EXCLUSIVE

SANDWELL HOMES:  "LOSE YOUR MUM, LOSE YOUR HOME"

21-02-2008

Five weeks after her mother died, Shirley Geraghty from Wednesbury is facing another devastating loss - she's being threatened with eviction from the council house that has been her home for 47 years.

Shirley's surviving parent - her mum Mary - died in January and three weeks later she was sent a letter by Sandwell Homes warning that she had no right to succession to the property in Kent Street, where she has lived since 1961 when she was ten months old.
 
Although she was invited to apply for somewhere else to live there was no guarantee of accommodation - just a warning that legal proceedings would soon be starting to throw her out.

"I think the way they have treated me is disgusting" Shirley said.  "They have shown no regard for my feelings, and their attitude is just that they want me out."

The letter quoted the 1985 Housing Act, which states there can only be one succession of a council house - and assumed that this had been "used up" when Shirley's dad died in 1989, and passed the house onto her mum.
 
What Sandwell Homes didn't know - because they hadn't bothered to check - is that the original tenancy agreement in both parents' names, was actually signed by Mary, so there's a strong argument that the succession to Shirley is, legally, the first.
 
There's an argument that the house - a 3 bed semi - might be better used as a family home, but Shirley (who works with children with learning disabilities) insists that she and her partner, who now lives with her, are planning to foster or adopt children.
 
What's more, her bloke gave up a council property in December to help Shirley nurse her mum during her final weeks.
 
And of course, it is the only place she can ever remember living in.
 
"I'm not giving this place without a fight she says.  It's been the only home I've ever known, and I should have the right to stay here."
 
Sandwell Council and Sandwell Homes could not be contacted last night.