Families fear being made homeless after landlord sells entire STREET

Families fear they will be forced to leave their homes after one of the UK's biggest charities put an entire street of 24 homes up for sale for £1.6million.

Dock Road in Sharpness, Gloucestershire, is set to be auctioned next week by the Canal and River Trust, who has owned Sharpness Dock for 150 years.

The single lot consists of 12 terrace houses, eight semi-detached and two detached properties, according to property auction house Allsop, which is handling the sale. 

Currently, the 'rare unbroken street' generates rents of roughly £168,000 for the Canal and River Trust.

A spokesman for the trust explained how all the properties will be sold together as a single lot to a single buyer and it will bring 'no change to the residents' tenancy agreements', meaning 'nobody is required to leave their home'.

Tenants, however, who were informed of the sale through a letter from Allsop, are 'shocked and worried' that a new owner would likely increase rents which would force them to leave.

Amanda Cawston, 54, who has lived in the same house for almost three years with her husband and son, fears she will be forced to leave her family home.

'We thought we would be here forever and now we don't know what the future holds,' she said.

'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.

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'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.'

Ms Cawston added that she is scared her son, who is 19 and works two minutes away from the house, will have his 'independence' taken away.

'It is fantastic for him because he doesn't drive - everything is on his door step,' she explained.

'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 biggest concern is that whoever takes the sale will increase the rent and 'put a lot of dos and don'ts'.

He said: '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, added: '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, told: '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 and explained how if she is forced to leave she has 'nowhere to go'.

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'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,' she said.

'There is a lot of uncertainty with rent and how much it is going to go up by, if we are actually going to be kept as tenants. Nobody knows. We have 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 that 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 neighborhood is a 'nice area to live' and she doesn't want to move out of there.

'It is a bit sad that they are auctioning if off and hopefully will have this mended and repaired,' she said.

'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.'

Sharpness is located at the seaward end of the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. 

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The Canal and River Trust, one of the UK's biggest charities who cares for 2,000 miles of canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs, is the statutory harbor authority for Sharpness Port and has owned Sharpness Dock for 150 years.

A spokesman for the Canal and River Trust 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 £1.575million. 

The sale of the lot 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.