The Housing Ombudsman Service finally gave Peabody Trust the equivalent of a fourth deadline (day 9). Pixsy continue to threaten Church and State but without the Claim Letter we need for Twitter and others
For more information about Pixsy's ongoing threat to the future of Church and State, see the My Pick link at the end of this blog post. As soon as they issue us a claim letter, I will be announcing the fact on Twitter, pointing out that this is for our past non-commercial use of one image on the site that I couldn't have possibly known was copyright-protected and needed a license. Declan will then make a public application to the Law Society pro bono unit for legal representation.
"Ignore for now as these people are scammers in my view" (full email 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).
DAY 209 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A 'NO FAULT' 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)
We're still waiting for Peabody Trust to issue Declan with their final response letter to his Stage 2 complaint. They missed another one of their own deadlines on 11 November. The outstanding dispute centres on their refusal to renew our tenancy as twice before. We have been offered appalling new terms of tenancy that in effect poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits his and my ability to exercise our rights (see below). We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative designated property. Declan contends that since Peabody have previously insisted that they have offered a tenancy "like for like as requested", it is only fair and reasonable that they issue such a tenancy. Since 10 November, Declan has been set up and ready to email our local MP and three councillors for the referral of his complaint straight to the Housing Ombudsman. Without this referral, he will have to wait until the period of eight weeks has passed before the Ombudsman will consider the case. He only needs for this "designated person" Peabody's final response to a complaint he first made at stage 1 six months ago, on 15 June, to try to prevent eviction and stabilise our tenancy. It took the Housing Ombudsman Service (HOS) two weeks to write to Peabody with the equivalent of a fourth deadline. On 3 December, HOS reneged on yet another agreement, this time to give Peabody five working days to issue its final position on the issues Declan has raised. Instead, they gave Peabody 10 working days to get back to them (today being day 9 or working day 7). This was Declan's second request for a call back from HOS last month that elicited the initial agreement before it was broken by them:
On Fri, 20 Nov 2020 at 14:16, Declan Heavey
For the attention of John Hoarey, Dispute Resolution Manager, Housing Ombudsman Service
Local Resolution Team
Housing Ombudsman Service
Address removed for email
20 November 2020
Dear Local Resolution Team,
Re: Second request for a call back since 18/11/2020
I previously acknowledged Dispute Resolution Manager John Hoarey's Stage 1 Response to my service complaint and his apologies for the shortfalls he identified, including, inter alia, the non-return of my call back requests within your Customer Service Standards of 48 hours.
For the second time since 18 November 2020, I respectfully request a call back, having not received a call back within 48 hours, or since this time frame expired at 12.25pm this afternoon. This is the 25th working day after my Stage 2 complaint dated 17 October 2020 about new terms of tenancy and I am still none the wiser by what date the landlord will respond in full. You wrote on 17 October 2020: "Thank you for the update on your complaint. If you do not receive a stage 2 response by the end of 20 working days - please come back to us and let us know."
My wife and I live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative designated property. In recent months I have been engaged in a long-standing battle with the landlord to prevent eviction and stabilise our tenancy. This battle may have already done irreparable damage to support we had fought long and hard to receive. I will email Mr Hoarey to confirm my discussions with a Dispute Resolution Advisor.
Yours faithfully,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
Peabody have insisted that we have been offered like-for-like terms. Really? Their new clause 24 from section D could force any RSI tenant into declaring bankruptcy through no fault of their own, and assertions to the contrary have no basis in law. The clause would, therefore, hold us captive should we ever want or need to end the tenancy before the fixed term has expired. This is by no means our only concern, however.
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:
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 Trust: The appalling terms of tenancy on offer. Declan will seek from the Housing Ombudsman a declaration of incompatibility pursuant to the Human Rights Act 1998 (WITH UPDATE 08/12/20)[1]
__________________________
[1] 20 November: I had to upload several images in this blog post to an alternative host for images. They constitute more of my images in MediaFire that do not appear on their site.
We have no pro se (in person) access to the courts
The Central London County Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Heavey v St Mungo's (2020)
The following is the full content of paragraph 4 under "Church and State" on this blog's sidebar.
4. This eviction matter previously came before District Judge Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June, 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 Declan's 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.
30 June: District Judge Ruth Fine orders Declan to pay £1,850 in costs. St Mungo's are under no obligation to even vouch over the phone that we are clients of the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's TST programme (WITH UPDATE 08/12/20)
The Central London County Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Heavey v St Mungo's (2020)
The following is the full content of paragraph 4 under "Church and State" on this blog's sidebar.
4. This eviction matter previously came before District Judge Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June, 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 Declan's 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.
30 June: District Judge Ruth Fine orders Declan to pay £1,850 in costs. St Mungo's are under no obligation to even vouch over the phone that we are clients of the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's TST programme (WITH UPDATE 08/12/20)
For months we have been dealing with an almost total blockade of our emails to space advocates anywhere in the world. The latest email we gave up on to Washington DC is our reply email to a close colleague on 3 December. Declan's recent use of his mobile phone to try to get my permission emails through to space advocates has also proven unsuccessful. On both occasions the leading expert could only be reached through voice mail because, we assume, of the pandemic that is currently raging in America. Most recently we have had the honour of listing a Hall of Famer astronaut among our Honorary Associates. It was one of the few emails that we have gotten through to space advocates in the past three months.
6 December: It would not be an exaggeration to say that more than a thousand of our emails have been blocked this year taking into account Washington DC. My emails to space advocates are among those targeted
Metropolitan Police Crime Reference No. 5330050/20. On 16 October, our flat door on the 2nd floor was vandalised by two thugs with a crowbar. Declan and I were in the flat at the time and fortunately our double locked door held firm. It's my opinion that they just wanted to break the door lock but didn't have enough time. The communal door lock downstairs wasn't broken, and on 11 November that lock was changed. Our flat door was repaired by a security contractor on behalf of the landlord on 1 December with silicone sealant and glue gun. The police closed the case within two days of the crime due to a lack of evidence.
8 November: Part 1: Housing Ombudsman Service. Declan has complained to Lyn Brown MP about this statutory service. Our flat door has been vandalised (crime reference no. 5330050/20). And ISAF's letter to Facebook's COO in September has gotten no results
Sidebar footnote 2 (from "Church and State", para. 5):
17 October: 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
From My Picks:
24 November: For the fourth time Pixsy chase payment without a claim letter for the past non-commercial use of one image on the Church and State website. We're still waiting for Peabody Trust's final decision letter for the Housing Ombudsman to investigate appalling new terms of tenancy
Our list of 287 Honorary Associates includes 17 Nobel Prize laureates, 11 US National Medal of Science laureates and 12 knighted professors notwithstanding the excessive targeting of these three categories of emails in particular.
http://churchandstate.org.uk/honorary-associates/
"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
