Lord Alli ‘evicted young family and raised rent by £1,000’

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Family of five given two months’ notice to leave property owned by Labour peer



A family living in a home owned by Lord Alli were evicted from his north London town house before the property was relisted at a higher rent.

The family of five were told by managing agents working for Labour’s biggest donor to leave the Islington home in June.

The tenants told the i Paper that the five-bedroom property was relisted for £6,000 a month five days later, 25 per cent higher than the previous rent of £4,800, before later being lowered to £5,850 a month.

The family accused the peer of “poor behaviour”.

However, a spokesman for Lord Alli said that they had offered to pay the higher rate when it was relisted but the eviction was “not about money”.

Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill, which will become law next year, will outlaw “no-fault” evictions and, in many cases, ban landlords from relisting a property at a higher price for at least six months.

The eviction at Lord Alli’s town house comes after Rushanara Ali was forced to resign as the Government’s homelessness minister last month after it emerged she evicted tenants from her east London home before relisting the property for £700 a month more in rent.

Lord Alli’s Labour-voting former tenants said that when they saw the property had been relisted, they asked the managing agent to negotiate their rent and offered to meet the increased asking price but this was declined.

The father of the family told the i Paper: “We saw that our house had been relisted for rent at more than £1,000 a month than we were paying. We had been paying £4,800 a month, and Lord Alli had relisted it for £5,850 a month.

“We have children who were settled in local schools in Islington and coming up for their 11+ exams this autumn, so we wanted to avoid the disruption if we could.

“We asked if there was any chance that we could even just stay an extra month so the kids wouldn’t be disrupted in September, and we could get through exams, but it was a ‘no’.”

Lord Alli’s donations to Labour prompted a row last year after it emerged he was given a temporary security pass to Downing Street despite not having an official government role.

The peer has donated more than £700,000 including £32,000 in clothes to Sir Keir Starmer.

Addressing Lord Alli’s position as a major donor, the father added: “The hypocrisy just feels like too much, and we felt we had to speak out. It’s such poor behaviour. I voted Labour and I’m just incredibly disappointed.”

The property, which was purchased in the 1990s and estimated to be worth around £3m, was managed on Lord Alli’s behalf by a managing estate agent, who took the decision to serve the eviction notice around two months before the tenancy agreement was due to expire.

Sources close to Lord Alli said he was not involved in the decision-making on this, the property was independently valued and that the former tenants were aware the property would be relisted.

The eviction notice issued to the family reportedly stated “your landlord requires possession of your home” and told them: “If you do not leave your home by the date given, your landlord may apply to the court for an order under Section 21 (1) or (4) of the Housing Act 1988 requiring you to give up possession”.

Downing Street declined to comment, saying Lord Alli’s property affairs were a “personal” matter.

[rebbonk]

Downing Street declined to comment...

Of course they would. It's alright when they do it!