A disabled north-east woman was forced to live in a house which was so cold carers were unable to bath her.
Portsoy woman Charley Smith has lived in social housing provided by Sanctuary Housing since 2013.
The 43-year-old wheelchair user suffers from a number of underlying health conditions including the muscular condition fibromyalgia.
And in order to get by carers are required to visit her at home regularly.
Miss Smith said that during her time living at the house the heating and hot water has failed intermittently.
However this month, as temperatures in the north-east plummeted, the boiler failed completely and she was left so cold that she was unable to move.
And despite numerous visits from engineers she had to spend seven days at home without heating and three days without hot water.
When an engineer was finally able to resolve the problem, Miss Smith discovered it was an issue which could have been fixed years ago.
Now Miss Smith has called on Sanctuary Housing to apologise, to ensure other vulnerable tenants do not suffer the same fate.
“I’ve been in the house nearly four years and I’ve had heating problems from day one,” she said.
“It stopped working altogether. The carers came in during the week and said the water was too cold to shower me or to wash the dishes. I told my carer I was frozen.
“By 5pm I couldn’t feel my toes and there was snow here. I couldn’t move because the cold affects my joints and I’m in a wheelchair. I was desperate.”
She said after several visits to her Portsoy home from different engineers a Sanctuary worker completed a repair last week.
Miss Smith added: “They can’t leave people – especially disabled and vulnerable people – like this. It’s a carry on and it could be affecting other people. It’s not child’s play, it’s people’s lives.”
Last night a spokesman for Sanctuary Scotland said: “We are pleased Miss Smith’s boiler is now working properly and will be looking into the initial misdiagnosis of the fault by our specialist contractors.
“We apologise to Miss Smith for any inconvenience she was caused due to the delay repairing her boiler.”
Sanctuary has more than 6,500 properties across Scotland.
They provide both affordable homes, including sheltered accommodation.
Sanctuary is a registered charity.
