Dublin man to be evicted from family home

Dublin Corporation is to evict a man from his family home on Wednesday. He has been offered no alternative accommodation.

Mr Michael Devereaux, who was born in Stanaway Avenue in Crumlin in 1956 and where he has lived, almost all his life, says he will go to prison rather than lose the house.

Dublin Corporation says this is "an unusual and unfortunate case" but Mr Devereaux is not entitled to keep the house. It says his parents, Michael and Suzie Devereaux, who died in the past two years, were the legal tenants, and Mr Devereaux did not succeed to the tenancy.

"I was the only one of my parents' family born here and I nursed them as they died here," said Mr Devereaux.

He grew up there and also began his married life in the modest, two-bedroom house.

"It was always my ambition to move back here," he said. "I always came back here, always visited, kept in touch. This was always home for me."

After he moved back in February 1998 to help his mother nurse his father, his parents offered to sign purchase forms so he could buy the house in their name. Dublin Corporation valued the house at £54,000. However, before the purchase was complete, Michael's father died in November 1998.

In September 1999 his mother decided to sign the forms so Michael could buy the house, then valued at about £80,000. However, she, too, became ill before the purchase was complete and died on October 30th, 1999.

Mr Devereaux contacted the corporation with a view to purchasing the house.

"They said `No way'," he said. The case went to court earlier this year, but the judge held that an eviction order was legal.

A stay on the eviction expired on October 30th. Dublin Corporation then applied for a warrant for ejection, which was granted.

According to Mr Damien Drumm of the estate management office in Dublin Corporation Mr Deveraux does not have sufficient points to retain the tenancy on the house.

"He is perfectly entitled to apply to be rehoused, but as of Wednesday, November 29th, he will no longer be entitled to reside at the house in Stanaway Avenue. It is an unusual and unfortunate case," he added.

Mr Devereaux has no alternative accommodation arranged for Wednesday. "To be honest I didn't think it would come to this. In fact I still hope something might happen." He says he will barricade himself in the house from Tuesday night.