I made my way to the property and opened the door to be greeted by water pouring through the ceilings in the dining room and living room (and little downstairs utility room). After going upstairs it was the same story, two of the three bedrooms had water pouring down the walls, and through the ceiling.

What is more worrying was the water was gushing our of the electrical sockets and light fittings, water has a habit of finding the easiest routes.

The central heating tanks in the attic had frozen solid,  but the water feed had not, thus meaning that the tanks were continually filling with water. The overflow simply could not cope and they were overflowing.

My advice to anyone with empty properties at this time of year is to make a daily check, if you have your central heating tanks in the attic make sure you check those as well. Condensing boilers are so much safer in this regard as you do not have tanks of water sitting around, however, make sure that the condensate pipe that goes outside is free from ice, otherwise your boiler will overheat and switch its self off.

I had left the central heating on low, however, with the loft insulation this heat had not stopped the loft from freezing. This in turn had stopped the boiler getting its water feed and thus it had over heated and switched its self off making the problem worse.

With temperatures of -11°c even with a property you are living in can easily freeze.

It will be a fairly large insurance claim to put it right, plaster has blown on walls, ceilings are coming down as the plasterboard is sodden, the carpets are ruined, and the whole place will need to be re-decorated just after I had finished decorating from top to bottom after a tenant left the place in a bit of a mess.

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The monthly payments cover a yearly service and safety certificate for the property, something that is a legal requirements for land lords to have. The first years cover is now over and as such the second services are also now due. It is down to the tenant to book an appointment for the service and the safety certificate update. This has proven to be a failing, not really with the cover it’s self but with  how it actually works in reality. If the tenant does not organise a time then the do not have the safety certificate for which the land lord is legally responsible. As such I believe that it should be the land lords responsibility to tell the tenant when the booking is and if the tenant can not be at the property for that allotted time then the land lord should have access to the property for the service and gas safety certificate to be done.

I have however been very pleased with the service, I have only had reason to call them out for two separate incidents, firstly a boiler which would not stay on and secondly a burst radiator. These where both dealt with swiftly and all under the cover at no extra expense to myself including a new radiator.

All in all I would recommend the service both to private home owners and Land Lords, however if you are a land lord make sure that you manage the process and ensure that you do not take your responsibility for granted.

If you are interested in more information on the British Gas Cover click here

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