Tenant - no heat no water!!

I'm hoping you can give me some advice. I am a tenant in my current house for the last 1 1/2 years. Our heating packed up on Saturday afternoon and we have had no water since Sunday evening. The landlord called a plumber to inspect the house on Monday & he said that the main water pipes to the house are frozen and there is nothing that can be done until they defrost. This could take 10 days (or more if the weather stays bad)!!!

In the meantime we cannot stay in the house without water or heat. The place is freezing & we can't even boil the kettle cause there isn't a drop of water in the taps. Myself and my flatmate have found a cheap hostel for €20 a night, we don't have anyone we can stay with & we don't know how long we will be out of the house. Funds are tight and we can't really afford to be paying to stay somewhere for more than a couple of nights but we have nowhere else to go. The same thing happened last year for 2 weeks but I had a friend I could stay with that time.

We asked the landlord to help us toward the price of the hostel or even deduct the rent for the time we can't stay in the house. He said it's not his problem & he doesn't have to do anything about it. We know for a fact that he has an empty apartment around the corner (saw it on daft) but he won't let us stay in it until the water & heating are fixed. We don't want to break the lease or move out altogether as we hope it is a temporary situation.

Is there anything we can do?

I don't think there is anything you can do but your landlord sounds like a right piece of work and if I was you I would get out of there pronto, especially if this is a recurring thing every winter.

To be honest I don't think there is anything you can do except move out.

If the landlord was any way decent he would at least supply you with bottled water (even if it's from the taps in his own house) for your use in the meantime and supply some sort of electric heaters, I'm sure a friend would allow you to use their shower, but bottled water and some heaters should be fair enough for him to supply.

This is very unprofessional behaviour on his part I think. My tenants called this morning with the very same problem and I urgently called a contractor out who is sorting it out the problem right now. In addition I have told my tenant to use the gas flame fire in the living room while he is fixing the radiators and to knock 50 euro off the rent this month as I know it is expensive to use this fire. This is not the 18th Century where your landlord can get away with treating you like this and expecting you to freeze in these conditions. I have terrific tenants and would not dream of treating them in such away. Good tenants are like gold dust these days. Withhold the rent this month and use that money to accommodate yourself. There are tons of properties on the market at the moment with proper landlords who would only to be too happy to have good tenants.

The water can be solved easily......buy some large containers from the supermarket. Also a small fan heater would cost around €20. Maybe your landlord could deliver the water to you if you don't have transport. I know it's difficult but these things happen when we get really bad weather like this.

Contact Threshold.