A FAMILY of eight from Blackburn were left without heating for more than eight days after their boiler broke down.

Suleman Dudhia, 78, said the family also had no hot water on the ground floor since Wednesday, January 5.

Places for People, which manages the property, apologised and said it was working to get a boiler ‘imminently’.

Mr Dudhia who lives at the property in Carlton Gardens with his children and grandchildren said they had been patient throughout the process.

He said: “The boiler started going wrong in November. The pressure kept dropping so we had to keep filling it up.

“It just was not working properly at all and during what has been a very cold period over the holidays it was a real struggle.

“There are two elderly people living in this property as well as young children. The youngest is just three.

“Then it just went off. They came and fixed it and then it just went off completely.”

He says the boiler was turned off on January 5 and they were given small replacement heaters.

“The replacement heaters take up a lot of energy and are not the same. We were patient and made do without hot water. But then when we phoned to find out what was going on we just got no answers.

“It is not good to be treated like this. You just want someone to deal with the problem and get it sorted.”

The family have been told the new heaters would be replaced yesterday.

A spokesperson for Places for People said: “We are sorry that our customer has experienced issues with their boiler.

“We are working with them to ensure they are warm and safe in their home, and we are due to install a new boiler imminently. We are keeping our customer updated on the expected delivery date.”