Honley MS sufferer Michelle Hunter ’s days of heating ‘hell’

A MOTHER with MS was left in the cold for days after an insurance company came up with a string of reasons for not repairing her heating.

HomeServe even told frail Michelle Hunter she would have to floorboard her loft before they would send an engineer up there.

The Honley woman – who walks with crutches and has weakened arms because of her Multiple Sclerosis – dragged a board from under her mattress up to the attic.

Mrs Hunter, 38, said: “It’s been extremely stressful, I’ve been in tears. I think they have treated me disgracefully – they’ve shown no compassion for my condition.”

Her problems began on New Year’s Day when the heating failed at her Stoney Lane home which she shares with husband Colin and their daughters Jade, 18, and 11-year-old Amber.

Mrs Hunter pays Swinton £198.66 a year for emergency home repair cover – including heating, gas and plumbing. The policy is run by HomeServe.

She said: “The whole point of having the insurance is so that I’m never without heating. The cold is really bad for me. It makes my numbness worse and causes severe pain in my feet.”

However, when she called HomeServe she was told that they couldn’t get an engineer out for three days. Mrs Hunter decided to call British Gas instead – even though she would have to pay for the repairs.

A British Gas engineer came on January 2 and installed a new pump next to the cistern, costing Mrs Hunter £122.

However, Mrs Hunter’s heating failed again last Sunday. She said: “When I called HomeServe they told me to ring British Gas because repairing the new pump would be covered by their warranty. A British Gas engineer came round and said the problem was not the pump, it was probably a blocked pipe.”

Mrs Hunter called HomeServe again to ask for an engineer.

She said: “They told me that my policy did not cover a blocked pipe. I asked where it said that in my policy.

“The HomeServe employee said he would check and call me back. He called back to say that a blocked pipe was covered and that HomeServe would send someone out.”

An engineer arrived from HomeServe on Tuesday afternoon and went to inspect the cold water tank in the loft. Mrs Hunter said: “He went up the step-ladder, peered in and said ‘I’m not allowed to go in there’.

Mrs Hunter later phoned to find out why and spoke to a manager.

She said: “He told me that the engineer could not go into my loft as there were no floorboards there – it’s wooden beams and insulation.

“I told him it didn’t say that in my policy that I needed floorboards in my loft. He accepted it wasn’t in the policy but said it was ‘common sense’.

“I told him that workmen from British Gas and Kirklees Council had been up there without any problems.”

The manager then said he would send an engineer if floorboards were put in the loft.

Mrs Hunter said: “I said to him ‘you’re telling me I have to go up the step-ladder and floorboard the loft myself – even though I’ve got MS and I’m at home alone at the moment?’”

Mrs Hunter then took a wooden board from under her mattress and carried it up to the loft to bridge the 1.5 metres between the hatch and the cold water tank.

She said: “I shouldn’t even be going up step-ladders because I have vertigo and I need a crutch to walk. I have very weak arms because of my MS.”

Mrs Hunter then called HomeServe to say the loft had been floorboarded and was told that an engineer would come the following day.

However, on Wednesday HomeServe called back.

Mrs Hunter said: “They told me that an engineer wouldn’t be coming because I had a blocked pipe, which wasn’t covered in my policy – even though they had conceded the day before that it is covered.”

Mrs Hunter was then put on hold for 45 minutes before a HomeServe employee told her that an engineer would be coming after all.

On Thursday a HomeServe engineer came round – and solved the heating problem in seconds.

Mrs Hunter said: “He said there was no need to floorboard the loft as he would have gone up anyway. When he got up to the loft he laughed.

“All that was wrong was that the ball-cock was stuck. He just flicked it with his finger, it took all of two seconds.

“If the first engineer had just gone into the loft he would have spared me days of hell.”

HomeServe spokeswoman Emma Harvey said: “We were unable to locate an engineer when Mrs Hunter’s heating failed on January 1 because we were exceptionally busy.

“Ordinarily we prioritise our more vulnerable customers and apologise that this did not happen in Mrs Hunter’s case.”

She said the first HomeServe engineer had been right not to go into the loft.

“When Mrs Hunter contacted us on January 24 we were unable to access the water tank due to restricted access to the loft,’’ she said. “Our engineer was following health and safety procedures.

“The floor was boarded and the tank has now been accessed and the central heating has been repaired. On inspection it appeared that the second problem may have occurred when the pump was fixed.

“HomeServe has brought heating and hot water back to hundreds of satisfied households in the Huddersfield area recently. We are sorry that this experience was not up to our usual high standards and have offered Mrs Hunter appropriate compensation.”

However, British Gas denied that it was their fault the heating went off.

Spokeswoman Sara Powell-Davies said: “I am very sorry that Mrs Hunter has experienced problems with her central heating.

“Our engineers who checked Mrs Hunter’s central heating system confirmed that it is a fully pumped system, which means that the ball-cock did not need resetting.

“We have given Mrs Hunter the telephone number of one of our managers to contact if she has any problems in the future”.