OAP tenants in Staindrop left without heating

AN ELDERLY Staindrop couple are furious with their housing association after spending Christmas and most of December without hot water or heating.
While staff from Teesdale Housing Association enjoyed a break between Christmas and New Year, Brian and Alice Wilson waited, for the sixth time in 27 days, in their freezing home for a plumber to repair their boiler.
The 73-year-olds, who live in Coronation Gardens, first reported a fault to the association on December 2.
Mr Wilson said: “We got a bloke out the first day because there was water dripping out. He said, ‘Oh, it needs some new parts’. Six days later he came out.
“It lasted about four hours, then it started flashing. We went that weekend without heating. I called them on the Monday but it took two days before they came out.”
This time the plumber inserted a new circuit board but it wasn’t long before the boiler failed again.
Mr Wilson said: “Half an hour later it was flashing again.”
It took another two days before another plumber was sent to their home.
Mr Wilson added: “It was another different plumber. After he put in all the new parts, it must have been another two hours and it was playing up again.”
The ongoing problems played havoc with the couple’s routine and Mr Wilson complained they were unable to go out to do shopping because they frequently had to stay at home and wait for a repairman. Sometimes it would take days for one to arrive.
He said: “The wife has been having to boil the kettle to get washed and changed in the morning.”
Mrs Wilson, who has a pacemaker fitted and suffers from kidney problems, needs to keep her legs warm because of a skin condition. The couple had to buy an electric blanket and put on an electric fire in the living room.
Fortunately they have an electric shower so they were at least able to wash during December.
Mr Wilson said: “I keep going to complain at the office. They get on the phone and say they will come up in the afternoon. So you go home and wait. The number of times I have been down to the office, they must have thought I was part of the staff.
“We have had plumbers from all over. We had one from Leeds and the one yesterday, the boss man, he was from Sheffield. He had to get the parts from Manchester.
“The first week I said ‘fit a new boiler’. A new boiler would only have taken a few days.”
The couple were able to properly heat their home for the first time in almost a month on December 29 when the final repairs appeared to be holding. No one from Teesdale Housing was available for comment over the Christmas period. Calls to the office were redirected to Durham County Council emergency repairs.