A mum with disabilities who was forced naked from her Easton home in October has supported squatters who have now occupied the property in protest. Ruth Nestor hopes to be able to move back in after what she says was a ‘distressing’ eviction.
The homeowner was evicted by high court bailiffs working for the National Eviction Team after insolvency practitioners, Richard Long & Co, was appointed receiver of her assets over a debt that she owed to Bristol City Council. She says that the debt had been sold on to the insolvency practitioners following a confiscation order, relating to a court order in 2012.
Now a group from Bristol Housing Action Movement has managed to get inside the property and has been occupying the house in Easton ever since. They told Bristol Live that the house looked like "a bomb had hit it", with most of the family's possessions removed, doors broken and rotting food left in the fridge-freezer.
READ MORE: Bristol mum forced naked out of home in 'distressing' eviction
Ms Nestor, who is now in emergency council-funded accommodation, said her two children are traumatised by recent events and were left without school uniforms. Although the family's belongings are currently in storage, Ms Nestor says she has been informed that they will be disposed of if she fails to collect them within a given time period and the cost of storage will be 'charged to the case'.
BHAM describes itself as an organisation that supports homeless people through squatting alongside community actions. The group wrote to Ms Nestor asking if she would like them to go back in, to which she agreed.
A representative from BHAM, who asked to be named only as Ben, said: “We don’t want the issue to disappear and what happened to Ruth to be forgotten. We hope that she can regain possession of her own home and things can be sorted out in a different way.
“We’ve occupied it as a protest occupation so that’s legal. Housing is a massive issue." He said the group were "disturbed" by Ruth's situation and said it seems "absurd" given how much the property must be worth compared to the value of the debt.
Ben claims they arrived to find the kitchen in an "appalling mess" and there was an "awful lot of damage" to the property, with rubbish on the floor and the front door and front windows removed. He said food had been left in the freezer and he felt "they’ve basically made the house uninhabitable as far as they could".
Although section 144 of The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 made the squatting of a residential building a criminal offence, BHAM members claim they are exempt as they say they are not permanently living in the building and are there in protest. They have attached a legal notice to the front door which makes reference to R v Dirk Duputell where the defendant was acquitted upon appeal after being found in a residential property with his limbs super glued to a wooden beam.
The judge who heard the case at Hove Crown Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence that the accused in that case was living in the property. BHAM members believe their case is similar and say there is nobody living in the property or intending to live in the property.
Ms Nestor said: “The property has been taken back by the community in a political squat. Now it has to be repaired and it’s the community action that will repair the property to ensure that I can live in it again.
“I have a fridge-freezer to buy all my food for the winter, because of my disability I find it hard to get out. They have given me no access to my belongings which I have rights to possess under the Human Rights Act. I don’t have any shoes, all I’m walking around in is trainers. I’ve got a bad back and my special shoes that I have to wear because of my paralysis, I don’t have because they’ve taken away all my shoes.
“When I rang up the Land Registry, they told me, ‘you are the owner of that property’. It’s an important political squat to take the property back. I am still paying my mortgage because what they want is for me to default on the mortgage."
Richard Long and Co declined to comment. They defended the eviction at the time in October and said the circumstances meant they were "obliged to enforce the possession order".
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