How Many Weeks Are Left Till Xmas?

We are tenants left without heating and hot water. Advice on our rights please?

• We have been living in our flat for just under a year. We live directly opposite our landlords who own several buildings on some farm land. All the properties (including our flat) have oil tanks that provide heating and hot water. Our landlords told us that they arrange for the oil to be delivered around October time for all the tenants and then we pay them £500 along with our rent. It got to October time so we asked about when the oil tank was going to be filled up and they said it'd be a little bit later as the oil company prefer to do all the houses together so we were to wait until all of our tanks were low so they could be completely filled. They told us our boiler was due for a service so it wouldn't be much longer. Anyway today our landlord approached us (when it was starting to snow heavily) and told us they'd had the delivery already but forgot to order oil for us. She told us that the oil company was unlikely to want to come back soon for one household so we would be low priority. We told her that because we had waited as she asked our oil was so low we had only an inch left. She just said oh well i suggest you shop around to see if you can get someone round soon and walked away. Apparently with average usage 2-3 inches of oil can last between 3-4 days and we have 1 inch left. We've looked on the internet and an oil company won't be able to come for 10-14 days. This will mean we will be without heating for possibly 2 weeks (we live in the middle of nowhere and the snow is pretty thick so we will be freezing, its only a garage flat so it doesn't hold heat very well) We can get an emergency delivery of the oil but this will cost us £600 instead of the usual £500. Of course we would have ordered it ourselves in good time but they insisted that they order for all the tenants and now we will suffer and have to pay an additional £100 just because they "forgot" us. I'm quite angry because its the xmas period, we pay our rent on time and everything and now we have this additional expense which isn't our fault. I'm more upset that she didn't apologize or offer more to help, she just informed us that we were forgotten and would probably be without heating for sometime, she didn't seem concerned that our oil is so low. My friend says we should pay for the emergency delivery but pass the bill (the additional £100) on to the landlord. I imagine she would just laugh in my face if I tried that to be honest. We are thinking of finding somewhere else and leaving once our tenancy is up which will be in a few months. Any advice please. I don't really want to cause more problems by having a go at her but just wondered what your thoughts are.

• Answer:

  Be prepared to contact an attorney and then deduct it from the rent. Use electric heaters during the wait to stay warm. Prepare a letter being straightforward (that's where the attorney comes in) to notify you that by law, utilities must be provided. Good luck.