Housing U-turn saves family from eviction

CHRISTMAS cheer! Alan Threlfall celebrates with grandsons Callum and Jordan Bennett

THREE brothers who faced being kicked out of their family home before Christmas have been allowed to stay.

The three were devastated when they was asked to vacate the Moorside family home following the death of their mother.

The grandad of Lee (20), Jordan (17) and 13-year-old Callum Bennett believes the U-turn by landlord Guinness Northern Counties was significantly down to the exposure by the Chronicle highlighting the lads’ torment more than a fortnight ago.

The grieving brothers were given the perfect Christmas present when the housing association announced that they could maintain the tenancy on their Ripponden Road home.

The decision brought relief after weeks of worry. The brothers were asked to leave the house only two months after the death of their mother, Adele, and had got as far as packing their bags.

Guinness said few tenancies automatically pass to the next of kin following a tenant’s death.

Guinness offered an altenative home, but youngest brother Callum needs to be close to his school, Waterhead Academy.

After talking to housing officers, the brothers have been given the tenancy in Lee’s name.

Grandad Alan Threlfall said: “The lads are chuffed they get to stay in the house they have been in since 2004.

“I am genuinely convinced if it wasn’t for the Chronicle, this may not have been sorted so quickly.

Clare King, Guinness’s head of operations, said, “We are happy to grant the tenancy and will do all we can as their landlord to support them as they settle into their new lives together.”