---

2013 – The First Red Flag

Barely a month after moving in, the first real problem struck. In the freezing days of January, the boiler gave up completely. Of course, it happened on a weekend — these things always seem to. We phoned the landlord, Dr. McKendrick, straight away. He assured us he’d get it sorted quickly, especially knowing we had three young children and a newborn in the house. But by Monday he still couldn’t find anyone to fix it and asked if we’d be alright using the portable heaters we had.

He knew about those heaters from conversations about our old house, the main reason we’d moved — that place had no central heating, just oil deliveries every few months. Looking back, this should have been our first warning sign. But at the time, desperate to keep things calm, we agreed. “It’s fine, we can wait,” we told him.

That night, everything changed. My wife and I were downstairs watching television when the fire alarm shrieked from upstairs. We bolted up the stairs, hearts pounding, and opened the bedroom doors to find the rooms filling with thick smoke. Panic took over. I threw open the windows, grabbed two of the children, while my wife scooped up the older ones. We tore down the stairs and into the night air.

Then I ran back inside. The smoke was choking, but I searched for the source. One of the oil heaters had failed catastrophically, belching out clouds of smoke and threatening to ignite. I hauled it to the window and threw it out before racing back down. Moments later the fire brigade arrived, sweeping through the house, checking every corner, clearing the danger. They sat our children on the sofa, fitting small oxygen masks over their faces as we tried to calm them, their wide eyes full of fear.

That night should have been enough to tell us the truth about Findhorn Place. Instead, we tried to believe it was a one-off, the kind of bad luck that happens to anyone. But deep down, the first seeds of doubt had been planted.

---

.

---

Legal and Landlord Responsibility

Under UK law, a landlord has a legal duty to keep installations for the supply of heating and hot water in proper working order. This duty is set out in Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. It is not optional the law makes it clear that landlords must repair or replace broken boilers within a reasonable time, especially where children or vulnerable tenants are involved.

In our case, the boiler broke in the middle of winter, leaving us with three children and a newborn baby in an unheated home. The landlord’s response was to ask us to rely on portable heaters. The result was a serious incident where an oil heater filled our home with smoke, leading to the fire brigade being called and our children being treated with oxygen.

This was not just bad luck. It was a failure of duty. The landlord exposed our family to unnecessary risk by not prioritising an urgent repair. At the very least, emergency measures, such as arranging temporary heating or fast-tracking a boiler replacement should have been put in place immediately.

---

Why Iona Property Does It Differently

This experience shaped one of the core values of Iona Property: heating and hot water are not luxuries but essentials. If a boiler fails in one of our homes, it becomes the number one priority. We know the dangers of delay, both to health and safety, and we will never ask a tenant to “make do” with unsafe alternatives.

Our approach is simple:

• Immediate Response: Any report of a failed boiler is treated as urgent.

• Qualified Engineers: We ensure a registered engineer is dispatched without delay.

• Tenant Safety First: If there is any gap before a repair can be carried out, we provide safe, temporary solutions at our cost.

What happened to our family in 2013 should never happen to anyone else. That’s why Iona Property is committed to doing things differently.

---

2013–2016 – Hard Work, Broken Hearts

From 2013 to 2016, life at Findhorn Place seemed steadier on the surface. The boiler broke a couple of times, but the landlord was prompt in arranging repairs. Still, cracks began to show; the tone of his responses carried a dismissive “for God’s sake” attitude, as though repairs were a burden rather than his legal duty.

During these years, we kept our heads down and worked hard. Both of us were on minimum-wage jobs, my wife working from home while I worked late nights delivering parcels. The children were in school, and in 2013 we welcomed another baby into the family. We had no outside help; every challenge fell on our shoulders alone.

By 2016, my wife was pregnant again. This time, the pregnancy was difficult from the start, with heavy bleeding throughout. We were constantly back and forth to the hospital, trying to hold everything together: work, children, bills, and fear for the baby.

That May, the boiler failed again. An engineer told the landlord it needed to be replaced. Instead of acting immediately, he asked if we could wait while he tried to secure a new one through a government grant. Since it was late spring the warmest time of year in Scotland, and with everything else going on, we reluctantly agreed.

That “wait” turned into nine months without a boiler.

When the people carrying out the government assessment came, they were aggressive and tried to force their way into our home, speaking rudely to my wife while she was heavily pregnant. I cancelled them immediately. No one treats my family that way. After that, months dragged on with no progress.

In August 2016, tragedy struck. Our baby daughter Sia was born, and I nearly lost my wife to blood loss Sia was only alive for 5 minutes and afforded no help to survive by the NICU team. We were broken. Even then, it took another month before the landlord replaced the boiler himself in September. When he finally visited, instead of compassion, he complained that we had fallen behind on rent a direct result of hospital appointments, travel costs, and needing the car on the road to cope with everything.

That was the day he told me he never wanted to be a landlord again and planned to sell the house after us.

---

Legal and Landlord Responsibility

Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords are required to keep heating installations in good repair and working order. In Scotland, this responsibility is reinforced by the Repairing Standard (Housing (Scotland) Act 2006), which makes clear that a home must have a working heating system and adequate hot water at all times.

Nine months without a boiler was not only unlawful it was inhumane. The landlord delayed action for personal financial convenience, prioritising a potential government grant over the safety and welfare of a family with multiple young children and a high-risk pregnancy.

A landlord cannot shift responsibility onto tenants when a boiler is condemned. Nor can they claim that “summer months” justify neglect. Heating and hot water are legal requirements year-round.

---

Why Iona Property Does It Differently

This period defined one of Iona Property’s deepest values: people over profit. No grant, no delay, no cost-cutting is worth the risk to a tenant’s health, comfort, or dignity.

Our commitments:

• No Delays: When a boiler is beyond repair, it is replaced immediately. We will never leave a family in limbo.

• Respect for Tenants: Any contractor we send is briefed to treat tenants with professionalism and courtesy. Rudeness or aggression is not tolerated.

• Compassion Matters: Life happens, pregnancies, hospital appointments, setbacks. Falling behind in a crisis should be met with understanding, not threats.

What happened to us between 2013 and 2016, from struggling through cold months to losing Sia, reinforced that property is not just bricks and mortar. It’s people’s lives. That’s why Iona Property is built to do things differently.

---