Cardiff woman told to leave father's home after his death

Natalie Thomas says she will not leave the home of her father, Stephen, where she grew up

A woman who moved in to care for her sick father has been told by the council she must leave the home following his death.

Natalie Thomas, 35, had left her own home to stay with her father Stephen in Butetown, Cardiff, as he was unwell with a brain tumour.

Mr Thomas died on 1 June and Cardiff council wrote to his daughter to tell her she would be unable to stay.

Cardiff council said it would have been against the law to pass on the house.

• 'No-one will have to go back on to the streets'

• Your questions about homelessness

Ms Thomas and her two children, aged four and five, were told to return to a house in Fairwater, where she lived before moving in with her father, but she had already surrendered her tenancy and returned the keys.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I was distraught. I'm crying so much. My middle son has a learning disability and doesn't cope well with change.

"There's no consideration for the loss of my dad or that this is a family home."

'I'm not leaving'

Ms Thomas said she later received a call from the council's homelessness team saying she would be put on the waiting list for social housing.

"I'm not leaving the address. I understand there's rules but there are certainly circumstances where they can make exceptions. I've already freed up the house in Fairwater for someone else, giving up a home for another family," she said.

"This is my home. I'm not leaving unless they force me out."

Cardiff council said: "Our tenancy management team has explained that by law, a tenancy can only be passed on once by succession, which has already happened at the property. No further succession is allowed.

"There are currently almost 500 families in the city waiting for a property of this size, including 28 homeless families and 11 families who have an urgent need to move due to other exceptional circumstances."