As a landlord one of your main responsibilities is to ensure the ongoing supply of heating and hot water. Whether the boiler in the property is under a year old or over ten years old it helps to know some basic faults – just in case. Welcome to Connect UK’s ‘Landlord Academy’ – here to answer all your property questions. There’s nothing worse than the loss of you’re homes heating or hot water but more often than not there’s a simple explanation and, in some cases, – a simple fix can be achieved without the help of an engineer.

1. 1. The most common boiler fault is a drop in pressure. You can tell this by checking the pressure needle on the boiler. If the needle has a reading of below one then you know the pressure is too low. Low pressure is often caused by a leak. If you can’t find any pipe or radiator leaks then you can simply, top up the pressure yourself. How to do this can be found within your boiler manual.
   2. What do you do when your radiators are not heating thoroughly all the way through? It is common for air to become trapped in radiators which results in the need for ‘bleeding.’ This means adjusting the valves, using a radiator key, and opening the valve until the air has escaped, before re-tightening it again. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, then you may need the help of a gas engineer.
   3. Many properties seem to lose heating and hot water when the weather turns and there is a sudden drop in temperature in the winter. The main cause for this is a frozen condenser pipe. As this pipe is generally located outside, the pipe freezes, meaning water cannot pass through. A simple fix is to pour warm water over the pipe to help it unfreeze. Be sure to not use boiling water though as you may cause the pipe to crack. In most cases a few attempts will resolve the issue.
   4. Check your pilot light – if the flame/light has gone out it usually means there is debris blocking the jet. The jet for a pilot light is tiny so it doesn’t take much to cause it to block. This fix may require an engineer’s assistance if resetting the boiler doesn’t re-ignite the pilot light.

A managing agent will have a bank of contractors at the ready for any types of boiler issues and many will diagnose the problem free of charge while sending over a quote for the repair. No repair will be carried out before obtaining permission from you, as the landlord.

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