A migrant on disability benefits has been allowed to stay in a retirement home after he claimed eviction would breach his human rights.
Shahidul Haque, 59, has spent over a year fighting Southern Homes, who has attempted to remove him from the one-bedroom property, where he lives with his wife and twin daughters.
He insisted he would battle eviction from the property in Reading unless larger accommodation was found, arguing that forcing his family out would violate his rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Bangladeshi national has lived in the UK since 1997 and now holds a British passport, is registered disabled and receives benefits for a range of conditions including diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, hypertension and depression.
Mr Haque insists he did not realise the specialist housing rules stopped him from bringing his family to live with him, adding that his limited English meant the tenancy agreement was not properly understood.
He told the Daily Mail: “What we really need is a bigger home. This property isn’t suitable for a family. It’s too small, it’s only for a single person.
“We have only one bedroom and so have to push two beds together. One for me and my wife and one for my daughters. It’s too crowded.
“If Southern Housing or West Berkshire Council can find us somewhere more suitable then we’ll go. But at the moment we have no other place – this is it.”
The row centres on the property in Calcot, Reading
|
GOOGLE MAPS
Mr Haque first moved into the property at David Smith Court in Reading in July 2024, paying £110.70 a week.
However, a few months later, his wife Jakia Sultana Monni, 28, and their twin daughters joined him from Bangladesh.
He continued: “I didn’t know that I couldn’t move my wife and children in months later. My English is not so good and nothing was explained to me in any detail.
“Southern Housing cannot just throw us out. We have to stay here, because we have nowhere else to go.”
Mr Haque has appealed to West Berkshire Council
|
GOOGLE MAPS
In a written defence, his barrister Isabel Bertschinger said: “It is averred that the Terms and Conditions of the tenancy agreement were never explained to the Defendant via a Sylheti interpreter or translated into Sylheti in a written document such that the Defendant could understand them.
“The Claimant’s decisions to institute, pursue and continue to seek possession of the property are incompatible with the Defendant’s rights under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights and possession would constitute a disproportionate interference therewith.
“He is disabled and has limited English language skills, and that he is in receipt of benefits and therefore has a low income.
“His wife and children have only recently arrived in the UK and would be particularly vulnerable if made homeless.
“To evict him from his home would have a serious and drastic impact on the Defendant’s health and wellbeing and therefore on his private life.”
Southern Housing has responded, arguing Mr Haque breached the terms of his tenancy by moving additional occupants into accommodation which was reserved for older residents.
Its solicitor Taiwo Temilade previously said: “The Defendant’s two young children have become a source of excess noise levels and anti-social behaviour, negatively affecting other residents within the estate through misuse of safety features and generally rambunctious behaviour.”
However, Mr Haque hit back, arguing: “My children play and sometimes they argue, and the neighbours complain but they are only small. I try and keep them as quiet as possible.
“They go to a local nursery so they’re not always at home in the day. They have sounded the emergency alarm by pulling the security cords, but I’ve wrapped the cords around the intercom phone to stop that from happening.”
At a hearing on August 4, deputy district judge Simon Lindsey accepted the complexity of the case, stopping short of granting an immediate eviction.
He said: “I think the defendant probably should not be in this property with his wife and two children, but the question of how he came to be in this place appears to be unresolved and we have to get to that another time.”
GB News has contacted Southern Homes for a comment.