WHY DOES SPIRIT NEED YOUR HELP?

Spirit, who is facing eviction after his home and shop were sold to a property developer, has won permission to appeal against the possession order that would deprive him of his shop & home. The judge who will preside over the hearing has indicated that Spirit stands a good chance of winning the appeal. The appeal hearing is scheduled to take place on the first available date after 5th of April 2006 at Shoreditch County Court

The process of getting justice for Spirit now hinges on his ability to pay his current rent of £675/month PLUS an extra £1000/month commencing from the 1st of March 2006 towards settling his existing rent arrears. Pending the outcome of the appeal there may well be a reduction to the monthly payment rate and/or overall amount of arrears.

The ultimate aim is to force the current owners into re-selling the property, thus enabling Spirit to buy the place he built with his own hands.

Whilst there are realistic financing plans in place so that Spirit can buy his place in the event of a re-sale, it is impossible for him to pay £1000/month on top of his existing rent. We are now looking for 100 donors willing to issue a monthly standing order of £10 to Spirit so that he can meet the back-payments for rent arrears until the whole issue can be resolved to his satisfaction.

We need to help Spirit cover his arrears, as ordered by the court, until completion of his appeal against the threatened repossession of his home and shop by developers. This could take up to 6 months, depending on the courts, so we are asking people to set up standing orders (£10/month) to help Spirit make the payments.

We currently have 45 people who have committed to donating £10 a month for 6 months. We need another 55!!

If you want to be one of them please contact:

Email:  acsadvice@yahoo.co.uk
Phone: 07939333465

More info below
OUR TARGET – JUSTICE FOR SPIRIT
At the appeal we hope that the judge will find that Hackney Council sold Spirit’s property unlawfully, on the basis that he was a secure tenant (that is, he was not strictly a commercial leaseholder). The Council were legally obliged to consult him and get his consent to the sale before disposing of the property. They did not, and so the sale was improper.

WAKE UP, HACKNEY COUNCIL!!!
As we hope the judge will make clear at the appeal, both Spirit and the developers (Broadway Investments Hackney Ltd) who bought the property from them would then have a case against the Council. If they do not intervene to put things right prior to the appeal, Spirit – and Broadway Investments – can then pursue the matter in the High Court.

We don’t believe that this would be a desirable outcome for the council and strongly urge them to consider making a deal with the developers NOW.

As we have said from the beginning, the council should buy the property back, and the sooner they do this the less distressing it will be for Spirit (and the lower the level of compensation that they would be liable to pay him!). This is the most sensible and viable outcome for all parties.

ALTERNATIVE OUTCOMES
While we cannot say at this stage exactly how things will pan out, the other most likely outcome of the appeal is that the judge orders that the arrears be significantly reduced.

The rent review conducted on Spirit’s property in 2003 was improper and wrongly treated Spirit’s place as a purely commercial premises when in fact 60% of the floor space is residential. In this case, a new (lower) rent would need to be set and the Court would decide when that takes effect – it could be backdated as far as December 2001 when the property was sold.

To sum up, Spirit is now in a strong position but your support is CRUCIAL to ensuring that he complies with the orders of the court until these complicated proceedings are brought to a satisfactory conclusion for Spirit.

If, on the other hand, Spirit’s case still has not been resolved in 6 month’s time, we will look into alternative options for assisting Spirit - if help is still needed.

GET IN TOUCH!!!
Please set up a standing order to Spirit’s account for £10 a month. We have set up a separate rent account solely for this purpose. (We can find alternative payment options if this is not possible for you, but either way please get in touch and we can sort something out.)

The first payment should be made so it is in Spirit's account by the 1st of March and standing orders should be set up for the 20th of every subsequent month to give us sufficient time to monitor incoming payments and adjust any shortfall.