A couple has had the house they were living in dismantled from over them but the landlord said they had turned back in the keys so were trespassing.
Tenants Corey Mayers and his wife Teresa Mayers claim that they were evicted without warning or due process, but landlady and guardian of the estate, Diné McCollin, countered that ample notice was given after they defaulted on rent since October 2023.
On Tuesday, as they pulled their belongings from the house, the couple explained that they moved there in
April 2023 at the $1 000 monthly arrangement signed by Teresa and which did not include utilities.
There was a promise of repairs to the roof and two damaged doors.
“They told me that when we moved in, somebody was going to repair the house. Nothing ever happened. They told me the workman was building a house, so when he’s done building the house, then he’s going to come here.
“All the man come and do is change a couple things, put galvanise on the roof and that still was a problem. All the fixtures that you could see break off in the house, it was there from get-go,” Teresa said.
Then there was the matter of the landlady’s account with the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) being in arrears of $1 200, leading to a disconnection in October 2023, Teresa said, adding that she paid $500, hoping to have the water restored but the outstanding amount was not paid “so my money gone down the drain”.
That was the last straw for Teresa, who moved in with her mother, who lives nearby, leaving behind her husband and infant daughter.
Husband Corey said he gave warning that they were going to fight the matter “because I know that they did us wrong”.
“This is my family. The only reason she’s not here is because she can’t deal with this. I can catch water for me and my daughter but she don’t want to be catching water.
“Now they are saying that because it’s my wife who signed the contract, and she doesn’t live here, that I gotta leave. That was on Sunday. So how can they come in here to me with this Tuesday. They didn’t even give me a chance,” he said.
The Mayers family claimed that the eviction came without a court summons or ample notice, only a call from neighbours who warned that police were summoned and the house was being dismantled.
However, McCollin, who handles the estate on behalf of her father, explained that the husband and wife were repeatedly given notice to evacuate for close to a year.
She stated that when Teresa took possession of the lease in April 2023 the house was still under repair, but they asked to move in immediately as she and her family were being evicted.
“We told them, move in, we will continue repairs, which we did. We continued the repairs coming from back to front, called in the plumber to get the shower nozzle fixed, and so forth, and got everything repaired and up to code for them.”
The couple paid rent in May and June but did not want to pay in July and August, so in September an attorney sent Teresa notice that they were going to break the contract and they had 60 days to move, McCollin said.
“In October 2023, they showed up and paid all of their back rent. That is the last set of money that we got from
Mrs Mayers,” she said.
McCollin said the BWA account was previously in arrears because of a tenant who defaulted on their payments but the bill was paid off and the utilities were the responsibility of the Mayers family.
In November of 2023, the Barbados Water Authority sent a disconnection notice to the landlady informing her that $40 had been paid in since the Mayers family moved in.
She gave permission to cut the water based on the previous experience. While Teresa paid the bill she did
not pay the reconnection fee which she claimed the customer service representative said was for the landlady to pay.
“I said, ‘I’m not paying it because you live in the house. You use the water, not me’. So the water stayed turned off,” McCollin said.
The renter of the lease moved out at the beginning of 2024 and turned in the keys, she said.
“Then I hired some guys to come and clean the house out so we can get the carpenter to board it up. When they came Mr Corey and his daughter were occupying the house,” said McCollin, who added that her attorney had sent several trespassing notices asking Corey to evacuate the premises. (JRN)
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