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A Bristol lettings agency boss has apologised after admitting calling a man a squatter and trying to evict him from his home - while one of the firm’s employees had been taking cash in rent from the tenant on behalf of the landlord.

Murrays Lettings in Brislington went to court to evict people living in a house in Redfield, Bristol. However, at the same time - and with the boss of the firm saying he knew nothing of this - one of its own lettings agents was taking rent in cash from one of the tenants and giving it to the owners of the property.

That meant the people living there, including a student called Cyrus Coxswain, legally had a contract and status as a tenant, and when the bailiff came to evict him, he called police and played them a secret recording of that cash transaction, which he had made on his phone.

This proved he wasn't squatting but was legally a tenant paying rent.

Now, after a fourth attempt at a court eviction was won by Mr Coxswain this week, Bristol Live can reveal what happened.

In a series of events over the course of one week, an eviction was halted by police after a fiery dispute inside the offices of a lettings agency.

The events have exposed the underbelly of Bristol’s housing crisis and have led to calls for greater enforcement of rules to stamp out any bad practice within the rental market. The lettings agency was stormed by campaigners from the tenants’ union Acorn, sparking a furious row.

But after a third attempted eviction at the house, the police were called, and Mr Coxswain ultimately won his fight to not be put out onto the streets.

The lettings agency involved initially allowed Mr Coxswain to remain in the house, acknowledged that one of its agents had asked for rent payments without the boss’s knowledge, and apologised for what it said was either ‘naive or gross misconduct’.

Part 1 - The sub-letting nightmare

(Image: BristolLive)

The situation began last summer, when Mr Coxswain, a music production student, answered a room to rent advert in a local shop. He agreed to rent the room in a house in Byron Street from a man called Sam Mitchell, who he assumed was the landlord.

But, in fact, Mr Mitchell was sub-letting the house, renting it himself from Brislington-based lettings agency Murrays, who managed the property on behalf of the landlord.

Earlier in 2018, Mr Mitchell had effectively turned the terraced home into a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) by dividing up the rooms and renting it to as many as eight different people at a time.

While he was paying around £750 to Murrays, he was collecting more than £1,800 a month in rent from his sub-tenants.

The people living in the house claim it is in a decrepit state, and in March, showed Bristol Live a range of issues firsthand.

They said leaks from faulty radiators led to partial ceiling collapses, there was no hot water and when the sink in the bathroom became blocked, residents said Mr Mitchell - who didn’t actually live there himself - just turned up and removed the U-bend so the sink was unusable without a bucket underneath.

The situation came to a head in the second half of 2018, when one of those living there complained to Bristol City Council. The authority instantly realised there was an HMO in operation without a licence, and the property needed a large amount of work.

The council told the property owner and Murrays - and its boss Rob Murray said it was the first the agency knew about the sub-letting.

Watch: Inside the house in Byron Street

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Part 2 - The rent payment

Sam Mitchell then seemingly disappeared. Attempts to contact him by the people living there, Murrays and recently by Bristol Live have met a dead end.

In the autumn of 2018, Murrays issued Mr Mitchell with an eviction notice, but he had already gone. Many of those living there also left and at least two others - including Cyrus Coxswain - struggled to find new places to live.

With an eviction notice against Mr Mitchell still technically in force, one of the agents from Murrays went to the house and told the tenants they should ignore the notice and pay rent to him instead, which he then gave to the landlord directly.

(Image: BristolLive)

That letting agent, Mark Dehaney, asked Mr Coxswain for the rent in cash and told him to tell the other people living there they could do the same, but gave no receipt for the payment.

When Mr Coxswain became worried he could now be evicted at any moment and was effectively living in a house with no official contract, he secretly recorded Mr Dehaney when he went round for the rent.

The recording captured him counting out the rent, and Mr Dehaney is heard to joke that they were now paying less rent than Mr Mitchell had been charging them.

“I will work with you,” said Mr Dehaney in that recording. “Say the same to everybody else. As you said yourself, it's unfair for the landlady to be out of pocket. And it's been cheaper for you this month.

“I'm surprised Sam still hasn't tried to get the rent off of you. Right, lovely, at some point today you will get an email from me. It will be from my personal email account to say that I accepted it on behalf of the landlord, because we can't accept it through the company,” he added.

(Image: BristolLive)

No email ever materialised, but Mr Coxswain and others continued to live in the property - with none of the outstanding issues sorted. They said the sink was still blocked, and that the ceiling was still in patches.

The existence of that recording, more than two months later, would effectively persuade police officers to halt what had already been a physical attempt to evict Mr Coxswain from the home by court-appointed bailiffs. But more of that, later.

Mr Coxswain joined the tenants’ union Acorn, still concerned he was vulnerable and at risk of being evicted with no rights.

(Image: BristolLive)

That moment materialised in March this year. With just a few days’ notice in a text message to Cyrus from Mr Dehaney and a letter through the door addressed to Sam Mitchell, those living at the house were told bailiffs were coming on March 20.

Members of Acorn gathered in front of the property, and the bailiff did not attempt to evict them - it was the second time that an eviction had been threatened but not carried out.

Part 3 - The confrontation at Murrays

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Watch: The confrontation, and the secret recording

Later that day, around a dozen activists from Acorn dropped in on Murrays Lettings Agency in Brislington.

In heated scenes, the boss of the business Rob Murray denied Mr Coxswain was a tenant and said instead he was an illegal squatter. He described the activists from Acorn as ‘scum’, and told them repeatedly to ‘f*** off and get jobs’.

In heated exchanges in the lettings agency office, Mr Murray and Mr Dehaney shouted at the activists who had come to lobby on behalf of Mr Coxswain.

Mr Murray repeatedly maintained none of the people there were his clients, or tenants - including Mr Coxswain - and berated them for storming into his office. Mr Murray said Mr Coxswain was an illegal squatter.

“You come in here, none of you f***ing work, none of you contribute,” said Mr Murray.

“He’s an illegal squatter and we’ve been given a job to do to get the property back.

(Image: Michael Lloyd Photography)

“How dare you f***ing come in here accusing us of doing things illegally.

“You don’t ask to do this, because you’re not one of our clients. Get the f*** out of my office.

“Have you phoned the police?” he asked Mr Dehaney. “F***ing scum, get out of my office.”

Mr Coxswain said to Mr Murray: “You have been abusing my rights as a tenant.”

Mr Murray responded: “You are not our tenant. You were sub-letting and now squatting in the property.

“You’re some kind of vigilante group. Who do you people think you are? We’re doing a job of work, you’re an illegal tenant in our property and we’ve been asked to evict you, and that’s what we’re doing.

"And we’ve got a summons from the court that the eviction was happening today and the only reason it didn’t happen today is because you lot were all outside acting like f***ing vigilantes.

“We didn’t know Sam was sub-letting the property, because he was hiding it. As soon as we found out - and we found out from the council - they called us to say ‘did you know it was being sub-letted?’

(Image: Michael Lloyd Photography)

“As soon as we found out, we had to give him notice because otherwise the council would have fined us £30,000.

“Basically, you’re not our client,” he told Mr Coxswain. “You are in the property illegally, and we were instructed by our client to repossess the property and that’s what we’ve done, and you’re turning round and saying we’re doing something illegal - absolutely nonsense.”

Acorn activist Annie Cullum explained because Mr Coxswain had been paying rent to Murrays, it meant he was officially a tenant by default, even without a written contract.

And besides, the court order named only specifically named Mr Mitchell, and not Mr Coxswain by name.

When Mr Coxswain challenged Mr Murray to listen to the recording he had made in the January, Mr Dehaney intervened, shouting he had called the police, and saying he would only speak to Mr Coxswain, and not the large group of campaigners.

The confrontation lasted around 20 minutes before spilling out into the street, where Mr Murray followed them out with a camera.

(Image: Michael Lloyd Photography)

Speaking to Bristol Live on March 20, after the Acorn campaigners had left, Mr Murray denied any of his agents had collected money from Mr Coxswain. He said: “We had no choice but to issue an eviction notice.

“This wasn’t our client, and he was effectively squatting. We’re not the bad guys here, we don’t want to see people left homeless, but we are representing the owners of this property, who wanted the people in there out,” before adding his agent denied taking rent from Mr Coxswain.

“I deny that, and Mark denies that too,” he added.

Part 4 - The situation unravels

The following day, March 21, a court bailiff got into Mr Coxswain’s house, and attempted to evict him and others living there.

Acorn organiser Nick Ballard rushed to the home and, from inside the house, he filmed three different Facebook Live broadcasts to summon more Acorn activists to ‘defend’ their fellow member from eviction.

The videos showed how a stand-off ensued after a pushing and shoving match at the front door, and the police soon arrived.

Officers heard allegations and counter-allegations of assaults between the two sides, and mediated the situation between the bailiff, Mr Coxswain, Acorn and Mr Dehaney, who had been waiting outside. They listened to the recording which showed Mr Coxswain had been a known tenant who assumed he had been paying rent to Murrays, and therefore should not be evicted.

(Image: BristolLive)

A compromise was agreed in which the bailiff would formally evict Mr Mitchell - who hadn’t been seen at the property since before Christmas - and then Mr Coxswain and Mr Dehaney would sign a formal agreement which allowed him to stay until June on an official basis.

A police spokesman said: “We were called to a property in Byron Street, Bristol, at just after 12.30pm on Thursday 21 March to a report of a disturbance.

“Officers attended and spoke to all parties. No criminal offences were found to have been committed.”

Part 5 - Murrays' apology

On March 22, Rob Murray and Mark Dehaney apologised at length for what happened.

Mr Murray said he was completely unaware his employee had been taking rent money from the people who were found in the property. He admitted no money had passed into the company’s accounts. “This is the first time I have become aware of this action,” he said.

He said the property’s owners were long-term friends of Mr Dehaney, and they had received the rent direct.

“If these allegations are confirmed I will be very disappointed with Mr Dehaney’s actions,” he told Bristol Live.

“This eviction was requested by my clients and we were operating fully within the guidelines laid down by the courts, and we were awarded a repossession on that basis.

“If Mr Dehaney has recognised a tenancy by accepting money from the sub-tenants of Mr Mitchell’s, who I must say is the real villain in this situation, then either he was naively trying to look after his friends, or he has committed a gross misconduct. In either situation, they are both unprofessional and unacceptable,” he added.

He later emailed to confirm Mr Dehaney had taken the payment on behalf of the property owners and said it was ‘an action he took on behalf of his friend, not our client’.

“I will be contacting Acorn myself today and apologise for my actions, which I believed at the time were fully justified, as we were complying with my client's instructions.

(Image: BristolLive)

“I believed Acorn were the ones in the wrong, by showing contempt for a legally obtained court order, which would have remained legal for all the occupiers of the property if Mr Dehaney hadn’t asked for rent.

“I believe the action was an attempt at a kindness not a pernicious act,” he added.

Mr Murray told Bristol Live it was the first time he had come across such a nightmare issue thrown up by sub-letting.

“This is certainly on the rise. I have heard about cases of it from my colleagues in the letting industry, but never had something like this happen to us before,” he added.

What Mr Dehaney said

Mr Dehaney contacted Bristol Live to apologise for his actions and to make clear he was acting without the knowledge of Mr Murray or Murrays Lettings Agency.

“I accepted a payment from Mr Coxswain in January in cash, which was an offer made by the sub tenant to give them a breathing space to find a new property,” Mr Dehaney claimed.

“I did not realise the implications of my actions.

“The transaction was between myself, the current occupiers and the owners of the property, and no money was received by Murrays residential lettings, and they have had no dealings or any responsibility over this transaction. The earliest my colleague was aware of this matter was today,” he admitted.

“Robert Murray was not aware of my actions and neither Robert Murray or Murrays residential lettings or myself profited or benefited from my action which I personally carried out, as the property is owned by a friend and I dealt directly with them.

“I am sorry for my actions and will learn from this experience,” he said.

“The occupants are still in situ and will now correspond directly with me or the landlord and I will hand deliver that communication to them today,” he added.

Mr Murray said the property would now be taken off Murrays books, and be managed by Mr Dehaney personally.

Part 6 - Acorn claim victory

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A spokesperson for Acorn said the situation had only been exposed because other Acorn members nearby had physically rallied to support their fellow member, meaning Mr Coxswain would be able to stay

They said it did not matter what happened to the rent collected by Mr Dehaney - the fact was he was collecting as a letting agent in charge of the property, and that meant Mr Coxswain was officially a tenant.

“This type of thing is happening all around the country, every day,” said branch secretary Jon Hardy.

"Fortunately in this case, Cyrus was a member of Acorn so we were able to support him in stopping these evictions.

“If he wasn’t in the union he’d have been homeless a few weeks ago.

(Image: BristolLive)

“This is why Acorn is so important, we can work collectively to support each other, improving not only individual members’ lives but our whole communities - working together to do things we’re powerless to change on our own - that’s direct action and solidarity.

“We’re only as powerful as our members so the more people who join, the more collective strength we have,” he added.

What happened since

Following the drama of that week in March, Mr Coxswain settled down with what he thought was a signed agreement to remain in the property until June, and a promise to fix the issues.

The property was taken off Murray's books, and managed by Mr Dehaney personally on behalf of the landlords.

But within six weeks, Mr Coxswain received another eviction notice - this time in his name. Last week, on May 7, the case went to Bristol Civil Court and the judge agreed that Mr Coxswain's tenancy was legitimate, and that he had the right to stay.

(Image: Acorn)

What the council said

A spokesman for Bristol City Council said it was investigating what has been going on at Byron Street.

“The Private Housing Service is currently investigating this case,” he said in March.

“The service provides assistance to tenants living in substandard conditions, who are being harassed out of their homes or illegally evicted.

“Tenants can also seek legal advice from a solicitor or a specialist housing advisory service such as Shelter or CHAS Bristol.

“Properties in Byron Street are included in the council’s proposal to licence houses rented to three or more people from different families.

“Licensing these properties will allow the council to require landlords and agents to meet higher standards in relation to the management of multi-occupancy properties,” he added.

A wider issue

Bristol is in the grip of a housing crisis which, despite a massive increase in the number of homes and affordable homes being built, appears to be getting worse.

According to Penny Walster, the services hub manager for Shelter in Bristol, this crisis leads to an imbalance of power in the private rental market - where landlords and lettings agencies hold all the cards. That means tenants are increasingly vulnerable to bad practice.

"The imbalance of power in the private rental market can leave tenants at the mercy of rogue operators and bad practice," she said.

"While unlawful and illegal behaviour is relatively rare, it’s vital that councils can act to stamp it out when it occurs. Losing a private tenancy is one of the leading causes of homelessness in Bristol – an ordeal no-one should have to face – and renters deserve a better deal on housing.

“That’s why it’s so important that the government follows through on their plans to legislate for longer tenancies, and councils enforce rules against rogue practices. Long-term, people need a genuinely affordable alternative to private renting. That’s why we’re calling on the government to invest in a new generation of social housing and deliver 3.1 million social homes over the next 20 years.

“If anyone reading this is facing housing problems or homelessness, you don’t need to do this alone. Our trained advisors are on hand seven days a week to support you on issues from poor quality housing to eviction notices. To get advice and support, visit www.shelter.org.uk/gethelp.”