiator system. In addition, boiler maintenance and replacement have become such a big money spinner for e.g. British Gas that I suspect newer boilers are actually less robust than ones from 20 years ago, and so if you don’t have them regularly maintained and follow the warranty requirements to the T then they will easily break down. You can’t expect itinerant tenants to take care of your systems, especially when the cost of fuel is at an all-time high and you just put the rent up. During the annual gas safe inspection you need to do boiler maintenance, and time it for the late autumn so all radiators can be tested, bled and maybe even flushed at same time.
One of the issues is that a so-called boiler service varies no end between gas engineers. There is no standard of what work should be carried out and is completely subjective.
Stripping down can lead to problems in itself with seals etc so many leave this well alone as can open up a can of worms especially on old boilers.
So often all a service amounts to is a series of limited basic checks so effectively no servicing whatsoever. I question whether it adds any real value on top of the safety test.
Basically all I do is a tightness test and flow rate and a light clean as the minute you adjust a nut it will leek !
Had it recently changed a diverter valve and 2 seals went totally unconnected to the valve ! What was a 1hr job was 3 in the end .
The house does have rather unpleasant mold problem and it took me 1.5 bottles of bleach + hours to clean, but that’s a different issue.