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A family who face being homeless at Christmas feel like they have been 'slung to the bottom of the pile'.

Paul Dent and his partner Carla Dover are facing eviction from their three bedroom property in Lincoln because the landlord can't afford it anymore.

Paul, an ex-Army veteran, said he 'fears his family will be homeless by Christmas' and could end up spending the festive period in a Travelodge.

He told Lincolnshire Live: "We've lived in this property for seven years and to be honest it has been falling apart.

"Sadly our landlord isn't able to afford to keep the property and hasn't been able to afford to maintain it.

"Since January we've had no electrics except for the four plug sockets we have in the kitchen, so we have had to run everything in the house off of those four sockets.

(Image: MEN Media)

(Image: MEN Media)

"It's a concern for us because we are so scared that the electrics could spark and we could end up going up in flames in the middle of the night. Our house is extremely damp and we have mould in most rooms. We have a hole in the roof so when it rains the water seeps through.

"My partner Carla is suffering quite badly with her asthma and our daughter suffers from croup so for us it's a real nightmare."

Paul and Carla live in their house at Portland Street with their three children. Paul said that since they were served with the eviction notice, they have struggled to find somewhere to live and feel 'let down' by the city council.

Paul, who served for 11 years in the Grenadier Guards and completed a tour of Iraq, said: "If we're honest, our landlord has done nothing but try to help us, as we understand the difficult situation they are in.

"We do however feel let down by the council.

(Image: MEN Media)

"Last year I got made redundant and was forced to go onto Universal Credit . Since then we've really struggled financially, we did fall into rent arrears at the start of the year which our landlord quashed because she could see we were in a difficult situation.

"Because we had rent arrears, we weren't able to go onto the housing finder, and when we approached the council for help they were more interested in looking at our bank statements than helping us.

"They've put us on a band 3 priority which is essentially the second lowest priority for housing.

"Our eviction notice is up the week of Christmas. We have three kids and a dog and it's looking like we'll have nowhere to go."

Paul and Carla are in the process of bidding for a house and are currently 35th on the waiting list for a property they have bid on.

Carla said: "It's concerning us because we're being told we aren't priority. We haven't got the money to pay move into another private rental, our rent is currently £500 a month and we're struggling with that.

(Image: MEN Media)

"We need to stay in the area for our daughter's school, and every privately rented three-bed house in the area is £600 and above.

"In desperation, we called a number of housing association authorities including Longhurst who told us that they do actually have three-bed houses available in the area, but that we'd have to go through the council. We're left wondering why we haven't been allocated a house.

"We have been told that if the council can't find anywhere for us, then we will be placed into temporary accommodation which could mean celebrating Christmas in a Travelodge.

"The other issue we have is if we're placed into temporary accommodation, where will we keep our belongings and where will will our dog live."

(Image: MEN Media)

(Image: MEN Media)

Carla said the uncertainty has left them feeling 'depressed' about the future and unable to move forward until their situation resolved.

She said: "We're in limbo at the minute, our lives are on hold. We can't even go out and try to get a job because we have so many meetings with the housing officers, and different organisations trying to get things sorted.

"We've been to P3, to the council, to local MPs, we've got nowhere else to turn. Paul has served for this country and now it feels like we've been slung to the bottom of the pile.

"We're desperate for some sort of stability to get our lives back."

Yvonne Fox, Assistant Director - Housing Management at City of Lincoln Council said: "We very much sympathise with the family’s situation.

"Our Private Housing team have been assisting the family and our Housing Solutions team are due to meet with them later this week to assist them with finding alternative accommodation."