Snow On Snow

[poliphilo]

Maybe this'll stop us dreaming of a white Christmas.

Tony Robinson's timely series about historic climate change took us to Greenland to moralise over the Norse settlers who were driven out by the medieval mini-ice age.  Their mistake was wanting to be too civilised.  If they'd given up farming and reverted to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of their Inuit neighbours they'd have been fine.

Odi's central heating has gone phut- and her landlord says there's nothing he can do. Peter thinks this is racism; I think it's just landlords. We've lent them a couple of electric heaters and told them to contact their Home Office minder.

We were planning to go down to Kent for Christmas. It  now seems very unlikely that we will. It's been snowing all morning. Snow on snow, snow on snow.

I just trudged up the road to buy kibble for the in-laws' fat little dog.  We don't have seasonal food in stock- what with having planned to spend Christmas away- so I dropped by the butchers in the airy hope that he might be giving away unsold turkeys. He wasn't. In fact he had very little in his shop. What he did have was a clutch of Bury black puddings- the nation's best. I bought one- and I'm going to serve it for lunch with eggs, apple sauce and (a seasonal treat that was demonstrated for us last night by the BBC's Hairy Bikers)  fondant potatoes  

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've really no idea. It could simply be a matter of logistics; Heating engineers must be run off their feet at this time of year.

[shullie.livejournal.com]

Hi, I was a legal housing advisor, and it is the responsibility of the landlord to sort the heating etc out. and he has a 'reasonable ' time to do it....a reasobale time especially at this time of year, can be withing a week or less. Has he said he just can't get anyone to fix it? or that he won't fix it?

I would also suggest that Odi actually puts it down in writing what's wrong and that she wants it fixed, as soon as possible especially as she has a small child, and the weather being as it is. it's important to have things in writing especially if she threatens legal action, and it does make landlords move faster when they know there is a paper trail!

'If you are a tenant, your landlord is usually responsible for repairs to: the structure and exterior of the building (eg walls, roof, external doors and windows) sinks, baths, toilets and other sanitary fittings, including pipes
and drains central heating, gas fires, fireplaces, flues, ventilation and chimneys water, pipes, basins, sinks, toilets and baths, drains and guttering gas pipes, electrical wiring, and some appliances provided exterior TV aerial (not aerials installed by you).

Your landlord is also responsible for putting right any damage to internal decorations that was caused by the disrepair or while repairs were being carried out.
Your landlord always has these

take a look here for some advice etc and what a landlords legal responsibilities are... etc

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_private_lets/responsibility_for_repairs

there is a booklet you can download ( on the left of the web page) that goes into more details etc).

you can also have a look at:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/repairs_in_private_lets/landlord_refusing_to_do_repairs

which talks about if they refuse etc... and what legally you can do about it.

if you need further advice I suggest that Odi contacts Shelter or Community Legal Advice who can advise her more specifically and help etc.

I have slight jealousy over the Black pudding - yummmmmmmmmmm

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info.

In the event Peter contacted the Home Office and the Home Office made noises and the landlord caved in and was terribly apologetic and the heat is now back on. Phew!

I'm not generally a great one for questionable by-products of the meat industry, but I love black pudding!