- Residents of Lake House Close have been given two months to leave their homes
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Residents as old as 88 have been given two months to leave their homes with the care company that owns the properties reportedly looking to instead use them as temporary housing for the homeless.
Non-profit landlord Cedar Care Homes has served all ten residents on on Lake House Close in Weaverham, Cheshire with ‘no fault’ eviction notices.
Local Labour MP Mike Amesbury has demanded that the Section 21 notices be withdrawn, as residents described the ‘terrible impact’ the news has had on the community.
Among those living on the road is an 88-year-old man who is so ill that his son has not told him of the situation, fearing for his father’s health.
A single parent who lost her fiancé, the father of their three-year-old child, is also affected by the plan.
Alison Simpson, 56, lives next door to her 88-year-old mother Doreen on Lake House Close. Both were sent eviction notices on March 12 and have been told they must leave by May 12.
She said: ‘We have no idea where we will go. I’m trying to put myself aside and worry about my mum.
‘She’s so upset that she’s crying all the time. Neither of us are eating properly and we’re not sleeping properly.’
Alison, former landlady of the Ring O’ Bells, Weaverham, added: ‘We both have bad hearts, and this could just push my mum too far.’
Alan, 88, moved to Lake House Close from Manchester aged 81 to be nearer his son after experiencing health problems.
His son, Jonathan, 63, said: ‘I was there when the letter came through and – bearing in mind his health conditions – I wasn’t prepared to tell him at the time.
‘I still haven’t told him because he suffers from heart failure, stage four kidney disease, he’s on 13 tablets a day to keep him going.
‘The company states quite clearly on its website that it provides accommodation for the elderly, but on the other hand they are prepared to make the elderly effectively homeless. It doesn’t make the slightest sense.’
Cedar Care Group, a ‘community interest company’ that ‘does not trade for profit’, acquired the lease to the properties in March 2023.
In a letter to local MP Mike Amesbury, the firm says it discovered the site was ‘not being used for its intended purpose’ of social and supported housing by the previous provider.
The firm added it does ‘realise a few tenants are vulnerable considering their old age’.
It said it requested referral forms be filled out for submission to Cheshire West and Chester Council for retention of those residents ‘under the supported housing provision’.
Another resident, Sam, lives in a property on Lake House Close with her child, who has just turned three, after the passing of her fiancé.
She said: ‘It’s disgusting and immoral the way people have been treated and by a social enterprise which has the word ‘care’ in its name. Completely uncaring is more accurate.’
A petition against the planned eviction said that the Cedar is wanting to use the properties to house the ‘homeless on a temporary basis to help them on a journey to their next home’.
Letting agent Next Move 4 U said the landlord ‘has the right to have his property back,’ and that there was ‘no threat’ in the Section 21 notice sent to residents.
However, the accompanying letter from the agent includes the line: ‘Failure to comply with this notice will result in a possession order being issued and finally we may have to instruct bailiffs.’
Mr Amesbury, the Labour MP for Weaver Vale, said: ‘I’m demanding the company withdraws these Section 21 notices immediately.
‘While Section 21 notices are currently lawful, they are totally unethical and inhuman. The opposition’s position is within the first 100 days of Government; we will introduce legislation to abolish no fault evictions.’
He added that he would be contacting Cheshire West and Chester Council to support applications for affected vulnerable tenants to remain.
The Government’s Renters Reform Bill was supposed to ban Section 21 no-fault evictions, but this aspect has been delayed, Mr Amesbury added.
Letting agent Next Move 4 U said the landlord ‘has the right to have his property back,’ and that there was ‘no threat’ in the Section 21 notice sent to residents.
However, the accompanying letter from the agent includes the line: ‘Failure to comply with this notice will result in a possession order being issued and finally we may have to instruct bailiffs.’
Julie Marsland, Managing Director of letting agent Next Move 4 U, said: ‘The landlord has the right to have his property back. It is his property, it’s not theirs.
‘We do understand the stress a Section 21 notice can cause; it’s not something we delight in doing or want to do, but if the landlord needs his property back, the landlord should be able to get his property back.
‘We do understand the vulnerability of quite a few of the people, but I’m not the old owner or the new landlord, we just run a letting agency in Worsley putting tenants in properties and selling properties.
‘We, for the past three years now, have been helping people who have bought, for instance, blocks of flats, and they want them empty, which the new landlord has a right to do.
‘I do know, when we served all these notices at Lake House, that one or two of the residents told us these stories.
‘Obviously, we didn’t know when we gave the notices out, the situation of the tenants or how old they were. I know quite a few of them have been in touch with Cedar Care Group direct, and Cedar Care Group has responded to them and explained to them why they want possession of the property.’
She added: ‘I think we knew there were going to be repercussions from this, and we’ll just follow it through.’
Mrs Marsland’s husband, fellow director Alan Marsland, said the firm had issued over 300 Section 21 notices ‘all over the country in the last three years, and we have never, in 300, gone to court.’
‘We compensate and stick with the tenants until something is found,’ he said. ‘We never put someone on the street.
‘The previous registered provider had put the wrong type of tenants in there. They should have been tenants that required some support from the local council. Technically, all the tenants in there are what would be termed as ‘private tenants’.
‘These properties also require extensive works. I would suggest in the region of £35,000 a property. A couple of the properties are terrible places that have been let go to neglect, and you can’t do the work required while people are in there.’
A Cheshire West and Chester Council spokesperson said: ‘These properties are not owned by the council and there are no council tenants living in this accommodation. As yet we haven’t been contacted by Cedar Care Group about these properties.
‘The council expects that the landlord will manage the eviction process sensitively, taking account of any vulnerable people, and providing the necessary time and support for them to secure alternative accommodation. In a situation where the tenants are at risk of homelessness within 56 days, the council has a duty to act and support tenants to secure suitable alternative accommodation.
‘The council’s Housing Options team are looking into the situation for residents of Lake House Close.’
A government-backed bill to abolish ‘no-fault’ evictions has since been watered down after objections from Tory backbenchers.
Rebel MPs opposing Michael Gove’s Renters’ Reform Bill have expressed concerns the legislation would unfairly disadvantage landlords.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: ‘Our landmark Renters (Reform) bill is progressing through Parliament. It will deliver a fairer private rented sector for both responsible tenants and good-faith landlords.
‘The Bill will abolish section 21 evictions – giving people more security in their homes and empowering them to challenge poor practices.’
MailOnline has contacted Cedar Care Group for comment.