Eversfield Estate/Trust - Affordable housing

[KinchSam]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find any information/resources relating to the current existence of the Eversfield Estate (for reference the Eversfield family, from what I can gather, were descendants of the Levett Family and owned most of the land which became St Leonards, during the development of St Lens they acquired huge amounts of property), and specifically an amount of housing which was put into trust by 2 sisters, descendants of the Eversfield Family.

From what I can piece together, some time around 1829 a large amount of Eversfield Estate owned housing stock across the town was put into trust, I'm told this was done by an act of parliament but I'm not clear on the details or why this would be the case.

The housing was supposedly put into a philanthropic trust with the intention of providing long term affordable housing for people on low incomes. It seems this was the case for the best part of the last 100+ years, but more recently (within the last 10-15 years) it seems the trust may have folded and more recently still (within the last 5 years) a lot of rental tenants in the housing are now facing eviction or exorbitant (40%+) rent increases.

I've been contacted by two elderly female tenants who are obviously quite concerned, and have promised to do what I can to figure out the details, but beyond a lot of very old and bewildering documents which are stored on East sussex Record Office online archive (http://www.thekeep.info/) I can't find any information about this.

I would be very much grateful for any information, perhaps you live in an Eversfield Estate owned property or know someone who does, or perhaps you're familiar with the history of the estate?

I look forward to hearing from you.
Sam

[Richard]

Hi KinchSam,

I suspect it may be a lot easier to get free advice from a body such as 'Shelter' who may be able to point you in the right direction even if they have no local knowledge.
Check the tenancy agreement to see what it says about how the rent can be increased.
Tenants have rights and if they are ignorant of these then they may well be vulnerable to illegal machinations of a landlord.

landlords have the right to charge as much as they like for their property.
If you have signed a fixed term tenancy agreement, usually for a period of 6 or 12 months, your landlord cannot increase the rent during that time without your consent.
If your tenancy is ending and you have not signed a new contract, your landlord can issue a 'notice of increase' giving you at least a months' notice of a rent increase.

You can apply to the tribunal by completing a form. You have to do this before paying the new rent amount, otherwise it will be treated as you accepting the rent increase:

https://www.gov.uk/housing-tribunals

Also you can refuse to pay the higher rent if certain improvements to the property have been neglected.

[maxhewitt]

Hi KinchSam,

Apologies for resuscitating a dead thread, but I am also investigating the sale of the Eversfield Estate and may be able to offer some info.

Firstly, I think it's worth noting that the trust was never created for philanthropic/charitable purposes. Rather it was the final outcome of a series of wills following all members of the Eversfield family dying off without an heir. The trustees of the estate had to manage and retain the land, but didn't have the power to sell it off or develop it themselves. The only way they could obtain this power was through an act of parliament - hence the Eversfield Estate act which you can find online. various plots of land on the estate were therefore sold off to various developers for private development - certainly not social housing/fixed rents etc. St Leonards in the 1800s was a boom town for speculative developers and wealthy Londoners!

What I haven't found any evidence of is how much of the estate wasn't sold off i.e. remained with the trustees, and what happened to the trust after the named trustees died.

I myself am trying to find the owner of some unregistered land in the area, so if anyone has any knowledge of the fate of the trust I would be most grateful.