Church and State blog: Peabody DAY 23: Declan has brought to the court's attention new evidence connecting the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to the destabilisation of our tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life

Monday, June 08, 2020

Peabody DAY 23: Declan has brought to the court's attention new evidence connecting the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to the destabilisation of our tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life

DAY 23 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE
MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY

14/04/20

With the background as provided above, the Heaveys now are facing an eviction notice from their landlord, Peabody Trust housing association. The tenancy is a flat, which falls under the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. Pardoning my intrusion into English law, but in fairness there does not appear to be any reason for the eviction, relying apparently entirely on the discretion of the landlord.

Joseph R. Carvalko, Esq., American lawyer (full letter here)

Our Church and State website has no less than 59 Nobel Laureates on it despite the never-ending assault on our email; see paragraph 2 under "Church and State" on this blog's sidebar (updated today).

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population". Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

The Mayor of London is Sadiq Khan. We live in one of the Mayor's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) designated properties and have no legal protection against a 'no fault' Section 21 eviction notice so long as we do not sign the appalling new fixed-term tenancy offered. Unless or until we sign a new fixed-term tenancy, our tenancy continues on a weekly periodic basis.

The Central London County Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice. The hearing of the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's application to have Declan's claim struck out before Senior Circuit Judge Marc Dight CBE has been adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Claimant: Declan Heavey
Defendant: St Mungo's

What the issue in these court proceedings boils down to is whether the court will decide that Declan and I should live in a destabilised tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life, simply because the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's Tenancy Sustainment Team in North London (TST North) will not even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs. The court must surely find that this is not proportionate and lawful.

3 April: Declan's claim against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's before Senior Circuit Judge Marc Dight CBE has been adjourned to a date to be fixed. St Mungo's TST is still unwilling to even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs (WITH UPDATE 08/06/20)

On 25 May Declan received from the Central London County Court a Notice of Restored Hearing. It states: "If you require your hearings to take place with parties in attendance at Court you must write to the Court setting out your reasons no later than 7 days before the hearing [on 30 June 2020]. This will be referred to a Judge for consideration and the parties contacted with a decision. If this is approved, the date of the hearing will remain unchanged unless otherwise directed by the Judge." On 1 June Declan requested for the second time a physical hearing in court on an appropriate date:

Claim No: F03CL589 Declan Heavey -v- St Mungo's, hearing 30 June at 10am

Dear Sirs

I write to request that the above-mentioned hearing take place with parties in attendance at Court.

On 25 March 2020, the legal representative for the Defendant wrote to the Court: "Our view is that an adjournment would be appropriate, and that it is not a matter which could be conducted by telecon due to the Claimant being unrepresented."

I followed this up with an email of my own to the Court in full agreement with the Defendant. I remain of the view that it is not a matter which could be conducted by telecon due to me being unrepresented.

There is also a substantial amount of new evidence that has come to light which connects the Defendant to the destabilisation of my tenancy. This evidence can be appropriately (and more effectively) introduced in a court setting.

I would be grateful for the Court's approval of a physical hearing in court on an appropriate date.

Yours faithfully

Declan Heavey

cc: Batchelors LLP

Declan has prepared his pleadings against our landlord, Peabody housing association. In our current weekly periodic tenancy, we are making a calculated decision on a daily basis as to whether or not Declan will file against Peabody on the day. This is today's update to the full pleadings post below:

Update 8 June 2020

This is DAY 23 for us in a weekly periodic tenancy under the threat to life of a 'no fault' Section 21 eviction notice. In summation, Declan contends that the appalling fixed-term tenancy offered is not remotely a like-for-like agreement. He further contends that Peabody's insistence that they have offered a tenancy "like for like as requested" confers an obligation on them to produce such a document. Instead, we have been falsely accused of not signing a like-for-like agreement and in a weekly periodic tenancy have no legal protection from a 'no fault' eviction. Declan has yet to make his case against St Mungo's in front of Senior Circuit Judge Marc Dight CBE for the support we need. St Mungo's are still prepared to take their chances in court rather than the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's Tenancy Sustainment Team in North London (TST North) even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs. It has become apparent from connective evidence gathered during these proceedings that we currently live in a weekly periodic tenancy because of this effective withdrawal of support. We are making a calculated decision on a daily basis as to whether or not Declan will file against Peabody on the day. We may be left with no choice on this should HHJ Dight dismiss evidence connecting St Mungo's to the destabilisation of our tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life. Declan has already been forced to suspend his voluntary work in the community. This morning I have done the same due to the ongoing destabilisation of our tenancy.

29 May: Threat to life: Declan has beefed up these full pleadings against Peabody to make clear that their conduct has destabilised our tenancy, inhibits our ability to exercise our rights, and poses a threat to his life. We are in a flat that falls under the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (WITH UPDATE 08/06/20)

Comparative screenshots

Peabody continues to insist that we have been offered like-for-like terms. Really? Their new clause 24 from section D, by no means our only concern, could force any RSI tenant into declaring bankruptcy in any number of scenarios.

Our existing tenancy specifies one month's notice or four weeks' rent when we want to end the tenancy:

The tenancy on offer states that if we do not give Peabody one month's notice before we want to move out, or they do not explicitly accept a surrender of our tenancy in writing after we have given them a month's notice, we will remain liable for rent and service charges until the end of the fixed term:

Like for like? More comparative screenshots:

3 May: Peabody: The appalling terms of tenancy on offer. Today Declan is working on a pre-action letter to Peabody CEO Brendan Sarsfield under the Human Rights Act 1998 (WITH UPDATE 08/06/20)

Who can say that Declan does not have opposition?

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Headquarters in Gogarburn. The RBS owns National Westminster Bank (NatWest).

Declan currently has the Royal Bank of Scotland (along with NatWest Bank) before the Financial Ombudsman for the cancellation of a standing order on the Network for Church Monitoring business account without his knowledge or consent. And this after he received £100 compensation from the RBS in recognition of his time, travel costs and inconvenience in setting up this and another standing order on 12 February. He has been waiting since 25 February for NatWest to confirm who subsequently cancelled the standing order and why his salary wasn't paid. His salary continues to be paid online by quick transfer from the business account to his personal account.

15 May: Royal Bank of Scotland: Despite his earlier dealings with the RBS Executive Response Team, Declan has been waiting almost three months to learn from Natwest Bank who cancelled a standing order on the Network for Church Monitoring business account without his knowledge or consent (Financial Ombudsman case ref. PNX-3576860-D6B8)

St Mungos management were repeatedly warned by their staff via Unite that their actions weere unethical, damaged the work of front line staff and were likley to be unlawful. The same senior managers remain in place https://t.co/ZSXwq3Xd81 #homelessness #ukhousing @labhomeless_cam
— UniteHousingWorkers (@UniteHousing) November 5, 2019

From My Picks

I have looked at the long correspondence regarding your tenancy and clearly you have made a powerful case for the unconscionable behavior of the agency in control of your tenancy.

Donald A. Collins
Founder, International Services Assistance Fund

Declan taught PE in Glenstal Abbey, one of Ireland's top schools.

2 June: In the Matter of: Mr. and Mrs. Declan Heavey. Declan receives a character reference from America for the court and this blog that completely and utterly discredits the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's smear documentation against him in particular. We are in a flat that falls under the Mayor's Rough Sleepers Initiative

"Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out." Edd Doerr (1930-2020), (then) President, Americans for Religious Liberty

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Monday, June 08, 2020

Peabody DAY 23: Declan has brought to the court's attention new evidence connecting the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to the destabilisation of our tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life

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