A social housing tenant is suing Clarion Housing Association for £1 million in damages, claiming that one of their housing officers illegally sublet his home when he was stranded in Australia at the start of the pandemic.
After returning to his Chelsea, south-west London property, 43-year-old Fillippe Scalora claims he discovered someone had been sleeping on his bed and used his computer, silverware, and towels.
The former regulatory compliance official told the Guardian: ‘I walked into the flat and saw half of my stuff there and someone living in it. My mail was open—really private stuff like bank accounts and NHS appointment forms. I was devastated.’
Mr Scalora says the person that the housing officer moved in is still living in the house, leaving him homeless and living in budget hotels and temporary accommodation.
He got stranded in Australia when the pandemic hit, and he claims that the housing officer asked for his keys for a gas inspection when he told him that he would not be able to get back home.
He claims the housing official then informed him that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) council intended to transfer his property to a temporary renter, but he was given the assurance that he would either have his flat back or be assigned to another one upon his return.
Due to a medical issue, RBKC granted Mr Scalora a lifetime tenure in the property on Cale Street.
His rent was around £600 a month, but he said it would cost roughly £2,000 a month on the open market.
According to Mr Scalora, a friend was supposed to remove his belongings from the flat so that the new occupant could move in, but it turned out that not all of his items were removed.
In November 2021, when the housing officer ceased responding to him and the council informed him that it had no documentation of a new renter coming into the house, he suspected something was wrong.
He hired a locksmith to gain entry to his flat when he got home in April 2022, at which point he discovered that a stranger had been using all of his personal belongings.
He said, ‘It was very uncomfortable seeing someone had been sleeping in my bed, using my towels. It was just theft.’
The London High Court will hold a trial in the one-bedroom house dispute on Thursday.
I’ve never heard of a case like this before, so it’s rather strange. I am aware, nevertheless, that housing groups occasionally rent from third parties and recoup the cost by renting again.
I’m not even sure if this is legal, especially when renting out to people on housing benefits. However, if they can be so devious as to do this, then I wouldn’t put anything past them.
You can travel overseas or see family even if you are receiving benefits, as long as you don’t stay more than six weeks. After that, your housing benefit and benefits will stop.
Even if you’re in hospital in the UK, after being in hospital for 6 weeks, benefits will cease because you are not at home and are being looked after by someone else. This especially applies to PIP (Personal Independence Payments).
I’m not sure why Mr Scalora was in Australia at the time the pandemic hit. Perhaps to visit family or, even worse, a funeral. Whatever the reason, he was stranded in Australia with nobody getting in or out, including himself.
Generally, lifetime tenancies, which are classed as an ‘assured’ or ‘secure’ tenancy, are for life unless, of course, your landlord, whoever they might be, has reason to believe you have been a bad tenant, and then they can eventually get a court order to evict you.
Normally, when a person or family is given a tenancy, it’s either a ‘starter’ tenancy and sometimes a ‘fixed term’ tenancy, and then, after a year of being a tenant, as long as there have been no problems with the tenant, they would be given an ‘assured’ or ‘secure tenancy’.
However, some properties already have a ‘secure’ tenancy, which would be handed over to the occupant when they sign papers for the property.
This man would have waited a very long time on the housing list for a flat in the area that he lived in. It would not have been easy for him to get a flat, and that wouldn’t have mattered where he was residing at the time.
Of course, this would have now become an immigration problem with people saying that he shouldn’t be in this country. Well, we know nothing about this man. Whether he was born here in the UK or not, if people are going to be a little irritated about it, I suggest you talk to Rishi Sunak about that, or maybe even Boris Johnson.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 