RAS Information needed please

tonyheaney

Hi I’m in a RAS House with myself and my wife. We have 2 small children 5 and 2 respectively.

Our issue is

1. We want the gas boiler checked as it hasn’t ben checked wince we moved in. two weeks after requesting it the property manager has not approved anything or even turned up.
2. Our Cooker has no external vent, what gets sucked through the extraction fan just gets pumped around the house. Food smells are crisp in the bedrooms.
3. Major one here: Our Window broke, when my wife closed it the handle and part of the frame came away. We reported it twice, some guy came stuck some glue on and went away. The whole thing will fall apart soon (again) it’s my 2 year old son’s room and he now has to sleep with his sister. When I asked again last week I was basically told we did it on purpose., and that he would be around within an hour, last week (154 hours in fact)

There are three parties:

• The landlord: Never seen of or heard of except when we requested the house exterior painted.

• The property manager: Told Us NEVER to call the landlord.

• The Ras Managers: told us once we sign the lease they no longer want to know.

In all honesty I don't know how this house passed the safety RAS test, can anyone please advise us?


here is a pic of the wonderful work the PM did on the window :mad::


http://i44.tinypic.com/9b92qe.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/2e2dxkl.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/281irc.jpg

murphaph

Actually the major issue you have is your gas boiler. Assuming it's been several years since a service (how long have you been in occupation at the property?) then that is by far your highest priority as it could kill you all silently in your sleep.

A boiler service from a registered gas contractor will cost you max €100 (I paid €60 last time in Dublin) and you'll have peace of mind afterwards. If your LL, PM & Housing Authority are ignoring you, just pay for it yourself and then hassle them about getting the money for it (keep the receipt for the LL obviously).

The cooker thing won't be sorted as the property has already been accepted to the scheme so the LL is never going to go to the expense of sorting that. The window handle assuming it doesn't actually work (it doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing to you) is also an issue as it's a potential fire escape. I would however as a landlord also raise an eyebrow if that damage occurred to my window frame. It would not be expected in normal use, so he probably (justifiably?) feels excessive force was used.

handlemaster

It would take alot of force to do that frame breakage

tonyheaney

murphaph wrote: »

Actually the major issue you have is your gas boiler. Assuming it's been several years since a service (how long have you been in occupation at the property?) then that is by far your highest priority as it could kill you all silently in your sleep.

A boiler service from a registered gas contractor will cost you max €100 (I paid €60 last time in Dublin) and you'll have peace of mind afterwards. If your LL, PM & Housing Authority are ignoring you, just pay for it yourself and then hassle them about getting the money for it (keep the receipt for the LL obviously).

The cooker thing won't be sorted as the property has already been accepted to the scheme so the LL is never going to go to the expense of sorting that. The window handle assuming it doesn't actually work (it doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing to you) is also an issue as it's a potential fire escape. I would however as a landlord also raise an eyebrow if that damage occurred to my window frame. It would not be expected in normal use, so he probably (justifiably?) feels excessive force was used.

HI

sorry about the mix up, our property manager sent his repair man to look at the boiler but he did not produce any official ID card saying he was a registered gas checker (is that right term?) but he did test it and it came up ok, but i still wanted an official one done and he has ignored us.

We moved in to the house in Jan.1.2011 and received two letters last month from PRTB.

murphaph

You can find out if it was done officially because he is supposed to fill in a triplicate form and one of the copies should be sent in to the RGII. You can report it to them if you suspect the guy was not an RGII contractor. LINK

foggy_lad

The property manager is the landlords agent so you deal with them for anything you might need. Write a letter addressed to the agent asking when the gas was serviced/safety checked last, also ask when a proper repair is going to be carried out on the window. RAS leases usually allow for accidental damage such as windows or fittings or furniture being broken etc but on a rate of maybe one or two accidents a year.

If you don't get a satisfactory reply inform the agent that you are going to refer the matter to the PRTB and they will be contacting the landlord.

The extractor fan is working and the filters should be changed by yourselves as and when required unless you like the cooking smells all over the house. you will also have to keep the kitchen door closed for the extractor to work properly.

tonyheaney

handlemaster wrote: »

It would take alot of force to do that frame breakage

believe it or not, not a lot of force. windows were not shutting all the way so over 36 years it was closed perhaps a little hard at times, but better then leaving a window open with a new born in the room.

tonyheaney

foggy_lad wrote: »

The property manager is the landlords agent so you deal with them for anything you might need. Write a letter addressed to the agent asking when the gas was serviced/safety checked last, also ask when a proper repair is going to be carried out on the window. RAS leases usually allow for accidental damage such as windows or fittings or furniture being broken etc but on a rate of maybe one or two accidents a year.

If you don't get a satisfactory reply inform the agent that you are going to refer the matter to the PRTB and they will be contacting the landlord.

The extractor fan is working and the filters should be changed by yourselves as and when required unless you like the cooking smells all over the house. you will also have to keep the kitchen door closed for the extractor to work properly.

Hi Foggy_lad

Thanks for the info. I will write a letter, to my property manager and same to ras.

As for the extractor fan the fan works fine but there is no outlet. the smoke gets sucked up to the ceiling and around the kitchen. there is no external pipe. Keeping the door closed send the smoke in to the rooms above and keeping the door open sets off the smoke alarm in the hallway outside.

murphaph

The extractor fan if it has no external venting should/may have 2 filters inside for use when the air is to be recirculated. There will be one grease filter (like velvet stuff that is laid across the grille of the extractor and then there should be an active charcoal filter to capture odours. Both of these things are consumables that need periodic replacing. They would be the tenants' responsibility in my eyes, just like light bulbs, fuses etc.

The window not shutting properly would explain the excessive force on the handle to get it to close BUT critically you'd need to have reported the fact that the window wasn't shutting properly before the handle broke, otherwise you're still on the hook for that damage. A tenant can't expect the LL or PM to know that a window isn't shutting properly-they must be informed of it and given reasonable time to fix it. That issue perhaps could have been rectified by adjusting the hinge (I had the same problem where we live-balcony door not closing properly which was a small inexpensive fix to hinge).

I understand that you probably don't believe, perhaps with good reason, that the PM/LL would have done anything about it anyway but they can blame you for the damage.

Was the initial problem reported?

foggy_lad

As said earlier in most ras leases there is allowance made for accidental damage of a certain level as long as it is not continously happening and I believe that the window damage judging from the pictures falls into that category and would be the landlords responsibility.

murphaph

I've only ever seen one RAS lease and that's the one I signed. It had no such accidental damage clause. Must be local authority specific.

tonyheaney

murphaph wrote: »

The extractor fan if it has no external venting should/may have 2 filters inside for use when the air is to be recirculated. There will be one grease filter (like velvet stuff that is laid across the grille of the extractor and then there should be an active charcoal filter to capture odours. Both of these things are consumables that need periodic replacing. They would be the tenants' responsibility in my eyes, just like light bulbs, fuses etc.

The window not shutting properly would explain the excessive force on the handle to get it to close BUT critically you'd need to have reported the fact that the window wasn't shutting properly before the handle broke, otherwise you're still on the hook for that damage. A tenant can't expect the LL or PM to know that a window isn't shutting properly-they must be informed of it and given reasonable time to fix it. That issue perhaps could have been rectified by adjusting the hinge (I had the same problem where we live-balcony door not closing properly which was a small inexpensive fix to hinge).

I understand that you probably don't believe, perhaps with good reason, that the PM/LL would have done anything about it anyway but they can blame you for the damage.

Was the initial problem reported?

Hi murphaph, thanks for the info, regarding the:

The extractor fan if it has no external venting should/may have 2 filters inside for use when the air is to be recirculated. There will be one grease filter (like velvet stuff that is laid across the grille of the extractor and then there should be an active charcoal filter to capture odours. Both of these things are consumables that need periodic replacing. They would be the tenants' responsibility in my eyes, just like light bulbs, fuses etc.

when my wife cooks the wonderful cooking smells are easily found in the kids bedroom at the back of the house, the kitchen in at the front. Do you think the filters need changing?

Regarding the:

The window not shutting properly would explain the excessive force on the handle to get it to close BUT critically you'd need to have reported the fact that the window wasn't shutting properly before the handle broke, otherwise you're still on the hook for that damage. A tenant can't expect the LL or PM to know that a window isn't shutting properly-they must be informed of it and given reasonable time to fix it. That issue perhaps could have been rectified by adjusting the hinge (I had the same problem where we live-balcony door not closing properly which was a small inexpensive fix to hinge).

We have been in to them a few times and some one i think came out and said nothing could be done about it, they went away and that was that, 3 years later my wife closed the window perhaps a bit hard and it broke. Would that count as a case?


the Was the initial problems were all reported? but its his work against mine. I even asked for a shed so we could buy a lawnmore to keep the gardens clean and tide so far nothing but im probibly asking too much. Our 4 year tenancy finished in 12 months time and we may have to move, if we got a shed we would have to leave it and i dont feel paying a few hundred for one then giveing to a lazy LL/PM what do you think?

again thanks for your help so far