The children asked: how is Santa going to find us?

MUM TELLS OF FAMILY’S DESPERATE SEARCH FOR RENTED ACCOMMODATION AFTER LANDLORD TOLD THEM HE WAS SELLING UP

- By RUTH MOSALSKI

A MOTHER-OF-FIVE has described how close her family came to being made homeless after their landlord told them he was ending their tenancy.

In August 2022, Tina, who has asked only to be known by her first name, was living in a private rented house on Anglesey with her husband and children. They'd been there for 15 years and never had any issues. Being the summer holidays, she had taken her children to the cinema and on the way home she had a phone call from the landlord who said he was ending their tenancy.

Tina, who has five children, three of whom have disabilities, was studying at university at the time. The landlord told her that rental regulations in Wales were changing and because he couldn’t comply with the new regulations he was to sell the house. He told the couple they could buy the house for £450,000, a price they couldn't meet.

He therefore told her someone from the letting agency would be in touch.

Within an hour of them getting home from the cinema someone arrived at their door and told them they would have three months to leave the house.

“I remember my kids saying to me ‘how is Santa going to find us?’

‘They were served with a Section 21 notice ~ no fault eviction notice.

She contacted a neighbour who ‘was a community councillor who put her in touch with the council.

“It was just horrendous from there on in,’ she said.

She says she told the council they would take a smaller house, but they wanted to stay near their children’s schools and her husband's work. ‘They were told new houses were being built near their existing home, and she provided all documents to the council explaining their need.

She had previously been on the list but after a decade was automatically removed.

Issues came and went, with promises of a new home passing them by and forms being lost, all eating into the short time period they had to find anew home.