UK Landlord Forum / Life

My tenant is in arrears and Ive already served her with section 21 notice which expires soon, however she has no plan of moving out!! Ive called round so many times to speak to her but she wont open the door and wont take any of my phone calls!!
Earlier today tenant rang me to ask me to fix the boiler as it seems not to be working!!
I told her I'd get back to her shortly. I did ring round quite a few plumbers but due to bad wether no one was willing to come out tonight especially in the hazardas road conditions!!
I'm just wondering due to tenant owing me money and showing me no signs of leaving if i'm still responsabile to pay for the repair?
I did try asking about her intentions and why she had not made contact with me but she just disconnected the call.
So any advise would be greatly appreciated as I dont want to pay for her to live in my house!!

Hi thats bl**dy typical as soon as they need youre help they ring. trouble is you have to be so careful with faulty boilers and if you need to evict her with court order then if she says youve refused to sort boiler it looks bad for you.
possibility is with the boiler though if its a condensing combi boiler the outside condensing pipe has frozen up and a kettle of boiling water should fix that? you can tell its that if the boiler is making a roaring/boiling noise. also check the outlet for ice.
hey you never know she might even provide the hot kettle for you!! have you no warranty on the boiler?
hope this helps

Sorry but you MUST fix it. Inform her that you wish to inspect it yourself before paying for a professional, incase it is just a fuse or that common frozen up overflow pipe. (Which you should lag) Lets face it, you could fix it straight away for her and save her waiting for a diary space from the booked up boiler guys. You must not harrass her in any way and must keep offering again and again to go look. For as long as she wont grant you access and you keep offering it is a stalemate situation that cannot be held against you in court so long as you have copies of your repeated offers to visit. You do not have to give 48 hours notice for access as this is an emergency. If she wont let you in then she has no emergency and you will not pay an exhorbitant call out charge for nothing.

Hi Guys

Thanks for the relpys much appreciated. It seems I will have to fix the fault out of my own pocket
Not happy that the law is protecting tenants who wont leave propertys and are able to live for free so to speak!!, does anybody know if I will be able to add this to money owed already by tenant as she in arrears!!
Or is it an expense I'm laible for anyway?
One final question is it actuall law that a landlord has to pay for the boiler to be fixed even whilst they are owed money??
I could argue that I would be further out of pocket for these repair bills on top of rent owed to me!!
And yes its very typical of how the tenant has managed to call me when they are in need of my HELP!!
Thanks.

part of the law says you are not allowed to restrict services in order to force a tenant to leave. ie cut off gas electric heat etc

by not fixing the boiler, which yes you are liable to do, it could be conceived as this by a liberal minded peewit brained judge.

if the boiler has been damaged by the tenant and its not just a breakdown then in theory you could ask for them to pay but how do you prove that.