"John Stumbles" wrote
| JimGC wrote:
| Absolutely. If I owned this flat it would be replaced
| tomorrow. As I don't, I'm not quite sure where I stand.
| Should the owner replace or repair it?
| Do you mean: should they do _something_ about it, or do you mean which?
| I assume it's the landlord's appliance (it'll say so on the landlord's
| gas safety certificate - which they _have_ given you a copy of, haven't
| they?!) so it's up to them to sort it out (though that's a matter
| between you and them and any tenancy agreement you have, as with any
| other repairs).

Although for a short term rent it should be the landlord's responsibility
(possibly even if the tenancy agreement says differently). The landlord
can't let an uninhabitable house, which is what a house without hot water is
considered to be nowadays. CAB might be a good point of contact, or some
councils have housing advice services that will deal with private sector
rents.

| As such I wouldn't be getting any repairs done off my
| own bat, though you may have to get a repairer in to testify that it's
| faulty to have leverage to get your landlord to deal with it.

It is probably against the tenancy agreement for the tenant to make any
alteration to the property; if the OP does any work on the boiler the
landlord might claim it is damaged and pursue the full costs of replacement
against the tenant :-(

| If they can get it repaired (i.e. parts available and appliance is safe
| to use) then fair enough: once it's fixed it shouldn't be desperately
| expensive for you to run even if it's a pilot light model (which I think
| it is). However it's not going to last much longer so IMHO it would be a
| bit short sighted of your landlord to patch it up rather than replace
| it. But that's landlords for you :-)

If it can be patched up to last until the warmer weather that might be
preferable to leaving a tenant without heating.

Owain