mr c Posted May 28, 2007 Report Share Posted May 28, 2007 Dear all i have a tenant whom has signed a twelve month contract so far she has asked me to clean the fridge(pet tested) and the carpets which i did and put the curtain rails back on after she cleaned the curtains she also gave me a 26 point list of minor problems like the loft hatch not shutting properly and the wallpaper in one room peeling in one corner i addressed the one vaild point of a missing skirting board.I also have rewired the whole house to part p standard with a niceiec electrician and guarantee i also have a landlords certificate from british gas and three star cover for gas plumbing As far as i am aware everthing is good but she is very rude in her requests and expects any problems to be done immediately.She now says the shower is not working but i have checked and the problem is the water pressure.There is adequete pressure for a bath and the sink pressures and central heating is fine.I asked her to ring british gas direct and arrange a visit for the shower but she broke the appt i cannot always be around so it seems reasonable for her to arrange an acceptable appt direct (it is all paid for).However when she came back from holiday two weeks ago she rang me and demanded that i should have fixed the shower.I tried and went myself but she was very aggressive to me and asked me to leave her property.She then recieved a report from british gas that the system needed some flushing but i have found out that the water company should give an opinion on the pressure before i go ahead to flush the system however she the rang me and said she is going to give in her notice .i do not mind but i am willing to fix the problem as soon as possible but cannot communicate with her as she can be very rude.I will follow the law and repair what is necessary once the fault has been diagnosed but this takes time, she has hot water to take a bath the heating system is working and safe as far as i know but know wants to call in enviromental health which i have no problem with am i behaving reasonably. i charge her a below market rent as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Dewsberry Posted May 28, 2007 Report Share Posted May 28, 2007 What a smashing T you have got there !!! If the shower is electric presumably it is running on mains water supply - in which case exactly what is going to be flushed out ?? We have a similar problem in Cardiff city center with several heavily rented areas putting so much demand on the antiquated system that the we had had several showers burn out - we also got the water board to test pressure and flow rate ( which have min limits which must be acheived) After research it was found that there were peak times when it wasn't clever to have a shower as it could get very hot very quickly ! Also times when presure was so low that the internal pressure switch in the shower prevented it from working - we also had the "triton" engineer out who also confirmed the same. Dont know whether this is your problem or not. Another similar problem we have had a few times is the shower getting too hot and then going cold then tripping in the fuse box - try taking the shower head off and just running it thru the hose - then clean out the inside of the shower head as this can become blocked and cause back pressure which can trigger the overheat sensor and trip the mains out. Another problem is not enough heat - this is usually one of the 2 micro switches which control the elements in the heater can they cost about £5 each which is much cheaper than a new shower! You do get 'em like this but once pacified she may turn into one of your best tenants ! She needs to be made aware that you are doing everything possible to solve the problem but things can take time - if she feels she can get the water board and BG to move quicker tell her to carry on ! For the future if it is a persistant problem then you could consider a mixer shower instead of an electric shower. I would not accept this as a valid reason for termination although if you think you can relet easily but then i guess its a monkey off your back ! regards Simon The good news is - that if she is as fussy as this then clearly she will leave the place immaculate !! use her list as part of your checkout list ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ295 Posted May 29, 2007 Report Share Posted May 29, 2007 as simon says, sometimes the limescale in the water can block up the small holes in the shower head, try removing it and turning the shower on to see how much water is actually coming out, if the flow is better replace (they are only a few pounds) or soak over night with a steredent (false teeth) tablet. simon, when you mention that your shower trips the electrics, this really shouldn't happen unless the shower has a higher kw than recommended for the fuse/mcb/cable, the fuse/mcb and the cable sould always be able to carry over and above the full load of the appliance rating. what happens quite regular is people buy a nice new 9.5kw shower to replace there old 7kw shower and fit it them selves, fuse keep tripping so they put a bigger one in, then when there has been a few people in the shower one after another there is a funny burning smell!! usually the cable melting the insulation around it seen it over and over. russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Dewsberry Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 Hi Russ Had 6 girls in one house with 2 x 9.5Kw Showers - hair tongs, hair driers, Heaters and god knows what going on friday nights to get "ready" to go out ! They managed to blow the main fuse 3 times with us having to call the electric supplier out to change it - On the third occasion they upgraded the fuse to a 80 KVA from 70KVA (as i recall?) and told me that if it blew again we would have to have a 3 phase supply installed at a cost of several thousand pounds! The T were given strict instructions to not use both showers at the same time if they had so many apppliances "on the go "- Touch wood we have not had a repeat performance - those tenants have now left and it has been nearly 4 years since this happened! We did learn from this lesson and usually put one mixer shower and one electric shower rather than 2 lecky when we renovate lerger houses - this also gives the benefit if one system goes down T still have hot water and washing facilities! Simon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ295 Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 my god! 2, 9.5kw showers amounts to about 82 amps not including hairdryers/tongs/washing machines/etc, your original fuse would have been a 60amp but this would have held about 100amp for about an hour before it would have popped. an 80amp will obviously carry more, fuses dont pop automaticaly when they reach their rating. good idea with the elec and mixer shower, saves your mobile ringing on a friday night! you should ask your local DNO to install an isolator in between the meter and the service head, rated the same as the main fuse, that way if it happened again the isolator should in theory trip first, then its just a case of switching it back on. i dont think the cost is that much (£35+vat rings a bell) russ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melboy Posted May 30, 2007 Report Share Posted May 30, 2007 ........and here is another one to carry this topic on....... The main cold feed 15mm pipe from the mains water pressure feed pipe to electric shower unit will have (probably) a chrome type isolater valve which is positioned in the pipe run such that water can be shut-off to service/replace elect. shower unit. Some of these valves are very suspect in operation and as such canl restrict water pressure and flow to the unit. The best valves to use are the Gate type valves which do not suffer the same problems as the new chrome isolating valves. Mel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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