‘My children and I haven’t had hot water for over a month – it’s disgraceful’

A family who were left without hot water for more than a month at their south east London home have branded the response from their housing association ‘disgraceful’ and are demanding compensation. 

Remi Olawole had been waiting for repairs to her boiler since August 5 but says she has been ‘fobbed off’ by Clarion Housing who claimed they are waiting for parts. 

She was forced to boil kettles so she and five children could wash at their Anerley flat. 

The boiler was finally fixed this week but the family is demanding compensation. 

They said their gas bill has rocketed after they have had to boil water on the hob.

Mother-of-five Mrs Olawole, 39, told Metro: ‘We had no hot water to wash ourselves or our clothes or heating for a month. It’s a total nightmare.

‘The housing association have sent out people to look at the boiler and they said it was beyond repair but the housing association kept saying it had ordered parts. I feel we have been fobbed off.

‘Obviously the heating was not such an issue in the summer but the hot water is a basic. How am I, and the children, supposed to carry on like that?

‘I think it’s disgraceful the way we have been treated. I’ve scalded myself from boiling water in the kettles, it’s been very stressful.’

The working mother said the flat had multiple other problems, including damp, which triggered mould on walls.

She added: ‘The flat is not in a fit condition for a family it’s not healthy to live like this. There is mould which can be dangerous. I do not want my kids to have to live like this. No parent does.

‘I want Clarion to take responsibility and get the problems sorted. I also want compensation – no family should be put through this.’

It’s understood that repairs have been scheduled, including mould treatment, and no crack in the ceiling was found during a recent assessment, but work is underway for another check.

A Clarion spokesperson said: ‘We sincerely apologise to Ms Olawole for the unacceptable delays to restoring hot water to her home. The outage was caused by a number of boiler faults coinciding with the breakdown of the immersion heater.

‘However, this issue should not have taken as long as it did to resolve and we will be reviewing several serious failings by our contractor.

 ‘A new boiler was installed in the property this week and we can confirm the hot water has now been restored.

‘Urgent repairs are also being scheduled to provide a backup so that this problem does not reoccur.’

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