COMMENT: The story is not what it looks like in the title. But it is not far from the truth. A couple, Christopher Brown, 33, and Daisy Bow du Toit, 31, live in an apartment at Hampton Court. It’s a residential property at Hampton Court Mews on the Occupied Royal Palaces Estate to be accurate. And they have just acquired a Volkswagen E-golf (which by the way is a useless vehicle because it has such low mileage!).
They decided that they had to charge their electric vehicle using a communal socket at Hampton Court rather than a public charging point outside of the estate. I’ve not seen the terms and conditions of the rental agreement but it must have included a prohibition in using a communal socket to charge an electric vehicle because they’ve been served with an eviction notice which is exceptionally rare on this estate. Mr Brown admits he was wrong not to have asked permission first.
Properties such as this one are managed by an external agency and they have served the termination notice on the couple but they admit that such a notice is only served “very rarely and only in exceptional circumstances”. Is this an exceptional case?
They are appealing to the Queen directly on Twitter for clemency and to be allowed to stay in their property. Brown said that it’s a bad time to be kicked out because of the coronavirus pandemic and that property rental prices are high at the moment and therefore finding a suitable alternative would be very difficult at this time. Comment: as it happens rental prices in London have dropped dramatically but those outside have increased. This is also a consequence of the pandemic. Hampton Court is technically outside of London but close to it.
Mr Brown said that he would gladly pay the £32 worth of electricity that he has used to charge his car and pay an additional fine if they wanted to fine him. He has tried to appeal against the eviction notice to the management agency without success, hence his final appeal to the Queen herself.
Where do the cats come in to the story? Well, he says that, “This is the first home we moved in together. We’ve taken such good care of it. We raised two adorable and well-behaved cats”.
Their two cats are going to be kicked out of the home they’ve got used to because they were raised there. They’ll find it very difficult to settle into a new place and it might not be anywhere near as safe because Hampton Court is a very safe environment for domestic cats who are allowed outside.
I therefore appeal to the Queen to quash the eviction notice in the interests of cat welfare! Forget about the humans 🙂 .
P.S. Hampton Court is an amazing place. I have visited a couple of years ago. It’s very impressive, quiet and very secure if you live there. It’s by the Thames where there are nice walks and all-in-all it’s a wonderful place to live so this couple have made a big mistake regrettably.
