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Residents fear they will be forced to leave their homes after a charity put an entire street of 24 homes up for sale – for £1.6M. Dock Road in Sharpness in Gloucestershire is to be auctioned next week by the Canal and River Trust.
The single lot – which is being marketed by auction house Allsop – has been described as a ‘rare unbroken street’. It comprises of twelve terrace houses, eight semi-detached and two detached properties.
The sale also includes two semi-detached mixed use buildings, a single-storey workshop, three garages and 1.7 acres of vacant land. One of the buildings was the Sharpness Post Office.
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Tenants were informed of the sale through a letter from Allsop – and said they are ‘shocked and worried’ – adding that a new owner would likely increase rents. A trust spokesperson dismissed the claim saying there “would be no change to the residents’ tenancies”.
The street currently generates rents of about £168,000 for the Canal and River Trust. Amanda Cawston, 54, who has lived on the same house for almost three years with her husband and son fears she will be forced to leave her family home.
She said: “We thought we would be here forever and now we don’t know what the future holds. It is a shock – we have spent a lot of time getting the house the way we like. We might not be able to afford this home in the long term.
“It is a real concern. We have Christmas in the horizon. This is a lovely community and everybody gets along with each other. We may have to move again. We are not in a position to buy and rents are expensive – we really don’t want to leave if we don’t have to.”
“I can’t imagine the rents will stay the same, they will maybe increase in line with private landlords.”
Her son who is 19 works two minutes away from the house and Amanda fears if they are forced to move it will ‘take his independence away’. She said: “It is fantastic for him because he doesn’t drive – everything is on his door step.”
“They are all very old houses here and there are some damp issues so it would be nice to have a landlord who cares about it.” Dave Morse, 78 who has been a resident for 25 years said his bigger concern is that whoever takes the sale will increase the rent and ‘put a lot of dos and don’ts’.
He added: “I would be sad to lose it here because I have done a lot of work inside and outside the house and I would be disappointed if I had to leave.”
Jack Meredith, 29, who only moved to the street one month ago said: “It is a bit of a shock but we all knew it was going to happen after the sewage been done. It is a lovely little site down here – it is perfect for everyone and most people down here work in the docks anyway so this is ideal.
“I do like living here – my work is just around the corner two minutes from here.” James Cooke, 27, who lives with his parents said: “We have lived up here all of our lives. We want the dock to be what it is.
“My parents are in their 60s and they don’t want to be stressed out about moving out. We agreed to take this house as it was because the price was slightly cheaper.”
Zoe Walker, 45, moved to her house on Dock Road in 2006 – she said if she is forced to leave she has ‘nowhere to go’. She said: “I have been on the council list for a long time but if you have a roof above your head you can’t do anything about it.
“There is a lot of uncertainty – rent how much is going to go up by, if we are actually going to be kept as tenants. Nobody knows, we just got to wait and see. It could be a good thing or a bad thing – it depends who takes them on. They do need a lot of work so it is inevitable then they are going to put the prices up.”
Suze Ashford-Barnes, 42, has been living in the same street for seven years – she said she was not shocked with the landlords decision of auctioning the street. However she stated that it wasn’t ‘very nice’ to get the letter as she would have preferred to being told personally.
She said: “They couldn’t sell the houses because of the sewage system. ”So when they started to fix the circular sewage system that meant the houses could be sold.
“If the prices go up so be it really – we like living here as long as they fix the damp problem we are fine with it because it is difficult to find anywhere else to rent. We like it and we accept that it is cheaper here and we don’t intend to move anywhere else.
“The houses were built by hand by the dock workers – there is a lot of history. It is a real attachment for us – we are lucky to live here.”
A tenant, 37 who lives with her mum and kids says the neighbourhood is a ‘nice area to live’ and she doesn’t want to move out of there. She said: “It is a bit sad that they are auctioning if off and hopefully will have this mended and repaired.
“We worry that the cost we are renting might go up. We would have to move out if the rent goes up as we can’t afford to pay it.” A spokesman for the Canal and River Trust Said there “would be no change to the residents’ tenancy agreements”.
They said: “Our charity is in contact with residents about the sale of the properties along Dock Road. The sale will be via an auction at the beginning of November. Our intention is that all the cottages will be sold together as a single lot to a single buyer.
“We understand that a change of ownership might seem unsettling, but in practice, whilst there will be a change of owner there won’t be a change to our resident’s tenancies i.e. nobody is required to leave their home and the properties will be sold on the same terms as the tenants have in place. We’ll keep in touch with our tenants as the sale process progresses.”
Dock Road is due to be auctioned on Thursday, November 7 with a guide price of £1.575 million.
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