A pensioner who was repeatedly left without hot water and heating has won an apology from Inverclyde's largest housing body and has now launched a compensation fight.
John Gurney, of Greenock, took on social landlord River Clyde Homes over failures at his flat and after a lengthy battle they have said sorry - after he called in lawyers.
He says he has been advised that he now has a viable claim for compensation to the tune of around £3,000 and plans to pursue it then give the cash away to charity if he wins.
The 77-year-old began having problems after moving into the revamped east end block, which has a biomass hearing system, four years ago.
The high flats had undergone a £2m revamp in 2016, including a new heating system, insulation and triple glazing.
The foyer and landings were upgraded and a new CCTV and door entry system were installed, but basic problems soon emerged.
At their peak, John was left without heating or hot water over Christmas 2018 for 21 days in a row and he had to be given two electric heaters.
He told the our sister title The Greenock Telegraph how he'd had to resort to heating up a pot of water just to wash himself.
Mr Gurney says he feels 'vindicated' after his complaints were upheld and has decided that if his compensation claim pays off then he'll give the cash to Ardgowan Hospice.
The former shop steward, who lives on the top floor of the building, said: "This was a problem when I moved in back in 2017, and with the previous tenant too.
"The contractor had told me the biomass system couldn't feed 45 houses and they were just carrying out the contract instructions.
"RCH knew this all along.
"I knew the plant wasn't good enough to heat all these houses, but they wouldn't listen.
"As soon as people came in from work and turned their heating on, I couldn't get heating or hot water."
At one stage John's flat became so cold that he ended up having to go to bed just to stay warm.
He brought in a lawyer to represent him after a saga through the housing association's complaints procedures.
RCH finally accepted they'd failed to respond to his initial formal complaint within the timescale in their own policies and apologised.
They also accepted there had been problems with the heating to John's property, upholding this complaint too and apologising for the situation.
Bosses admitted that heating engineers had told them a larger heat exchanger would be required to solve the problem.
This more powerful equipment has since been installed and John has had no problems.
He said: "It's going great.
"But if I hadn't gone to the lawyer, it would have never have been fixed.
"I was going to take them to court because they didn't even answer my stage one complaint.
"I was a shop steward for 40 years, dealing with all sorts of tribunals and lobbying MPs, so I'm an experienced man.
"I feel vindicated."
John says the principle of his case means more than any financial recompense and that is why he has decided to donate any compensation to the hospice.
He said: "I just wanted the job done.
"I didn't do it for compensation.
"I feel the hospice needs it more than I need it."
RCH today declined to comment on Mr Gurney's compensation claim.
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