Couple's lives ‘ruined' by Christmas eviction notice

“We haven’t slept since receiving the eviction notice,” Paulo Redal says.

- JABED AHMED AMELIA STOUT

The 43-year-old and his wife, Ana, will lose both their home and their livelihood in the space of a few months.

“This hasn’t just ruined our Christmas – it has ruined our whole life,” he adds while holding back tears.

Redal and his wife run the cafe at Vive Living in Childers Street, Deptford. They will lose their flat in April, but have been told they must shut down the cafe by the end of the year.

They are among the more than 150 residents at the apartment complex in southeast London who are facing eviction after they were served with notices just weeks before Christmas, as first revealed by The Independent.

Some, like Redal, have already been served with a Section 21 notice, known as a “no-fault eviction”, under which tenants can be removed from rented housing when a fixed-term tenancy ends or during a rolling tenancy.

Others have been told to expect a notice in due course, and once served with the document, residents will only have a few months to find somewhere else to live.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do – we’re going to lose both our home and our jobs,” Redal tells The Independent. “Without our jobs, we have nothing. It’s not a big business and we don’t want to be rich – it’s just enough to cover rent and expenses. We live well, but that’s all going to go now.”

The couple have lived in the UK for more than 15 years but feel they have no other choice but to return to Portugal.