A tenant won a battle with his ‘tight’ landlord over capping his heating after coming up with a cunning hack to get his radiators back on.
Alin Oiste and his two housemates were fed up with their flat getting cold after the owner of their property in Helmsley, Yorkshire, insisted on managing its heating with his phone.
The 33-year-old says his landlord locked the system in a bid to save cash, so it would only kick in when the house dropped below 16 degrees – however, he figured out how to override it.
Video footage shows him removing the thermostat from the wall and storing it in the bottom drawer of the fridge to trick it into thinking his flat is around eight degrees.
Another clip shows him bringing the thermostat inside, after leaving it outdoors to drop to zero degrees, and putting it back in the fridge for the night.
Alin Oiste won a battle with his ‘tight’ landlord who capped his heating to save money – by putting the thermostat in the fridge so the heating turns on
Alin claims the hack would start up their heating in minutes and then he would remove the device in the morning when he and his pals were warm again.
The scheming hospitality worker says he would carefully plan this for around 10.30pm at night as he knew the landlord wouldn’t notice the thermostat’s drop in temperature.
His video has since earned more than half a million views on TikTok with users hailing his improvisation.
Despite having since left the property, he wants to encourage other renters to try it and beat the cold this winter.
Landlords are able to control thermostats if they pay the bills but The Housing Act 2004 says councils could take action if a tenant is not free from ‘hazards’, which includes excess cold.
Alin, originally from Orastie, Romania, said: ‘The first half of the winter was the old thermostat so it was working fine and then in the second half we were all so cold.
‘The whole house was freezing and you couldn’t have a shower or a bath because you would get out and you’d be freezing.
‘No matter what I would set it to, the temperature just wouldn’t go above 16 degrees so I thought ‘I’m not accepting this’.
The 33-year-old says his landlord locked the system in a bid to save cash, so it would only kick in when the house dropped below 16 degrees – however, he figured out how to override it
Alin explained: ‘My roommate thought it wouldn’t work but it did. The thermostat wouldn’t detect how long it had been in there so it was still working until I took it out’
Another clip shows him bringing the thermostat inside, after leaving it outdoors to drop to zero degrees, and putting it back in the fridge for the night
‘He was doing it to save money on his heating bill so he was just being tight.’
He explained: ‘By putting the thermostat in the fridge we’d tricked the landlord and the thermostat into thinking that the house was a lot colder than it was.
‘My roommate thought it wouldn’t work but it did. The thermostat wouldn’t detect how long it had been in there so it was still working until I took it out
‘During the day the landlord had a business nearby so he could pop in and see why the house was so cold, so it was just at night when I would get home from work.
‘I knew he wouldn’t be checking at night. I’d thought about everything.
‘I would have it on from 10pm all the way through the night until the morning and we did this for a couple of months until summer started and there was no need for heating – I wanted to share it because I thought it was funny.’
Alin left the flat in September and has since moved to Scotland where his landlord lets him control his own heating.
He believes landlords should allow their tenants to control their own thermostat, adding: ‘I think landlords should trust the tenants more and let them change it.
‘If nobody’s at the house there’s no point in having it on so you could turn it off but it’s a fine line because lots of people forget about it.
‘I’d tell anyone struggling with their landlord controlling their thermostat to give putting it in the fridge a try.’
His viral video was captioned ‘when the landlord overrides your thermostat but you can override that easily’ and has more than 300 comments.
One commented: ’16 degrees? Absolute misery, with a second penning: ‘Nice work!’
A third added: ‘Oh you won,’ to which Alin replied: ‘The joke’s on him,’ alongside laughing emojis.