A TENANT has been struggling to adapt his council home for his disabled daughter for 18 years because of a council error.

Peter Khan and his family of five moved into what they believed was a permanent home, a three-bedroom house in Maidstone Road, Palmers Green, in 1990.

His daughter, Sahara, 33, has a progressive neurological disorder called spastic paraparesis. She is incontinent and walks with a stick.

Mr Khan sought to buy the house in 1992, which is near the A406, but was told he could not because it was owned by Transport for London (TfL) and also earmarked for demolition.

The house is one of about 350 owned by TfL that have been the subject of several major redevelopment plans over the past 40 years.

This meant Mr Khan’s application for a grant from Enfield Council for major renovations to create a bathroom on the first floor was refused.

A letter from Miss Khan’s GP said she falls regularly because of her condition. In the letter, Dr Rajendra Singh, of Grovelands Medical Centre, in Palmers Green, said climbing stairs was “quite impossible” for Miss Khan and she needed a toilet and bathroom downstairs.

Mr Khan said social service workers visited the home in 2007 where an assessment was done and £35,000 of adaptation work was proposed.

However, he said the council was forced to backtrack when it realised the house was one of the 350 with an uncertain future.

Mr Khan, a freelance telecoms engineer, who moved to the UK in 1964 from Pakistan, said it was not until last year that the council admitted the house was temporary accommodation. It blamed an “administrative error”.

He said: “The council has messed me around. This is an emergency case. It should spend some money and treat it as a special case because it said it was a secure tenancy and now it is telling me it is not.”

He said his daughter has become depressed because of the situation.

“They keep telling her they will do something for us and it is not happening.”

Darren Welsh, Enfield Council’s assistant director of strategic housing, communities and enterprise, met with Mr Khan in March and agreed to look into the case and talk to TfL.

In a letter to Mr Khan, he said he had again looked into getting the adaptations done while TfL owned the property but he was “unable to overcome the grant requirements”.

Mr Welsh said: “We will continue to contribute to negotiations between TfL and a registered social landlord for the transfer of all the affected homes along the north circular.

“These negotiations are at an advanced stage and we believe represent the quickest way forward.” However, he said this could take time and the council would pursue other options in the meantime.

He added: “Your preferred option is for the council to buy back the property from TfL and we have agreed to keep this as an alternative, although there is considerable pressure on the council’s finances.”

The council has bid for £80 million from the Government to buy the A406 houses from TfL which it would then transfer to a social landlord.

Housing cabinet member Matthew Laban said he was hopeful that some money would be granted, but he was not sure they would receive the full amount.