A DISABLED pensioner has spoken about his battle to avoid being evicted from his home of 56 years.

Maurice Rich, 71, has congenital hyperthyroidism, a rare disease resulting from being born without a thyroid gland.

He lives in the family home in Kingsley with his sister Sue Rich, 61, and her son Brian, 29.

In 1961 Maurice's father, Clifford Rich, bought a piece of land and paid for the home to be built.

The family say he paid off the mortgage in 1980.

However, when Clifford died in 2004, the siblings discovered that he had signed the house over to his son-in-law four years earlier.

They claim the son-in-law re-mortgaged the property for £150,000 in 2003 and that payments had been made regularly for 10 years but then stopped in 2014.

With the son-in-law no longer in their lives, and the mortgage lender NatWest seeking to repossess the property, the siblings have been embroiled in a three-year legal battle to save their family home, which is currently valued at £400,000.

The family have held numerous meetings with the bank and have had three eviction notices, but have managed to delay the eviction through the courts.

Maurice’s acute hypothyroidism affects his ability to learn and has led to other impairments, including deafness and a stutter.

He told the Guardian he feels he has not been taken seriously during the legal battle.

In a letter to his solicitor, Maurice said: “I have a stutter and I have always been deaf. This is a barrier that has always got in the way.

"In court and at the last meeting, no-one asked me any questions, nor looked at me. It was as if I was not there, no-one has taken me seriously.

“I feel I am not needed on this planet, and this I feel is true. People laugh at me and talk as though I am not there.”

Sue said her husband has been in and out of their lives for the past 20 years, and said she doesn’t currently know of his whereabouts.

Sue said: “We feel like we’re in limbo. It is a horrible, horrible situation that we are in. It’s a nightmare.”

A spokesman for Natwest said “We are doing everything we can to help the family and sympathise with their really difficult situation.”