Landlord Response - Boiler Service and Repair

As a landlord on 10 years+ now I cannot believe this firm is still ripping people off. I used them for three properties in 2007 and can say without doubt that it was the worst decision I have made around using a supplier. Not only did they charge for 'retrospective' works after inspection of each property - before they would cover the properties - but if you decided to not take 'advantage' of their services they charge for the inspection of £400+ on each property! After paying the £4K+ of 'repairs' I then spent a year dealing with the most unprofessional company I have ever dealt with AND on top of that got charged an extortionate £79 per hour rate(!) for works that came up. All they did was sub out the work to local trades who were told to pretend to work directly for Landlord Response. Poor - does not even cover it.

Like many, I signed up to Landlord Response....... This was following a recommendation from the National Landlords Association (NLA), who has since severed all ties with the company. Seriously, you would not believe the number of complaints this firm has had. On face value all appears ok, until something goes wrong, then they try and charge you through the roof for the repairs. I spent months in legal wrangling with them.

In the end, just to get out of the contract I had to pay 10 months worth of subscription fees (as a result of the water tight contract they get you to sign). This was all over an over charge on their side, that they just would not have. Even if they were right (which they weren’t), you'd think they would for-go a £20.00 fee. But no, they lost a very good customer (20+ properties), over what I can only describe as their inability to see the big picture and compromise.

Whilst I was fighting this fee legally, they continued to charge me by the month for the service, which they suspended at the commencement of my challenge of the costs. As a result I was being charged for a service each month, which they themselves emailed confirming that they were not providing.

Stay away for your own good......I have never written a review before, but couldn't not make people aware of what you’re getting yourself involved in.

Keep Away from Home & Landlord Response

Just wanted to share my experience of Landlord Response (LR) as a warning to others.

I actually reasonably happy with as they covered the property with minimal fuss, although they did get a bit heavy handed with charges once when they missed an appointment.

However, my story is about replacing the boiler.

The boiler in the property broke and parts had to be ordered delaying the fix for a week and then how true or not I don't know apparently the driver delivering the part had an accident further delaying the repair.

When the part did arrive they then decided that the old boiler was beyond repair and had to be replaced.

They sent me an astronomically high quote to replace. So I had my man fit one of comparable quality for about a third of their quote.

All Gas Safe certificates were given my gas safe registered fitter.

Landlord response then informed me that they now wanted a fee to check the work of Gas safe registered fitter despite that his qualification is good enough for the the government regulators.

I refused to pay for this as it is grossly unnecessary. To which they responded that they wouldn’t then give full cover as per the terms of the contract.

So I gave them a month notice to terminate the contract as per the contract.

“9. TERMINATION 
9.1 Without prejudice to any other rights or remedies which the parties may have, either party may terminate the Contract without liability to the other on giving the other not less than one months written notice or immediately on giving notice to the other if…”

Then they started getting heavy handed saying I was bound by the contract to the end, despite the above termination clause. The or apparently doesn’t apply and the many caveats to termination must be triggered to allow termination.

They concluded with this message:

Dear Mr Costello
The clause you are referencing applies if the sub-clauses underneath it apply - i.e. if we have breached our agreement in any way.
We have not breached the agreement, we have not done or changed anything - you have instructed another company and we have simply asked to inspect the works completed by that other contractor and have informed you as per the terms and conditions there is a charge for this, we have even explained why this is necessary etc. You are refusing to pay this charge and even though you are breaking the terms and conditions we have confirmed we would be happy to let you not pay this charge and not let us inspect, we have simply advised you that if a breakdown occurs and it is caused by something your other contractor has done this MAY invalidate any future claims. We have not said the property is not covered any more, your policy includes cover for the boiler, central heating system, radiators, pipework, plumbing, drains and fixed electrics, we have also carried out your annual gas safety certificate, boiler service and electrical certificates and you pay for these monthly during your policy and this is paid for in 12 months premiums. The contract is 12 months, we have not breached the contract in any way, in fact we have tried to be reasonable and allowed you not to pay the charge that our terms and conditions clearly state is due, all we have informed you is that if a breakdown occurs that is caused by your contractor a clam may be invalidated, we have acted reasonably in every way and have fulfilled our contract with you and our terms and conditions.
Your emails are very hostile, we will not be bullied into allowing you to terminate your contract when we have not been at fault in any way, we have been reasonable and tried to work with you, this is our last communication in this issue. 
As we stated to you previously you are legally bound to the policy until 24 August 2014 and your premiums are due to this date. We are happy as a goodwill gesture to give you one more chance to reinstate your direct debit to avoid the charges made to your account as detailed within the terms and conditions. If you choose not to reinstate the direct debit, we will add the charges to your account and pass to our collections team to liase with you re your debt, if you choose not to pay these and not to pay for your premiums I can only advise you to seek legal advice as our collections team will pursue you for the debt that you are contracted to pay and we will exercise our terms and conditions fully.
We of course do not wish to take this action, but if you are going to refuse to pay your contract we will have no choice but to seek payment via the collections team.
In our opinion this whole situation has arose from you instructing another contractor to replace your boiler and now you feel you do not want the package any more as you have a new boiler, this is not fair practice, you are legally bound to your contract with us, we do not just cover the boiler, we cover other items at the property, we have not done anything wrong or breached our contract with you in any way and we have tried to be reasonable and waive fees that are due yet you have cancelled your direct debit and are refusing to co-operate.
I strongly advise you to read the terms and conditions of contract fully.
I have put a note on your account to postpone any charges being made to your account until Monday 23 June 2014.
Kind Regards


So I guess we’re going to court… I’ll keep you posted.

But in the mean time if you are thinking of using Landlord Response, I’d really have another think about it!

By the way BG on their service contracts include the gas safe cert. now, which is why I stopped using them in the first place, but glad to be back with them and without any costly inspections at the start of the contract either.

I have found the staff here so helpful, from the office staff to the engineers themselves, they are very up front and honest and the work that has been completed has been as per quote and carried out to a very high standard the workmen call when they are on their way and are polite and even clean up after themselves!

I have since put my boiler on one of their packages after finding them originally for a boiler repair from yell.com. They assessed my boiler and put it on cover with no problems at all, I have read some other reviews on here and it seems as a couple of people have had some problems with their initial inspection - my passed no problem so I cannot comment on it but maybe there are some 'rogue clients' out there, you do find them and sometimes innocent companies get called all the names under the sun because these people are trying to rip them off! The staff here all seem so nice and are always honest with me who attends to my boiler so I cannot imagine this company ripping people off, they seem to have fantastic old fashioned good morals and I cannot recommend them enough ! Thanks for all your help and the team!

I very unfortunately entered into a contract with this company as believed they were recommended by the National Landlord Association of which i am a member...found out too late that they have been removed due to all the complaints received about them. They get you to sign their form stating that you agree to pay for their inspections/services of your boiler(s) in the event that you no longer wish to proceed with a boiler maintenance contract with them upon receiving their report/quote(s). If you do proceed with the contract that there is no charge for the inspection/service they carry out. On the said day they went to each of my properties in turn spending a maximum 15 minutes in each. I was confident my boilers were all working ok as had all just passed their annual gas safety tests and had been serviced regularly. Landlord response sent their reports through with a quote totaling £4300.00!! Their prices were over double that what a gas/heating engineer usually charges. I didn't believe that the boilers were experienced the faults/repairs they said were requires so instructed an independent engineer for a second opinion. He agreed that the faults/repairs stated by L R were not required. The week after i placed all the boilers with British Gas on contract who carried out their own inspection/service and none of the faults/repairs that L R came up with were found. I entered into communications with L R and met with their very heavy handed approach. I was bombarded with invoice demands on a daily basis and then threats of late payment charges, interest and debt collection if i did not pay them for the £680 they were charging me for these fictitious inspections. I had already paid them £147.00 which they demanded prior to coming out to do the inspections, so this would total over £800 for basically nothing. All this happened within a week or so of receiving their 'reports'!! They rely on these inspections as an income generator as know that most savvy people would not enter into a contract with them after receiving their reports. They have you legally tied up within the terms & conditions of the form you sign prior to them coming out. I have since been in touch with others who have experienced the same as me, all the complaints centre around these bogus inspections and the wording of their forms. They work hand in glove with their debt collection people to bully and threaten you into paying them. It was only a week or so after i questioned their reports and told them i was getting second opinions that letters to 'pay up' landed on my door mat from their debt collection dept. With reputable companies such as British Gas, they do not charge you anything up front or demand payment for their inspections if you no longer wish to proceed with them. My advise would be to go with BG or Homeserve if you need a maintenance contract for your boiler(s) and not to go anywhere near Home and Landlord Response!!!!

I came across Home and Landlord Response from ratepeople.co.uk in December and they have since offered very competitive quotes, often offering discounts due to the volume of work we provide. The customer service team are extremely efficient, always promply replying to emails and our tenants have been more than happy with the work and service carried out. I would recommend their services to anybody in the industry due to their honest quotes and extremely helpful staff; the advisor in Customer Service has been particularly helpful, so thank you

Landlord Response have now been removed from the NLA approved supplier list due to complaints (one of them being from me).

I had 10 properties with them and removed all of them within weeks of signing up. You can make your own mind up from these facts:

1. They attended a boiler breakdown and determined the fault as 'thermostat and element need replacing' - repair cost over £700. After a second opinion the boiler was simply reset and I saved a small fortune.

2. They attended an inspection at another flat and condemned the boiler, saying it was a dangerous, incorrectly installed pressurized, unvented system which was contaminating the drinking water supply and needed totally replacing - they isolated the power leaving my tenants without hot water for 8 days due to 'safety reasons'. This evaluation was 100% wrong - the boiler is a perfectly safe vented thermal store with the required water valve to stop contamination (all in accordance with building regulations which they later agreed with).

There are many other reasons why I cancelled with this company. I very much regret signing up to them and strongly recommend not using them. This is of course my personal opinion.

Excellent value for money, I pay my monthly premium and do not need to worry about any other costs. I have had 2 claims passed that have saved me £500 and I have had all my gas and electric certificates carried out as well! Customer service is good, they answer the phone quickly, responses are dealt with quickly and they are helpful.

Initial boiler ispection fees are excessive (£130 plus VAT).Other service providers like Homeserve,British Gas and Homecall plus do not have initial inspections or charges.

Do not give them your card details.They keep card details and can use them without your knowledge.Reputable companies destroy card details once payment is made.I strongly advise you pay by cheque.

Very poor customer care. They employ young and inexperienced staff who cannot relate to mature persons.

Do not be taken in by their association with the National Landlord Association.Obtain references from previous customers as they speak volumes about Landlord Response.

Invoices- Landlord Response tend not to issue invoices unless and until they are asked to. Scrutise their invoices for errors