A hospital worker today told how his family faced homelessness when two charity groups threatened to evict them from their Bradford home.

Matloob Hussain said he and his daughters only escaped being left on the streets after his solicitor overturned a move to have them evicted made jointly by the children's charity NSPCC and animal charity the RSPCA.

The family had been living in the Girlington home rent free while the owner was in a nursing home.

When he died it was bequeathed to the two charities - and they decided to sell the house.

Mr Hussain, 41, wanted to buy the home but claimed the charities' representatives had acted "heartlessly" during talks to acquire the property.

The Bradford Royal Infirmary porter said the agreed price was raised £3,600 days before the deal was to be signed. But a joint statement from the NSPCC and RSPCA said they had "bent over backwards" to be fair.

A spokesman said although Mr Hussain agreed to buy the house, he made no progress for a year, forcing them to take legal action.

The new price of £17,600 reflected the time passed, legal costs incurred and the fact that his brother had actually become the buyer.

He said contracts were now set to be signed on a compromise price of £15,840 - well below the market value and taking the family's situation into account.

"But we, as charities, have a duty to ensure that we achieve a fair market price for assets bequeathed to us."

Mr Hussain said: "I had moved there in 1996 after being made redundant. A friend had been looking after the house and said I could stay rent free."

The house, in Westfield Road, had stood empty for sometime before Mr Hussain and his daughters Samina, 12, and Nina, 15, moved in.

"It was in a real state. Vandals had got in and started a fire in the kitchen. The water pipes had been stripped and it needed a lot of work," he said.

Mr Hussain said he had spent much of a £3,000 redundancy package on making the terraced house habitable.

Then, in 1998, a surveyor arrived to assess the property for sale after its original owner - who was living in a nursing home - had died.

"I could not get a mortgage but my family managed to club together to get the money," said Mr Hussain.

But, days before deal was to be signed, the price was upped to £17,600, he said.

"I couldn't get the extra money and they had also served an eviction notice upon me. It was absolutely terrible - I just didn't know what to do. It was the worst time of my life, thinking my daughters could be left homeless."

Jaroslaw Stachiw, of Stachiw & Bashir, Mr Hussain's solicitors, said: "If the judge did not suspend the eviction, this would have had a drastic effect on the family. I was shocked that charity groups had taken this very uncharitable action.

"Although one of them was working with children, they were prepared to make two girls homeless."