A woman has been given a week to hand over the key to a mould-infested flat and a fortnight for her and her family to move out of their temporary home.
The orders were made by a district judge at Brighton County Court who granted an injunction sought by Brighton and Hove City Council.
The council applied for the injunction requiring Juliette Mottram to hand over the key to allow repairs at a mouldy flat in Ventnor Villas, Hove, where she has lived since 2018 with four of her five children.
Ms Mottram’s and her family’s belongings will be removed from the flat while the property is repaired and once the necessary work has been completed the key will be returned to her.
At the court hearing yesterday (Monday 3 August), Ms Mottram was also ordered to leave an Airbnb where her family has stayed since December, with the council footing the £60,000 bill.
Ms Mottram has been battling the council since moving into the flat in Ventnor Villas as a temporary home after losing everything in the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBoS) Reading fraud case.
At least 191 business customers, including the broadcaster Noel Edmonds, were defrauded of at least £245 million and possibly as much as £1 billion. Six people were jailed but few victims have been compensated. An official inquiry started in 2017 but has yet to report.
Ms Mottram feared that her belongings would be destroyed while in storage because of mould contamination. At the court hearing yesterday, the council’s barrister Elizabeth England said that officials had found no signs of mould on her belongings.
Ms Mottram is registered disabled, with autoimmune disease, as are three of her adult children. They were teenagers when they moved into the Seaside Homes flat.
In the eight years since they moved in, Ms Mottram has developed black mould-related asthma. The Local Democracy Reporting Service visited the flat yesterday and photographed mould throughout.
Ms Mottram started a disrepair claim against the council in 2023 over the mould and a hole in the living room ceiling caused by flooding in an upstairs flat.
Before the injunction hearing at the county court, she said that a surveyor had told her that the flat was worse than the one blamed for the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak from black mould exposure.
Ms Mottram said: “There’s no natural light. It’s the worst case you would ever see. When I employed my solicitors on (Friday) 6 January 2023, they said it was the worst case they had ever seen.”
The 57-year-old mother-of-five was “decanted” into a five-bedroom £250-a-night Airbnb property in Wilbury Crescent last December after a court hearing with the council last October. This was to allow repairs at the mould-blighted flat.
The stay was originally intended to be for 12 weeks but has since been extended. Ventnor Villas was closed for gas works in January and February.
At the court hearing yesterday, District Judge Robin Penfold heard from the council’s barrister Elizabeth England that eight months in the “luxury” flat had cost the public purse more than £60,000.
He ordered Ms Mottram not only to hand over the keys to the Ventnor Villas flat but to leave the short-term rental for a council-owned property in Peacehaven – or find another rental – by Friday 14 August.
Ms Mottram said that her health problems meant that she needed to be near her GP in Hove and close to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, in Brighton, not outside the local authority area.
In line with a court order made last October, a removals team came to take and store Ms Mottram’s family’s belongings on Wednesday 29 July which Ms England said would be placed in a metal container for storage.
She said that Ms Mottram, referred to in court as the defendant, arrived two hours after the removal team and refused to work with council representatives.
Ms England said: “It is clear there is no way the defendant was going to give the keys over. There was no way the defendant was going to facilitate access.”
Ms Mottram was concerned that her belongings would deteriorate in a metal storage box because of mould contamination.
She wanted to have everything logged in an inventory to ensure that there was a full record of her family’s belongings which she feared would be lost, damaged or destroyed by mould.
Outside the hearing, she said that the removal company had refused to enter the flat because of the dangerous levels of mould.
At the hearing, Ms England said that council officials said that they had found no mould on the family’s belongings last Wednesday.
Ms Mottram’s advocate, Aaron Rajesh, from Ashley Taylors Legal, said that Ms Mottram strongly disputed the suggestion that the family were staying in a luxury property.
He told the court that there was no deliberate refusal to co-operate on Ms Mottram’s part but the challenges had put pressure on her physical and mental health.
Mr Rajesh said thatMs Mottram did not want her belongings mixed with anyone else’s.
District Judge Penfold ruled that the removal of Ms Mottram’s property should be filmed, her property should be itemised and her belongings stored in a metal container separately from anyone else’s.
He ordered Ms Mottram to return the keys to the Ventnor Villas flat by Friday (7 August) and to leave the Wilbury Crescent property by the following Friday (14 August).
A contempt of court committal hearing, when Ms Mottram could face prison for failing to hand over the keys after moving into the Wilbury Crescent property, was adjourned until next month although no date was set.
Why has it taken so long for the council to deal with this mould? It should have been done months ago!
Starting a legal process tends to stop any work until the process is complete. This can be years. It’s a stark reminder that it is generally a really bad idea, if a timely intervention is what you are after, to attempt a legal route.
She’ll also be liable for legal costs as well, and that’s likely to eat any and all compensation.
Read it. Because she wasn’t letting them in to do it.
But importantly, the article does note that there was no “deliberate refusal to cooperate”. The article also seems to imply that she wasn’t given reassurances by the council about the storage of her belongings, and it doesn’t sound like she got the guarantees she needed from the council that her belongings would not be lumped in with other people’s while in storage. That’s not OK on the council’s part.
The council should not expect someone diagnosed with mould related asthma (which has likely been caused by the mould infested flat the council housed her in) to re-enter the mould infested flat to move items infested by mould and risk further mould related asthma problems being exacerbated.
It sounds like the council weren’t giving her any reasonable proper support to provide a workable plan for the removal of items, so it’s no wonder that the tenant was keen to challenge it. The whole mess could probably been sorted a lot sooner if the council had of come up with a workable plan over the belongings months ago.
Tracy, if your going to comment, read the article first…
Why has she declined to hand over the keys, yet didn’t mind got into Air BnB for £250 a night.
And why are Adult Children all in a Flat that size with there Mum-surely she should of been given a bigger property by now due to Age and Sex of Children-shouldn’t be allowed to be in like that all together surely.
Fancy making it difficult to hand things over, could if neeen donr months ago instead of the £60,000 bill that she should be paying, and why so far out in Peacehaven for temporary, I know they do it as far as that but if she is needed to be near GP, I see that as Bull tbh.
Want it all for nothing-and proberly gets a few fair quid if they all suffer with something.
Perhaps if she and her family had opened the window when showering and also had installed a wrap around shower curtain instead of allowing water to run down the wall,the mould would be far less if a problem.
Is it a ground floor flat? if not then I feel very sad for the damp caused by her to the people below.
There is no such thing as “registered disabled”. There is no register of disabled people, you’re either in receipt of benefits for your condition, or you’re not, neither is more or less valid.
One of those stock expressions that hacks use I am afraid.
There is a MS register ,maybe she’s on that
Punishment for years in Peacehaven, you can’t annoy rogue Landlord Brighton Council.
I don’t believe for a second the conditions she is claiming to have and why a mum and 4 children in such a small apartment? and the council let the mould get that bad? im suprised nobody has died from the mould in that flat, last time i checked mould really not good for your health at all. Need to get that sorted A.S.A.P
So many questions, but mainly entitled and weaponizing illnesses seem the issue, are her adult children also on benefits and disability ? It’s disgusting they get an Airbnb at £250 a day. That’s £1750 a week, £7000 a month of taxpayers money. Claims that is not luxury, outrageous. No wonder the country is going to pot from these shameless people. Why couldn’t they move ? Why would you stay and get asthma related illnesses ? Why not hand over the keys ? Are they expecting a large council house rather than private rent ? Why are taxpayers supporting her now adult children ? Imagine how frustrated the council, the removalists and court system are. The judge sees right through this demanding entitled woman.
Why did the council have to go to court. Just say, here are keys to temp accommodation, we have stopped paying for air B&B, you are now trespassing in air B&B.
Change the locks on the old flat and give her a time to collect her stuff, doesn’t collect then throw in skip. Far to nice in the country and jobless entitled rats take advantage of it.
Council are under certain obligations that are far higher than a standard property. Maybe that speaks to the need for more ALMO structures in Brighton; although you lose the access to social rents in favour of LHA. Is that the way forward?
It’s temporary accommodation that you are forced to live in without choice. Judge ordered removals which BHCC didn’t adhere to last year and the air bnb was also ordered by the judge. The council haven’t paid the landlord of the decant property either. So these are the facts. Forced to live in temporary accommodation not a choice. No work done to the outside of the property either. So I hope all of the spiteful comments from people who are unaware of the facts with cease. This is how slum landlords treat the sick and disabled.
Could always get a job and choose where you want to live. 3 grown up children at home, also could be working and contributing. This isn’t china, you are not forced to do anything so stop crying and sort your life out.
The council have failed to mention that they are paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to the outsourced solicitors and barristers, so that’s where the tax payers money is being spent on.
They did talk about it at housing reports before, it’s one of the big reasons why they want to resolve repairs in house and avoid external legal firms, but the cost to both the council and to the tenant is ridiculous!
If anyone raises a concern they are silenced, the only other tenant in this basement flat was taken by ambulance after being a single occupant forced to exist in this mould ridden slum. Health and safety concerns were made from medical professionals and gas and fire safety engineers for the safety of occupants stating the air was thick and not fit for human habitation and structurally unsafe yet all professionals were ignored including the fire brigade The rent for this slum is £350 per week! Safeguarding issues totally swept under the rug! Another councillor resigns today. A council not fit for purpose lives another day!
Get a job love and move out
There is a MS register ,maybe she’s on that
if you google her you can see that she repeatedly refused the council access to assess the damage years ago, she’s just trying it on again, this time about her belongings. It looks like she let the mould develop so she can be put up in luxury accommodation at our expense……….