A TEENAGE girl’s misery after her mother’s sudden death was worsened when her home was advertised as vacant on the morning of her funeral.
Thirteen-year-old Tanisha Divers was left distraught after being told the house she shared with her late mother, Tracey Wake, was being advertised on a housing associations website where floral wreaths could even be seen in the pictures.
The youngster found her 38-year-old mother dead in bed at their home in Kidderminster, Worcs, – where they had lived for 10 years – on March 1 but the Community Housing Group was still in a rush to get her out, said neighbour Linda Harris.
She added the picture on the website even showed the floral tributes still outside the house for Ms Wake, who is believed to have died of a heart aneurysm.
Mrs Harris said: “How can they be so insensitive. Tanisha has lost her home and everything she knew. It’s just so disgusting.
“It would have been nice if they had waited for about a month before they did anything so drastic.”
Tanisha, who was Ms Wake’s only child, now lives with her father Peter Divers. He says that CHG knew everything about the funeral arrangements.
”It’s unfair. I told [CHG] when the funeral was and told them not to do anything before the,’ he said.
“There we were at the funeral and a lady said she had just been to view the house. It was a bit of a shock to the system. Tanisha is angry. She just can’t come to terms with it.”
The advert comes as another blow to a family that has suffered greatly in the last 12 months. Just before Christmas Peter lost his job of 15-years as a landscape gardener.
A CHG spokeswoman, said it was “very sorry” the flowers appeared on the photo, taken before the funeral on Tuesday last week.
The CHG spokeswoman, however, said they were not aware of the funeral arrangements.
She added they had received an official two-week notice to end Ms Wake’s tenancy from her next of kin.
She explained: “We can extend the notice period for longer if needed but this was not requested in this case.
“It is our usual practice to take photographs of properties and advertise them as soon as possible when a termination notice has been received.
“We are very sorry that some flowers appeared on the photo. Although they are not very obvious in the photograph advertised.
“It was not our intention to cause any distress to the family and we apologise if this has occurred,” she said.
Tanisha’s father took over looking after the property when her mother died, as Tanisha is too young.
Mr Divers rejected CHG’s claim that they didn’t know about the funeral. “I called them up to tell them when the house would be available for an inspection,” he said.
“They asked if they could do it on the Tuesday, but I told them that was the day of the funeral so we wouldn’t be able to. So to say that we didn’t let them know is absolute rubbish.
“It all just seems completely brainless to me, that they could make a mistake like this. Its completely insensitive.”
In response to this the CHG spokeswoman said: “The Company have checked the background details to this situation and we can confirm that we were not made aware of the date of the funeral and would have been sensitive to this if we had.
“Having said that, notice to end the tenancy was given by close family and during this meeting they were made aware that the notice period could be extended but this was declined by a family member who elected to give only two weeks notice.
“Therefore, while the Company are very sorry that the photograph of the property has caused distress to the family, we have correctly followed the standard procedure and would have responded considerately to the date of the funeral had we have been informed.”
