Sutton woman's 'hell' over late mum's council tenancy battle

The woman, who asked not to be named, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the time she should have spent mourning her mother was instead consumed by confusion, a lack of communication and distress.

“It’s been on my mind constantly when I should have been focusing on grieving,” she said.

After a prolonged back-and-forth with Sutton Housing Partnership (SHP) over the succession of her mother’s home in Beddington, Sutton, which included her being told she’d need to find somewhere else to live, she was eventually told her application should have been approved from the start.

Speaking to the LDRS, she described how she feared becoming homeless immediately after her mum’s unexpected death.

“The last thing I wanted to do at that time was try and find alternate housing,” she said.

After her mum died on November 13, 2024, the woman explained that she had been living at the property since March 2023 and wished to succeed the tenancy, delivering the death certificate in person a few days later.

On December 16, the manager visited her home, and the woman provided a range of documents, bank statements, doctor registration, phone bills, and payslips, as evidence. She described the meeting as uncomfortable, saying the manager showed “little empathy” during such a sensitive time.

After that, communication became sporadic. Weeks passed without updates. By mid-January, she resumed chasing and was told more verification was required, so she resent her bank statements.

On February 12, she was informed her application had been denied due to her mother signing a new tenancy in 2019 and on February 24 she received a Notice to Quit, effectively telling her she was being evicted.

In March, she appealed the decision but was told she would need to provide a letter from her GP, costing her £50. In April, SHP admitted the original notice had been served incorrectly and returned to issue a new one. By May, she was told she would have to complete a vulnerability assessment.

On June 23, she received a call from a senior SHP officer, admitting the housing provider had made a mistake.

“They told me that they should have given me the tenancy back in January and that I should never have gone through what they put me through,” she said. Despite the apology, she says the ordeal has taken a serious toll.

“I have literally lost nearly five stone in weight. It’s not all from that, but the stress it has caused me is serious,” she said.

“It has just been such poor communication throughout. For such a sensitive matter, why hasn’t a senior manager looked over this to make sure?”

The woman, who works in housing, believes the situation could have been handled with more compassion. “They were not empathetic; they need to make the person feel like they are there for them,” she said.

She’s since received £75 in compensation: £25 for an incorrectly dated letter chasing payment for rent – she says she’d been asking for months how much and by what method she needed to pay – and £50 for the emotional distress caused by the errors.

Steve Tucker, Chief Executive of Sutton Housing Partnership, said: “I would like to express my condolences to [the tenant] for the loss of her mother and to apologise for the anxiety she has endured as a result of the incorrect information we then gave her. Our handling of her case fell short of our expected standards due to a system error.

“We are reviewing our processes and learning from this case, ensuring additional checks are put in place when reviewing tenancy succession, to ensure that this does not happen again.

“A member of our senior management team is in regular contact with [the tenant] and we have confirmed that she does have the right to succeed her mother’s tenancy. We are now working to find [the tenant] a suitable one-bedroom property that we will assist her in moving to.”