Brent Council tenant wins battle to stop eviction from her £1.5m home

Town hall claimed six-bedroom house was too large for Cheryl Tudor’s family

A Brent Council tenant has fought off attempts to get her out a six-bedroom home where her family have lived for more than 30 years.

Cheryl Tudor faced claims that her detached home in Lydford Road, Cricklewood, was too large for her family and they should be forced to move out.

Mrs Tudor’s mother, now dead, moved into the house in 1981.

However, as one of only a handful of large family homes in the council’s portfolio, it argued it was desperately needed by a bigger family.

Similar properties in the area sell for around £1.5million on the open market.

But Mrs Tudor said the house was needed not just by her but also by her disabled brother Valentine, and his carers.

Her other brother Christopher had also moved in with his two children, aged nine and seven, after his marriage broke down.

She won her case at Willesden County Court last year when a judge refused to terminate her tenancy and now the council must pay the heavy legal costs of the dispute after failing in an appeal against that ruling.

Council lawyers argued the judge gave inadequate reasons for his decision and was wrong to accept that Christopher and his children had made Lydford Road their permanent home.

However, Lord Justice Beatson said that, although the judge’s ruling was “rough hewn” and there were gaps in the transcript of what he said, it was “apparent” why the council had lost the case.

Sitting with Lady Justice Arden and Lord Justice Jackson, he said it had been open to the judge to rule that Christopher and his children had made their home in Lydford Road in 2007 and the family “reasonably required” such a large property.