A heartbroken pensioner who recently lost her husband-to-be is battling with Wandsworth Council to remain in the Battersea flat they shared.

Avi Cassidy, 66, of Thomas Baines Road, in the Winstanley Estate, found the wedding ring her partner Terry, 64, planned to give her in the flat four days after he suffered a fatal heart attack on December 20.

In a permanent tribute to him she changed her surname to his via deed poll on Christmas Eve.

Ms Cassidy had lived at one-bedroom flat with Terry for two years. Her partner had lived there for 25 years and had made extensive renovations to the property.

At the end of January she was shocked to receive a notice to quit on March 5.

Frantic with worry last week she rang the Wandsworth Guardian who spoke to the council which explained that the notice to quit is just part of the formal process to decide who will eventually live at the flat.

Mrs Cassidy chances of retaining the flat would be improved if she can prove she has lived there for more than two years - called "discretionary notice" - but she also needs to prove she has not used another address during that time.

The council allege Ms Cassidy has been living in another flat in Purley, Croydon, but the pensioner is adamant she has not lived there since June 2009.

She said: "I have lived in the flat with Terry for since June 2009, when I was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital for major cancer surgery.

"It is bad enough losing my Terry but to lose my home which he had put so much time, money and energy into prior to his death is tearing me apart and I don't know who else to turn to.

"I don't feel the process has been explained to me properly. It's a very confusing system with many of their terms sounding the same but in fact being completely different.

"I just want to know whether I will be able to carry living in our home because it is now more than two months since Terry died."

A spokesman for the council said: "When someone dies, a notice of this type has to be sent to the property. Avi Cassidy's case will be thoroughly examined but the process is only part of the way through."