Oh For God's Sake!

This weekend:

1. The Christmas Tree "defoliated"
2. We had to go shopping for the family to come
3. The boiler died

Oh yes, did I mention, the boiler died. Queue a call to the letting agents from hell. "We have no heat or hot water?", "Oh, we'll send a plumber round."

So they did. He could do nothing.

Spoke to them this morning. ANother plumber is coming. Joy.

I fear Christmas at home with the family might be cancelled.

:-(

It was David with the Spanner in the Kitchen... Legal advice???

Our Boiler is dead, it has ceased to be, it has blah blah blah...

The boiler's dead. So, they decide to buy a new one. But then they call to tell me they can't do anything before Christmas.

"You mean to say that there isn't a single Combination boiler anywhere in the South West?"
"That's what our plumber has told us."
"But he could fit it if he had one?"
"Of course."

Resorting to arcane technological fixes like the "Yellow Pages", I call the first name I recognise.

"Excuse me good sir, I am having a bet with my plumber that I can find a Combination boiler before he can. Do you have any?"
"Yes, lots."
"Are they good makes?"
"Valient do you sir?"
"Oh yes please."

I call the letting agent and the plumber, both of whom are now not available.

Rewind a moment to my legal questions.

We are currently in a situation where the letting agent cannot guarentee us hot water or heating until the new year. They say they cannot do anything before Christmas and are not certain they can do anything before the new year. The landlady is prepared to make the "gesture" of £50 per night compensation towards a hotel. Nothing for Christmas, and nothing for inconvenience.

I've put a hold on the rent payment for January pending a resolution of this issue. Am I with in my rights I wonder.

Frankly, I don't care all that much, but the letting agents and the landlord are utter crap, we've been waiting 4 months for a problem with the bath to be fixed. However, we've now been without heating and water for 2 days and in the best case we will not have heating or hot water until Christmas Eve - if we do it will be because we've sourced the stuff outselves.

Key to this, in my mind, is the Landlord and/or letting agent have not had the boiler serviced since it broke down last winter - I own a property I rent and have all the gas appliances serviced and reviewed every year - its a thing my letting agent does and bills me for later. It means that I'm covered by my boiler insurance policy which kicks in instantly if this crap happens - not that it has since I started having regular maitenance. So I blame the agents.

Any legal tips on how obstreperous I can get. They have booked us into the Holiday Inn tonight so at least I can shower.