No more than 12 degrees in the apartment… they spend several nights without heating

In Besançon (Doubs), residents of an HLM located in the Palente district experienced a cold start to the year. The thermometer fell to 12 degrees due to a malfunction in the collective boiler. We tell you.

In the Palente district of Besançon, around a hundred people spent New Year's Eve without heating or hot water. In question? A malfunction in the collective boiler of an HLM building managed by the Néolia company. Unfortunately, four days later, the problem had still not been resolved and 117 homes were still plunged into the cold.

“Since Tuesday afternoon, we haven't had any heating or hot water. It was twelve degrees, and 14 degrees at the hottest in there. So I'm squatting with my daughter… She immediately told me to take my things to go to her house I couldn't stay there, it's too cold.explained Dominique Poiraud, 75, at the microphone of our journalist Emmanuel Deshayes. She lives on the 1st floor of the building in question.

Unlike the septuagenarian, other tenants did not have the choice to stay in their accommodation, for lack of an alternative solution. The start of the year was unfortunately frosty. Olivier Appol, another resident who recently arrived in the building located on rue des Dahlias, sleeps with three blankets. “Despite that, I was cold last night. I bought myself an additional heater, because I don’t want to relive the same night”he explains. “He should do more maintenance on the piping… But hey, I’m not going to explain their work to them”says the tenant of the 3rd floor, without losing his smile.

Ludovic André, head of the Néolia customer agency in the Palente sector, answered our questions regarding this problem. A repair company intervened on the boiler on January 31 but specific parts had to be ordered. Nothing could predict this dysfunction according to Néolia.

“This morning, I did not yet have the delivery date for the parts. It's the fault of bad luck. The boiler broke down on December 31. To obtain parts on this date is complicated. We have posted an information poster regarding the problem as soon as it became known”, specifies Ludovic André. And to add: “We can only understand people’s distress, but we are dependent on deliveries.”

After our visit to the building affected by the gas cut, the heating came back on. At 4:45 p.m. this Friday, the hot water was back, much to the delight of the tenants. Defective parts will be changed at the start of the week to secure the installation and avoid further cuts.