Just don`t leave your house unattended Okami.
The Romanians at No 76: We'll go if you pay us £2,000, say squatters
The privet hedge has seen better days and the paint is flaking a bit from a window at the back, but it's warm as toast inside number 76 St Margaret's Road.
In the lounge the kids are playing and everyone is watching a Home Alone DVD, dubbed into the family's native Romanian.
What a perfect domestic scene, except for one small detail - it's not their house.
Uninvited guests: Luminita Miclescu and Mihaela Vaduva outside the property
The seven or eight members of two Roma gipsy families moved in over Christmas during a lull in works to transform the £285,000 Victorian mid-terrace into a 'dream home' for Julian and Samantha Mosedale and their three sons.
When the Mosedales, who were living elsewhere during the building works, asked the uninvited new occupants to leave they refused.
And even when Mr Mosedale turned up with a possession order to reclaim his property yesterday, the families demanded compensation for the £2,000 they claim to have paid to an unnamed man they claim posed as the landlord.
But they were finally compelled to leave by the court order that took Mr Mosedale two weeks to secure.
Young mother Luminita Miclescu stood in the snow outside (his) doorstep and declared: 'We came to England for help. This is how England helps us!'
Earlier, Luminita, breast-feeding her five-month-old son, had invited me into the soon-to-be-vacated home to hear her tale of woe.
Mihaela Vaduva (L) and Luminita Miclescu make themselves at home
Perhaps it would be unfair to describe it as incredible, but it might have needed more pinches of salt than they were spreading outside on the cold suburban street in Tottenham, North London.
Joined by her cousin Mihaela Vaduva and four lively toddlers, the women told how their husbands had seen a handwritten note on the gate of No 76 advertising it for sale.
Having just sold their home in Rosiori, near Bucharest, for just 3,000 euros, they said, they couldn't afford to buy the house.
But they rang the number on the sign and arranged to meet 'a black man who said he was the landlord' in the local McDonald's.
There, they said, the man took £300 deposit, £300 for a week's advance rent, and £1,400 for a security they didn't quite understand.
Then he deleted his number from their mobile phones and said any future business should be conducted in the same McDonald's.
Evicted: The family moving out yesterday
Time to go: Police arrived at the address to evict the families yesterday
He gave them a 'tenancy agreement' that bore his name, Joseph Winset, an East London address and the rental terms. No clues for guessing what happened next.
'We never saw him again', said Luminita. 'We tried to find him but we couldn't trace him.'
Speaking through an interpreter - and occasionally to each other in their own Roma language - the women said they were 'really upset' and added: 'We were tricked.'
They had no money, they said, but had applied 'for all the benefits we are entitled to'.
Luminita added: 'We were really shocked when the other man [Mr Mosedale] turned up. I think he was quite shocked too. We tried to explain but he couldn't understand us and we couldn't understand him. The other problem was we could not be sure it was his house.'
Possesions: Luminita Miclescu wheels sleeping bags and belongings from the Mosedale's home
So would they leave? 'Where can we go?' said Mihaela. 'How can we be put on the street with all these children? If this is really his house he should pay. If he wants his house back, he should pay us that money back.'
Warming herself by a four-bar electric heater (with Mr Mosedale paying the bills) Luminita said: 'We realise now that the black man was not the real owner but I don't think it is fair to make us homeless.'
Homeless, that is, apart from the house down the road. Before the police arrived yesterday, the two husbands disappeared into another house about 100 yards away with an estate agent's board outside.
Throughout the day, the women carried their five children (plus some kitchen equipment and one of their two TVs) down the street.
The Mosedales: Julian, Samantha and sons (from left) Finn, Jake and Toby
But what of the elusive Mr Winset and his tenancy agreement?
A Romanian official working in the Court Service told me: 'You can guarantee he doesn't exist. These so-called agreements are becoming quite common - squatters can flash them at anyone who asks and claim they have a legal contract.'
Last night the family turned down a council offer to have their 'housing needs' assessed - and the women left carrying blankets and possessions. Luminita made a one-finger gesture to photographers and told our interpreter they were 'going to stay with relatives'.
The Mosedales, both 45, said they were 'greatly relieved' and bore the families no ill feeling. But Mrs Mosedale added: 'We have been quite shocked by it all, and by how squatting laws make it so difficult for house owners to do anything about it. I just hope someone takes notice of what has happened and the law changes in future.'
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242998/The-Romanians-No-76-Well-pay-2-000-say-squatters-finally-evicted.html#ixzz0caJehCnI
