A couple who are parents to two young children have been left 'helpless and homeless' after returning home to their property they were renting out to find the tenants had not left. It has left Carna and Ganes Brooks, parents of a one-year-old and nine-year-old child, left with no other option but to sofa surf for four weeks with their suitcases.
They informed their tenants they would be moving back to their property in Dartford, Kent, from Dubai in February this year so that by May they would need to have left. But a cancer diagnosis and treatment for Carna pushed their arrival back to July.
They were back on July 19 but have been forced to stay at friends for more than a month as the tenants refuse to leave, KentLive reports. They will be unlikely to enter their own property again until November, they are told, as they seek to gain an eviction notice through the courts.
As well as the tenants ignoring a Section 8 notice notifying them the house should be vacated by June 28, they have also fallen behind on rents. The Brooks agreed to July 13 for the latest date to leave for the tenants and said they would waive their rent to help them get a deposit together.
Carna, 39, said: "We called the police for sensible advice on the matter as we stood hopeless looking at each other. My one-year-old was screaming in the heat, everyone was worried and during all the negotiations, my nine-year-old daughter got hit by a car in front of our home. Thankfully she didn’t have major injuries, but it is a day we never wish upon anyone.
"The police were friendly and compassionate but couldn’t offer much help as by law we were trespassing if we attempted to enter our property." She said: "Thankfully a friend in the area offered to take us in at that moment to get us out of the sun and offered us a place to stay for a few nights.
"For the next few days, we exhausted all helplines, recommendations, negotiations with tenants and investigations into different routes to get our home back sooner rather than later. Unfortunately the outcome is to simply wait for a court date and eviction."
They are still living out of the suitcases they used to live in Dubai with. They had originally moved there in 2019 to work and offered their fully furnished Kent home to a woman the family knew.
"We left them with a fully functioning home, even with new linen, towels, new fluffy slippers next to the beds, new cosy pyjamas, food cupboards stocked up and a grocery delivery for their first week. We felt it was the right thing to do to let them rent our home significantly below market value to help them financially and to take care of our belongings," Carna said.
"We had a signed tenancy contract in place," said Carna, who said a friend had started a GoFundMe page for the family to "get a roof over our head". Carna said as they owned a home, they did not quality for council housing. Thankfully, now the family was invited by friends to house sit for a few weeks while they were away.
The Brooks can not get a court hearing for an eviction notice until October, and a tenant must be given a month's notice to leave. Even Carna's oncologist has written to the tenant, explaining how vital a "stress free environment" is for her recovery.
Carna warned others who were renting to a third party to go through a lettings agent. The couple had learned in their "nightmare" as landlords, they had little power to evict their tenant. But she said they did not want to "name and shame" their tenants, they just did not know what else to do apart from publicise their predicament.
The tenant told KentLive: "This is hilarious. We have been paying rent for three years. We have been paying their mortgage for three years.
"Yes, it is their home. It is also our home for the last three years. We are paying them. I don't need to give you my side of the story. This is none of your business please. Why would we be looking for somewhere else? I don't need to explain myself to your or anyone." The woman said not to contact her again.
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