A mother of two was evicted from her Bermuda Housing Corporation (BHC) home yesterday after running up "substantial" rental debts with the agency.

A team of workers from BHC's rental division arrived at the two-bedroomed property in Elliott Street, Pembroke, soon after 10.30 a.m. to take possession of the apartment she shared with her 19-year-old son and young daughter.

When BHC General Manager Vance Campbell arrived at the apartment, the woman and her family were nowhere to be seen, although, her belongings were still inside.

So, court bailiff Frank Roberts took possession of the home and officially handed it over to BHC.

The team of about ten workers gained entry to the property and began to bag up all of the woman's possessions over a two-hour period.

They then changed the lock on the door and secured the windows to prevent the mother from getting back in.

Mr. Campbell said the woman had been given plenty of warnings and notice about the eviction.

"When we get to this, we have already been through the procedures," he said.

"This is something we don't like to do, and it's something that we always hope we won't have to do. Eviction is a last resort.

"The public can rest assured that we have tried to work with the individual and have presented the person a number of options, and either the person has not lived up to the responsibility or has done nothing."

Mr. Campbell said evicting a tenant always followed the same process. An eviction notice was obtained from Magistrates Court on Monday this week and presented immediately to the family. In this case, it was personally received by the woman's teenage son at the start of the week.

The BHC team then arrive at the premises with a removal truck to help transport the tenant's possessions to where ever it is they plan to go.

If the tenant is present, they can inform BHC where they are going and where they would like their belongings to be taken. However, if the resident is not there, then the removal truck will take the items to BHC's lock up storage facility - to be claimed later.

"We will move her possessions, if we have the opportunity, and we will secure the premises," said Mr. Campbell.

"We will then look to see if there are any renovations to be done, and then we will move someone else in as soon as we can."

When the team realised the woman was not home, they immediately moved in and began to secure the property. They decided to leave her possessions inside, but changed the locks so she would have to visit the BHC office in order to gain access to them again.

Among the belongings in the home was the usual items that are common in any family home, including a small child's bicycle.

It was a sad situation to witness, but one that brought home the harsh realities of repeatedly not paying your rent on time.

Asked how many evictions BHC carried out each year, Mr. Cambell said he did not know, off the top of his head.

But he added: "It's not rare enough. Our hope is that we never have to do this. This is not something we take great pleasure in. One eviction is too many, but it is for the betterment of our entire client base. If we have someone not living up to their responsibility, it's incumbent on us, having exhausted all options, to make that property available to someone else."

And he said each case was different when it came to the length of time it took to reach the stage of eviction.

"It can vary, depending on each client," said the manager.

"If you start to comply then we back off. It's only in extreme cases, where we don't have the cooperation or commitment from the tenant to pay, that we take this step.

"I cannot say to you how much this particular woman owed, but it was significant. This process would have started months and months ago, or even longer."

And he said that if the property needed substantial renovation, beyond the usual wear and tear, then the woman may also be faced to foot that bill, too.

In recent months, Government has promised a crackdown on tenants who refused to pay off debts to BHC, and previous Housing Minister David Burch actively took a strong line.

He said it was unfair for BHC to suffer financial losses when there were people who were prepared to pay rent waiting for homes.

And while he said the policies had remained the same in BHC for some time, Mr. Campbell admitted that Mr. Burch had been very supportive of the rentals department when it was trying to execute those policies.

Court bailiff Mr. Roberts said he attended evictions to ensure that BHDC had access to the property.

He said: "These people (from BHC) are pretty generous with people. Sometimes they lock the house up and then give the family another chance to pay, or a chance to find somewhere else to, depending on the situation.

"I am sure this woman has had that in the past. We find that people in this situation tend to run from one place to the next. Where ever they go, the story is going to be no different.

"It's very sad, but true. Sometimes you simply cannot do anymore for people."