When Victoria Tamaklo’s boiler broke down in her housing association home, she was forced to trudge upstairs carrying scalding water just so she could wash herself.
The mother-of-three’s boiler stopped working in the middle of October, just as temperatures were beginning to cool.
Although the housing association sent several repairers to her home over the course of many weeks, it took them a while to identify the problem, leaving Victoria struggling without heating for more than two months.
Victoria, 55, lives in Abbey Wood, London, with her son Ludwig, who is studying at Kingston University. The house belongs to Peabody Housing Association and is where she has raised her three children since 2012.
Victoria, who was born in Ghana, told The i Paper she loves to host parties and have her friends round for traditional meals and celebrations and has many happy memories in her home, which is also where she held her daughter’s traditional Ghanaian wedding.
However, she says her home has become less of a sanctuary as it is always so cold and her heating bills have escalated, making her worried about how she will afford them.
Things became particularly difficult after her boiler broke and would only work intermittently. “Repair people would come to the house and then leave again saying they needed to get various parts or they would try to fix it, but it wouldn’t work.
Victoria suffered terrible problems with her boiler when it was broken for 11 weeks. She says her housing association home is so cold, and that she cannot afford to heat it“On a couple of occasions, they were able to get the boiler to work, but it would only last a couple of days before the boiler broke again and I would have to keep ringing the housing association.”
Victoria, who works at a supermarket, had to miss several days of work to let the handypeople into her home. She explained her manager was unhappy about her needing to be absent so much due to domestic issues. In the end, she felt unable to miss any more time off work, so had to ask her son to miss university to let repair people in.
Victoria, who suffers from arthritis in her knees and lower back, says the house was incredibly cold, which made her health problems worse. She ended up relying on two electric heaters to keep warm, which sent her electricity bill skyrocketing.
In one week when it was particularly cold, it cost £50 for electricity, she said: “When I get paid, every time, my money goes on gas and electricity bills.”
The breakdown meant Victoria had to boil water and carry it in a bucket to the bath to wash herself. “I was afraid of hurting myself,” she said. “I had to carry boiling water up the stairs every time I wanted to wash. What if I had dropped it?”
Victoria says she hopes people like her will benefit from the Government’s Warm Homes PlanCarrying the boiling water through the cold house caused long-standing issues of damp and condensation to worsen, said Victoria. She says there is mould in the bathroom, in all the bedrooms and it even gathers in her shoes that she stores in the bedroom.
Then, as if living without a boiler was not difficult enough, Victoria said the home then experienced an electricity failure throughout the house. This coincided with the coldest week in November, when temperatures were regularly below five degrees.
At first, Victoria thought it was an issue with an electricity power cut, but after checking the grid, she realised it was just her home that was affected. When the electrician came, they found that it was the boiler that had caused the electricity to fuse.
Even though the boiler has now finally been repaired and is working again, Victoria says her home is still extremely cold and costs so much to heat up, she cannot afford the energy bills.
She wants to see homes like hers undergo home improvements in light of the Government’s announcement of the £15bn Warm Homes Plan.
The Government’s long-awaited plan, which was recently published, is designed to upgrade homes to make them cheaper, better and warmer.
It promises to provide £15bn to households across the UK over the next five years, as well as introducing new rights for renters.
The Government has said it wants to triple the number of homes with solar and lift one million people out of fuel poverty. The strategy will pay for measures like insulation, solar panels, batteries and heat pumps to lower bills and cut gas use.
Victoria believes carrying boiling water through her home has made the mould and damp situation worseMillie Brown, deputy director for homes at the Centre for Ageing Better, says it is imperative this plan succeeds to help people like Victoria and restore public trust following previous botched insulation schemes.
She said: “The Centre for Ageing Better believes that the key to this success is the implementation of a national network of one-stop-shop services for information and advice on home improvement, known as Good Home Hubs.
“These one-stop shops for home improvement, delivered in partnership between local authorities, charities and businesses to people from all housing tenures, would offer a range of services including independent information and advice, financial support for those who need it, and signposting to trusted tradespeople.
“They would provide an effective mechanism for delivery and would play a key role in reestablishing lost trust.”
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Peabody Housing Association looked into Victoria’s issue and told The i Paper that she will be entitled to compensation.
A Peabody spokesperson said: “We know this has been a really difficult time for Ms Tamaklo, and we’re sorry it took us so long to fix her boiler.
“We were in regular contact between October and December, visiting several times while she faced the intermittent issues.
“The repairs failed to provide a lasting fix during that period, which wasn’t an acceptable level of service.
“We’re in touch with Ms Tamaklo to talk through how we can put things right and ensure that the boiler is now working well.”
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