The family of a community-oriented mum of two was forced to pack up her things and move out of her home just 10 days after her death.
Jeanette Marie Kelly died on March 15, two weeks after she was taken to hospital over her deteriorating health. Her daughter Sophie Kelly-Sullivan told the ECHO about how her mum initially discharged herself but could only stay at home for one night before having to be readmitted to the Royal Liverpool Hospital and dying 10 days later.
The 24-year-old said, when her 60-year-old mum died, she had to tell landlord Regenda Homes and, on March 18, they told her and her brother, Billy, that they had to have the Bootle house empty by March 25. Sophie said the news added to the family's stress in what was, and still is, an extremely difficult time.
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Sophie said: "My mum passed away, she was only in hospital for two weeks and it was all very quick. It was horrific. As soon as we had to make everyone aware of the death, including the housing company, they basically came back to us and said we had a week to move her stuff out of the house. We asked if we could have a bit longer to move out and they said we needed to pay rent for the extra week. We had to throw away so much because we didn't have enough time to sort through her things.
"My friend told me that the house was on Property Pool three days after moving her things out. People were turning up to view the house and asking us lots of questions about it while we were moving her things out."
Since the traumatic experience, the housing company has admitted that the policy wasn't followed. As well as rushing the family to move her belongings out of the house, they called her mum by the wrong name in an email to Sophie.
Sophie said her mum was referred to as Mrs Sweeney when she hasn't been Sweeney since 1990. A spokeswoman for Regenda Homes said: "On behalf of Regenda Homes, we were deeply sorry to hear of the passing of Miss Kelly.
"We usually allow two weeks for a property to be emptied following the death of a family member. Unfortunately, our process was not followed on this occasion, and we are very sorry for any distress this understandably caused. A full review of our lettings policy is underway and will specifically look at the time we allow families to access properties and when we advertise homes after a resident has passed away.
"In relation to giving the wrong name in an email to the family, this was human error, and again we apologise for any additional upset this caused. We hope to have completed our lettings review by September 2022 and any improvement actions will be implemented immediately."
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