Question re central heating in rented house

[singlecoil]

Some people I know have recently moved into a rented house. When they first viewed the property in October the heating was on and working properly. They decided to take the property and moved in last week.

Now that they are in they have discovered that the heating system is not able to replace the heat lost by this (quite old) property in cold weather, and that the average temperature is now something around 15 degrees. The only way they can increase this is by using electric fan heaters.

Should the landlord be obliged to improve the heating system (presumably by fitting a more powerful boiler)? The tenants are responsible for all the fuel costs, BTW, but obviously electricity is more expensive than oil.

[MrV]

Its down to them.

[merc_man]

Don't see why. Not a great thing to do to tenants but caveat emptor and all that.

[andy400]

Do the radiators get hot? Sounds like crappy insulation to me. Speaking as a landlord, a polite request for a discussion about the situation is probably the best way ahead - a few rolls of insulation for the loft and a couple of other measure shouldn't see him off for too many ££££s.

[superlightr]

Old houses are hard to heat.

If there is no defect with the house/heating then thats part and parcel of renting that paricular house.

Ie if a house was build with no damp proof or cavity wall - then its not a defect in the house when it take more heat and care to live in the property.

[sjg]

Is there an Energy Performance Certificate? As far as I know all tenancies starting after 1st October 2008 should have had one - if it's that bad then even a basic survey should have shown it up. No legal obligation on the landlord's part to do anything about it though.

If they don't have one, probably best to ask for one to be carried out (as the landlord can be fined for not having one) and see what the recommendations are. If insulation is poor then the landlord can usually offset that against tax.

Worth looking at exactly where the heat is going - poor seals around windows or doors are pretty quick and simple to DIY fix so the landlord may be happy to pay the cost of materials for them to fix it.

[singlecoil]

But shouldn't the tenants at least have been warned about the inadequate heating? How could they have been expected to know that the system was inadequate?

Isn't the situation analagous to renting a car and then finding out that it couldn't go more than 60mph because of some inadequacy in its mechanical system?

[esselte]

singlecoil said:

But shouldn't the tenants at least have been warned about the inadequate heating? How could they have been expected to know that the system was inadequate?

Assuming the landlord is aware of it........?

[Plotloss]

Speak to the agent.

Landlord doesnt have to do anything about it but I suspect they wouldnt be contractually obliged to stay either.

[Silver993tt]

wear a jumper