Broken toilets

[winterborn86]

Yes maybe abit random but I'm actually going through this right now.

Basically my toilet has decided it doesn't want to flush anymore for some reason, I've called my local council and they say it is NOT classed as an emergency because we can tip buckets of water down it to wash away the dirty water, and no one will come out to repair it until wednesday afternoon. We have 2 adults and a 3year old use this toilet and it's the only one we have, but that doesn't seem to matter to the council.

Personaly I'am disgusted with this, we pay rent for a home but when something in the home needs repairing they just put it off and you could be waiting anything form days to months to get it sorted out, but they always except rent to be paid on time, I don't really see the fairness in this at all.
My partener called then and told then he wouldn't be paying rent this week as he doesn't think they are doing their job.

So I'm wondering whats your opinions? Would you class a non flushing loo an emergency if you have/had a family? and if you were in this position how would you react??

[Che]

Sounds like it's time for a family camping trip.

[RamesesII]

No I wouldn't class it as a emergency, purely for the fact that I do this sort of thing a lot at work considering we would have over 60 toilets at work so it is very rare for them all to be functional at one time, but that aside in Australia we can usually contact our agency that we pay rent through and they send someone out either at that moment or the next day or two, if it is a emergency like a busted pipe than I guess that is classed as an emergency.

A broken toilet on the other hand I wouldn't really class as an emergency and they wouldn't see it as one either an hence why they don't want to send someone out because its not the cost of the labour performed by the tradesman but the callout fee that is usually the most expensive that I guess would be why they are holding back on getting someone out.

I understand you reaction though winter I have three kids and we use the toilet a fair bit, but being a plumbing problem by rights it should be fixed asap, I can't say we have ever gone through a bad agency because we never have usually our agencies have been pretty quick to get someone out if we have a problem.

[Pete]

You can't just call a private plumber to fix this, or maybe use a plunger? Any decent plumber could be out there within a few hours.

I've never heard of having to call a council just to fix a toilet. That sounds absolutely ridiculous.

If it's the type of toilet with the tank attached to the bowl, take the lid off the tank and make sure there's water in the tank and that everything is connected. Sometimes it's something as small as a clasp that can stop everything from working, and if it's a little piece of chain or something, you can makeshift fix it with even a paperclip.

[Unknown Entity]

Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go. I see it as an emergency.

The same has been happening in my flat too. We're lucky enough to have two toilets though, so if one goes, we can wait for the council to get off their asses and do something about it. Once or twice we've called in our own plumber, and disputed the bill. Of course, they still don't give a shit.

It's pretty funny though. If you become friends with the people the council pay to fix your houses up, they'll tell you that they aren't usually THAT busy for you to wait more than two days.

[Pete]

What I still fail to grasp is why you need to go through a council to get your toilet fixed. Is the council like the building owners or something, or is it like a government thing?

Regardless, I would call up a everyday plumber, have them fix the toilet, pay the bill and then give a copy of the receipt to the building owners so they can reimburse you. It just seems like way more hassle than it's worth though.

[Tallulah]

@ Pete: Quite a lot of people live in houses which are owned by the local authorities, which is known as 'council housing'. A certain amount is paid as well as council tax etc. is paid to the local authority as rent. In return, the council are liable if anything goes wrong. It's the same as a private landlord being responsible for anything in a privately rented house; a common thing in Britain. Councils generally use contractors; usually the same companies private homeowners would call out (and then claim on house insurance). I agree, it IS a lot of hassle.

This happened all the time at my old, old house, usually in the 'downstairs' toilet next to the living room. (The othger one was in the bathroom upstairs) It took the council two weeks to come out and rectify the problem, and the first contractor made it a whole lot worse by cracking the toilet, so he had to order another one, which took another week or so! >.<

@winterborn86 (in answer to OP) : It is annoying and frustrating when something goes wrong, but you just have to sit tight and wait. If it is taking the council a long time to get something done, you have a right to complain. My parents had a leaking ceiling in the new house, caused by negligent neighbours upstairs who were washing in buckets in their dining room for some unknown reason, and letting the water drain away into the flat below (and later a massive leakage caused by someone stealing the boiler after the family had been evicted), and it took the council ages, and my mother several e-mails, to sort the whole thing out (treat the mould resulting from the water, redecorate over the damage, etc.). Eventually a member of the council actually paid my dad a home visit to discuss the problems with the house.

[Josh_R]

A broken toilet in my family would be classified as a code red emergency. I grew up in a very large family, and everyone used the bathroom a lot. So no bathroom would be really really bad.......

[bahamuts heir]

Emergency! Dude if that happened to my family(o crap) don't even want to think about it. Get a port-a-potty if the jerks won't do their job

[GypsyElder]

That sounds strange to me, tip buckets of water down it to wash away the dirty water? I mean I would say that's kinda ghetto lol I think the toilet issue for me would be an emergency, even though it's something you can deal with if you had to (poring water down it) it's kind of like when the water heater breaks or you have to shut off the hot water because of a bad leak or something...it's like you can deal with it by taking freezing cold showers, but it really sucks.

[Serah]

haha my toilet seat has come un-attached so its literally just rested on... when it 1st broke no-one told me and i nearly came off the bloody thing hahaha
Its still broken... but I've learnt

[El Gatopod]

Dude stop taking big toilet breaking shits.

[sayian]

well talkin about toilets isnt my cup of tea,,, however i have to say that a broken toilet IS Definitely an emergency... imagine if u had the oatmeal runs for example and cant do nothin about it.... and who wants to run to the store jus to take a sh!+
theres no place like home, theres no place like home, theres no place like home...lol

[El Gatopod]

well talkin about toilets isnt my cup of tea,,, however i have to say that a broken toilet IS Definitely an emergency... imagine if u had the oatmeal runs for example and cant do nothin about it.... and who wants to run to the store jus to take a sh!+
theres no place like home, theres no place like home, theres no place like home...lol

You started off saying that talking about toilets isn't your cup of tea. Don't be so modest! You said some pretty awesome things concerning what the world would be like if we didn't have toilets.

[Pete]

So, uh, did they ever fix your toilet or are you just pissing in the tub and shitting in the neighbors lawn and blaming it on a really big dog?

[RagnaToad]

I wouldn't say it's an emergency. I can perfectly understand the landlord's (or whoever is supposed to get it fixed) reaction.

I had a similar thing last week when we, together with 3 other streets, didn't have any running water for a day. We had to use rain water to flush the toilet, or even drinkable bottled water.

At least you still have running water. While it's certainly not pleasant to have to bring a bucket everytime you need to use the toilet, I don't think it's that big of a problem. It just takes up some time.

Also:

So, uh, did they ever fix your toilet or are you just pissing in the tub and shitting in the neighbors lawn and blaming it on a really big dog?

Good gag.