AN ALLOA mother had to fork out hundreds of pounds for heating because her landlord took weeks to fix her boiler.

Maryellen Cameron's heating broke down at the beginning of January and Paragon Housing Association took weeks to fix the problem.

The mother of five, whose youngest is just 13-months-old, told the Advertiser it took the social rent company two days to just bring out two tiny heaters and a PET tank.

Maryellen claimed she had to spent around £90 a week on electricity top ups to keep the house warm and the kids bathed while she was waiting for the fix, but was only offered an extra £15 in allowance.

She said: “I phoned Paragon at 9am [on the Friday morning the heating broke] and said that somebody would be out between two or three hours. Nobody came out until 4.20pm and when they did come out there was that much water in the boiler that everything was falling apart.

“So they turned the boiler off and said they would come back with a PET tank and heaters, but they did not come back until Sunday night at 8pm so I had to take my bairns out to go and get them bathed.”

Some of her close friends came together in support, buying hot water bottles and fleece pyjamas for the children and had to help with feeding them too.

Maryellen added: “The PET thank they give you, it take an hour to heat the water up and there's not enough to bath the youngest ones, so you've got to put it on three times. The fan heaters, they cost £1 for 20 minutes, so it's costing me a fortune.”

A spokesperson for the housing association said: “We are aware that our tenant at [address taken out] has been experiencing repair issues with her central heating boiler.

“The boiler was repaired in January and was operating satisfactorily however a further fault developed. We can confirm that heating and hot water at the property have now been restored.

“We have also arranged for a follow up visit from the boiler manufacturer to ensure that all issues have been resolved.

“Due to difficulties in sourcing parts this repair has taken longer to complete than we would have liked and does not reflect our usual standard of service. We have apologised to our tenant for this.

“Where a tenant is provided with temporary heating and hot water due to boiler failure the association does make a standard weekly contribution of £15 per week or part week towards the additional in accordance with our policy.

“However given the extended nature of the issue being experienced we are discussing the additional fuel costs with the tenant to see if further assistance can be provided and reach a satisfactory conclusion.”