Over the last few months, the IRSP in Belfast have been dealing with an ongoing attempted eviction in the Twinbrook area.
A landlord who resides in England and owns the property has fallen on financial hard times and in turn immediately wants to sell the property.
On 6th June the tenant (a single mother of 4 kids) contacted the IRSP for help after the landlord contacted her and asked her to leave the property. At this stage the landlord had no court order and tenant had not received her mandatory 12 weeks notice.
The landlord then sought help from a supposed community based organisation (who we wont name at this stage), claiming to be acting as a mediator.
From the very beginning the tenant had said she would move as soon as an adequate property was found for her and her 4 young children.
Last week a property was found in another area of Belfast, and the woman has agreed and is in the process of moving, which includes having to register her kids for a new local school.
On Friday afternoon, events took a sinister turn. Tarlach Mac Dhónaill who has been working on the case has said, “A locksmith had arrived at the property, the locksmith was a gentleman, he said he’d merely been sent to a job by McGranaghans estate-agents who manage the property for the landlord. I immediately phoned McGranaghans and they denied it. I Contacted a solicitor who confirmed McGranaghans were acting illegally, there is no court order and a notice to quit hasn’t even been issued. The locksmith left, so there’ll be no locks changed today.”
The IRSP will not stand by and allow landlords to act illegally in working class areas of Belfast. We will not allow tenants and families to be bullied and illegally thrown onto the streets. We wont be handing any keys over until this family have safely relocated.
We owe our allegiance to the Working Class and it appears we are the only protection they have.
