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Search site for keywords: Asylum - Homeless - Socialist - Tenants - Socialist Party
Multimillion-pound rental firm demands thousands from homeless asylum seeker
Lawanya speaking at the conference of the National Shop Stewards Network, Mary Finch (Click to enlarge)
James Ivens, East London Socialist Party
A property firm with turnover in the millions is pursuing a campaigning asylum seeker for thousands through the courts. We say: Defend Lawanya - fight for tenants' rights!
Last August, Latha Lawanya Ramajeyam found herself unable to make rent on her room due to the legal costs of her asylum case. She duly informed her property management, City Rooms, that she couldn't continue her contract and would leave.
Unfortunately, tenancy laws are weighted in landlords' and letting agents' favour. Because her contract had no 'break clause', City Rooms is demanding several months of unpaid rent. With interest and costs, that's £2,850 - and rising.
City Rooms - the trading name of Oliver Walton Ltd - last year filed a turnover of almost £21 million for 2019, with reserves above £978,000. Its total profit was just shy of £895,000, with shareholders receiving £850,000 dividends.
Penniless
Meanwhile, Lawanya is penniless and couch surfing. She has offered her security deposit in full - but has nothing else to her name. City Rooms should face facts and set the balance aside.
And all this during the pandemic! The Financial Conduct Authority granted property owners the right to mortgage holidays. The government compelled councils to pull all the homeless off the streets. Tenant evictions were suspended. What possible justification is there for this claim?
Some rental firms may imagine migrant and asylum-seeker tenants more pliable due to their isolation and legal status. But despite her poverty, Lawanya is not alone.
Campaigner
Lawanya is an organiser for the Refugee Rights and Tamil Solidarity campaigns, and a member of the Socialist Party. The working class has an important tradition of defending its organisers from bullying and persecution, to prevent the boss class decapitating our movement.
We are therefore asking trade union branches to pass resolutions joining Lawanya's defence. We will also be contacting City Rooms tenants to get organised to fight their own problems - which appear numerous according to online complaints.
And the Socialist Party will stand as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in this May's elections on a programme to solve the housing crisis. For mass building of council homes and democratic rent caps. Secure tenancies for all, and the right to leave without extortionate debt claims!
- For model motions and more info, email [email protected]
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
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