Dealing with landlord harassment
Harassment from landlords can take many forms but the most common are:
- going round and shouting and swearing
- coming into the property without asking first
- cutting off the services, such as gas and electricity
What should you do about it? Here are a few general tips.
1. Keep a record of events
If you are going to complain about the harassment you need to be in a position to say exactly what happened. Remember, memories fade. After every incident, you should go and write down what happened, and date it and sign it at the bottom. It will then be a ‘contemporaneous record’ which you can use in court if necessary. If there are a lot of events, keep a diary.
If you are a member of Landlord Law, we have a ‘diary sheet’ you can use to record specific incidents.
2. Write to your landlord about it
The first thing with any complaint is always to make a formal complaint in writing. You need to have shown that you have asked the landlord to stop the harassment and that he has failed to do so.
3. Contact the tenancy relations or housing officer at your local authority
Part of their job is to help people in your position. They can write or visit your landlord for you and perhaps bring a prosecution in the courts.
4. Consider bringing court proceedings
This is only for the most extreme situations, where you will be claiming for an injunction ordering the landlord to stop the harassment, and for compensation. Court claims are complex and (if you use solicitors) expensive, unless you are able to find a firm willing to act on a no win no fee basis. It will also take a long time, as court cases, particularly if they are complex, are often excruciatingly slow. However good results can sometimes be obtained.
5. Consider whether the landlord is justified.
Strictly speaking nothing can justify harassment, particularly the more serious kinds. However everything has a reason. If your landlord is a pensioner whose only income is your rent, and you stop paying, he is bound to be a bit upset about it.
If there is something in your behaviour which is causing the landlord to act in a way which you consider to be harassment, you should try to act in a responsible way and see if you can reach some sort of agreement. He may be coming round and shouting because you refuse to talk to him.
What is your experience with landlord harassment? Were you able to resolve the problem by any of the methods discussed above?
Note – read more in this Landlord Law article on harassment.
See more help for tenants on Landlord Law.
I would urge anyone in this position to contact their local Tenancy Relations Officer (based in the local authority). Not every authority has one, but some of the smaller ones usually have an Environmental Health Officer taking on this role too.
The officer can contact the landlord on your behalf, and as Tessa mentions, can sometimes prosecute the landlord using their Protection from Eviction Act 1977 powers. The officer can also signpost you to local solicitors who may be able to bring a civil claim against the landlord. In my experience, TROs also try and sort out the underlying issues and negotiate with the landlord.
As inferred above, harassment can take many forms yet whatever form it takes, the result is the same. Any unwanted attention from a landlord might feel like harassment and so the reason for the attention needs to be established before it can begin to stop. I know of a case in which a Local Authority landlord used CCTV in an attempt to gather evidence against a tenant (no evidence was gathered, notwithstanding the fact that CCTV was installed in an adjacent council-managed property for at least ten months). I wonder if that action could be deemed to be harassment.
I talk a bit about landlord surveillance here http://www.landlordlawblog.co.uk/2010/11/15/tenants-legal-help-my-landlord-is-spying-on-me/