Blog entered 10 July 2015

“The most commonly requested property size is 1 bedroom properties”, unquote.

The above statement was made by Cornwall Housing Ltd on 5 February 2015, in reply to a Freedom of Information request.

At the same time Cornwall Housing made this statement it was aware of a 1 bedroom Homechoice property in Timber Close, St Austell, belonging to partner landlord Sanctuary Housing, which had remained empty for over 2 months. By the time the 1 bedroom Homechoice property, shown above, finally had a tenant it had remained empty for a further 4 months making 6 months altogether.

It remains to be seen if this 1 bedroom Homechoice property was unlawfully ‘ringfenced’ for Cornwall Council by Sanctuary Housing, as was the case in 2012 when this 1 bedroom property was last advertised through Homechoice without preferences but was furnished.

But what if the bidder who won the property had his/her own furniture, I hear you ask. That scenario would never have happened and the word for it is deception which is a criminal offence.

Footnote : Although the then Council’s Principal Legal Officer Simon JR Mansell MBE knew I had bidded for this property, to this day (August 2016) he has still not told me the property number despite me requesting it. Now I wonder why that is ?