Council shut off my gas
Maintenance

SSp
SSp
1 Thanks
12 Posts
2 years ago
0

My tenants rang a few days ago, and told me the boiler wasnt working, they also told me the locks to the cupboard with the gas meter in it had been changed without their or my knowledge. Of course I went round and checked with my spare key and that didnt fit any more either.

I called a gas engineer out to check on the boiler, they ended up breaking into the cupboard that housed my meter to find a note on it from the council saying we tried to gain access to service your boiler, and you werent in, do not use. The note had the address of the flat next door on it. The flat next door is a council flat, mine is lease hold and I am responsible for all the maintenance to the gas on my property, not the council.
There are two cupboards outside, one for mine, and one for the flat next door, and it looks like the idiots the council sent out decided to shut both of them off, and change the locks on both doors to be sure they got the right one.
This of course has resulted in me having to pay for a gas engineer to break an entry just to switch the gas back on, and my tenants being without hot water for a few days while we sorted it out.

Not sure how it works, but I am pretty sure that several warnings would need to be issued as a minimum if I couldnt get in to service the boiler, otherwise I could get a harasment charge from the tenants.

I feel that the councils contractors should be re-imbursing me for the bill I have incurred from a gas engineer that has been called out needlessly, and possibly even pay compensation to my tenants for shutting their gas supply off as well as repairing the door that my gas engineer had to break through to turn the gas back on. Besides, in a couple of months time, I would have needed to get in that cupboard anyway when my gas certificate becomes due in November.

Where do I stand legally to push for this please? Any ideas?

Thanks.

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