Dad’s fight to stay in late grandmother's home (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Dad’s fight to stay in late grandmother's home

10:47am Friday 13th June 2008

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A FATHER says The Community Housing Group are forcing him and his two-year-old disabled son out of their new Kidderminster home.

Simon Hazeldine, 25, of Jubilee Drive South, said they had been given two weeks to leave the property after the death of his grandmother, the tenant.

He explained he had previously lived there for about seven years before moving to Stourport after the birth of his son.

Mr Hazeldine added he needed to remain in the Kidderminster property to look after his agoraphobic mother and to enable his son to continue benefiting from childcare services at the Treetops Children's Centre nearby.

He said he was being discriminated against because he was a man looking after a child rather than a woman.

Mr Hazeldine admitted that the property had an unused room and this was one of the reasons he was being put under pressure.

He said: "I feel really stressed out. They just don't care how we feel. They only want us out. They gave me two weeks notice to leave the house just two days after my nan died."

Fiona Law, marketing manager at the Community Housing Group, said there were strict rules under the Housing Act 1985 determining who could "succeed" to a tenancy when a tenant died.

She explained that if the spouse of a tenant was not living there, or if the tenant was unmarried, a family member could succeed as long as they had been living at the property as their main home for the past 12 months.

She said each case was considered on an individual basis and they did not discriminate on gender grounds.

"We spoke to Mr Hazeldine to discuss his current circumstances in detail," she said.

"He has been granted a temporary right to occupy his grandmother's former home while investigations are ongoing.

"If he is not granted the tenancy, we will not seek to make him homeless but would endeavour to offer him suitable, alternative accommodation in line with current regulations.

"We will continue to provide Mr Hazeldine with advice and information about his application."

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