No heat at Christmas: how to prepare, and how to cope with the rush

Boiler breakdowns spike over the Christmas holidays, when the heating is working hardest, the weather is coldest, and engineers are hardest to reach. Landlords can cut the risk with a service and a few checks before the break; engineers can handle the rush by setting cover expectations and getting ahead of the customers most likely to call.

For landlords: prevention beats a holiday call-out

A no-heat call over Christmas is the most expensive and stressful kind, for the tenant and for you. The prevention is boring and it works: get the boiler serviced before the holidays, make sure any exposed condensate pipe is lagged, and check the tenant knows how to reach you or an emergency engineer, and how to reset the boiler for the simple stuff.

• Service the boiler before mid-December, while engineers still have slots.
• Lag exposed condensate pipework against the first hard frost.
• Give tenants a clear route to report a fault, and who to call if you're away.

For engineers: plan the rush, don't just endure it

You can't stop the phone ringing over Christmas, but you can shape it. Decide in advance whether you're offering cover, and what you're charging for holiday call-outs, and say so clearly before the break. Reach out to your elderly and vulnerable customers early with a pre-winter check; they're the ones you least want stuck without heat and the ones most grateful for a call.

• Set your holiday cover and call-out rates in advance, and tell customers.
• Do pre-winter checks for elderly or vulnerable customers before the break.
• Keep the common festive spares to hand: the fault you can fix on the spot beats a return visit on the 27th.