A 50-YEAR-OLD Nicosia man was forced to change the locks on his dead mother’s home when her former Bulgarian housemaid refused to move out.
The 63-year-old, who worked for the man’s mother for seven years up until her death in 2007, said she and her son would sleep on the street.
The ongoing row between the pair first started about a month ago when the 63-year-old refused to find her own place.
She claims the 50-year-old wanted to get rid of her because he asked for €200 in rent and she demanded a contract before handing over any money.
He denied asking for rent and said he had wanted her out of the house since his mother’s death in December 2007.
“Instead I let her stay on for six months and continued to pay her a salary of £200 a month,” he said.
The 50-year-old said he made it clear he wanted to terminate her employment because he had no need for her services. He also implied the 63-year-old’s relationship with him and his siblings had been strained for several years and that they’d only kept her on to please his mother who had taken pity on her.
A neighbour confirmed this information and said the housemaid had at times been guilty of “stirring things up”.
In August last year the 63-year-old found employment at a neighbouring house and moved out of her old home. Six months later she was back knocking on the door asking to move in again as she’d left her new job.
“My sister asked me to let her stay because she took pity on her,” the 50-year-old said.
Out of respect for his mother and not wanting to see her on the street, he told her to come and stay for a month until she found a new job and a place of her own.
Five months later and she was still living in the property. Her son had also joined her for the summer.
The 63-year-old is now saying she wants to live there for a year to save up money and go home to her daughter who has cancer.
The 50-year-old pointed out mother and son should find their own place and pay rent like the rest of the world.
“Of course she wants to stay here. Everything is free. It’s fully furnished, the water and electricity is paid for,” he said.
The 63-year-old said she had offered to pay for the water and electricity. The 50-year-old said he didn’t want her money; he just wanted her out of the house.
On Tuesday he took matters into his own hands, packed up her belongings and changed the locks.
According to immigrant support group KISA, the man had no right to turf her out and should have gone through the courts and not used force and intimidation tactics.
“As a tenant he had no right to go into the house, pack up her things and throw her out by force… It isn’t even his house,” said Doros Polycarpou, KISA executive director.
Polycarpou’s reference was to the legal status of the specific property. The 50-year-old’s parents had built the home on government land in 1975 after they lost their home in Kyrenia. According to the government they had done so illegally and therefore the house did not belong to them and they had never been issued title deeds for it.
Hence according to Polycarpou, the 50-year-old had no more legal claim to the house than the housemaid.
He also said the Interior Ministry had issued instructions to demolish the property so that the government could reclaim the land.
“No one is going to end up living in the house,” Polycarpou added.
