A Leven woman waited almost the whole length of her pregnancy for Fife Council to find her a new house then discovered it had been vacant for three years.
Claire Irvine, 28, was moved between three different scatter flats while pregnant, finally getting her new home just three weeks before she gave birth to baby Louise.
Last month The Courier revealed Fife Council owns homes for rent that have been vacant for more than a decade.
One three-bedroom maisonette in Glenrothes had not had an occupant since December 21 2001. In total, there are more than 400 empty council houses and flats that could be used as vital accommodation.
The revelations sparked fury in Ms Irvine, who waited nine months for her flat in Markie Avenue.
She said: “The council said they were going to rehouse me back at the start of July. I only got the lease for this place on March 10, then found out from my neighbour that it had been empty for three years.
“I was in temporary accommodation, scatter flats, here there and everywhere. The council kept saying there was nowhere available and yet this place had been sitting empty.
“I was in three different places, two in Methil and one in Dysart, before I ended up in Leven. I only got the keys for here on March 10 and was due on April 1.
“I am very angry. The work that needed to be done on the house had never been done, even though this place had been empty for three years. How could that happen when so many people need homes?”
Fife Council service manager (estates management) Louise Sutherland said: “I’m sorry Ms Irvine feels she didn’t receive the service she expected from us.
“Although we’ve seen the average time taken to let a property halve in the past few years, we’re rarely able to provide a suitable property from our housing stock immediately. This is because we have to take the needs and preferences, such as location, house type, heating and so on, into consideration. We also have to carry out any repairs before we re-let our properties.
“In this case we didn’t have any suitable properties available for Ms Irvine straight away so we offered her temporary accommodation.
“The property she now lives in had originally been allocated to someone with specific needs and we were working with them and their medical team. Unfortunately, before they were able to move in, their circumstances changed. This meant we were then able to offer it to Ms Irvine.”