Gillingham Lewis family have been without heating for five months after Moat Housing failed to fix their boiler
00:01, 17 December 2014
A boy who suffers from cerebral palsy is the youngest member of a family who have had no central heating or hot water in their home for five months.
Nicola and Ian Lewis and their children have been bathing at family and friends’ houses and warming their home with a small electric fire because their housing association has not fixed their central and immersion heating systems.
The family have lived in Speedwell Close, The Vineries, in Gillingham, for 14 years and have four children under 15. The youngest, seven-year-old Shayne, has cerebral palsy.
In July, an annual inspection by Moat housing’s contractor BSW Heating Ltd based in Kenley found the family’s boiler was dangerous, and cut off the gas supply but did not investigate the problem.
“Shayne needs a warm home and a hot bath every day to help alleviate his pain and the situation at the moment is awful for him” - Mrs Lewis
Mrs Lewis, 33, said: “We were completely left in the dark, they didn’t say when it would be fixed or if I had to do anything.
“I called Moat constantly. They palmed me off on BSW Heating, who three times arranged to come out and check the boilers but never turned up.
“Shayne needs a warm home and a hot bath every day to help alleviate his pain and the situation at the moment is awful for him.”
A spokeswoman for Moat said: “Gas meters are the responsibility of the bill payer, so we advised Mrs Lewis to contact her supplier. As soon as Mrs Lewis resolves the issue with her gas supplier, we will return to test her boiler and uncap her meter.”
The trainee teaching assistant had already called E.ON whose engineers checked the property externally and found no issues.
She said: “As part of the tenancy we’re not allowed to have any work done within the property, at all.
“Nobody at Moat is communicating or knows what is going on. Despite their statement, last week they actually said they would fix it, but couldn’t yet because the gas supply was cut off. Mote told me to get E.ON to put the gas back on and call BSW Heating out again.”
Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti said he is very concerned and would be contacting Moat “urgently on behalf of my constituent to have this resolved as a matter of urgency”.
Stories you might have missed
Boy knocked down by car near school
Councillors vote to keep attendance secret
Councillors walk out of stormy Manston meeting
