Derbyshire pensioner, aged 90, left without heating for weeks due to maintenance failure

Catherine Carlin, who has lived alone in an East Midlands Homes (EMH) property on Chester Street, Brampton, for eight years, first reported a fault with her heating just after the New Year.

While an engineer from EMH maintenance contractor Liberty Group did visit on January 6, he failed to fix the problem and despite two more engineers visiting and countless phone calls from the family, as off Tuesday, January 23, nothing had changed.

Catherine’s granddaughter Kirsty Miller, a legal assistant who lives nearby, said: “She’s had no shower since the start of January so she has been boiling kettles and washing herself with cloths in the kitchen sink as the bathroom is too cold to use. It’s very dangerous with all the electrics in the kitchen.

“They have provided her with a little blow heater for the living room, but to leave a 90-year-old woman in those conditions for that amount of time, in the coldest part of the year, with no correspondence – we’re not happy at all, especially as it says on the EMH website that loss of heating or water is classed as an emergency and will be fixed within 24 hours.”

She added: “The first engineer came out and said the boiler just needed flushing, the second said it needed a new part, then a third one came out for some reason and repeated what the second one said.

“We’ve been calling them again and again to get it sorted, being referred backwards and forwards between EMH and Liberty with conflicting information and no one being helpful. Sometimes they’ve been annoyed at us for calling twice in a day.

“They’ve given no real reason why it’s taken this long, although one person we spoke to said Liberty did not have capacity to cope with all the big contracts it’s taken on.”

The latest update is that another engineer should be visiting on Thursday, January 25, but Kirsty says the situation has already taken its toll on her Catherine.

Kirsty said: “It’s affected her in lots of different ways. The cold makes her arthritis symptoms worse and you can tell she’s not her normal happy self.

“She’s been coping, and obviously family have been taking her hot meals and inviting her over to stay the night or have a shower, but she’s a very independent 90-year-old who still likes to do everything for herself.

“Catherine has a little walk into town most days for fresh air and that helps her mood and keeps her going. She’s been stuck inside all this time waiting on the off-chance an engineer might show up.”

She added: “It can’t only be my nan that this is happening to. They just need to rethink how they manage things if it’s leaving people without hot water and heating for three weeks.”

After being contacted by the Derbyshire Times, Ian Davies, group director of property at EMH, said: “We are sorry for the time it has taken to resolve the issue with Ms Carlin’s boiler.

“We first visited Ms Carlin’s home on January 6, and reinstated the heating and hot water that same day. We learned about further issues with the boiler on the January 12, and attended on the same day.

“On this visit, it was identified that parts were required to repair the boiler, the parts were ordered the next working day. We understand that our operative offered to provide temporary heaters on the 12th January, but this was not accepted by Ms Carlin.”

He added: “We have scheduled a repair for the boiler on January 25. However, we acknowledge that the time taken in this instance does not meet our usual expectations. We have worked with our teams to remind them of the importance of clear and timely communication with customers.

“Ms Carlin’s case has been brought to the attention of our contractor’s operational director who will be investigating the issues. Our contractor has also expanded its network of suppliers, which will improve their access to parts and will speed up response times. We once again offer our sincere apologies to Ms Carlin.”

Liberty Group did not respond to a request for comment.

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