'˜Staggering incompetence' of '˜pure farce' Fernhurst heating saga

Kate Regan who lives with her husband Chris and two children 11 year old Emily and three year old Finn in Nightingale Close, Nappers Wood said: “The level of incompetence displayed from all parties involved is staggering. I complained so many times via the telephone, email and Facebook. I was told so many times someone would sort this out.”

She said: “I am claiming compensation for having to run electric heaters and use the immersion heater which is exceedingly expensive.

“It has been so frustrating, I have had to dedicate so much time to trying to get something done and retell the story dozens of times.”

Her nightmare began on December 19 when the boiler began to leak. An engineer came out but found a new part would be needed and scheduled to return on January 3. He found it was the wrong part and ordered a new one promising to return the following Tuesday. When he turned up the part had not arrived. “The following week I rang to see if anyone was coming out to be told the part had just arrived and someone would ring. No one rang. I rang back, this time I was told the part was due in that day and someone would ring. No one rang.”

Another week went by with several calls from Mrs Regan which she said were not returned and eventually the part arrived: “Someone came out. He claimed the boiler was in such a state he needed to order pins and look up a diagram to be able to fix it.”

Her husband then contacted Hyde to escalate the situation to an emergency: “Someone called about an hour later and we told him several times he had to bring pins, but he turned up without them, it was pure farce.” They were then told the boiler would have to be replaced and their nightmare finally ended yesterday (Tuesday, February 7).

Corinne Waterfield, Head of Hyde Housing said: “We have installed a brand new boiler and restored Ms Regan’s heating and hot water. We do apologise for any distress caused by the delay as we progressed repair of the fault. We provided temporary heaters when the boiler was out of action and appreciate the increase this may have contributed to her electricity bill. We’re happy to speak to Ms Regan about reclaiming the additional costs and would urge that she remains in touch as we work with her to resolve any outstanding issues.”

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