A grandmother faces being evicted from the home where she raised her grandkid after her daughter died from cancer a few years ago. Four separate households on the same street in Seaforth, Liverpool, face being kicked out after receiving eviction notices from their private housing firm Jonorra.
Three of those affected have spoken to the Liverpool Echo as they face an uncertain future with just 53 days to move out. Bill Mitchell, 65, has lived in the same house for 25 years with wife Pamela, 63, and their son. They received their eviction notice last week.
The dad has caring responsibilities for his loved ones who both have severe mental health issues and physical disabilities. He said: “My wife is in a right state. I’ve broken down in tears a couple of times. I was speaking to my sister about it and I just had a panic attack.
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“We don’t know what we’re gonna do.” Mr Mitchell called his landlord immediately after receiving the eviction notice, but was told nothing more than what was on the letter. He said: “They didn’t even have the decency to knock on the door and tell me.
“They know what each of us are going through, but they simply don’t care.” Bill sums up the response of everyone present: “We don’t even have the money for a rent deposit. How can I buy a house? I’m 65, who is going to give me a mortgage?
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“They don’t understand our life. They talk to us like pieces of s**. We’re just a means for them to make money. We are all scared stiff. We are petrified. We just don’t know what the future holds for us.” A few months ago, they put our rent up by £200 a month. It’s been the toughest winter of our entire lives.
“We are just pensioners and then to take that £200 off us, on top of the rise in energy bills, was just ridiculous, but we did it. We were nearly through and then this happens.”
Another resident, Pat, has lived on the road for a number of years and enjoys the tight-knit community. She only moved onto the road to help care for her daughter, who tragically lost a battle with cancer.
Pat now looks after her grandchild and is raising them in her daughter’s former home. She said: “The landlord knows my daughter passed away, they know I’m looking after my grandchild.
(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
“I told them the house holds a lot of memories. It’s where I have all my visions of the last days of my daughter. It’s cruel what they’re doing. They have no compassion.” She broke down in tears crying when recalling trying to explain to her grandchild what was happening.
She added: “I couldn’t say where we would go. I don’t want to raise a child in a hotel.” Section 21 evictions – otherwise known as ‘no-fault’ evictions allow landlords to evict a tenant with two months’ notice, without having to give a reason.
Under reforms to the private rental sector currently going through Parliament, landlords will still be able to evict their tenants if they can prove they wish to sell their property. The issue for many families is the lack of available and affordable housing to move to.
Just last month, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, promised to ban ‘no-fault’ eviction before the end of this year. The ban was also a pledge in the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto. To date, nothing is confirmed so uncertainty continues.
Barry lives with his partner Michelle and their two children further down the road. They both suffer from anxiety, but are happy where they live and say their kids love it.
They both describe numerous little things which make the community what it is and spoke fondly of how the man in the corner shop lets their four-year-old-daughter behind the counter to serve them and lets her think she works there.
Barry said: “It really is lovely to live around here. We felt safe and secure in the house, the kids feel safe and secure, but that’s all been thrown out the window.
Michelle believes the stress is too much to bear. She said: “I feel like this situation is going to kill one of us. I’m getting palpitations and I’m having panic attacks. I thought I was going to die last night.”
She said her daughter just kept saying ‘don’t cry mummy, don’t cry mummy’ when the eviction notice came through. Barry added how he’d seen reports last year around housing reform and new legislation around energy ratings.
He raised this with the landlord because they were nervous at how exposed they could be to eviction. Landlords Jonnora said they were unwilling to add anything further to what is written in the eviction notice to the four families.
Setting out their position in writing to residents, the firm said: “We realise this will come as a shock to you and we wished to explain why it is occurring.
“We had hoped that the new legislation which is being proposed would give us the flexibility to be able to sell the property if the need arose, it appears that the proposed legislation will not provide this security for us.
“We envisage that other parts of the new proposed legislation will be very hard to comply with. The minimum energy performance of a property for rent is due to be at grade C, having attempted to comply to this with a couple of properties, we realise this would almost be impossible for us to achieve and for it to be viable financially for us to continue to let property legally.”
Under the new legislation, properties that have an EPC rating of less than a ‘C’ from 2025 will no longer be lettable to new tenants. As it stands the minimum threshold is an ‘E’ rating.
A landlord may legally continue to rent a property until 2028, providing it is to an existing tenant – even if the property falls below the new EPC ‘C’ minimum threshold in 2025. In terms of ratings for Bill’s house, he said the current rating is E.
The letter added: “If you would like to consider buying your home from us, we would be open to a discussion about this.”
Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton Council cabinet member for communities and housing, said: “It’s really sad that the government has failed to end Section 21 evictions and people are finding themself served notice to leave through no fault of their own.
“I recommend that anyone in this situation to contact the council’s housing options service to get early advice and support.”
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