A FURIOUS mum claims she and her children could have been killed after a leaking gas boiler left her with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Nichola Lambert and her two teenage children were exposed to the deadly fumes for months while engineers called in by their housing association landlord trying to fix the problem without success.

Nichola, 36, her daughter Sian, 17, and her son Kyle, 14, suffered sickness, dizzy spells, headaches and drowsiness.

Eventually they went to casualty at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester where medics found carbon monoxide in Nichola’s blood.

Now she is coming to terms with the fact the family could have been poisoned and or the house could have blown up at any time if she had not called in experts from British Gas to finally pinpoint the problem.

Nichola is also angry that social landlord Hyde Housing offered just £50 compensation for the family’s suffering. She has refused to take the money.

Her case has been taken up by Test Valley councillor Andrew Beesley, who has reported Hyde to the Housing Ombudsman saying its failure to fix the boiler properly that could have had “fatal consequences”.

Nichola’s nightmare began in February when the boiler at her rented home in Chervil Close, Valley Park, near Chandler’s Ford, broke down.

In the following weeks engineers from her landlord Hyde Housing made several visits to repair the boiler, which continued to break down.

After one visit Nichola noticed that she and her children were beginning to feel unwell.

“My son was having daily headaches and my daughter was feeling very drowsy and I was very sick and having dizzy spells at the time,” she told the Daily Echo.

Realising something was seriously wrong after smelling gas, Nichola called in British Gas to investigate.

Its engineers diagnosed a different fault, which Hyde has since rectified, but ordered that the family’s gas supply was shut off for safety reasons.

It meant the family was left for days without central heating during freezing temperatures with only two small electric heaters for warmth.

Nichola, a payroll administrator for B&Q, was also forced to take time off work to let engineers into her home.

She said: “There was no sorry for the error or the fact that this could have cost the lives of me and my family.

“The whole situation has been really distressing. I pay my rent each month and I expect to get a full and complete service when something is wrong. This has been very traumatic and I no longer have faith in Hyde due to this negligence.”

Cllr Beesley, who has asked the Housing Ombudsman to look at Hyde’s handling of the case, said: “The issue is that Hyde carried out a faulty repair to her boiler and it resulted in hospital checks and could have had more serious and possibly fatal consequences.”

“I understand that Hyde has offered £50 compensation which doesn’t even cover the cost of the pay-as-you-go electric heaters which were used while it was all being sorted out. I believe this shows cavalier disregard for their customers.”

Hyde spokeswoman Ruth Appiah said: “The safety of gas equipment is a priority at Hyde. We have a robust maintenance regime, delivered by experienced, professional engineers to ensure that all appliances are in good working order and have a valid gas certificate.

“We’ve completed the repairs on Miss Lambert’s boiler to ensure that it is safe and in good working order. We continue to be available to respond to any issues Miss Lambert wishes to raise and would encourage her to get in touch if she has any further concerns she would like to discuss.”