Migrant living in retirement home says eviction ‘breaches human rights’ despite complaints
Residents at the complex for over-55s have reportedly complained about “screaming, crying and doors” slamming at the flat during “unsociable hours”.
A Bangladeshi migrant says evicting his family from a retirement home where they have been living without permission would amount to a “human rights breach”. Shahidul Haque, 59, who has lived in the UK since 1997 and says he has a British passport, became homeless after divorcing his first wife and was moved into a single-room flat in David Smith Court, a retirement complex in Reading, in July 2024. Five months later, he moved his second wife, Jakia Sultana Monni, 28, and their three-year-old twin daughters into the residence without permission.
Southern Housing, which owns the over-55s complex, has accused Haque of breaching his tenancy agreement and taken him to Reading County Court to reclaim the flat. However, the 59-year-old stated that he did not realise the agreement prohibited him from relocating his family due to his “limited English language skills” and has argued that evicting him would constitute a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to a family life.
The case will resume at Reading County Court in May (Image: BerkshireLive – Grahame Larter)
Residents in the Berkshire retirement home have also accused Haque and his family of “anti-social behaviour” and “excess noise”, according to the Daily Mail.
Complaints about “screaming, crying, shouting, doors banging and children running around” at the property during “unsociable hours” were made on 39 separate dates between December 20, 2024, and October 5, 2025, according to Southern Housing.
Documents submitted to the court also revealed that Haque’s children had drawn on the flat’s walls with crayons and pulled an emergency assistance cord nine times in a single day.
Reading County Court was told that Haque applied for his wife and children to join him in the UK in October 2024, just months after he began paying £110.70 per week to stay at the retirement home.
When they arrived in the country, on spousal visas and as British citizens, respectively, they moved in with him and have remained there ever since, reports suggest.
A judge decided against allowing Southern Housing to immediately repossess the flat after Haque’s barrister argued that it would amount to a breach of the right to family life, as guaranteed under Article 8 of the ECHR.
Isabel Bertschinger cited the 59-year-old’s disabled status and the benefits he receives for diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, hypertension and depression while arguing for the family to be allowed to remain at the property.
“His wife and children have only recently arrived in the UK and the family would be particularly vulnerable if made homeless or separated from one another,” she said.
“To evict him from his home would have a significant deleterious impact on the defendant’s health and wellbeing and therefore on his private life, and to prevent him from living with his wife and children would have a severe and disproportionate impact on his family life.”
But Jared Norman, representing Southern Housing, argued that none of Haque’s “alleged conditions or disabilities” warranted his remaining at the flat after the slew of complaints and his breach of the tenancy contract.
Mr Norman also said that Haque’s claim of not having understood the tenancy agreement did not hold water because he signed the document and “in doing so confirmed he had read, understood and accepted the terms and conditions”.
The case has been adjourned to May 5.
