A primary school teacher was evicted from her home in Aston and denied her £1,300 deposit by a housing agency.

Bianca, 36, was given two weeks’ notice to vacate the property in August, and her deposit would be withheld due to the “dilapidated” condition of her home.

Bianca claims that she encountered multiple issues with the property from the first day of moving in, including a door that would not close, an uncovered mailbox, and a lack of insulation that made the house extremely cold during winter.

Bianca said: “I was really shocked when they said that the house was dirty and dilapidated, especially given the condition they gave me. 

“I even thought that when they got the property, they would be happy to see that it was in a better place. Instead, they just tried to extract more money.”

Bianca reported her complaints to the housing agency, Crapper & Haigh, in October 2023 but did not receive a response until six months later in April. 

She claims that the agency responded to her by saying, “It’s an old house. You can’t do anything with it.”

The agency also reportedly told her that she had not taken off the stickers on the bath so they had to “replace the bathtub.”

The loss of Bianca’s deposit significantly impacted her finances when moving into her new home. 

Bianca said: “It set me back a lot because the deposit is just supposed to be temporary, but all that money’s gone. 

“It meant that we had to work extra hard to pay for the new place that we moved into. We didn’t have that extra money to get furniture or anything that we needed.”

Bianca’s experience reflects a broader problem in the area, where housing satisfaction levels are among the lowest in the city.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that housing satisfaction in the East is significantly lower at 42%, compared to a citywide average of 69% and 45% in the North East HMA.

In her new home, Bianca is now afraid of bringing up issues to her landlord, in fear of being evicted again.

She said: “I feel really traumatised. If anything goes wrong in the house, I hesitate to let the landlord know. 

“I always try to fix it myself because I’m afraid if I make too many complaints about the house, they’ll just evict me in the following year.”

Acorn, a community union, is set to campaign for Bianca and her family to reclaim their money.