Pensioner's Home Declared Unfit For Human Habitation

A pensioner in County Londonderry is still living without mains electricity three years after his home was declared unfit for human habitation, the Coleraine Chronicle has reported.

John McCarter's landlord has failed to put electricity into his Downhill home and continues to refuse to pay for a connection, even though a mains supply runs past the front door of the home.

Environmental health officers visited in July 2009, and in November 2011 the landlord was convicted by magistrates on a charge of non-compliance with a council’s notice of unfitness.

When officers visited again late last year the house had been internally wired and fitted with a generator, but they still believed the house was uninhabitable and a second case was launched against the landlord.

But Mr McCarter, at the centre of this and living in the home all the while, is frustrated at the slow progress made by the council on his behalf.

And with the next hearing in the case not scheduled until September, the pensioner is left fearing another winter with limited heating and lighting.

Mr McCarter’s landlord said a previously-suggested date of August 3 was inconvenient because he would be on holiday.

Mr McCarter responded: "Did no-one consider it might be inconvenient for me to be fiddling round with candles in the middle of December?"

His landlord says all problems can be resolved as soon as a legally binding tenancy agreement is in place, but Mr McCarter refuses to sign.

He is claiming 'life tenancy' under a financial arrangement with his sister, with whom he co-owned the house before she gifted the property to the current landlord.

(NE)