Single mum-of-four with disabled son kicked out of home by landlords ‘because she asked for home repairs’

A SINGLE mum with a disabled son is calling for a change in the law to protect tenants after they were kicked out of their home in an alleged ‘revenge eviction’.

Ziba Khan, 41, was forced to move her family out of their rented house in Leicester in March this year after being served with a Section 21 notice ordering them out withing two months.

The mum-of-four claims she was hit with the eviction order simply because she asked her landlords to make a basic repair to the property.

And now she says she and her kids don’t know where they will be living in a few weeks’ time.

Ziba revealed how she moved into the property in 2014 because it was advertised with a driveway where she could park her car.

The domestic abuse survivor – who is now raising her three kids on her own – said she needed the driveway because she was worried about her autistic eight-year-old Dani running out into the road.

But when the council told her it was illegal to park in the drive because it didn’t have a dropped kerb, she asked her landlords to carry out the “simple” repair.

However, instead of fixing the problem – which Ziba says would have cost them a few hundred pounds – the owners served her with an eviction notice.

Ziba told Sun Online: “It’s just not fair, it’s not right.

“I could understand if I had done something wrong – if I was a nuisance neighbour, if I was selling drugs in the house or if I was constantly telling them to fix this and fix that – but we’re a nice family.”

When the irate mum tried to challenge the order in court, her landlords said they needed the property for their sick mother to live in.

But after moving her family out, she claims another family moved in just days later – paying £150 more per month.

After failing to find another property to move into in time, Ziba said the council was able to help find her and her kids temporary accommodation.

But they have to leave their new place by January and the mum says she is now at her wit’s end.

She said: “I don’t eat, I don’t sleep. You can’t imagine what stress my kids are going through at the moment.

“It’s taken eight months for my autistic son to stop asking when we’re going home. I really don’t know what to do.”

Ziba said she was shocked to discover what her landlords had done was legal – and is now calling for more protection for private renters.

She said: “The law needs to change. You can’t just go around throwing families out for no reason just because you want to earn some more money.

“Landlords are taking advantage of the fact that there are no council houses and there are fewer private properties out there to bump up the price.”

Liz Kendall, Ziba’s local MP for Leicester West, said she agrees.

She told The Sun: “Ziba is a hardworking, single mum who is doing her very best to bring up her three children.

“Yet she’s been thrown out of her home for no reason at all.

"This is unfair to her, and to her children who desperately need a stable home.

“Ministers must look again at how Section 21 is working so landlords can't just evict families on a whim and then rent out the property to someone else.”

Sun Online has contacted the landlords for comment.

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