Our boiler caused the electric to trip. Therefore no heating and no hot watersince Tuesday evening.
Was told at 2pm someone will contact within an hour for appointment within the next 24 hrs. No response yet.
I asked for hotel accomodation as per insurance policy and was denied this on basis hotel acccomodation was not covered on the emergency policy.(wordings below)
What are your thoughts?
(Still waiting management to call me for over 23 hrs now)
The Landlords’ Home Emergency Policy Wording on pg 7 paragraph 2 says
‘If the let property remains uninhabitable overnight following an insured event, we will reimburse an insured person for hotel accommodation. The insured person must send us all relevant invoice(s) before we will reimburse them. The decision on whether the let property is uninhabitable will take into account whether it would be fair and reasonable for an insured person to remainin the let property’
Pg 12 states
hotel accommodation The room-only cost of accommodation for insured person(s) if the let property remains uninhabitable following an insured event. The most we will pay for hotel
accommodation is £300 (including VAT)…’
It’s not uninhabitable. People get boiler breakdowns all the time. Just ask the agent for a few fan heaters until they can fix it. A decent landlord would also refund a small daily sum to cover disruption and incidental expenses. If it goes on for longer than a week, come back for further advice.
Exactly what David said. A faulty boiler, however inconvenient, does not render the property uninhabitable.
However, if the boiler has caused the electricity to seize functioning (as opposed to tripping the fuse board which you can reset) then I would deem it uninhabitable as you would not be able to heat the place
That is exactly what has happended. The boilder has had to be switched off since Tuesday and no heating from Tuesday until this afternoon (Saturday). No hot water, no heating in the property.
How would £300 be adequate for overnght stay for 4 tenants in London? Especially if the 4hr urgent visit is not completed for 4 nights?
I have used British Gas, Homeserve, YourRepair and BetterCare over the years and none have taken more thn 12hrs to deal with issue of no heating or hot in winter. The £300 looked reasonable on that experience,
I best buy an insurance policy with £2000 hotel allowance if I were to continue with this excuse of an emergency service provider
So, no. The amount is not adequate but that is something you should’ve looked at before purchasing. It’s part of being a LL I’m afraid.
And no, of you switched off the boiler the place IS NOT uninhabitable. They can boil water on the cooker to wash, eat, sleep, use the toilet etc. A bit of a hassle yes, but 100% doable.
The only thing you can’t do is heat the property through the boiler. Get 2-3 electric heaters, ask tenants to use only a couple rooms meanwhile repairs are being sourced. And done.
Don’t put anyone in a hotel for something like this.
Thanks Per that was my thought however I have semi-professionals working from home so sharing bedrooms was not an option.
HSS regulations state the minimum heating standard is at least 18°C in sleeping rooms, and 21°C in living rooms, when the temperature outside is -1°C and it should be available at all times. The temperatures were -1°C and -3°C London the 4 nights of no heating or hot water
The experience of loss of heating during the cold season more than two days can be interpreted as a hazard to the tenant’s health and therefore a serious breach in the tenancy agreement’.
The tenants manged for night 1 and 2 but by day 3 they were fed up. Luckily 3 out of 4 went to stay with friends on night 3.
But please beware the hotel booking process. I thought I could book the place myself (a cheap local Airbnb and ask for reimbursement as per the policy wordings ‘we will reimburse an insured person for hotel accommodation. The insured person must send us all relevant invoice(s) before we will reimburse them’.
Well CET insisted their partners ICAB have to book and they only use Expedia. After hunting together we finally got a hotel for £154. The next day I had to book again and when I asked about the remaining budget I was told budget remaining was £20. ICAB paid £280 for a room that cost £154 via Expedia. I was not even given any explanation.
The management plus is just emergency service policy and none of the support they talk about eg send you resource of approved engineers to follow up repairs not covered. There is no such support.It is the mst expensive and least value for money emergency service I have ever had,