A short while ago the whining noise started up again (obviously economy 7 water heating off). Not being in the early hours of the morning we were able to investigate more fully. We pulled the washing machine out to try holding the pipes and found the blue appliance hose leaking at the washing machine end in a fine jet. We stopped the leak and cured the problem. So it looks like the fact that it was highly audible in the bathroom and the economy 7 were red herrings. Many thanks for all your help folks. I can look forward to a good nights kip. Strange how the leak seems to have been intermittent though. Must be something to do with increased supply pressure.
My mother - who is largely blind and one legged - lives in a housing association bungalow, which a couple of years ago had night storage heating fitted, at which time the hot water tank was replaced and relocated into the loft (fortic tank).
She called me at 5am one morning, somewhat distressed, as she had awoken to "hot rain" falling on her bed, and needed help.
I turned the water off and sorted her out temporarily, until such time that the local shop opened so that I could get their carpet vac to begin the clearup. When I returned an hour or so later, she had been wheeled of by ambulance, having had a heart attack after I left.
I investigated to see what had caused the leak, and discovered that the immersiom stat had failed, the tank had boiled, heated the header tank, which burst the plastic float on the ball valve, which allowed full flow cold into the tank, which sent very hot water out of the overflow.
Unfortunately, the plumber who had installed the tank some ten months earlier, had not bothered to use solvent weld on the overflow pipework, so when the hot water softened the pipe, the joints parted, allowing the water onto the plasterboard ceiling, where it eventually broke through.
The housing association were not interested in apportioning fault, nor even for sorting the problem. I spent a long time on the 'phone to them spread over a lot of calls, it took almost a fortnight before they did anything, then they did very little, mother had to stay in hospital for a week longer than necessary, as they hadn't sorted it out when she was fit to return.
She also had to pay for the electricity consumed by two huge dehumidifiers running for a fortnight, and the housing association also refused to repair the decor.
Who insures the building? There is may be a claim for water damage which should help to sort some of the decorating. Sounds like the HA were nearly as bad as the worst kind of private landlord.
Not too sure, mother has contents insurance - though there was no great damage to her belongings, so no claim - but the housing association are responsible for the building itself.
As an aside, mother had a rather large "H" style chimney pot fitted by the housing association's contractors, in an effort to stop her open fire from smoking into the lounge. A few months later, one friday evening, she called me to say that she had heard an almighty crashing and banging from the roof.
When I went and looked to see what had happened, I found the chimney pot in one piece embedded in the front lawn, and a trail of smashed tiles on the roof, where it had bounced on the way down. Of course it was a bank holiday weekend, so when I 'phoned their emergency repairs crew, they said that they'd be out on tuesday next. I pointed out that it was lashing down with rain, which was going into the roofspace. They said they'd be out on tuesday... In the event, they appeared the next day, so a bit more paint covered the damp stains.
I later spoke to the housing association regarding "cowboy" builders and the potential outcome if someone had been in the flightpath of the chimney pot, their response was that "it must have been loosened by a chimney sweep".
The housing association concerned is South Warwickshire, and I understand that they have spent a number of millions of pounds of rentpayers cash subsidising some residential care homes that they own in Gloucestershire. So one can see where their real interests lie...
As a landlord they are still responsible to maintain the place. They clearly have not got a grip on maintenance. They are fobbing their tenants off with what IMHO are lame excuses.
I'm not sure of the way the tenancy agreement works on Social Housing but I suspect that it is something on the lines of they are responsible for repairs and the tenant for decorations. It may be that they have some sort of insurance which won't pay out for decor damage although most buildings insurance would do so. It is even possible that if they are a very large organisation (e.g. of the size of a local authority )they might not even bother with insurance - they simple weather the occasional fire loss, flood damage or underpinning from their working turnover.
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