Church and State blog: Has Peabody frozen our rent account for the first time in six years? There have been no weekly rent transactions showing in MyAccount since 18 May. We are in a flat that falls under the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (WITH UPDATES 12/06/20)

Friday, June 12, 2020

Has Peabody frozen our rent account for the first time in six years? There have been no weekly rent transactions showing in MyAccount since 18 May. We are in a flat that falls under the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (WITH UPDATES 12/06/20)

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 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 Mungos

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)

Declan and I are living in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property that is owned by Peabody. It has been acknowledged by the Greater London Authority in court papers that we can live independently – we do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Our needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination, intimidation and victimisation we routinely face. Yesterday Declan brought to the attention of Peabody Finance Director Caroline Turberfield that there have been no weekly rent transactions showing in MyAccount since 18 May (the day after our fixed-term tenancy ended). This morning he has brought this issue to the attention of Peabody CEO Brendan Sarsfield. Declan's court pleadings against Peabody about their conduct that has destabilised our tenancy were prepared last month for filing with the court without further notice. This destabilisation of our tenancy inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life. Declan had already been forced to suspend his voluntary work in the community when earlier this week I informed Newham Council's Active Newham that I would be unable to volunteer for them in my local community centre. This is a position I held for four years and voluntary work I will not be able to resume in a destabilised tenancy. We are making a calculated decision on a daily basis as to whether or not Declan will file these pleadings against Peabody on the day.

Claimant: Declan Heavey
Defendant: Peabody

Brief details of claim

Since 17 May 2014, the Claimant has been living in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property that is owned by the Defendant. The Defendant has twice renewed the Claimant's tenancy like for like as requested. On 27 April 2020, the Defendant asserted in relation to the third renewal of the tenancy on 17 May 2020 that "the terms are the same and a like for like as requested". The Defendant further affirmed on 27 May 2020 that it will not be making any substantive changes to the tenancy on offer. The Claimant avers that the tenancy offered is not remotely a like-for-like agreement. He further contends that the Defendant's insistence that it has offered a tenancy "like for like as requested" confers an obligation on it to produce such a document. Instead, the Defendant has falsely accused the Claimant of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Defendant's reply to the Claimant's pre-action letter dated 4 May 2020 is in effect a reiteration of its former and current position. Consequently, the Claimant has no legal protection from a 'no fault' eviction in a weekly periodic tenancy. This has destabilised his tenancy, inhibits his and his wife's ability to exercise their rights, and poses a threat to his life. The Claimant therefore makes an application to the court for a declaration that the Defendant has acted unlawfully and in dereliction of its duty. The Claimant seeks damages for distress and costs.

29 May: Threat to life: These full pleadings against Peabody make clear that Declan does not dispute that they can seek a 'no fault' Section 21 eviction whenever they want. 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)

UPDATE 12 June (10.38am): The email below from Peabody crossed with Declan's email to Brendan Sarsfield this morning. Apparently, there is an IT issue which is not showing an up-to-date account summary in their customers' portal since at least 25 May. The monthly payment of housing benefit from Newham Council referred to in this email does not, and never has, fully covered our weekly rent and service charges.

Dear Declan

Thank you for getting in touch with us. I have checked your account and can see that we have received payment from Housing benefit. Currently there is an IT issue with MyAccount which is not showing an up to date account summary. This is something that we are working to resolve.

In the meantime I have provided a statement above (sic) for your reference.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused.

Kind regards

Karen | Peabody
Pembroke House | Northlands Pavement | Pitsea | Essex SS13 3DU

UPDATE 12 June (11.18am): Below is a subsequent email Declan received this morning on behalf of Brendan Sarsfield. Perhaps MyAccount will show an up-to-date account of our weekly rent transactions before close of business today? This has been a technical issue for Peabody for one working day shy of at least a full three weeks, after all.

Good Morning

Thank you for your emails sent today, 12th June to Brendan, our CEO. I appreciate you also letting us know that your query has been answered by our Customer Hub Team.

I will make a note of your contact with us, but I will not be passing it on to be addressed further as you have received this response.

Yours Sincerely

Chelsey Smith | sent on behalf of CEO | Brendan Sarsfield

UPDATE 12 June (5.17pm): I have just checked MyAccount. There are still no weekly transactions showing on our rent account since 18 May!

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)

From My Picks

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

Friday, June 12, 2020

Has Peabody frozen our rent account for the first time in six years? There have been no weekly rent transactions showing in MyAccount since 18 May. We are in a flat that falls under the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (WITH UPDATES 12/06/20)

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