Mother of two children on autism spectrum in Haywards Heath goes without proper heating for three weeks at Clarion home

Sarah Pollington, 42, of Chapman Way, said she moved into the Clarion property as a tenant on December 3 after relocating from London.

She said she realised the heating was not working on December 4 and spent ‘hours’ on the phone every day for weeks trying to get her boiler fixed.

Sarah said she spoke to Clarion who kept logging her call as an emergency, as well as Smith and Byford property maintenance who came out almost every day to fix the boiler.

“They kept restarting the boiler and told me I have low pressure,” she said, adding that it always broke again after an hour.

“It’s all messed up, I’m not a happy person,” said Sarah, explaining that one of her sons needs to bathe every day.

Clarion has apologised to Sarah and said that an engineer has been arranged to fix her heating.

Sarah told the Middy she has maladaptive borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety and asthma.

She said: “I suffer with quite bad lungs in the cold weather. It was only when I was living in London about eight weeks ago that my ten-year-old with autism had to phone me an ambulance. I got rushed into hospital because I couldn't breathe.”

Sarah said she feels Clarion needs to do more to prioritise people with health conditions if there is a problem at their home.

A Clarion spokesperson said: “We apologise for the issues Ms Pollington has been experiencing with her boiler. Our contractors have been working to locate the leak that is affecting the boiler’s pressure levels. This is a complex repair, which will require accessing pipework under flooring and behind sections of internal walls, so we have arranged for an engineer to complete this work on the 28th December. We can confirm that, following advice, Ms Pollington is able to manually top up the pressure levels on the boiler to ensure she continues to have heating and hot water in her home until the repair is complete, and has declined the offer of temporary electric heaters. We will continue to liaise with her until the problem has been completely resolved.”

Smith and Byford have been approached for comment too.