he can get it sorted out soon. They theoretically have a fireplace (not sure how operational that is) and presumably still electricity (& gas?) to operate the kitchen oven and add some heat to the house that way.

heard from another member of the family that the heating has started working again - while they were in the process of borrowing fan-heaters (from the neighbours, I assume).

apparently they'd only just had it serviced last Friday - with a few new parts on order. Which is freakily similar to yet another relative's heating system that had been serviced and then broke down.

it's almost like there's a gang out there deliberately breaking things!

what a nuisance!

deliberately having very simple heating to minimise the options for there being problems.