A disabled ex-soldier who spent £50,000 doing up his rented home is now being booted out by a millionaire Tory lord.
Andrew Johns, 57, moved into the cottage a decade ago and says he was promised a roof for life.
He suffers from PTSD after being maimed in an explosion and says the remote cottage has been a haven.
But his landlord Lord William Buckhurst – godson of the late Princess Margaret and heir to the 2,000-acre family pile – has given him his marching orders.
Trustees for the family estate have served a no-fault eviction notice and given Andrew just eight weeks to pack his bags.
The dad of four said: “I’ve spent every single penny I’ve ever had on this place because it was supposed to be my forever home. Knowing I will have to leave with nowhere to go makes me feel physically sick.
“I had a beautiful little bungalow in Essex but the noise of being in a town started to impact my PTSD.
“Moving to a derelict cottage was a huge sacrifice but the peace and quiet was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I wake up in the morning and all I can hear is birdsong – but it’s now being ripped away from me.”
The case emerged just days after the Tories pledged to ban landlords from evicting tenants without good reason.
Andrew served his country for four years before suffering spinal injuries in Northern Ireland.
He was with the Third Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment when a terrorist bomb exploded on the Falls Road, Belfast, in 1986. Andrew has difficulty walking, is in chronic pain and takes 28 pills a day, including morphine and tramadol.
He stumbled across the derelict cottage – on the Buckhurst Estate in Sussex – in 2014, while out on a countryside drive.
After two years of discussions, he persuaded Lord Buckhurst to let the cottage and they struck a deal over the phone – £250 a month for the first three years, with Andrew doing it up at his own cost.
He received a tenancy agreement outlining the figure.
Lord Buckhurst, 43, upped the rent to £525 in 2017 and a new agreement was written. Last year it rose to £700 and switched to a monthly rolling contract – leaving Andrew no security from month to month.
But he claims the Lord promised him the property for the rest of his life, adding: “He said the rent will never go up to full market value and the only way I’ll leave is in a box. I took his word because he is a Lord – I assumed if you can trust anyone you can trust a Lord.”
Andrew said he ploughed his life savings into transforming the home, including installing an accessible walk-in shower with hand rails.
He replaced ceilings, dug a sewage system and refitted the kitchen. Living in the countryside “completely transformed” his mental health, he said. Despite major works, the cottage still has no central heating or hot water.
With Andrew gone it could be fully modernised and would fetch around £350,000 – and a sizeable sum on the rental market.
Lord Buckhurst enjoys a hefty salary as a hedge fund manager and is set to inherit the sprawling estate, near East Grinstead.
The son and heir of William Sackville 11th Earl De La Warr, he was educated at Eton and grew up at 15-bedroom Buckhurst Park, which is used as a wedding venue and hosts clay pigeon and deer stalking events.
Lord Buckhurst uses a courtesy title adopted by all heirs apparent of the Earl De La Warr since 1890.
He is married to jewellery designer Countess Xenia Tolstoy-Milos-lavsky – a distant relation of War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy. They split their time between a house in the grounds of the grade II-listed manor and a property in London. Andrew, who lives on disability war pension and benefits, said: “Using the no-fault eviction law on good tenants is disgusting. I understand bad tenants need to be removed – but to evict someone for no reason feels so wrong.”
He fears he may have to move to a council flat in a busy area, which could trigger his PTSD. He said: “I cannot cope with lots of external noise, so something as simple as hearing the neighbour’s TV would cause a lot of anxiety. This was supposed to be my forever home and I just want what I was promised.
“I served my country and now one of Britain’s richest men is evicting me.”
When contacted by telephone Lord Buckhurst told us: “It’s not something I’m involved with but thank you very much for calling.”
