A terminally ill mother-of-six is locked in a bitter eviction battle to remove a ‘nightmare’ tenant and his 10 dogs from her house.
Kelly Eastland, 43, is battling stage-four breast cancer and said she must sell the house in order to pay for £60,000 pioneering therapy in Germany.
However, a long-running court battle with her male tenant has left her unable to access the money tied up in the two-bedroom Cliftonville home in Kent.
The mother claimed the tenant owes her more than £15,000 in rent, and has filled the property with at least 10 dogs – kept in such squalid conditions that animal urine and faeces reportedly soaked through the floor and caused ceiling damage.
Mrs Eastland said she fears time is running out, and worries she will die before she is able to sell the home.
‘It’s been an absolute nightmare. It’s just hopeless really. We’ve been trying to sell the house to raise money so I can have treatment,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘We’ve been fighting in the courts since 2024, and in that time the cancer has been able to spread. The cancer has actually caused fluid to go around my lungs now.’
The family – whose youngest child is only two – moved out of the home in April 2023 to rent a larger property for their six children.
They began renting out the home to a man they met while on a dog walk, who moved in on a 12-month tenancy agreement.
But when a kitchen ceiling in the basement flat under the home collapsed, a builder went round to discover multiple dogs were being kept upstairs – more than the four which had been declared – with animal urine believed to have soaked through the floor.
Mrs Eastland and her husband’s insurance claim was reportedly rejected because ‘fouling by animals’ was not covered under accidental damage.
As the mother’s cancer worsened and she started to explore alternative treatment options, she decided to sell the house, informing the tenant in March 2024.
‘My only options in the UK are just to continue with some immunotherapy and some radiotherapy. They can’t even really do an operation or anything,’ she said.
They quickly accepted a £125,000 offer, well below the house’s valuation, in a desperate bid to raise the money fast.
They then served the tenant with a Section 8 notice, declaring he had allowed their property’s condition to significantly deteriorate.
They went to court in December last year and were granted a possession order, allowing the tenant 14 days to move out.
However, the mother said that after discovering the man had not provided his real name, the order was ruled invalid and dismissed by the court in February.
Another eviction notice was then served, this time also citing the non-payment of rent.
In May, the tenant filed a counter-claim which alleged the landlords had failed to sort multiple maintenance issues at the property.
He claimed he had spent £5,000 fixing the bathroom floor, paid £1,200 to replace a bay window, and was living with a faulty boiler, leaking roof and no heating upstairs.
In response, the court ordered an independent survey of the property, which took place last month.
The report revealed the home was dirty and overrun with dogs, with at least 10 animals inside.
One large dog ‘charged’ at the door of a bedroom, while another was described as ‘overly aggressive’.
‘In my opinion, there are too many dogs for the size of the dwelling and external spaces,’ the surveyor wrote.
‘There appear to be issues with control of the dogs and the ability of the tenants to look after the number of dogs present.’
He said he could not confirm if the roof leak was ongoing, but noted staining on walls and ceilings consistent with water damage caused by a leak.
He said he was provided no evidence to support the tenant’s claim that the Eastlands refused to repair the bathroom, and that the bay window appeared not to be a new unit.
The boiler was found to be ‘operational’, but due to the number of dogs, the surveyor was unable to access upstairs rooms to check whether the radiators worked.
‘There was one dog in the front bedroom which was overly aggressive, and I did not feel the tenants had control of this particular dog,’ he added.
He also described more dogs downstairs and at least six upstairs, with four kept in cages.
He noted the ‘pungent smell of dogs, urine and faeces’ and ‘widespread damage and dirt ingrained to the walls, floors and woodwork’ linked to the keeping of so many dogs – concluding the damage ‘would constitute a breach of the tenancy on the tenant’s part’.
The Eastlands hope the surveyor’s findings – along with the arrears – will be enough to secure another possession order at a hearing scheduled for next month.
But the mother fears time is running out as the cancer has spread to her lymph nodes and bones.
‘My husband can’t work now because he’s taking care of me fulltime, and because the tenant hasn’t paid rent, we haven’t been able to pay the mortgage because we have to rent the property we’re living in now,’ she said. ‘The mortgage company are threatening repossession.
‘It’s a huge amount of stress. With having the children as well to look after, and then having treatment every two weeks.’
Even if a new possession order is granted, Mrs Eastland worries it could be weeks before she is able to reclaim the house.
‘Even if we win the possession order in September, we then have to wait another two weeks,’ Mrs Eastland said.
‘If he doesn’t move out, then we have to apply for bailiffs.’
After the original buyer pulled out, a company has agreed to take the house in its current state for £103,000 – £85,000 below its valuation.
With £70,000 left on their mortgage, the Eastlands say even the proceeds from the sale will not cover the £60,000 cost of treatment.
While the surveyor found 10 dogs at the property, Mrs Eastland claimed there are in fact 18 living there.
‘The RSPCA actually gained access a couple of weeks ago […] and they found 18 dogs in the property. There had been quite a few the surveyor couldn’t see, because he couldn’t gain access the rooms, so he saw 10,’ she said.
‘Unfortunately the RSPCA said they couldn’t take the dogs because they had food and water, and they had shelter.’
has contacted the tenant and his solicitors for comment.