Edinburgh residents protest outside letting agents after living without heating for a year

Flatmates, Stuart and Rory, reported the broken heating system in December 2022

Two Edinburgh flatmates protested outside a New Town letting agents on Friday to demand compensation after the pair were left without heating for a year. 

Edinburgh residents, Stuart Cantlay and Rory Robertson, joined members of tenant’s union Living Rent outside the D.J. Alexander offices on Wemyss Place on April 5 to highlight their ordeal.  

The tenants, who say they always paid their rent on time and in full, first reported the faulty heating system in December 2022, but said it took 12 months for repairs to be carried out. Stuart and Rory are now demanding a 50 per cent rebate for year-long period and are asking for further repairs on broken windows, which they reported four months ago, to be actioned. 

Edinburgh flatmates Stuart and Rory joined Living Rent to protest outside D.J. Alexander on Friday, April 5

In a joint statement, Stuart and Rory said: “We spent over a year in a flat with no heating and we were shivering throughout winter - and given it’s Scotland, we were cold most nights of the year. It took a whole day of calling staff at DJ Alexander to get movement after 12 months of being told it was being looked into. During those calls we found out the landlord hadn’t even fully paid for the work to be done, or given DJ Alexander a working phone number.

“We paid full rent on time every month - a third of our income - with inoperable windows and heaters which had been known about for months. We even got a three per cent rent increase in May last year, just three days after we were told the heaters weren’t even being considered until autumn.

“DJ Alexander and the landlord could have avoided this whole situation if there had been any proactive inspection or repairs, but instead when we moved in, the entry phone was still hanging off the wall, and upgrades to the ageing kitchen never materialised.”

They added: “Living Rent helped us find the energy to fight for our rights as tenants, and to get what we’re owed for a service paid for in full and only received in part.”

Edinburgh residents, Stuart Cantlay and Rory Robertson, were left without central heating for a year

The flatmates’ protest comes after they sent a letter to their letting agency and landlord via Living Rent which demanded compensation for the 12 months they lived without heating and requested that repairs to windows and some electrical work is carried out. Stuart and Rory requested that the compensation should be provided via a rent reduction over a few months - but after no agreement was reached, the tenants decided to protest for their demand.

Izzi Brannen, member defence organiser for Living Rent said: “It is unbelievable what landlords think they can get away with. To have no heating for a year and be consistently ignored is unbelievable behaviour.

“Time and time again landlords show their true colours by behaving as if they are above the law. No one should be forced to live in a home without heating in Scotland throughout winter. It is appalling that Stuart and Rory were forced to put up with this for so long. 

Ms Brannen added: “The Scottish government needs to legislate to ensure that landlords who fail to do repairs are penalised. This government must do more to protect tenants and provide high quality, affordable, accommodation.”

A spokesman for DJ Alexander Scotland said: “We fully sympathise with the tenants of this flat and have been liaising with the landlord and the tenants over appropriate compensation to satisfactorily resolve this issue and hope that both sides can reach an amicable solution.”