Owning your own home

I haven't but I would check two things:

1. The speaker in the phone and its connections
   
2. The button in the downstair intercom
   
   

I would assume that the button downstairs has gotten dust / grime in it over time and the connectors aren't working any more. Some rubbing alcohol should solve it.

Cheers. How would you go about that? Try take the face plate off both? Think it's just an issue for my flat

To check the phone speaker, you'd need to dismantle that. You could just test it by connecting a battery to the terminals for it and seeing if it makes a noise.

For the button, you'd need to open up the buzzer box. I assume there are screws under the things circled in red. It's perfectly plausible that the button for your flat is the only one not working and that it's still the button box. Maybe the weather seals have worn out.

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Thanks very much will give that a go

See if you can isolate it first though. Or you might get more of a buzz than you were hoping for. The signals making the buzzy and talky noises will (likely) be low voltage, but the whole thing is probably driven off the mains.

Does the handset think it’s on mute?

@stevo_com @Howard 99% it is mains powered. Can hear a bit of static when I hold the phone to my ear. No mute button I can see.
Took the phone plastic front off and there's some stuff not connected but nothing to connect it to.
I think it might be the button on the front door thing

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Does it work for other flats?

Yes I believe so

Ok so the downstairs bit seems to function.

Does your handset have a separate buzzer or does it use the handset? Can you pump voltage through that and see if it works?

I don't see any kind of buzzer unit or speaker in there. Was there anything on the inside of the case you took off? Behind the circular grille?

In fact, neither to other Urmet CS1132's from what I can see on Google, which makes me think as @Grumpy_Git says that it could be inside the handpiece, and borked. I would look for a used handpiece as it looks like you just plug/unplug the connector in the top left corner.

It could also be the switch down stairs not calling your handset. Terminal 6 (blue wires) is Common. CA is call and 9 is lock. 1 & 2 are speech in and speech out respectively.

Can you have a conversation with someone downstairs over it?

I would test across 6 and CA while having someone downstairs press your button to see if you get a signal.

It should only be 12 or 15V. The whole thing should be fed by a power supply connected to the mains, but what those wires carry should be low voltage.

Again, I'm just a dick on the internet, but the above it what I got from google.

https://www.hobbielektronika.hu/forum/getfile.php?id=288355

And working out your terminals from this image

By the time you cleaned that up and fixed it you can buy a new one.
I am all for repairing and stuff, but stuff like a mute button is nice.

Do the neighbours have a system you could check?
Are there external buzzers?
Can you take a photo of the back on the circuit board to trace the lines 0r check for cracked boards?
Does the handset work for speech both broadcast and receive?

In my experience cracked pcbs or the cables to the handsets are what fails. Both can be traced with a multimeter on resistance.

Remove the handset and check the resistance between the four pins TO THE HANDSET.

M-C
C-C
C-A
M-A would expect infinite.

Also check for continuity between 1,2,6,CA on the screw terminals and M,C,C,A on the handset connector

Where's the fun in that

God that’s wretched. Is that even architecture? Weird because the rental place they did next door looked great IIRC

FIXED IT! @@stevo_com got me thinking about the speaker, which is here, blew the dust out and it now works
Cheers for the tips

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are these universal? it does look ugly and 80s. could be tempted to change it

Success!

Was going to suggest doing a flat swap with a neighbor

Good stuff. Thought that was related to the handset hook.

No idea if universal.
But as it works now I would just get plastic cleaner and or magic sponge and have a go.

victorian/edwardian homes are shit

Nope. That's not what the article says. It refers to a particular distance rule for setting out housing (dating from after the Victorian period had finished - lots of back-to-back housing built closer than that even after that 'rule' was invented) but the other issues are to do with later 20th century housing.

Edwardian, Victorian, Georgian homes are likely to be solid brick external walls with plaster directly onto them. Lots of thermal mass basically. High ceilings. High opening windows (esp sash windows). Cross ventilation. Good to reduce overheating (rubbish for winter heating).

From the 70s onwards homes are much more likely to suffer from: not enough thermal mass, 'single aspect' (inability to cross-ventilate), low ceilings, excessive solar gain (windows too big and facing south or west). Insulation and airtightness of new builds has greatly improved recently but they can be awful for overheating.

There's a new building regulation about overheating in homes (Part O). Came in this year. Coldest summer of the rest of your life etc.