ACORN South West region

ACORN's South West region contains the Branches and Groups Bristol, Swindon, and Falmouth & Penryn, as well as many other members in other towns and cities, all fighting campaigns on the issues that matter to them. Join in with an action near you so we can win.

We are stronger together.

ACORN's South West region contains the Branches and Groups Bristol, Swindon, and Falmouth & Penryn, as well as many other members in other towns and cities, all fighting campaigns on the issues that matter to them. Join in with an action near you so we can win.

We are stronger together.

Homes Not Hovels. No rent for unliveable houses!

64 emails sent

ACORN members Steph and Taylor raised the issue of damp and mould in their home as soon as they moved in. But after months of being forced to sleep on a mattress covered with black mould, Phoenix Property company and landlord Jasbir Baryah had still done nothing about it. (In fact it turns out that the landlord has been fined by the council for doing exactly this to other tenants!)

After an environmental health inspection by a specialist found the property to be unfit for human habitation, Phoenix admitted the property should never have been leased and advised Taylor and Steph to move out.  

Taylor and Steph feel they were evicted by circumstance, given the choice between continuing to live in a home that was unliveable or packing up and moving on.

We all know that moving house comes at significant personal cost. Add this to rent already paid, for a property that should never have been leased, plus income lost when Steph and Taylor were signed off work with stress...financial nightmare for our members! 

We are demanding that landlord Jasbir Baryah compensate Taylor and Steph for the money they have lost over this and are aksing you to send a letter to the landlord saying as much!

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Subject:

Dear Jasbir Baryah,

I am writing to you as a member of community union ACORN with regard to the treatment of our members Taylor and Steph Barcello, after moving in to your property at 27 Meridian Place.

Upon viewing the property, it was not made clear to our members that damp was an issue as the former tenants were still occupying the property, making access to rooms a difficulty and meaning that furniture was obscuring damp patches. When returning to view the property once the former tenants had left, our members reached a verbal agreement with your agent that the damp issues would be resolved before their move in date.

These issues were left unresolved at which late stage our members were left with no choice but to move into the property. Less than two weeks after moving in, with all their possessions piled in one room due to half the flat being unusable because of the damp, and having to sleep on a mattress that was slowly growing black mould, it became clear that there was also a rodent problem. A problem you would fail to address until our members contacted Bristol city council environmental health.

Steph is a key worker, who at that time was working 60+ hours a week from home on a mattress in one of the only usable rooms of the flat. Taylor, overwhelmed due to the situation with the flat, was signed off work for 3 weeks with stress, losing valuable sick leave during a global pandemic.

It became apparent to our members that you simply wanted them out of the property, with Phoenix only responding to their emails with “well maybe you should find somewhere else to live” or “We suggest you look for alternative accommodation".

Evictions at the time had been banned by the government, but our members felt that they were “evicted by circumstance", as they were given the choice of either staying in a flat that we believe to have been unfit for human habitation under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 and the Homes (Fitness for human habitation) act 2018, or at great expense and risk to safety and well-being, decide to uproot and move house when everyone should be staying put for their own safety, as well as the safety of others.

Do you think it is acceptable to run a business that lets out homes in this condition?

We sincerely hope not and urge you in the strongest possible terms to do the right thing and compensate our members for rent paid for an unfit home, the cost of having to move home, and loss of income due to being signed off work.

Please reply to tom.morton@acorntheunion.org.uk

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