Mr Brogdale’s story
CHAC helps elderly pensioner threatened with eviction from private rented accommodation
“This case illustrates a real problem with assured shorthold tenancies –the tenant’s security is at the whim of the landlord notwithstanding paying rent, age, or any other vulnerabilities; as long as the correct legal process is satisfied good reason for eviction is irrelevant, and unfortunately not everyone is in a position to move home in the private rented sector.”
Mr Brogdale, a 74 year old single pensioner, had been living in the same home in Canterbury for 15 years on an assured shorthold tenancy. His landlord decided to sell, so issued him with a Notice Requiring Possession. CHAC helped Mr Brogdale apply to Canterbury City Council’s waiting list for sheltered accommodation, and additionally helped him claim housing benefit – which he did not know about nor that he was entitled to it – and this resulted in him getting housing benefit of £34 per week to help him pay his rent. We also persuaded his landlord to delay applying to court to evict him and give him enough time to be re-housed in a one-bedroom sheltered housing association flat in Canterbury via the waiting list.