Advice needed on how to handle bad letting agency

teeky

I need a bit of advice on what to do about my rental house and if anyone could offer some suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.
Me and partner moved in on December 17th and paid our full deposit and month in advance, plus signing a six month lease. We are renting from a letting agent acting on behalf of the landlord. We have no idea who our landlord is.
Within days into moving in the heating system didn't work as the pressure kept dropping and the timer wouldn't kick in on demand to fire up the boiler. Considering this was December and the height of the big freeze we requested help immediately. Twice the property agency sent up a guy who consistently failed to fix it and eventually stopped answering the phone. So, I tried several times then to contact the agency on their so-called 24 hour helpline and never got a response.
In the meantime, we noticed the shower only pumped out piping hot water with the shower head on and when we took the head off it just spilled out tiny fragments of lime. So, we then had no shower either. However, lucky the house does have a bath but given the heating system problems you need to have your bath planned well in advance! I told the agency a total of three times about the shower. The same guy doing the boiler arrived up and said he couldn't fix it as a pipe was frozen at the time and said he'd be back. That was the last we saw or hear of him.
Also, (I know this going on) the oven has no thermostat and is set on full blast heat at all times. Leaving cooking any home cooked meals pretty much out of the question. In fairness, considering I couldn't get them to fix anything else, I didnt to mention this to the agency until I sent in a letter listing all these issues to them last week and a thermostat is being ordered.
After the letter landed I had a call from the agency first thing and they said they would arrange a different maintenance guy to come to house to solve the problems when I was next off work to let him in. That was meant to be today at 4PM. When it reached 5.45pm and still no sign of anyone, I called him and he answered tellin me he had totally forgotten to call up, didn't work after six and doesn't do weekends. Both me and my partner work till 6pm and on Saturdays and so have to take a day off again to accommodate him.
In addition to all of this, the rent which was due to go out on December 17th on a standing order that the agency told me was fully set up to go every month from my account to the landlord. I called my bank and guess what, they received nothing from the agent and no S/O is in place. Then all the money due on rent started getting eaten up on other bills etc over the following days. The only comment the letting agent had on this issue was to suggest I pay with cash this month instead.
I am totally fed up with the agency but love the house as it is perfect for me, my partner and our two dogs.
I am calling in to the letting agent tomorrow to talk face-to-face, can anyone advise me on what to do next?

athtrasna

Tbh I haven't read your full post because of the lack of spacing between paragraphs, it makes it really hard to read.

But the bit that stood out was the lime in the shower head. Get down to the supermarket and pick up Harpic 100% limescale remover (it's a toilet cleaner). Pour some into a dish and soak the shower head in it. It will clear it. There's clearly lime in the water and this is something you'll need to do on at least a weekly basis. Grew up having to do this once a week at home because we lived in an area with a lot of lime in the soil.

the_syco

Open a sub account, and put the rent into it, to avoid having to pay a large lump sum. Pay by bank transfer, not by cash, as cash leaves you with no real proof that you sent the cash in.