A TENANT from Barnes who claims she endured days without heating or hot water has labelled Richmond Housing Partnership a bunch of total incompetents'.

Ms Tina Malliarakis, of Howsman Road, says she called housing repairs to come and fix a faulty boiler on Monday March 15. Two men arrived, one of which Ms Malliarakis accused of being extremely rude and asked him to leave.

His partner then agreed the boiler was both obsolete and faulty and said he would make a report and someone would be out to assess the boiler. The tenant had still heard nothing by the Friday and when she called Mears, the repair company, they told her they would send out temporary heating that day.This never arrived and by Sunday morning Ms Malliarakis says the family, which includes four children, were freezing.

She called the emergency helpline yet again and a lady who answered went as far as making a note of my call but still no heating or hot water, she said.

"By Monday morning to say I was raging would be an understatement."

The boiler was examined again after numerous phone calls and the tenant was told it would not be fixed for another two days and temporary heating would be brought along later - which it was.

Ms Malliarakis added: "So I am dealing with a bunch of total incompetents who are only willing to pass the buck rather than take responsibility. I am lucky that I am of reasonable intelligence. Had I been a simple woman with no idea what to do in a situation like this. I may have blown up in a gas explosion with all my children this weekend."

RHP maintain that an operative attended within 24 hours on March 15 and they are investigating the complaint of rudeness.

They claim that the boiler was repaired and left in working order but this then failed on Saturday March 20.

A spokesperson said: "We fitted a new boiler on March 25. As a result of the boiler failure, Ms Malliarakis was without heat and hot water for five days and RHP is providing compensation for this loss of service. This is not the standard of service that we aim to deliver to our customers."

and we are very sorry for any inconvenience caused to Ms Malliarakis and her family in this instance."