Here is a blog clinic entry from Claire:
I’m currently a tenant in a shared household that I moved into 3 weeks ago. When moving in I was told that it was a professional, non smoking household. I was not at the house the first week of tenancy due to a planned holiday. But when I returned, it was very clear that smoking was going on inside of the house and the the two girls who live here have just finished university and do not have jobs.
I text my landlord regarding the smoking, he sent me a reply that it was not a smoking house, and that he would be sending the other two girls a text to tell them that. The smoking is still happening in the house.
A few days later, one of the girls went out on a night out, returned at 2am with people she had brought back to the house, had various screaming matches with people and eventually at 4am the house became quiet again. This was on a Thursday night, i had work the next morning so again, I text my landlord saying that i was not happy as there was still smoking going on and that the girls are coming back at all hours of the morning and making alot of noise when i have to go to work. I did not hear back from my landlord, I had to text him again to see if he had recieved my text… in which he did reply that he had and was currently dealing with the situation.
The following tuesday the girls went out again and returned with a housefull of people at 2am, they were so loud that the neighbours threatened to call the police. The neighbours were also convinced that there were drugs in the house, after overhearing a conversation.
On several occasions that night I went downstairs and told them to be quiet. At one stage a guy who was brought back to the house, hit the girl living downstairs and refused to leave unless she went with her.
Eventually at 5am they left.
This time I texted my landlord saying that i still was not happy and that i was looking for another place to live as I do not want to associate myself with these people. Whos to say that if the police did come, that I wouldnt have been arrested as well! Or I could have been the one that was hit etc
I have still to hear from my landlord and it has been two days since I sent him the message.
I dont know what to do, I dont know what my rights are in this situation etc…
Is anyone able to give me some advice??
This is a difficult situation for you Claire. Your rights will depend on the type of tenancy or occupation you have and you do not tell us anything about this. I am assuming that you have signed a tenancy agreement, and suspect that it is for six months as that is also fairly normal.
You have to be really careful when taking up a tenancy as unlike many consumer contracts, there is little protection if you find, as you have, that the property is not to your liking. I did a couple of post on this a while back which I suggest you read. One of them is called tenants legal help – moving out of a shared house and the other is tenants legal help – do you get a cooling off period?
The best thing to do is to try to find someone to take your place. If you can’t and you really can’t bear it any longer, you could move out and hope that the landlord does not sue you for the rent. If he does you could counter claim for compensation for breach of the covenant of quiet enjoyment.
What does anyone else think?
Are you a landlord? 
For me this sort of thing comes up as a hypothetical question on training courses and I confess to not actually knowing the answer.
Shared living is always a compromise.I spent 5 years sharing with 9 others and, because it was a certain time of my life, I had a whale of a time. I’m not sure that the way we we arranged our lifestyle would have passed muster in a landlord and tenant law sense, or if we would even have survived a police raid,I can appreciate Claire’s point.
but as a now middle aged geezer with a daughter now living the same kind of lifestyle I would simply suggest
Move out and find house-mates more in keeping with your values. And I honestly dont say that sarcastically. I dont think the law comes into to it here
Are you sure you can counterclaim for breach of quiet enjoyment? Landlords aren’t usually liable for the acts of their tenants?
I know, its a bit shaky, but if the landlord mislead her about the type of tenant there might be something in it.
The best solution is to find a replacement tenant.
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a sledgehammer approach might be proceedings under section 13 & 14 of the trustees and trusts of land act 1996 on basis the trustees ie the tenanta who hold the tenancy as trustees for themselves won’t exercise their powers under s13
The trustees of land may from time to time impose reasonable conditions on any beneficiary in relation to his occupation of land by reason of his entitlement under section 12..
The conditions which may be imposed on a beneficiary under subsection (3) include, in particular, conditions requiring him—.
(a)to pay any outgoings or expenses in respect of the land, or.
(b)to assume any other obligation in relation to the land or to any activity which is or is proposed to be conducted there..
one might think an injunction might lie for truly unacceptable conduct in support of the coowners rights under s37 of the senior courts act 1981
unfortunately the provisions of s10 housing act 1988 cant assist because inter alia there is no eclusive occupatio by any such as to fall within s3(1)