A KINGSLEY Radian tenant has decided to withhold her rent after living without heating or hot water for months.

Barry Peterson told the Bordon Herald that his granddaughter Amy Goodyear, 21, had decided to keep back two weeks of rent after, he said, repeated promises from Radian to fix the ongoing faults.

The issue started in August last year, when Miss Goodyear moved into the property, at 15 School Fields, Kingsley, to discover that the underground heating system did not function properly. As such, she has lived without central heating for the past 15 months.

And recently the problems worsened still as, since June, she has also had no hot water. With winter approaching and no solution in sight, she made the decision to voluntarily enter rent arrears to put pressure on affordable homes group Radian, based in Eastleigh.

Mr Peterson said that the housing provider “failed to mention” the ongoing faults when his granddaughter moved in and, despite numerous complaints and technicians visiting “20 to 30 times”, the problem had not been resolved, he said.

“They gave her three electric heaters, which meant that her electricity bill doubled in a week,” he added.

It is his suspicion that Ms Goodyear, who works full time and does not have any children, is not considered a priority. This, on top of the fact “communication (with Radian) is very, very poor”, he alleged, had made the saga “extremely frustrating”.

However, he explained that “luckily” he also lives in Kingsley and is able to help, with his granddaughter visiting his home to bathe and shower.

“She has to warm up in our house,” he added. “She rarely stays in her house in the winter because it’s too cold.”

Now they are “waiting with bated breath” as Radian is, he said, due to fix the problem next week.

A Radian spokesman told the Bordon Herald that, having been unable to fix the heating faults which affect a number of properties in School Fields, it would replace it entirely. “When any of our residents report faults with their heating systems we undertake necessary repairs and provide temporary heating where necessary,” he said.

“Some of the issues at School Fields have been due to the system working in a different way to conventional systems and our energy advisors have offered advice and guidance to residents which resolved a number of the issues raised.

“Despite our best efforts and significant investment in repairs, we have decided to replace two systems (including the system at number 15) where there have been ongoing technical issues. We are reviewing what action to take in respect of the other properties as some of our residents really like their heating systems and have reported few, if any, problems.”