Eviction for having 4 cats

[Wingus]

For the last 7, nearly 8 years, we have had 4 cats. Just recently, July 2010, we were abruptly told to remove them or face eviction. Here is the full story:

 

 

In 2002 I moved into a new place in Blackpool, at the time, it was council owned, and there was no problems. A few weeks into my tenancy, I got 2 cats. I immediately went to the local office to inform them that I had indeed obtained 2 cats, and was it allowed in my tenancy agreement. The counter staff at that time reassured me that it was allowed and was OK providing they were informed, in which I was doing, so they were happy with that. I was happy with that too, so I continued as normal.

 

 

A year later, in 2003, my partner moved in with me, and we met some of the neighbours in our block. Our neighbours had 2 cats as well, but a smaller property. In due course, their cats had kittens, and so 8 weeks later, they were running around trying to re-home them. We were delighted at the sight of 2 kittens, and so we took 2 kittens off their hands. Both myself and the neighbour went to the local housing office to inform them of the situation and to ask permissions. Again, myself and my neighbour were reassured that it was allowed, and permissions were given by the counter staff.

 

 

At no point, either before, during or after signing the original tenancy agreement, were we told or reminded we had to have this permissions in writing, nor were we shown the exact ruling the council used at that time, or after. So since 2003, we assumed that we had full permissions to have 4 cats, and we were happy. At no stage were we consulted as to weather we had all female cats, and that we do not plan to have any other animals in this property. Nor did anyone bother to inquire that our cats are fully neutered and couldn't have kittens even if they wanted to. Nor did anyone consider that we have no plans to get any more cats after our current ones pass away.

 

 

Anyway, between that point and mid November 2009, I had to go into a different accommodation, to help with my depression. This involved social services and other medical professionals, in fact probably involved a load of folk I never even heard of. As part of this rehab type thing, I had to be removed of the tenancy agreement, because you can't have 2 tenancies at the same time.

 

 

My partner had to sign a new tenancy. This new tangency was with the all new Blackpool Coastal Housing. I was there when she signed it, and I swear down now, at no point was my partner shown or explained the rules of the tenancy. All they wanted was for her to sign it, without looking at it or understanding it. It was as if she was signing under duress. I was basically told to be quiet, because it was my partner that was signing it, not me. So even I didn't have that option. Even in the months leading up to this, social services knew we had 4 cats, and it wasn't a problem then either.

 

 

While I was in care, it was getting more and more evident, that there was no support for my partner, and I got frustrated. I got even more frustrated that my medications were being messed with, so I had a few disagreements. Finally in December I left, I had enough of the place, plus it wasn't helping me one little bit. They got annoyed that I so called "bribed" them into getting my meds back, but I wasn't there for medication review, I was there to get help. However, since December 2009 and July 2010, nothing was said, and as far as I’m concerned everything was back to normal. That was, until someone from Blackpool coastal Housing sent a letter saying..we want to come round to inspect the property. I never seen that before, and apparently they do this every year, so we let them come round, just out of curiosity if nothing else.

 

 

That was when the sparks fly, they came bursting in, and immediately picked up that we had 4 cats, and barked lout orders, in no uncertain terms " get rid of the cats or face eviction". As you could imagine, I went ballistic, I was in no way going to tolerate that sort of attitude from anyone..I don't care who they work for. There were a few other issues that needed addressing, which we have solved, that was the easy bit, but to come into my domain and tell us to remove our cats..I was having none of it. So I went to the local office, and I created an argument of my own, I returned the favour They didn't like it, so how do they expect me to like it.

 

 

After a few letters here and there, we had to put into writing that we want permissions to have 4 cats, so we did, and it was refused. I heard some pretty good excuses in my time, but the best ones were to come, including “ it's got a shared entrance” and “ too small”. In a few weeks we eventually agreed to 2 cats, and I put that in writing, and that was approved. So, we are at a crossroads now, where to re-home 2 cats, especially in a society that has far too many cats and dogs, even the animal charities are overwhelmed, to bursting. I had 1 place told me that if the council seen their place..it would be shut down due to overcapacity. That shows you the state of things.

 

 

Best of all though, I contacted the Blackpool Gazette, the local newspaper, as I thought it would be a nice story for them, plus to show my anger, and all they said was “is it in the tenancy agreement”...I replied yes, because we had been shown it after someone came round and explained it. They said they would send a reporter round...not heard from them at all. I thought it would make a nice story, since I’m not the only one affected by this issue in the whole of Blackpool, or if I am, then that's a whole new ball game altogether. It's as if the newspaper is bias towards the council, which would explain the response I got from a phone call about 3 days earlier, in which I was told “good luck” by a council employee, when I said I was going to the newspaper.

 

 

So what are we supposed to do? Personally, I think this is a load of bollocks, the economy is in crisis and all Blackpool Coastal Housing are worried about is if I got 4 cats or not. Someone needs to get their priorities right.

 

 

If anyone can help...especially in full English Law, weather there is anything I can do legally, then please contact me.

 

 

You may love or hate any animals ... but lets put it this way, some people, me included, love their animals, and do take care of them, sometimes better than myself, they are treated as one of the family. My question is this...what would you do if someone tried to take away your child or pets...without a genuine or reasonable excuse? That I leave to you.

 

 

Disclaimer:

 

 

Under no circumstances am I, or anyone else suggesting or claiming that Blackpool Coastal Housing is good or bad, right or wrong, I am only giving the correct and true facts that actually happened to me and my partner in this case, weather it's ongoing or not.

[Wingus]

I have been trying to find the origional tennancy agreement, but can't find it at the moment, soon as i do i'll be able to post again and let others know. I'm really in a pickle as to what to do, it's upsetting me and my partner no end, not to mention costing a fortune in phone calls. No cat charity place seems to have any places available to re-home our 2 cats, we tried everywhere, RSPCA, cats paws, cats protection...and about 20 more all oround the UK.

 

If anyone can help legally, or can help re-home 2 of our cats, some advice would be extremely helpfull.

 

Also, this is not only affecting me, i know of at least 7 others affected by this latest clamp down on animals. It's not fair, it's as if the council are activly condoning animal cruelty, because some people are just abandoning thier animals in the street. So it's causing a problem all over the place.

[Wingus]

highly apreciated, i will try those idea's. It is a tough time, stressfull for us, and will be for the cats when tthey go, it's never easy to explain to a cat they have to be re-homed cause of humans being a pain..lol

[Wingus]

Thank you so very much, that was extremely helpfull, i am contacting as many authorities and people as i can, in writing of course. I am a lot calmer than i was, and the rant i had with them is sorted out, we can at least talk now. I did contact the local papers, they were no help, but i havent given up on that yet. I have wrote to my MP, and almost all national medid newspapers and TV channels.

 

The thing is, i believe this is a more underlying problem, and i don't expect it to affect just me, so it needs to be brought to attention somewehre. The problem arrises from breeding, anyone and everyone can breed domestic animals. Given the stats on litters of kittens and pups, the figures are quite damning.

 

What needs to be done is select breeders, where certain places only can breed animals, and sell them of course. This will lead to more decent and respect for having a pet, and what it means to have one. These select breeding places can inform and investigate weather a property is suitable, and give no end of advice on how to look after and so on. They would be a hub of info and help, which in turn would satisfy the councils, sort of achieving thier requirements and the owners.

 

This in turn would also help the animal charities, especially re-homing, because there wouldn't be so many pets, they could sspend more quality time and effort re-assuring the public and helping out where needed. Instead, most animal homes are little more than a last resort, a death row for some animals, which is wrong. Animals are not a commodity, the public needs to know that.

 

Still, not that i had my rant...lol, i'll get back to seeing what i can do:)

[Wingus]

It most certainly should have been explained especially with the level of problems you and your partner seem to have. Because if you had been told at the time of signing that you couldn;t have your cats you wouldn;t have signed, would you?

 

Thank you for that, i may have got the exact Law to reflect this.

 

Misrepresentation Act 1967

 

1967 CHAPTER 7

 

Source: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/7

 

 

An Act to amend the law relating to innocent misrepresentations and to amend sections 11 and 35 of the Sale of Goods Act 1893.

 

 

[22nd March 1967]

1 Removal of certain bars to rescission for innocent misrepresentation.E+W

 

 

Where a person has entered into a contract after a misrepresentation has been made to him, and—

 

 

(a)the misrepresentation has become a term of the contract; or

 

 

(b)the contract has been performed;

 

 

or both, then, if otherwise he would be entitled to rescind the contract without alleging fraud, he shall be so entitled, subject to the provisions of this Act, notwithstanding the matters mentioned in paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.

2 Damages for misrepresentation.E+W

 

 

(1)Where a person has entered into a contract after a misrepresentation has been made to him by another party thereto and as a result thereof he has suffered loss, then, if the person making the misrepresentation would be liable to damages in respect thereof had the misrepresentation been made fraudulently, that person shall be so liable notwithstanding that the misrepresentation was not made fraudulently, unless he proves that he had reasonable ground to believe and did believe up to the time the contract was made the facts represented were true.

 

 

(2)Where a person has entered into a contract after a misrepresentation has been made to him otherwise than fraudulently, and he would be entitled, by reason of the misrepresentation, to rescind the contract, then, if it is claimed, in any proceedings arising out of the contract, that the contract ought to be or has been rescinded, the court or arbitrator may declare the contract subsisting and award damages in lieu of rescission, if of opinion that it would be equitable to do so, having regard to the nature of the misrepresentation and the loss that would be caused by it if the contract were upheld, as well as to the loss that rescission would cause to the other party.

 

 

(3)Damages may be awarded against a person under subsection (2) of this section whether or not he is liable to damages under subsection (1) thereof, but where he is so liable any award under the said subsection (2) shall be taken into account in assessing his liability under the said subsection (1).

 

 

Plus, since it was verbal, no written permissions at the time, then ( just about borderlines)

 

 

 

 

Implied Terms

Source: http://www.gillhams.com/articles/141.cfm

General Application to Contracts

 

The rule is of general application and terms may be implied into contracts of virtually any nature, involving arbitration, agency, building, technology licences, sales of goods, supply of services and real property. The implication of terms remains a matter of law for a court to decide with the guidance of established legal principle.

When Terms are Implied into a Contract

 

Terms may be implied by the facts of a particular case, which are considered to reflect the parties’ intentions. The general principles are that an implied term must:

 

1. not contradict any express term of the contract
   
2. be reasonable and equitable
   
3. be necessary to give business efficacy to the contract, such that the contract cannot be effective without it
   
4. so obvious that it goes without saying, and
   
5. be capable of being clearly expressed.
   

The factual background at the time of formation of the contract is the relevant time to consider whether the parties probably had the term in mind but did not express it, but probably would have expressed it, had it arisen in the court’s view of fairness or policy.

 

 

I shall present these to the council as proof that we were missled and it was verbal permissions, so as far as we are aware, we had permissions. It may take a while to sort this problem out, so i'll make it clear that no cats will be re homed during the process, since it's ongoing, then i wait upon the result.

[Wingus]

The good news is, we are not in arrears, nor have we ever been a problem tenant, in fact, even the saqme housing officers, including the managers of the local office claim we are " not in any trouble". This leads me to think no end of things, mostly...if we are not in trouble, what's the mystery..lol

 

There is a lot of preasure to " close the case" which in my opinion is all about preformance targets, but i'm not interested in thier targets, i'm interested in the welfare and happiness of our family, which includes our cats.

 

The reason i sugested the Misrepresentation act is becuase a tenancy agreement, in fact agreement in general is a contrat. We are in all theory in a contract, we agree to keep this place in a reasonable and presentable manner, and agree not to do anything dangerous to it or our neighbours. Also, we agree to pay rent, in exchange for living here, no matter in what for the rent is paid, it's still liable upon us to pay it. Therefore, a contract is needed to form basis to pay this rent, and of course the HA's responsibilities as well.

 

So, being a contract, it's liable under Misrepresentation law, as far as i'm aware of, and since we were not given a chance to actually read it, nor understand it, then we had no prior knowledge of the rules regarding pets in properties. Therefore, the contract in all theory, is void, or voidable.

 

However, i'm not unreasonable, i would prefer they just close the case and leave us alone, but you know the council, they wont let it drop and we will probally come worse off because of it, but i'm fighting this all the way, no matter what it takes. If anything, i hate " i know the rules backwards" people, they are there just to fill the statistics sheets.

[Wingus]

Excelent news everyone - we have been granted permissions to have 4 cats:)

 

After seeking advice from a lawyer, the council have, backed down and let us keep them. Our lawyer was confused as we were, how the council intended to prove " reasonableness " since they allowed 2, but not 4, and how they intended to convince a court of such actions. I guess the council were running around trying to think of all the rules they ever made to try and prove it, but couldn't.

 

This is a massive milestone for us, and one that i'm extremely happy about. It goes to show that no matter how big they think they are, if you only question things more, you can achieve what you want:)

 

There are3 rules we have to agree to, which we are advised are reasonable..1. The council visit us once a month 2. we keep the property clean and tidy 3. no other pets.

 

Personally, to me, that is very reasonable, and i'm happy to agree to that. Obviously if we break any of them 3 conditions, the council can take action, and i'm sure they will want to get thier own back on me anyway, but i wont give them the satisfaction. I'll be on top of things now, and the amount od stress lifted from me is awesome, i am now able to concentrate of the more important things in life:)

 

I would like to thank everyone here as well, for the support, and advice. Some of which i wouldn't have won without them, i thank you all:)