Arthur Henry*, his partner Liana, and their four young children are currently homeless after being evicted from temporary accommodation by Kingston Council. Below, he describes the family’s ordeal.
“This all started when we were private renting in Surbiton.”
“Everything was perfectly alright, until one of our neighbours, a drunkard, started coming up to us, banging on the door, and threatening violence.
“We had two kids and Liana was pregnant with our third at the time. We didn’t feel safe.
“Our second child, Nicola, was so scared by what she saw living there that she stopped talking. From that very moment, she just didn’t say a word.
“One of her teachers spent extra time with her to help her talk again. But what was the point, just to go back to the place that triggered the whole thing?
“That was the moment when we decided we had to get out.
“At that time, it was still lockdown. We couldn’t just go out, viewing properties. No landlords would see us. We had to turn to the council for some support. There was no other choice.
“They gave us accommodation in Vantage House in Wimbledon, a disused office block miles from our children’s schools in Surbiton.
“Liana had to spend four or five hours a day taking the kids to and from their three different schools. She couldn’t keep her job.
“They said that it would only be temporary accommodation, and they would find us something more suitable soon. We were there for four years.
“It was a mouldy one bedroom flat, with one single window. There was no privacy or ventilation. A health inspector even came and said the conditions were not suitable for living in.
“The building was full of drug users and criminals. There were dogs just walking around everywhere, going to the toilet on the floor.
Credit: Google Street View
“The Sunday Times published an article about the conditions we were living in.
“Sutton and Merton councils immediately moved all their people out of there. Kingston did not. They didn’t care.
“I had a feeling that they just wanted to get rid of us, and I was right.
“Soon, they started calling us asking about service charge and where our rent was. We were confused because we never missed a payment.
“They ignored us and evicted us from the office block, just put us out on the street.
“They said they hadn’t received a penny in service charge from us, but I have receipts of each payment so it must have been lost, not that they would admit it.
“There was a court hearing and the judge made it very clear that they can’t really do anything but approve this eviction.
“Because it’s a non-secure temporary accommodation, if they want you out, you need to go. It can go to court but the court has no options.
“The witness statement that they handed in to the court declared that no family members had any vulnerabilities or disabilities. Liana was sitting in the hearing nine months pregnant next to our disabled eldest daughter.
“We were out of the property on the 5th March. They didn’t even provide us with a decision letter. I had to force this letter out of them, bombarding them with phone calls, emails, in person too.
“They issued the decision letter on the 3rd March, two days before the actual eviction, instead of the 21 days they were supposed to give for a chance to appeal. That’s unlawful.
“We kept going to Kingston Council in person after we got evicted. The very next day we spent a whole day there and no one came to see us. They made it clear that they didn’t want to.
“After the third or fourth day, the guy who was responsible for our eviction sent a message through the receptionist that he would see us when he had the time.
“The eviction took place on the 5th March. It’s been a month and they haven’t even lifted a finger.
“Britain is supposed to be a First World Country, so how can it treat its vulnerable people like this?
“All six of us are currently living in one hotel room, and we’ve only got enough for another week or so. We will soon be on the streets with four young children, and nobody seems to care.”
Kingston Council has been contacted for comment regarding the claims made in this story.
*All names in this story have been altered to protect people’s identity.
