A grandmother of 12 has been left heartbroken after a council confirmed she cannot return to her home of more than 25 years following a devastating fire.
The blaze ripped through Clare Bye’s three-bedroom house in Beaver Lane, South Ashford, last month, leaving the building with extensive damage across the ground floor.
The 56-year-old was initially informed she would be able to return to her home once repairs to the council-owned property had been completed.
However, Ashford Borough Council (ABC) has now said the house is uninhabitable due to the scale of the damage, with repairs expected to take more than six months.
Under the authority’s ‘decant policy’, such a lengthy timescale means affected residents will be permanently rehoused rather than returning to their current address.
Ms Bye – a mother of seven – is currently living in temporary accommodation in another part of Ashford, with no timeline on when she will move to her next permanent address.
Fire damage and contamination from asbestos within the Beaver Lane property have also meant that no personal possessions can be returned.
“It’s my home, and now they’re telling me I can’t go back,” Ms Bye said this week.
“I’ve brought up all my children and grandchildren there, and now I’ll never be allowed back.
“It’s really been playing badly on me mentally.
“If they had said from the beginning, ‘Clare, you won’t be returning to Beaver Lane’, I could have accepted it by now and been used to it. Instead, I was given false hope.
“But the situation is constantly changing the whole time, and it’s just adding extra stress onto what’s already a tough time for the whole family.”
The 56-year-old is also waiting to hear from ABC whether she can retrieve her late father’s belongings, which are stored in a shed to the rear of the property and were unaffected by the fire.
Following the blaze on Sunday, January 4, Ms Bye – who lives with her mum, who has dementia – was first placed in a hotel before moving to temporary accommodation.
Her family, including eldest daughter Kayla, have now registered her on ABC’s housing register and are awaiting a response regarding her next permanent home.
Kayla said: “We couldn’t fault ABC from the day of the fire. They put her in a hotel for a week until temporary accommodation became available.
“But they’ve now issued the decant policy to stop her coming back to Beaver Lane.
“We were told after the fire, if the property is rebuildable, mum will definitely be back, but it was all just false hope – you can’t play with someone’s mental health like that.
“We’ve had to put her on the housing register, and we were told mum would be prioritised, but we’ve asked for that in writing because we’ve been told things that haven’t come true.”
A GoFundMe page set up in the wake of the blaze raised more than £1,000 to provide essential items for Ms Bye.
Her family say they are incredibly grateful and want to wish a “big thanks” to all those who donated.
Four fire engines and a height vehicle attended the blaze, which the fire service initially believed was linked to an electrical fault within an extension lead.
But a spokesman for ABC – which is run by an Ashford Independents/Green Party coalition – says an independent forensic investigator has since found “no evidence” of an electrical fault.
They said the blaze started in the living room, where it “originated in the corner of the room on a sofa”.
Describing Ms Bye’s situation as “unfortunate”, the spokesman added: “In situations where a tenant needs to leave their council property because it is uninhabitable, we initiate our decant policy.
“Under this policy, if works are required that will take more than six months, we will then permanently move the household to another property.
“The fire damage was extensive, and upon assessing the required works, it became clear that it will take more than six months.”
The spokesman added the authority will “continue to support” Ms Bye and “identify suitable properties as they become available”.
“The process for applying to the housing register and the next steps for Clare to bid for a new home have been explained to her,” they added.
“It is not possible to provide a timeframe for when a suitable property will become available in the area of the borough she prefers.
“Clare has been advised to remain open to different locations, and we will continue to offer advice and support throughout the process.
“She also has a designated point of contact within the housing service for any enquiries.”
The spokesman said the authority “has not been made aware of a garden shed at the property”, but will review the state of the structure “once the site is safe to enter”.
