A FAMILY’S home got so cold they could see their breath after their insurance company left them with no central heating for more than a week.

Retired GP Sabiha Saleem had to spend her days wrapped up in blankets and with the gas oven on trying to heat her home after her boiler packed up on November 27.

The 80-year-old, who suffers from severe arthritis, has an insurance policy with home emergency company HomeServe, which means its engineers are supposed to repair her boiler.

An engineer visited the house in Lubbock Road, Chislehurst, two days after it broke down and told the family the boiler needs a new part.

Mrs Saleem, her husband Abdulla Saleem-Uddin, 75, and their daughter Amena, 40, endured a week of the cold snap before the boiler was fixed.

Mrs Saleem said: “At the moment it is working and it is a relief that the icy spell in the house is over.”