please help boiler/council trouble

[nadakuss]

hi all i just registered i really need some help/advice i am at my whits end.

i am a housing association tenant and on Sunday the 25 of Nov my heating and hot water stopped working this is when i discovered that my Emerson heater doesn't work either so a plumber came out on Sunday thought it was the control panel in the airing cupboard changed it no difference she said she thought it was the the three port valve but didnt have one and it would have to be ordred someone would contact me on monday. it got to 2ocloc monday and i called them to witch i am told no job has been raised and its too late in the day now someone will be out tom. so a guy came out on tuesday i was expecting him to change the three port valve and everything to be hunky dory. no. he had no three port valve and his job card said remove boiler casing. after a few phone calls he found out that he was supposed to be meeting a sparky here to remove the housing for him. but he was a nice guy and looked into the fault he said the three port valve was fine and we needed the conroll board on the side of the boiler. he would have to order it and then it would be fitted. thurs the part arrives and im straight on the phone to find out when its getting done they said someone would be out today. great news. then the head technitian calls 10 mins later he has seen the job reports and he thinks they have all got it wrong it needs a set of sensors witch would have to be you gussed it orrderd!!! fri the head tecnitian comes out fits the sensors no change fits the control board no change then he says it the main pannel in the boiler with the on off switch on it. he has one its 2.5 hrs away. he comes back fits it no change. he is trying to find the falt messing about with the wiring and he gets a small piece of wire and briges two connections in the boiler it will run.. he leaves it in there and goes away for the weekend. the more i think about it the more im wondering if this is safe. i have a wife a 18month old baby a 3yr old and a 7 yr old with asthma we are very fed up and up till fri night very cold.
any help advice greatly appriciated on what to do. thank you
sorry if this is in the wrong section

 

[dave1]

Clueless springs to mind.... Without knowing what the engineer has bridged out with a piece of wire its hard to say whether its safe or not.

 

[nadakuss]

Me or him lol. Hopefully someone will be back today. I'm thinking of calling citizens advice

 

[dave1]

Lol him. I hope you get it sorted today for you. Not sure how citizens advice will be able to help. But put a complaint into your HA maybe get some compensation for the inconvenience.

 

[plum ber]

Clueless springs to mind.... Without knowing what the engineer has bridged out with a piece of wire its hard to say whether its safe or not.

No this was the "Head Technician" and he sounds like a numpty, I bet they billed for the "spare/faulty parts" though....

#scoundrels and money grabbers

 

[erpkid]

Pretty much anything you bridge in a boiler is safety related. I occasionally bridge temporarily to test but never leave it there. If no-one shows up today I would call a local gas safe engineer to sort. Pay the bill then with-hold the amount from your rent.

 

[Ray Stafford]

If no-one shows up today I would call a local gas safe engineer to sort. Pay the bill then with-hold the amount from your rent.

Be careful doing this - you could be in breach of your tenancy agreement, particularly if there is a specific "no offset" clause. Witholding rent is all very well, but if it just stays on the account as arrears, you could end up damaging your credit history.

I know its a pain, but you might be better to work through your HA customer service people first. Lots of HAs have a tenants committee or a tenant rep on the board if things get really difficult.

 

[Destroyer2813]

Sounds like your having as much fun as a labourer who works for one of my builders had our local council out twice for his boiler cutting out both times claimed to off fixed it nope still cutting out , asked me and I told him valves or pump they come out again and claimed to fix it again so called em back and said can you look at the valve to which the engineers reply was na it won't be them asked again checks em out and surprise surprise its the valve how stupid are some engineers I told him what it was and haven't even been there once let alone 5 times

 

[zeebeedee]

Does your housing association outsource its work or is it in house? If its outsourced you can bet your bottom dollar they are none the wiser. Ring your ha directly and lodge a complaint with your housing officer.

If that happened in our place someone would come close to losing there job it's just not acceptable.

 

[SimonG]

Prob the room stat that he bridged out. When I was ha tenant it took them 7 days to replace the pump in a combi.

 

[Nostrum]

Spill the beans, which H.A and what heating company!?

 

[SimonG]

Spill the beans, which H.A and what heating company!?

Well if you mean me it was Home Housing Assoc and the heating firm was Blands.

 

[Koogatubac]

R blands? Red combo vans?

 

[SimonG]

Oh yes.

 

[Koogatubac]

I come from where their based and their the roughest plumbers ever! They recruit their staff from the army, put them on micky mouse gas courses then throw them to do full heatings in a day all EVERY DAY for £270 a week or less

 

[SimonG]

I come from where their based and their the roughest plumbers ever! They recruit their staff from the army, put them on micky mouse gas courses then throw them to do full heatings in a day all EVERY DAY for £270 a week or less

I told them on the phone it was the pump, they came and spent 30 minutes before deciding it was the pump that they didn't have, came back three days later with a pump, couldn't get the old pump out, decided to change just the head, took out the old head and then snapped the impellor off of the new head when taking it apart. Came back four days later and finally changed it. I wasn't a happy bunny.

 

[Koogatubac]

Lol wudnt surprise me... Ive heard LOADS of stories about them! 1 that bad of gas fire install, nearly killed old dear, got reported to gas safe, gas safe did a investigation anyways because their so big, very little got done. That was only a rumour. Wouldnt surprise me though...

Know some lads who has came away from blands and said they wud never go back, there really fast installers however all they know is combi boilers/basic plumbing/basic open vented systems

 

[GarytheGasMan]

If you are still without heat/hot water demand that a/ the immersion is sorted asap b/ they supply you with temporary electric heaters and c/ remind them of their duty of care and the fact that local newspapers/radio would be very interested in your story. I work for a local council and find that option c normally gets results ( you may have to get through to some-one more senior than a call-centre desk jockey though).

 

[erpkid]

Be careful doing this - you could be in breach of your tenancy agreement, particularly if there is a specific "no offset" clause. Witholding rent is all very well, but if it just stays on the account as arrears, you could end up damaging your credit history.

I know its a pain, but you might be better to work through your HA customer service people first. Lots of HAs have a tenants committee or a tenant rep on the board if things get really difficult.

Compared to living ( or not ) with a compromised gas appliance I would take the credit hit any day. However you should always try and work through the normal routes. Last year I had an elderly woman turn up on our doorstep distraught as she had lost her water supply. Her neighbour had suffered a leak and a London plumber contracted to the letting agent was called in - BTW we are in Suffolk !! - cutting to the chase they had a shared supply and the plumber had nicked the feed but also damaged the 4 inch sewer to get to the leaking pipe. During this process the cut off lady next door made meticulous records of the conversations with the letting agents and the plumbing firm as they tried to wash their hands of this.

In the end with a few connectors and our ever helpful local merchants Ridgeons we sorted both - two cottages with water and both able to use the toilet. As we packed up after a lots of digging and covered in mud the tenant of the property with leak pulled me to one side and said " if you don't get paid let me know and I will take it from the rent " Having helped an elderly couple this was nice a gesture but we had already decided to swallow this cost. Amazingly once the missus in league with the neighbour got on the credit control we were paid and quickly.

 

[MrMeek]

I live in a HA house and a lad from r bland came out to service the boiler, had a crack on with the engineer and he says they are all army guys or gypsy's who dont have a clue what they're doing, thats coming from there own employee lol

 

[Koogatubac]

R blands have such a bad name...all they know is combi's and still bring ceilings down! They have like 4 men on a combi swap with new rads. Was working next to them a few times while working for boro council and the amount of times i heard screaming next door! Blokes come out not giving a damn and lights up a ***

 

[jefaz]

Haha I know someone who works for blands,
see their vans in Gateshead regularly too