A wheelchair-bound Dundee woman and her husband/carer are battling the council after shoddy building work demolished their kitchen.
John and Barbara Anne Smith, from Downfield, have also seen their rent rise after paying for improvements to their council house.
Holes have been torn in expensive ceiling boards purchased privately by the couple to fit insulation and, in October, an incorrectly mounted cabinet fell off the wall, and smashed several kitchen tiles.
The city council has rejected an insurance claim for the damaged kitchen on the grounds that ‘sudden and unforeseen circumstances’ caused the damage.
The couple have lodged an appeal against this decision, having submitted three separate insurance claims already, all of which have been lost.
Mrs Smith said: “We were told there was no record of our claims, they’ve just vanished.
“Two of them were handed directly to the desk after the first one got ‘lost in the post’.
“If I owed them that kind of money, I’d be evicted by now.
“I spent thousands of pounds of my own money on double glazing and other improvements and they had the nerve to put my rent up for improvements they didn’t do.”
Her husband, John, said: “They say they’re investigating but that’s only after I went down three times and only when I phoned my claim into the office did they receive a copy.
“Looking at the prices, I think it could cost as much as a thousand pounds to fix the damage, not to mention the problems we’ve had with other work being done.
“They fitted insulation in our kitchen, which was a farce.
“The joiners who came to do the job did their best to save the special wood we had put in ourselves and then an electrician turned up and ripped out the lights in the centre, damaging the boards so that they will need to be replaced.
“He cut the wires to the light fitting, showed them to me and asked if we wanted that saved.
“How can I save cut wires? What use could they be to me?”
A council spokesperson said: “We are in constant contact with the individuals and are actively working on the couple’s claim.”