Andrea reflects on a frustrating few months in the final report of her real-time illegal eviction series. 

Read the previous report in Andrea’s eviction series 

 

It has been a tense few weeks, but I have some updates about what I have been up to, which to be honest isn’t much due to sitting around waiting for my old landlord to get in touch with me… 

The great news is that I have my phone back and I’m active online again. So here’s a look at what has been going on with all the different players in this series. 

 

Police

I contacted the police for the fourth time to inform them that I still have not been able to retrieve my belongings from the property I was illegally evicted from. I was contacted by an officer from the local police station and was told this is a civil matter, but they would get in touch with the landlord who in turn would get in touch with me to sort out a day and time to get my belongings. 

A week went past and there was still no word from the officer. I sent another email to find out what was going on. The officer got back to me to say they were on training for the week and they would be in touch with me when they have contacted the landlord. 

To this date the police have not been in contact with me. 

Council

I initially approached the council for support with finding somewhere new to live. I couldn’t attend my first appointment as I was unwell and no new appointment was arranged by my caseworker.

I got in touch with them after I was better the same week but received no response. I sent over my documents last week but unfortunately the PDFs didn’t go through to my caseworker. I got a response from them to tell me that they have got through to my old landlord and I must contact them myself. I now have an appointment for next week. 

I asked the council why they did not ask for a day and time for me to collect my stuff. The response I received was that I need to arrange the time and date to collect my belongings with my old landlord. 

I have now successfully sent off my documents and I will attend my first meeting with my caseworker after seven weeks of sofa surfing. 

Landlord

I emailed my old landlord to arrange a time to collect my belongings and copied my caseworker, lead homeless councillor, and the Met Police. I kid you not, my landlord was asking the same questions about how long I will need, same as when I first approached the council seven weeks ago. 

I told them I don’t want to waste any more time and urged them to come with a date and time as soon as possible. I was told that I will need to bring the block key with me to hand over. I reminded my landlord that they would have the key if hadn’t changed the locks before the notice period. I was told that a company they have hired will be in touch with me directly to arrange a day and time. 

I emailed at the end of the next day to inform everyone that no one has been in touch with me. The main thing is I now have a line of contact to them, with witnesses. 

Universal Credit

The same day I contacted my old landlord I received a letter from Universal Credit stating I have an overpayment of £1,882.36 due to my landlord still receiving direct payments from them. 

I emailed the landlord to confirm whether they’re still receiving the money. As expected of course, they received the payments and tried to downplay it as an ‘error’. An error is once not twice, and lhas left me without a penny from Universal Credit for two months. 

I thought I had been sanctioned, only to get into my journal and find this letter. So not only did they lock the door they took the money as well. You can’t make this up. I obviously had to go back and forth with Universal Credit which was irritating but I got there in the end and I managed to appeal the decision with the landlord’s confession. So that’s a positive and the landlord can now get on with paying Universal Credit back their money. 

Further updates

The Ombudsman has got in touch with me with my case reference number and i have to wait  for up to 15 days for a response. I’m now seeking legal advice and I will update you in a future post if anything comes of it. There has been press interest in my story and I have spoken with My London and Al Jazeera.