How Long Does a Landlord Have to Fix a Boiler?

Is there a legal deadline for fixing a boiler?

Not for private tenants, not yet. The duty comes from section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which makes the landlord keep the installations for space heating and heating water in repair and proper working order. The Act says nothing about hours or days. The courts read it as a duty to repair within a reasonable time after the landlord knows, or should know, about the fault.

The 24-hour figure you see quoted everywhere comes from housing advice and from letting agents’ own repair categories, not from the statute. It is still the right yardstick. A landlord who takes three days to send anyone out to a family with no heating in January will struggle to argue that was reasonable.

Social tenants have a hard deadline. Awaab’s Law has applied to council and housing association homes in England since 27 October 2025, and it makes the landlord investigate an emergency hazard and make the home safe within 24 hours of becoming aware of it. The government’s guidance for tenants gives a broken boiler as an example of the kind of problem that can be an emergency hazard.

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will extend Awaab’s Law to private renting, but the government’s implementation roadmap puts that in a later phase with timescales still subject to consultation. Until those rules start, private tenants rely on the reasonable time test.

If you smell gas, deal with that before the repair. Open windows, turn off the gas at the meter if it is safe to reach, do not use switches or naked flames, then leave the property and call the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999. The landlord arranges the repair once the supply has been made safe.

What counts as a reasonable time for a broken boiler

Reasonable depends on how bad the fault is, the season, and who lives in the home. It helps to separate the first visit from the finished repair, because a landlord can act quickly and still be waiting on a part.

• No heating and no hot water in cold weather, or anyone vulnerable in the home: an engineer the same day or the next, and temporary heat in the meantime.
• No heating but hot water still available from an immersion heater: an engineer within a day or two.
• Heating fault in summer with hot water working: several days is usually reasonable.
• Boiler working but leaking, noisy or losing pressure: a visit within a few days, sooner if the leak is near electrics.

Why the repair itself can take longer than the visit

Most boiler faults are diagnosed on the first visit. Common parts for current Worcester Bosch, Vaillant, Baxi and Ideal models, such as a diverter valve, pump, fan, expansion vessel or printed circuit board, are usually stocked by London merchants and can often be fitted the next day. Parts for boilers that are out of production can take several days to arrive, and some are no longer made at all.

If the heat exchanger has failed on a boiler more than about ten years old, the honest answer is often a replacement rather than a repair. Fitting a new combi takes a day or two of work once it is agreed, but surveys, quotes and ordering can stretch the whole process past a week. That is the point where temporary heating stops being a courtesy and becomes the only way the landlord can show they acted reasonably. Our guide on whether to repair or replace a broken boiler covers how engineers make that call.

As a rough guide to the wider London market, a straightforward part swap such as a pump or diverter valve often lands in the low to mid hundreds of pounds fitted, a circuit board more, and a replacement combi usually starts at around two thousand pounds fitted. Those figures are market ranges, not a quote.

What the landlord should provide while you wait

There is no rule that lists what temporary measures a landlord must supply, but a landlord who wants the delay to count as reasonable will offer them. Ask in writing for the ones that fit your home.

• Oil-filled electric radiators for the main rooms, rather than fan heaters, which are expensive to run.
• Use of the immersion heater for hot water, if the cylinder has one.
• A contribution to the extra electricity those heaters use, based on meter readings before and after.
• A date for the parts or the replacement, and a named contact.

Never let anyone who is not Gas Safe registered open the boiler casing, including a helpful friend. Gas work by anyone who is not on the Gas Safe Register is illegal, and a botched job can leave the boiler dangerous.

Access, reporting and the tenant’s side of the deal

The clock only runs once the landlord or agent knows. Phone if it is urgent, then put it in writing with the date, the fault code or lights on the display, the pressure gauge reading and anyone in the home who is more at risk from cold. A quick boiler check before you report it often answers the first questions an engineer will ask.

You also have to let the engineer in. Section 11 gives the landlord a right to enter to inspect the condition of the property on 24 hours’ written notice, and in practice you will be asked for access slots for the repair. A tenant who keeps missing appointments makes it very hard to argue later that the landlord took too long.

While you are writing, ask for the latest gas safety record if you have not had it. Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 the landlord must have gas appliances checked every year and give you a copy of the record within 28 days of the check.

When the landlord will not fix it

Send one more written chase, quoting the date of your first report and asking for a repair date. If nothing changes, contact the private housing or environmental health team at your council. They can inspect under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System, where excess cold is a recognised hazard, and serve an improvement notice.

The Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 also lets you take the landlord to court yourself if the home is not fit to live in, and a disrepair claim can bring compensation for the period of delay. Get advice from Shelter or Citizens Advice before starting either, and do not withhold rent without that advice.

Since 1 May 2026, section 21 no-fault evictions have been abolished under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, so a private landlord cannot end your tenancy simply because you asked for a repair. Your wider rights are set out in our guide to tenant plumbing emergency rights.

If you are the landlord or agent

Keep a log: when you were told, when the engineer went, what was found, when parts were ordered and what temporary heat you supplied. That log is your defence if a council officer or a court ever asks whether you acted reasonably.

Our landlord emergency plumbing service arranges access with the tenant directly and reports back to you, and emergency boiler repair visits run at any hour. The visit is the £60 call-out, and the repair price is agreed on site before any work starts. Gas work is carried out by Gas Safe registered engineers. Your full list of duties is in landlord plumbing emergency responsibilities.