READ MORE- Woman froze to death in Dublin apartment

The family and friends of a Dublin woman who died from hypothermia said her apartment had been without heating for months prior to her death.

Rachel Peavoy, 30, was a single mother of two young boys from Ballymun in North Dublin. She was found dead in her apartment on January 11 of last year.

At an inquest at Dublin City Coroner’s Court on Thursday, Peavoy’s sister, cousin and close friends described her flat as freezing. They maintained she had complained to Dublin City Council several times.

Linda McLoughlin, who was a close friend of the deceased and also lived in the same complex, said there was always difficulty with the heating and that Peavoy made “numerous complaints” concerning the heating.

Michelle Quigley told the court that she stayed with her long time friend one night in November prior to her death. She said the weather was bitterly cold and she was forced to sleep under two duvets to keep warm.

She described Peavoy as caring. "She always looked after everyone else first,” Quigley said.

The victim’s sister Leontia told the court that she never took her coat off when she visited as the apartment was so cold.

The only heating for the apartment came from two heaters, one convection and one halogen. She used one of the heaters for her son’s bedroom and one for the other rooms.

The first 10 days of January 2010 were the coldest since 1963 in the Dublin area.

Peavoy last spoke to her mother the day before she was found dead. She asked her mother to babysit her two sons and told her she was turning her phone off as she couldn’t sleep.

After several failed attempted to contact the mother of two the next day, her brother Leon Peavoy and her friend Jacqueline Johnston let themselves into her flat and found her body.

The inquest was adjourned until Thursday, March 24, in order to hear further statements about the conditions of Peavoy’s apartment.