Broken heating, hot water and boiler claims

Who is responsible for heating, hot water and the boiler?

The legal starting point in England

Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 applies to most tenancies in England granted for less than seven years. Among other things, it requires the landlord to keep in repair and proper working order the installations in the property for space heating and for heating water. In everyday language, that covers the boiler, the radiators and heating pipework, the hot water cylinder and immersion heater, and the flues and controls that make them work.

This duty cannot be signed away in the tenancy agreement. A clause telling you that the boiler is your responsibility will not usually override the statutory obligation. The duty is triggered once the landlord knows, or should reasonably know, that something has gone wrong — which is why reporting the problem, and being able to prove you reported it, matters so much.

The position in Wales

In Wales, the equivalent duties sit under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016. Landlords of most occupation contracts must keep the dwelling in repair, including installations for space heating and heating water, and must ensure the dwelling is fit for human habitation. The practical effect is much the same: a broken boiler or a dead heating system is normally the landlord’s problem to fix.

What is usually the tenant’s side of the line

Tenants are generally expected to use the system sensibly, to let the landlord in for repairs and safety checks, and to report faults promptly. Damage caused deliberately or by clear misuse can be treated differently. But routine wear, age-related failure, a boiler that keeps cutting out, or a heating system that was never adequate for the property are not things a tenant is expected to put right.

Emergency or routine? How the difference is judged

Situations normally treated as an emergency

• A suspected gas leak, or a smell of gas anywhere in or around the property.
• Any concern about carbon monoxide — a carbon monoxide alarm sounding, sooty or yellow-staining marks around an appliance, or unexplained headaches, drowsiness or nausea that ease when you leave the home.
• An appliance an engineer has declared unsafe, capped off or disconnected.
• A complete loss of heating and hot water during cold weather.
• A complete loss of heating or hot water in a household that includes babies or young children, older people, disabled people, or anyone with a health condition made worse by cold.
• Water pouring from a boiler, cylinder or heating pipework, or a system leaking into electrics.

Situations usually handled as a routine or planned repair

• One radiator not heating while the rest of the system works.
• Heating that works but runs cooler than it should, or takes a long time to warm the home.
• A noisy boiler that is still producing heat and hot water.
• A faulty thermostat or timer where the system can still be run manually.
• Hot water available from the immersion heater while the boiler awaits a part.

The line between the two is not fixed. A repair that would be routine in July can be urgent in January, and a fault that is an inconvenience for one household can be a genuine risk for another. When you report a problem, say plainly why you think it is urgent rather than assuming the landlord will work it out.

How long can a landlord take? What “reasonable” means

There is no single legal deadline for every repair

The general repairing duty requires repairs to be carried out within a reasonable time of the landlord being told. What is reasonable depends on the severity of the problem, the risk to the people living there, the weather, the availability of parts, and whether the landlord has been given access. A total loss of heating and hot water is at the urgent end of that scale and is usually expected to be dealt with quickly, often with an interim measure the same day where a full repair is not possible.

Social tenants in England: this is changing

If your landlord is a council or housing association in England, the position is not staying this open-ended. Awaab’s Law sets fixed timescales for investigating and fixing serious hazards, and Phase 2 — which is scheduled to come into force on 30 November 2026 — extends those duties to excess cold, so a home left without heating falls within them. The date you reported the problem is what starts that clock, which is another reason to report in writing. We cover the timescales and what to do if one is missed on Awaab’s Law.

Your landlord’s own published targets

Most councils and housing associations publish a repairs policy or repairs handbook that sets out their own target timescales — typically categories such as emergency, urgent and routine, each with a stated response time. Those targets are the landlord’s own commitment rather than a statutory deadline for all landlords, but they are useful: if a landlord has promised to attend an emergency within a set number of hours and did not, that is a clear, quotable failure against their own standard. Ask for a copy of the repairs policy, or download it from their website, and reference it in your complaint.

Repeated breakdowns count

A boiler that fails, gets patched, and fails again a few weeks later can amount to an ongoing failure to keep the installation in proper working order, even if each individual visit was reasonably prompt. Keep a running list of every breakdown date and every engineer visit, because the pattern is often more telling than any single incident.

Gas safety: what your landlord must do every year

The annual gas safety check

Landlords letting property with gas appliances or gas pipework have duties under gas safety law. They must arrange for gas appliances and flues to be checked for safety every twelve months by a Gas Safe registered engineer, keep the appliances and pipework maintained in a safe condition, and keep records of the checks.

Your copy of the record

You are entitled to be given a copy of the gas safety record. In broad terms, existing tenants should receive it within a short period after the check, and new tenants should get it at the start of the tenancy. If you have never seen one, ask for it in writing — a landlord who cannot produce a current record is a serious concern, and a missing or overdue check is worth raising in a complaint.

Check the engineer, not just the paperwork

Anyone carrying out gas work must be on the Gas Safe Register. Engineers carry an ID card showing a licence number, a photo, an expiry date and the types of gas work they are qualified for. You can check the card details on the Gas Safe Register website or by phone. It is entirely reasonable to ask to see the card before letting someone work on the boiler.

Access for the check

Landlords are expected to take reasonable steps to gain access, and tenants are expected to allow it. If access has been a problem in the past, try to accommodate an appointment and keep a record of the dates you offered — it removes an argument later that the delay was your fault.

Carbon monoxide and unsafe appliances

Alarms

Requirements for carbon monoxide alarms in rented homes have been strengthened in recent years, with rules covering rooms containing certain fuel-burning appliances. If your home has a gas boiler, gas fire, or a solid fuel or oil appliance and there is no working carbon monoxide alarm, raise it with your landlord in writing and keep the reply.

If an engineer condemns the appliance

An engineer who finds a dangerous appliance may label it and disconnect or cap it off, and should explain the classification to you. Ask for a copy of the paperwork before they leave. That document is important evidence: it shows the fault was serious, records the date, and starts the clock on how long you were left without a working appliance.

Do not reconnect a capped or disconnected gas appliance, and do not let anyone other than a Gas Safe registered engineer do so. If your landlord is slow to arrange a replacement after an appliance has been condemned, that delay is exactly the kind of thing to escalate promptly.

Temporary heaters are not a repair

What a landlord may offer

Where a boiler cannot be fixed the same day, landlords often drop off electric fan heaters, oil-filled radiators or a temporary immersion arrangement. Accepting them is sensible — staying warm matters — but be clear with yourself and with the landlord that this is an interim measure. A temporary heater does not discharge the duty to repair the heating installation, and it should not become the arrangement for weeks on end.

The cost lands on you

Electric heaters are usually far more expensive to run than a central heating system, and the extra cost falls on your meter, not the landlord’s. Heating a home this way for any length of time can push bills up noticeably, and prepayment meter households can find themselves topping up repeatedly just to stay warm.

What to record

• The date the temporary heaters were delivered and the date the proper repair was completed.
• How many heaters were provided and which rooms they could realistically heat.
• Meter readings before and during the period, and the bills or top-up receipts that cover it.
• A comparison with your typical usage in the same season, if you have earlier statements.
• Anything you had to buy yourself — heaters, extra bedding, hot water bottles, or laundrette and shower costs if you had no hot water.

Vulnerable occupants and cold homes

Tell them, in writing, who lives there

A landlord cannot factor in a risk they do not know about. If your household includes a baby or young child, someone over pension age, a disabled person, someone with a respiratory or heart condition, someone undergoing treatment, or anyone whose health is affected by cold, say so in writing when you report the problem — and repeat it in any complaint. Keep it factual and brief; you do not need to share detailed medical history to make the point.

Excess cold is treated as a serious hazard

Under the housing health and safety rating system used by councils in England and Wales, excess cold is one of the recognised hazards that environmental health officers assess. A home that cannot be heated adequately can therefore be a health and safety issue, not merely an inconvenience. If you rent privately, your council’s environmental health team can inspect and take action against a landlord over serious hazards.

Knock-on problems

Prolonged loss of heating often brings other problems with it — condensation and mould as warm moist air meets cold surfaces, damage to belongings, and in severe cold, the risk of frozen or burst pipes. Photograph any consequential damage as it appears and report it alongside the heating fault, so it is all on one record.

How to report it, and what to ask for

Reporting so it counts

Phone first if it is urgent, then follow up in writing the same day so there is a dated record. Email, the landlord’s repairs portal or a message through an agent are all fine — the point is that it is written down and you have a copy.

• State plainly what is not working: no heating, no hot water, or both.
• Give the date and time it failed, and whether it has failed before.
• Say why it is urgent, including who lives in the household and any health risk.
• Give the room temperatures if you have a thermometer reading.
• Ask for a reference number and a target attendance date, in writing.
• Confirm when you can give access, and offer specific times.

Ask for a diagnosis, not another patch

If the boiler has broken down repeatedly, the useful request is not simply another visit. Ask for a full diagnostic inspection with a written report, the engineer’s recommendation on whether the appliance should be repaired or replaced, the age of the boiler and its service history, and a decision in writing on what the landlord intends to do and by when. Repeated short visits that reset the system without identifying the underlying fault are worth naming as a problem in your complaint.

If nothing happens

Escalate through the landlord’s formal complaints procedure and ask for the response in writing at each stage. Social tenants in England and Wales can take an unresolved complaint to the Housing Ombudsman once the landlord’s internal process is exhausted or has stalled. Private tenants can contact the council’s environmental health team about serious hazards, including excess cold and unsafe gas appliances.

Evidence that matters in heating and hot water cases

What makes these cases different

Heating disrepair is largely invisible in photographs. What proves it is the timeline: when it failed, what you reported, who came, what they did, and when it failed again. Build that record as you go, because reconstructing it months later from memory is far harder.

• Every date the heating or hot water failed, and the date it was working again.
• Room temperature readings, dated, with the room named — a cheap thermometer is enough.
• Repair reference numbers for each report, and the channel you used.
• Engineer visit notes, job sheets, diagnostic reports and any condemnation paperwork.
• Missed or cancelled appointments, including days you took off work to wait in.
• Copies of gas safety records, or a note of the fact you were never given one.
• Energy bills, meter readings and top-up receipts covering periods on temporary heaters.
• A short, factual note of the practical impact — cold rooms, boiling kettles for washing, showering elsewhere.

Our evidence guide sets out how to organise all of this into a chronology that a solicitor or an ombudsman can follow quickly.

How long do you have, and can you claim after moving out?

You can claim after your tenancy has ended. Moving out does not extinguish a claim about the time you lived there, and a lot of former tenants assume it does.

What generally changes is the practical remedy. While you still live there, a claim can seek an order that the work be done as well as damages. Once you have left, requiring the landlord to repair a home you no longer occupy will generally no longer be the practical remedy, so what remains is a claim about the earlier period — and whether that succeeds, and how far back it reaches, depends on the facts and on the limitation position.

The time limits are not the same for everything

• **Disrepair itself** is a breach of the landlord’s repairing obligations under your tenancy, and a contract claim of that kind is generally subject to a **six-year** limitation period.
• **Personal injury** — illness caused or made worse by living in a cold home, or by a carbon monoxide exposure — is treated differently, and is generally subject to a **three-year** period. That can run from the date of the injury or from the relevant date of knowledge, and different rules and exceptions can apply depending on the circumstances.

Repairing obligations can be **continuing** obligations. Where a landlord has been told about disrepair and it is still not resolved, further breaches may continue to arise while the problem remains outstanding. That does not mean limitation stops mattering: it can still restrict how far back compensation is recoverable, so an ongoing defect is not a reason to wait.

None of this is as clean as a single deadline, and it is not something to work out for yourself from a web page. If your tenancy ended a while ago, or someone in the household has been unwell, get it looked at sooner rather than later — the position on limitation is one of the first things a solicitor will check.

Where a claim fits — and what RemedyBridge does

Free routes come first

For many heating problems the fastest fix is the landlord’s own complaints process, backed by the Housing Ombudsman for social tenants or environmental health for private tenants. These routes cost nothing and can produce a repair. Shelter and Citizens Advice both publish free guidance on repairs.

When a disrepair claim may be relevant

A housing disrepair claim is generally about a landlord who has been told about a problem they are responsible for and has not put it right within a reasonable time. A claim can seek an order that the works be done and, in some cases, compensation. Whether a claim is possible depends on the facts, the evidence and time limits — and only a solicitor can advise on that.

What we are

RemedyBridge is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. We offer a free online assessment, a review of your enquiry by a person, and — only with your permission — an introduction to an independent solicitor who decides whether they can help. We never promise an outcome, and we do not put a figure on any claim.