Couple ‘hiding’ a 5-bedroom Croydon house ordered to hand keys back on Rotherhithe council home

 

Couple ‘hiding’ a 5-bedroom Croydon house ordered to hand keys back on Rotherhithe council home
The couple were ordered pay over £16,500 by the courts


A couple who were handed the keys to a three-bedroom council property in Rotherhithe just weeks after buying a five-bedroom home in Croydon have been ordered by the courts to give it back to Southwark.

Southwark Council said Uchenna and Nkeiruka Nzekwe secured the tenancy of the property on Fir Trees Close off Salter Road in June 2021.


A year later in October 2022 the council started investigating the couple after receiving an anonymous tip off that no that no children had ever lived at the address.

After doing some digging, investigators discovered that the Nzekwes had bought a large family home in Croydon just three weeks before they were granted the council tenancy, which they had not declared on their housing application.

The council said that when Mr Nzekwe was asked in February 2024 why he hadn’t mentioned the property, he claimed that the Croydon home was being held ‘in trust’ for his daughter, and therefore didn’t need to be declared.

He was then told by the council to hand back the keys to the Rotherhithe home, or risk facing legal action.

Instead, he said he would seek to defend his claim to the property.

However the council said the couple failed to submit a formal defence and were banned from participating in the court hearing.

On 1 October, following a hearing at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court, the judge granted the council possession of the property and ordered Uchenna and Nkeiruka to leave within 14 days, or face eviction by bailiffs.