Migrant living in retirement home with family says eviction would

A Bangladeshi migrant who moved his family into the retirement home he has been living in without permission says evicting them would ‘breach his human rights’.

Father-of-nine Shahidul Haque, 59, who claims benefits for sleep apnoea and depression, moved into the single-room flat in David Smith Court, a complex in Reading reserved for residents over the age of 55, in July 2024.

Just five months later, he moved his wife Jakia Sultana Monni, 28, and their three-year-old twin daughters into the property without permission.

Officials at Southern Housing, which owns the retirement complex, have told Mr Haque he has breached his tenancy agreement – and taken him to Reading County Court to claim back the flat. 

Haque claims he did not realise he was not allowed to move his family into the accommodation for the elderly because he could not read the tenancy agreement as he does not speak English.

He is arguing that evicting his family from the flat would breach of his human rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – which protects the right to a family life.

Residents of the retirement complex in Reading, Berkshire, have complained constantly of ‘excess noise’ and ‘anti-social behaviour’ from the family.

A schedule of allegations submitted by Southern Housing, which is seeking possession of the property, shows that elderly residents complained about the family on 39 different days between December 20, 2024, and October 5, last year.

They described having their sleep disturbed by loud noises during unsociable hours; hearing screaming, crying and shouting; doors banging; and children running and jumping around.

The schedule of allegations said numerous residents had complained about being unable to sleep properly, claiming excessive noise – such as ‘persistent hammering’ – could be heard during unsociable hours, including 1.30am to 3.30am.

‘Residents reported that this is an everyday matter and continuously disturbs their sleeps during the early hours of the morning’, the allegations state.

On one occasion, the scheme housing officer Janique Paul contacted Haque about the noise, but ‘he stated he was unable to do anything about the noise as the children are young’, court documents submitted to Southern Housing show.

It was also revealed his twin daughters have allegedly been drawing on the walls of the flat – for which he pays £110.70 per week – with crayons.

Court documents also allege Haque’s children pulled the emergency assistance cord – which alerts staff to assist residents in need – nine times in a single day on December 20, 2024, and four times on March 14, last year.

Hague previously told the Daily Mail he has since wrapped the cord around the intercom phone to stop his daughters from pulling it.

The case last came to court on August 4, last year, when Southern Housing sought to take possession of the flat.

Southern Housing told how Haque had been moved into the property following a homelessness application he made to West Berkshire Council in July 2024.

In October, Haque decided to make an application for his wife and their twin daughters to join him in the UK.

With no prior warning or permission sought from Southern Housing, he moved his children, who are British citizens, and his wife, who is in the UK on a spousal visa, into his property on December 20, 2024, and they have been there ever since.

At August’s hearing, deputy district judge Simon Lindsey declined to immediately order that Southern Housing could take possession of the flat, after hearing from Haque’s barrister that removing him from the property would interfere with his right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The judge had adjourned the case to January 6 this year, but that hearing has now been adjourned to May 5, Reading County Court confirmed.

In the meantime, on November 30 last year Southern had filed a blistering response to Haque’s defence, in which he claimed his diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, hypertension and depression meant he should not be removed from the property.

Jared Norman, representing Southern, said Haque was required to prove he is disabled, and wrote: ‘It is denied that any of the Defendant’s alleged conditions or disabilities or one in his situation makes it more likely to require assistance as alleged.

‘The issue is not the Defendant’s characteristics, conditions or any disability but that the Property and the premises around it are not suitable for the Defendant’s wife and children to reside in and around respectively.

‘It is averred that the other residents of premises near the Property should not have to suffer so that the Defendant and his family may continue to reside in the Property.

‘The Claimant received at least 14 complaints about the Defendant or his family between December 30, 2024, and March 17, 2025, from neighbouring residents.

‘Furthermore, the pull cord in the Property which is in place to assist residents in case they need assistance was pulled, inter alia, nine times on December 20, 2024, and four times on March 14, 2025, and as a result this caused nuisance or annoyance and/or utilised time and/or effort for those who are in place to assist residents in need.’

The barrister also said Haque had breached a clause of his tenancy agreement where he agreed not to damage or misuse the property, arguing ‘the Defendant is in breach of clause 113 by, inter alia, the Defendant’s children drawing on the walls with crayons.’

Responding to Haque’s claim that he could not understand the tenancy agreement because it was not translated into Sylheti and he was not provided with an interpreter, Norman added: ‘The Defendant signed the tenancy agreement for the Property and in doing so confirmed he had read, understood and accepted the terms and conditions.’

Haque’s amended defence, filed on October 10, last year, had argued it would be unreasonable to make a possession order.

Isabel Bertschinger, representing Haque, said: ‘The Claimant’s decisions to institute, pursue and continue to seek possession of the property are incompatible with the Defendant’s rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and possession would constitute a disproportionate interference therewith.

‘The Defendant relies on the matters set out herein and in particular repeats that he is disabled and has limited English language skills, and that he is in receipt of benefits and therefore has a low income.

‘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. 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.’

In an exclusive interview with Haque in September last year, he told the Daily Mail:  ‘When I filled out the tenancy agreement I was on my own and I moved into the flat alone.

‘I didn’t know that I couldn’t move my wife and children in months later. My English is not so good and nothing was explained to me in any detail.

‘Southern Housing cannot just throw us out. We have to stay here, because we have nowhere else to go.

‘What we really need is a bigger home. This property isn’t suitable for a family. It’s too small, it’s only for a single person.

‘We have only one bedroom and so have to push two beds together. One for me and my wife and one for my daughters. It’s too crowded.

‘If Southern Housing or West Berkshire Council can find us somewhere more suitable then we’ll go. But at the moment we have no other place – this is it.’

Haque has been living in the UK since 1997 and says he has a British passport. 

He was married to his first wife with whom he had seven children and lived in a four-bedroom home in Plaistow, East London.

But when he divorced he became homeless and was put up in temporary accommodation and then social housing in Newham before being transferred to Berkshire.

Mr Haque previously worked at a Bangladeshi restaurant in London. But now he is registered disabled and receives taxpayers’ money for diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, hypertension and depression. 

In September 2025, the Attorney General said Labour would consider ‘robust’ changes to the way British courts interpret Article 8 of the ECHR over concerns it is being abused.

Article 8 has been repeatedly used by illegal migrants and serious criminals to frustrate efforts to deport them from the UK.

The case continues.