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Neighbours back my home battle
• I WAS surprised and dismayed at your coverage of my difficulties with Islington Council over living in my mother’s flat in King Henry’s Walk (Round four in tenant’s fight to prevent eviction, May 25).
It paints a picture of me as someone with no housing need who could quite easily live in Norfolk if need be. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I have never lived in Norfolk. I am Islington born and bred and my family have lived here 150 years. The Norfolk house was part of a divorce settlement. Better to invest it than spend it on slow horses and fast women.
Letting the house helped subsidise my income in London, which is low because of my disability. Even if I sold the house, which is not fully paid off, the money would not be enough to buy a house where I live and work – London.
All of this was accepted by a learned judge, and all my neighbours who signed a petition to support me.
Council tenants are not known for supporting people getting access to accommodation to which they are not entitled.
The good news is that the judge has just refused Islington Council leave to appeal, but I doubt whether that will dent its determination to pursue what feels to me, and appears to my neighbours, like harassment.
The court case hinged on whether I had gone through the proper procedure in reporting my mother’s death. The council claimed I had not given it a copy of her death certificate although I visited a council office with my brother and sister to do so two days after her death, and hand-delivered a letter requesting to continue the tenancy (again disputed by Islington but accepted by the judge).
If you need an example of Islington’s performance, just a week ago a letter addressed to my mother arrived asking about her benefits for the year 2000. Why don’t the departments communicate?
PETER YOUNG
King Henry’s Walk, N1 |
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