Apology to pensioner over £100 call out bill

Cross Keys Homes (CKH) admitted it made an error charging 78-year-old Peter Wells who lives in Lessingham, Orton Brimbles, £103.55 for a call out to look at his boiler.

Mr Wells, who rents the property with his partner Eileen Wright, was charged for an “emergency call” as a contractor was sent out to re-set his boiler.

But Cross Keys said they had not informed the tenant of the call out charge which they have now cancelled after being contacted by the Peterborough Telegraph.

A spokeswoman said: “CKH would like to apologise for any upset and inconvenience we have caused Mr Wells, and we accept that on this occasion we could have done better. We will be cancelling the charge for this work.

“We do charge tenants for unnecessary call outs, and the re-set on Mr Wells’ boiler was a simple job that he could have done without needing to call a contractor.

“However, we appreciate that on this occasion Mr Wells did not know this, and was not aware of the call out charge, and hence we will be cancelling it.”

Mr Wells said a contractor had come to his property on August 16 as he had no hot water, but that when he next took a bath the problem still hadn’t been fixed, which prompted the second call to Cross Keys.

The property had been affected by a power cut between the two calls, but Mr Wells does not believe that would have affected his boiler.

The pensioner, who has a long-term heart condition, said he was not aware of what the problem with the boiler was, which is why he called.

He added: “This has annoyed me so much. I’ve not got £100 just to splash out. I’ve been in there 17 years and we always keep to our payments.”