FIFE Council have apologised after a tenant's home in Rosyth was "needlessly broken into" so the boiler could be serviced.

The fuming resident, who was not in at the time and has not been named, said no attempt had been made to contact them before workers forced their way in.

The complaint was upheld and the council said sorry for the blunder, which left the tenant sitting outside and waiting for new keys to arrive before they could get back into their own home.

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They said: "My home was needlessly broken into today so my boiler could be serviced, 20 days before the old service was due to expire and without a single phone call or effort to contact me.

"I have had several appointments at the beginning of this year, and I call for every single one of them to say I have started a business and it's difficult for me to be at home all day as I’m in a shop.

"I request a pm appointment and a phone call for when the engineer is on his way as I live and work in Rosyth and can be home in less than five minutes.

"There have been no problems until the engineer failed to call me this time and the last time for this appointment."

The shop worker added: "The only appointments I have missed are the appointments where I don’t get a phone call.

"Now due to the fact that I never got a phone call, I’m expected to pay for whatever services were used to needlessly force access into my home.

"Never mind the fact I had to sit outside my home with my dog and eight-month-old pup until new keys arrived.

"If I had a bad record of allowing access to my home for repairs or a bad record of payments to my rent I would have understood why this happened but I’m not and I’m absolutely taken aback with this."

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The council said "corrective action" would be taken and lessons learned. It was one of 242 complaints about council services in the South and West Fife area in 2022-23, with 41 per cent upheld.

The biggest gripes were with the poor condition of the roads and number of potholes, and dissatisfaction with the bin collecting service.

Councillors at the South and West Fife area committee said the figures didn't reflect the true number of complaints and that there was a problem with the online reporting system.

On the flip side, the report to the committee also included a number of compliments in relation to good service.