Hell neighbour migrant quits Reading retirement flat after two-year torment

A “neighbour from hell” migrant has finally moved out of a Reading retirement home after two years of torment for elderly residents who endured constant noise, shouting and misuse of safety gear.

Shahidul Haque, 59, his 28-year-old wife and their twin three-year-old daughters occupied the one-bedroom flat at David Smith Court since July 2024 and refused to leave unless given a larger upgrade. Housing provider Southern Housing tried to make them vacate the over-55s block. Mr Haque cited Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, claiming eviction would breach his family’s right to a private life.

Lawyer Isabel Bertschinger told an earlier hearing that removal would have “a serious and drastic impact on the defendant’s health and wellbeing and therefore on his private life, and to prevent him from living with his wife and children would have a severe and disproportionate impact on his family life.” Despite arriving in Britain in 1997, he said he did not understand the tenancy he signed because it was not in his native Sylheti. He paid the £110.70 weekly rent from disability benefits claimed for depression and sleep apnea.

He demanded a bigger home, insisting the single-occupancy flat was unsuitable. After work in Bangladeshi restaurants, a divorce and a spell of homelessness, he received social housing in Newham then a transfer to Berkshire. In October 2024 he brought his second wife and the twins from Sunamganj in Bangladesh; the children hold British citizenship and his wife entered on a spousal visa.

Britain’s housing rules and human-rights claims have left pensioners paying the price in their own quiet blocks while families who do not fit the tenancy dig in. Ordinary residents deserve homes that match the rules they signed up for, not endless disruption funded by benefits and delayed by treaty arguments. That is the plain test any government serious about fairness should meet.

Residents describe two years of noise

Mr Haque has now agreed to leave under an out-of-court deal, the Daily Mail reported. Neighbours celebrated. One 63-year-old man who lived there about a year before the family arrived said: “They made my life hell for two years. It was horrendous.” He described “Nothing but noise, kids banging about, shouting and screaming. From the moment they woke up at 10am to 1am the next morning.”

Another resident of 12 years said people were glad they had gone. “When they first moved in, the girls were running about the corridors… And you could hear them running about when they came back from nursery.” Court papers from Southern Housing listed excessive noise, anti-social behaviour and misuse of safety equipment, including one December 2024 day when the emergency assistance cord was pulled nine times.

At Reading County Court both sides fought over costs. Mr Haque’s side argued taxpayers should not have to “cough up.” Southern Housing barrister Ben Leb called the bid “nothing more than opportunistic.” Judge Catherine Fisher refused to order either side to pay the other’s bills, saying it would “not be appropriate.” GB News has approached Southern Housing for comment. The flat is now free for someone who actually qualifies for retirement housing.

Original source: GB News