Right to heating

Jay asks:
(updated on Friday, January 13th 2017)

When I moved in to a rental property, we had a fireplace in the lounge for heating. When the men came to sweep it they said it was deemed unsafe, so they blocked it off and chopped the chimney top off. I'm wanting to know if I'm entitled to some sort of heating such as a heat pump? The property does have insulation, but winter is not far away and insulation won't quite cut it.

 

Our Experts Answer:

When you rent a property the old adage applies: “what you see is what you get”. So if the fireplace was thought to be working at the start of the tenancy it should be working throughout the tenancy. In short, you rented the property with a working fireplace, and now you haven’t got what you rented. You have a right to have an alternative form of heating to replace the fireplace. I suggest you talk to your landlord. He should see that it is in his interest to have stable, happy tenants.

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