The council house I was due to be assigned was targeted by protestors. I'm back on the waiting list again.
Single mother with 3 children. Husband passed away from a pulmonary embolism in 2022 after taking the virus badly.
I am working, but I can't afford a mortgage with my childcare. So I had to sign on for a council house.
I've been waiting for almost 4 years now despite being a priority case.
A couple of months ago I was brought to visit a property to see if I liked it and wanted to accept it. When I was viewing it there were people yelling outside that the house had been stolen from a family. I was instructed to ignore them and then I was instructed to leave out the back door to avoid the protestors.
It was quite a scary experience.
I accepted the property and was supposed to move in, however, the children of the previous occupant have broken back into the property. In addition to this two local newspapers have ran stories which paint them in an incredibly sympathetic light and has attracted even larger crowds of protestors.
Basically, they believe they should inherit the tenancy and the council disagrees. Newspapers have been writing sob stories that their family home has been stolen off them.
It's now resulted in the offer being withdrawn to me and I have been advised that I will need to continue waiting for another suitable property. I've been advised this could be up to another 6 months in my area for one that has enough bedrooms and disability access for one of my children who is in a wheelchair.
Is there any legal action I can take here either against the council, the newspapers, or the protestors?
And is there any kind of "NHS" for legal advice in the UK? I'm on £14k per year part time as that's all I can work in addition to childcare.
I sometimes do extra night shifts when my kids are asleep and that gets me another £8k. I try to do these as often as I can. So total is £22k per year + DLA for my child in a wheelchair.