A family with a sick young son say they've been left stranded in France due to the government's ban on evictions because of coronavirus.
Emma Burton and her family have had to stay with her parents in France because they have a tenant in their home who they claim refuses to move out - despite not paying rent since December.
Emma and husband Russell, both 41, and their two children, Thomas and Poppy, cannot return to their home as the government extended the ban on evictions until September 20, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The family originally moved out of their Merseyside home early in 2019 to work in Qatar.
They let the property out through a letting agency in May last year.
The move to Qatar didn’t work out as planned so they decided to return to the UK as their four-year-old son Thomas has a rare metabolic disorder and needs medication and a special diet.
However, in December 2019, they claim their tenants stopped paying rent and refused to leave the family home to allow them to return.
The situation has been further complicated by the Government introducing a ban on evictions during the pandemic.
Emma said: “[The eviction ban] is now up until September 20, and then there’s a backlog with the courts as well so we don’t know when it will actually go to court so we can apply for a possession order to get them out of there.”
As the family are not French citizens they are unable to access the health care system in France for the medication and the dietary supplements, without which Emma says Thomas will "suffer irreversible brain damage."
She said: “We can’t get back into our house, but because the tenant isn’t paying rent, we can’t afford a mortgage and to rent another property.
“When we came from Qatar a dietitian kindly gave him enough food and medication which will keep him going until the end of September, and by that time we expected everything to be resolved and be back in the UK and we could re-register him with doctors and Alder Hey.
“But because we haven’t got an address the GP can’t refer him to Alder Hey.
“Alder Hey has been fantastic as always, and they’ve agreed to do his blood tests, but it does mean we can’t be prescriptions until he is referred properly.
“So come the end of September we’ll be out of his medication and food.”
As the couple are currently unable to return to the UK and have no money coming in, they’re worried that they will find themselves in a few time unable afford to pay the mortgage on their home or get back to the UK so their son can get access to medication.
The Government announced the four week extension to the eviction ban on August 21, meaning in total no legal evictions will have taken place for six months.
The ECHO approached the family's letting agent but they were unable to provide a response by the time of publication.
