I purchased a £500,000 flat in January 2018. The building, Millstream House, is managed by Savills and has a central boiler that supplies heating and hot water to all 59 apartments. A month after I moved in there was no hot water or heating. Savills managed to fix the issue after three weeks with no compensation or apologies. The same outage has since occurred again on six occasions. Recently it failed again and engineers were unable to restore it, leaving residents without heat or hot water for three days. We pay around £3,000 a year for management fees, but Savills seems indifferent. TC, Oxford
It sounds as though the development has a district heating system which uses a network of insulated pipes to distribute heat from a local generator. District heating causes lower emissions than conventional systems and has been encouraged by the government, but there are problems. Suppliers don’t have to be licensed so Ofgem has no powers to ensure standards and customers are locked into contracts of 25 years or more with limited access to redress if problems arise. Residents who’ve bought properties that rely on the system, often unwittingly, have also complained of extortionate, unclear bills. Many, like you, have to rely on the managing agent to sort any problems rather than summoning a technician to their home.
Savills told me that during the latest outage there was a two-day delay to repairs as new parts had to be sourced and residents were allowed to shower in the adjoining gym. It repeatedly ducked the question as to whether residents would receive compensation and merely said it would be writing to all leaseholders with a review of the problem and solutions to minimise a recurrence. You’ve since been told compensation may be due but you’ll have to wait until April to find out.
Customers with traditional energy supplies are entitled to £75 compensation if there’s an outage of more than 12 hours, £35 for each subsequent 12 hours and an extra £75 if there are more than four power cuts in a year, but sadly there’s no such regulatory requirement for district heating households.
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