JAN FORSTER ESTATES LTD is dead, long live the DENNISON PROPERTY SERVICES LTD trading as JAN FORSTER ESTATES!
Jan Forster estates limited recently called in administrators who downsized the company (reducing it to a single office and sacking staff) selling it off to the former managing director and daughter of the registered directors Angela Dennison (aka Angela Forster) as a phoenix company. The new company is DENNISON PROPERTY SERVICES LTD but will apparently continue trading under Jan Forster Estates, in what might be described as a triumph of personal vanity over brand viability.
A No-Fault Eviction before Christmas
In autumn 2023, Food & Solidarity member, Sarah was served a no-fault eviction notice demanding that she, her husband and their four children, including a baby under one, leave their home just before Christmas. A no-fault eviction or a Section 21 allows a landlord to evict a tenant without any reason (read more about section 21 evictions here). This eviction notice was served after she reported serious disrepair.
Living with dangerous disrepair
Sarah had been living with ongoing disrepair for some time; a water leak had affected the electrics in the bathroom leaving it unusable, there was an issue with a sewage pipe and damp and mould in the property had damaged her child’s pram, toys and other belongings. Having reported these issues numerous times, Sarah contacted Environmental Health and eventually a meeting took place between Sarah, the landlord, Jan Forster Estates and an Environmental Health Officer…repairs were to be done within 14 days.
Instead, Sarah received an eviction notice.
A Section 21 "no-fault" eviction notice is invalid in these circumstances read here.
Pushed out for speaking up? What is a Revenge Eviction?
There are instances wherein a landlord will move to evict tenants who report disrepair or complain about their treatment, if local autorities were more proactive in regulating the PRS such actions could be unlawful, but tenants are likely to find themselves out on the street long before the law can help them or the local authority can intervene...in fact more often than not they do nothing
Jan Forster Estates told Sarah that the landlord needed the property back, as a family member would be moving in, and she was given the standard 8 weeks, before the landlord could take her to court and get a possesion order
Escalation, Threats and Smears: Homeless for Christmas?
Food & Solidarity members mobilised immediately, writing to Jan Forster Estates demanding that they defer any eviction proceedings until after Christmas (giving Sarah and her family time to find somewhere else to live in their own time, the propery was a health hazard and they had no desire to stay long term) and compensate Sarah for the fact that she had never had full use of the property that she paid for.
A Halloween action at Jan Forster's Estates on Gosforth High Street drew plenty of attention, but members needed to speak to the decision maker, Angela Dennison (aka Angela Forster) managing director of Jan Forster Estates, and so she was contacted by phone and invited to come to the office and meet with Sarah. She declined this invitation and told Food & Solidarity members 'he [the landlord] will be moving back into his property regardless whether Sarah's there or not'. This was a different story to the first, but perhaps the doctor was actually coming back himself?
Sarah's landlord, Dr Sridhar M Ramaiah, was (and appears to still be) a consultant Neonatologist at the American Hospital in Dubai.
Angela Dennison did, in the end, meet in person with Sarah and fellow Food & Solidarity members; Jan Forster Estates would speak with Dr Ramaiah, discuss the compensation owed to Sarah and explain the eviction deadline needed to be put back so that Sarah's family would have time to find an alternative property.
After this meeting, Jan Forster Estates went away to talk to the landlord.
When the agents came back to us it was with a very strange offer and even stranger accusations. In demanding compensation for the months that Sarah had lived in unacceptable conditions, Food & Solidarity, according to Jan Forster Estates, were libeling them and Sarah's landlord. The landlord would delay the eviction until the 1st of December 2023 and would pay £3,700 to compensate Sarah for the distress and disruption caused by the disrepair the family had been living with, and the cost of moving out of the property BUT the money would be held by Jan Forster Estates and Sarah would only receive it once she moved out and only IF she moved out before the 1st of December.
Some powerful people, business and other entities will try to use solicitors or legal letters to threaten people into silence, if these threats are meritless, designed to scare and silence, then they might be a SLAPP, read more about these here
So, once again, Food & Solidarity members reiterated our demands to Dr Ramaiah and Jan Forster Estates: Sarah should get compensation with no strings and be able to spend Christmas in her home with her young family. We made our message clear with a Christmas stall and picket outside Jan Forster's Gosforth High Street office. We handed out leaflets telling Sarah's story and invited passers-by to participate in our Renter's Lucky Dip.
Despite back and forth correspondence, Jan Forster Estates refused to enter into reasoned discussions with us, so Food & Solidarity members who had experience of Jan Forster Estates customer service, reviewed the company online. At this point the agents took to social media, misrepresenting Sarah's situation and Food & Solidarity's demands. They also bragged that they had contacted Google to remove the (completely accurate) reviews they did not like. Landlords and fellow estate agents expressed their sympathy. They also started posting these bad reviews on their own facebook page and encouraged braying barbour clade psychopaths to winge in the comments
For some reason @EstatesJan are posting their Ls on their Facebook page, not sure why pic.twitter.com/axvK4to54Q
— Food & Solidarity (@FoodandSol) November 17, 2023
Then a solicitors letter appeared in the Food & Solidarity inbox…
The Law Catches up
Food & Solidarity members were not deterred. We stood by our demands, returning to Jan Forster Estates in January to deliver a presentation on the dangerous effects of damp and mould on the health of children. (which you can see for yourself here)
Jan Forster Estates agreed to a meeting between themselves, Sarah, fellow Food & Solidarity members and landlord Dr Sridhar M Ramaiah (online since the Dr was in Dubai). This meeting left members speechless. It was important for Dr Sridhar M Ramaiah to hear from Sarah directly, to understand the effect the situation was having on her family. Angela Dennison repeatedly interrupted, and then quit the meeting, followed a short time later by the Dr himself. By now it was the end of January 2024.
Why Collective action matters
Despite his sudden disappearance, Dr Sridhar M Ramaiah conceded to Food & Solidarity's demand to defer the eviction and there was, by February, no contact from the courts to suggest that he was moving to accelerate eviction proceedings, however, he was still refusing to discuss compensation beyond his original 'offer', so Food & Solidarity members were once again forced to turn to his representatives and paid a Valentine's visit to Jan Forster's Heaton office to remind them of our demand for compensation without ridiculous conditions attached.
Then, one day in late February 2024, Sarah received, not the court notice she expected, but a phone call from the Finance Director of Jan Forster and a newly issued Section 21. It transpired that Jan Forster Estates - no surprise - had failed to protect her deposit within the legal timeframe, invalidating the original eviction notice and forcing them to return her deposit immediately. A lot of hassle could have been saved them, had they just given the rent repayment that Sarah and her family deserved from the outset.
More than six months after receiving two months' notice of eviction, Sarah found a new home and moved her family on her own terms.
Dr Ramaiah's property reappeared on the rental market in 2024. He is presumably still in Dubai concerning himself with the health of small children with no sense of irony. Presumably he still rents out with an incorrect mortage (which we've been told consitutes mortage fraud), and presumably any letting agent would know this
Sarah won. Not in court, but in her community. She stayed through Christmas, got her deposit back, and left on her own terms. How? She was not alone. She was a Food & Solidarity member. When the eviction notice came, we didn't just offer advice, we turned out. We picketed, we exposed the conditions, and we stood with her until the agent's own negligence voided their threat. Your landlord hopes you feel isolated and scared. Your community, if organised, can ensure you are protected and powerful. This is what we can do with you. Join.
