Tenant has no heating: your obligations and how fast to act
A broken boiler in January isn't a routine repair — it's an emergency with legal weight. Here's exactly what you owe the tenant, how quickly you're expected to respond, and what to do in the first hour.
By the FixQuotes editorial team
- Published
- Reading time
- 6 min read
Key takeaways
- Keeping heating and hot water in working order is a landlord's legal duty under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 — you can't pass it to the tenant.
- There's no single statutory deadline, but a loss of heating in cold weather is treated as an emergency and should be tackled within around 24 hours.
- Prolonged cold can be a Category 1 'excess cold' hazard under the HHSRS, and now falls within Awaab's Law timescales for serious hazards.
- Provide temporary heaters while the repair is arranged, respond in writing, and keep a record of what you did and when.
Your legal duty
Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords must keep in repair and proper working order the installations for space heating and heating water. A failed boiler, a dead immersion, or a heating system that won't fire is squarely your responsibility to fix — and a tenancy clause saying otherwise doesn't change that. Gov.uk's private renting guidance lists heating and hot water among the repairs landlords must always handle.
The duty kicks in once you're on notice. The moment the tenant tells you there's no heating or hot water, the clock starts.
How fast do you have to act?
The law requires repairs within a ‘reasonable’ time, judged by severity. No heating or hot water in cold weather is at the urgent end: the widely-accepted expectation is to respond within about 24 hours and get an engineer to it as quickly as possible.
Reasonableness also bends to the household. If the tenant is elderly, very young, or has a relevant health condition, the urgency is higher and a slow response is harder to defend.
When no heating becomes a legal hazard
Under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), excess cold is a recognised hazard, and a property a tenant can't heat adequately can be rated Category 1 — the most serious band, which a local authority can compel you to fix.
With Awaab's Law extending fixed investigation-and-repair timescales into the private rented sector, leaving a tenant without heating is exactly the kind of issue that will carry a hard deadline, not a vague one.
What to do in the first hour
Acknowledge the report immediately and in writing. Arrange a Gas Safe registered engineer as the priority — for a gas boiler this is non-negotiable. While the repair is being booked, provide temporary heaters so the home stays warm; it's a small cost that demonstrably discharges your duty in the meantime.
Keep a simple log: when the tenant reported it, when you responded, what you arranged, and when it was fixed. If a timeline is ever questioned, that record is what protects you.
Get it fixed fast — and at a fair price
Speed and cost usually pull against each other in an emergency: the first available engineer isn't always the best-value one. FixQuotes flags emergencies like no heating and prioritises them, sourcing quotes from available Gas Safe registered engineers so you can act within the day without simply paying whatever the first call-out demands.
If the boiler is beyond economic repair, it's also worth understanding replacement costs before you commit.
Need quotes for any of this?
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