UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi, I moved into a new property on Monday. On Tuesday night I wanted to use the hot water, I ran the taps it was freezing cold. I then moved the settings on the thermostat to constant, left it a bit longer tried both taps in the kitchen and was still cold. Tried the hot taps in all 3 bathrooms still cold. I called the letting agency the next day and they sent a plumber round. He checked throughout the house and it turns out the pluming has been fitted the opposite way round so the hot taps run cold water and the cold taps run hot water. This information was not passed onto me when I moved in. The letting agents are now invoicing me for the plumber being called as the said there was hot water. My argument is there was not hot water running from the hot taps I tried every hot tap in the house, I did not know they ran opposite to being labelled. I am also concerned a this is confusing for my young children now.
Is it my responsibility to pay the invoice? As far as I am concerned there was no hot water running from the hot taps.

I'd suggest that you'll happily pay the invoice if the landlord will pay for all of the taps to be swapped over or the plumbing sorted. It'll be a lot cheaper than the compensation if one of your children scalds themselves from a mislabelled tap.

The above is not a bad starting point, but the Agent (not that they would be expected to) and the Landlord here clearly do not care about anything other than rent. Obviously this is a safety issue and they don't care (or are unaware, which is just another level of not caring - just like the Plumber, I'd suggest).

If it was me who was the Landlord then I'd definitely be aware of it and I'd also want it rectified. It just wouldn't make sense to me for it to be the other way around. I'd, honestly, not let it this way. Some folk drink water from the cold tap... but wouldn't drink from the hot tap (even if the water was cold)... I mean, originally, sure, it's all the same water... but they've taken rather different journeys to the taps.

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of that. That's a more serious health issue, hot water isn't often safe to drink.