In hot water over boiler

Mar 7 2010 by Mr Justice, Sunday Sun

WHAT caused Gordon Reveley’s hot water to run cold?

Don’t know – but the people who say they didn’t cause it have offered £500 towards a new boiler.

Gordon told me how he had hot water on tap until the day he called out engineers to fix a loss of heating.

They got his heating back but on the very same day he lost his hot water.

Gordon said: “I have had no hot water for two weeks.

“The engineer is saying it was not his fault but all I can say is that it was there before he worked on the system and not there afterwards.

“I have had no hot water for two weeks and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Gordon had called out the engineer for the original problem – the heating – through his home insurance with Aviva.

The work was done by engineers from Homeserve on behalf of insurers Aviva.

A spokeswoman for Aviva told me what happened from their point of view.

She said: “The customer first contacted Homeserve following a loss of heating in their property.

“There appeared to have been a fault in the way the boiler was installed and, in normal circumstances, the customer would not have been covered for this work.

“In this instance, however, the engineer continued to work on the boiler to try to resolve the problem.

“When the heating was restored, the customer reported that their hot water had ceased to work.”

She said the immersion heater was running at the time of the call-out and it was thought Gordon had been getting hot water through his immersion on a permanent basis.

She added: “To ensure a permanent fix to the heating and hot water, we have informed the customer that they would require a new system to be installed.

“While Homeserve have endeavoured to help resolve this for the customer, they would not have ordinarily been covered for the work that was undertaken due to the nature of the fault.

“They are, however, keen that the customer is left satisfied and therefore, as a goodwill gesture, and recognising that there has been a delay in reaching this diagnosis, Homeserve will be offering the customer £500 towards a new boiler installation.”

A spokeswoman for Home- serve said the Aviva statement was a joint one.

Gordon, of Blyth, Northumberland, has accepted the offer but finds it hard to understand that he was only getting hot water through his immersion.

He said: “It’s ludicrous but I have accepted the £500. I believe it will be enough.”