I have received the following sad story from C, a harassed and frightened tenant, whose landlord’s son actually damaged the door frame (right) when he slammed the door shut on his way out ….
10 May 2011: We pay the electric directly to our landlady instead of a regular electric bill. We paid her the £50 owed today, we had a receipt from her and everything was just fine.
A few minutes ago her son came over, walked right in and began to threaten and yell, claiming that we didn’t pay his mum enough money and that we owe her a lot more than what the numbers we’ve had from her show. We have everything written down with her signature and up until this evening it was all fine.
Her son was literally throwing us out, dismissed all the receipts we have and was unpleasant overall. I know that he’s not even allowed to walk in here the way he did, but our landlady is doing the same when she’s in that mood, no matter what it is about.
What on earth are we going to do about this? We thought of calling the police, but we have heard that they won’t do anything unless it happens over and over again and we have the incidents recorded in some way. It’s been happening during the past 4 years, sometimes for no apparent reason and unfortunately we have not kept any records.
But this is getting scary and I don’t feel safe around here any more. We have applied to the Council for help but have not heard back from them. We tried calling the inspector who is handling our case both yesterday and today, and left our name and number each time, but she’s always out of her office. So we have no clue where we stand. At Shelter the advice line is constantly busy.
Do you have any suggestions what we can do?
It is difficult to know what to say when the advice organisations which are supposedly there to help people in C’s position are simply not contactable. But this is the reality for many tenants who are being bullied by their landlords (or people acting for their landlords as here), and who do not feel safe in their homes any more.
A few suggestions:
- Always keep a full and accurate written record of what happened, and make sure it is dated. On my Landlord Law site I have (for members) a ‘diary sheet’ which can be used to record events such as this.
- Serious incidents should be reported to the police, even if you don’t think they will do anything, just so there is another record of the event.
- Consider changing the locks.
- See if you can find a solicitor who will be willing to act on a no win no fee basis, to apply for an injunction along with a claim for damages for harassment. You are unlikely to find one as few firms do this work, but you never know.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for C?
Bertie Bassett says
Offence under Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Report to police and to local authority.
Ben Reeve-Lewis says
This case is the kind of thing I have to deal with about 10 times a week.
Agree with Bertie Basset (real name????) definately a PFEA breach. I dont know where C lives but the council might have a TRO or advice team who could intervene.
Also dont forget Breach of covenanant for quiet enjoyment (civil claim)
C talks of the Police not getting involved unless it happens ‘Over and Over’ again. I presume he is alluding to the Prtoection from Harassment Act where the defintiion is “A course of conduct”. Unless it has changed I recall the Act mentioning 2 incidents, but I also know from freinds on the CPS that they would really look at it unless there were 4 or more similar incidents.
If it were my case these are things I would consider:-
Furstly, not ignoring the obvious, just contact the landlord and try to see if the situation can be resolved reasonably…..
If not, warn them of the possible breaches going on, which are – Section 1 (3)a;of the afformentioned PFEA – Emphasise that if they intend visitng the premises again they should give 24 hours notice in writing of their intention (Tenant not to unreasonably refuse) – Warn of Section 40 of the Administration of Justices Act 1970 (“A person commits an offence if,harasses the other with demands for payment which, in respect of their frequency or the manner or occasion of making any such demand, or of any threat or publicity by which any demand is accompanied, are calculated to subject him or members of his family or household to alarm, distress or humiliation;”) – apply for an Ex Parte injunction to put a halt to the harassment – Keep civil claim for breach of covenant for quiet enjoyment in the background – or as Tessa Suggests, given nature of allegation of harassment, advise tenant to change the locks to exclude the landlord.
Police? Sorry to raise this again and this is no slur on the police as individuals or a public service but when it comes to landlord/tenant matters it is highly unlikely that they will be of any use. If landlord assaults then charge them under that but keep it seperate from LL/T issues.
On any given case, I will use any of the above but I would always want more info before deciding which tools are the most appropriate taking into account what I know about the landlords, any info about the tenant’s actions etc etc.
Before anyone beats me up about the legal points above can I also state that in 70% of cases a warning chat with the landlord usually sorts it, especially iof you amiably and reasonably warn them of the ramifications of breaches. Plus a request for their tax refernce number for the rental income is a great attitude adjuster I find :)
Dave Hickling, Chair, Association of Tenancy Relations Officers says
I agree with Ben’s comments in terms of practical solutions but I would also like to see tenants complaining to their lead housing councillors, or even the ombudsman, if they get no offers of support or intervention from their local authority. Some local authorities provide really helpful and effective support in the scenario described by ‘C’ above but, even in these difficult times, it seems very unfair that some local authorities should be allowed to brush such problems under the carpet.
Tessa Shepperson says
Thank you for your comments Dave. Yes speaking to Local Councillors is an excellent idea. For anyone wanting to do this, you can get their details by ringing up your local authority switchboard, or they may be listed on the LA website.
If any readers want the Local Authority Ombudsman, the website is here: http://www.lgo.org.uk/
Yonnette Roberts says
On 12 May 2011 11:51, Yonnette Roberts wrote:
Hi there
I work for Havering council and we have note a mark increase in the number cases being report to our Service. We are very active in dealing with these cases normally, supporting civil action and obtaining injunctions. We have never taken criminal action against any landlord to date, because we are successful in negotiating with owners and re-instating tenants.
However, we note that the police are still telling tenants that it is a civil matter and refusing to help when landlords are attempting to remove the tenants out. I have recently contacted 999 after the tenant called while the landlord was at the property harassing the tenant to leave. The tenant was previously told by the police to contact the CAB or a solicitor. Then both landlord and tenant turn up at our Public Advice Centre to sort out Housing Benefit because the claim was suspended. The landlord after not getting his way, left stating that he was going to put her belongings out. The benefit staff noting that he was angry contacted my team and reported his action. It was then that I contacted him by phone telling him that he was about to commit and offence, his reply was violent and threatening and told me that “we can do what ever we wanted, he would pay the fine”. At this point I told him that the tenant would be returning to the property and if he changes that lock or throw that tenant’s items out we would be looking to obtain an injunction to reinstate. You could image his reaction. Fearing for the tenant, I called the police because I expected him to be violent to the tenant. I spoke to two officers one very senior and I was told that this is a civil matter and they would not be attending. Even after explaining, the officer was adamant that his officers would not be attending.
My question is have you received information to show an increase in harassment or illegal evictions cases from other Local authorities and what if any action is planned to raise this issue at a higher level such as the Government or to the Met.
I would be grateful for any information you have since LA staff level are reducing more and more and I am concern that the more landlords get a way with this action, the more it will happen.
Thanks
Yonnette Roberts | Environmental Protection & Housing Divisional Manager
London Borough of Havering | Public Protection
Mercury House, Mercury Gardens, Romford, RM1 3RX
t: 01708 432693 | f: 01708 432554
Tessa Shepperson says
Thank you for your comments Yonnette. My understanding was that if there was expected to be a breach of the peace the Police were supposed to attend.
Ben Reeve-Lewis says
Yonette first. In my news article today I mention Shelter’s statement about landlord harassment being on the increase and this is certainly supported by my personal experiences doing TRO work in South London.Also Tessa and I have written quite extensively on this site about the Police in such cases and the expereinces of people on the ground trying to deal with harassment and illegal evictions.
Tessa is right when she says the police should be involved where there is a breach of the peace but in my experiecne if they can see a landlord tenant angle they seem to use it as an excuse to not act. Somehow the logic being that if an assault has arisen from a landlord/tenant dispute, which they routinely view as a civil matter, then that negates it’s qualification as a criminal offence. Recently a tenant of mine was assaulted and carted off to hosiptal in an ambulance, while the police were in attendance but when I called the crime desk to get a report they had it logged as “No incident”.
And Dave. I am surprised and a bit disappointed at your comments on local authorities brushing these cases under the carpet.
I began my replies here by saying I deal with about 10 of these a week, that is not a random figure, I mean that literally. Cuts in services mean we simply dont have the resources to follow things through. I was in court 3 times last week geting injunctions. On one day I returned to the office at 1pm and was told there was another 2 illgeal eviction cases in downstairs for me. My co-TRO and I are simply drowning in illegal eviction and harassment cases but we dont have the resources to follow up.
There is nothing that I would like more than to make rogue landlords pay for their crimes but we cant.
A lock is changed, we force the lock, bung the tenant back in, threaten the landlord, keep our fingers crossed and move onto the next case in the queue. Shoot off to court to court to get an injunction for them, get their TV back off the landlord and turn to the next case. we do this day in day out, put sticking plasters on serious assaults and evictions because of cuts in public services, not because we lack the will
C says
Hello everyone.
First of all – thank you so much for your replies and advice. I guess what amazes me the most is the lack of interest from the police in matters like this. You would think that when violence happen within the doors of your own home it would be more urgent to deal with than at any other time.
What happened since Tessa wrote this post is not much. We are still trying to get in touch with our contact at the council, but without result. All phone calls at any given time of the day are going straight to the voice mail. Our contact at the council is also the person who is handling harassments in cases like this. The messages that my partner has left includes a request that we need a call back urgently together with name and phone number.
And I’m afraid that we don’t have any locks to change. The lock on our front door only works from the outside, and we have never been able to lock it from the inside. With the door frame destroyed it’s been impossible to lock the door from the outside as well during the past couple of days.
Our case is already being handled by the council since we had to report the disrepair and the bad state of the place we rent. Our landlord refuses to do any repairs since it’s considered being too old, and I can’t disagree about that. However, we never had any offer from the landlord to move to a better accommodation either. And there’s been no problem to charge us rent in spite of the poor state.
The council have promised to give us a new place within the next month. At least that’s what we were told a month ago.
We lived here for more than 6 years now and during that time we never had any 24 hours notice before the landlord “popped in”. And they never been professional either.
During that time we never had a Gas Safety Check and when we told the inspector from the council who was here, she seemed more sympathetic with the age or our landlord than anything. At the moment we cannot use the hob or the oven since we get a constant smell of gas in the kitchen from it.
The payments for the electric bill have always been a hassle since we never get the correct numbers the first time. Right now we have no clue how much we owe for May, even though that was a part of the reason why the son came down the other evening. It’s not easy to pay something when you have no clue how much you are suppose to pay.
I could go on all night, but lets say that at least I’m very uncomfortable being left on my own at home since the other night. (I’m a “she” btw). We will keep trying to get a hold on the council and we both read your comments here. So again, thank you for all your advice.
C.
Dave Hickling, Chair, Association of Tenancy Relations Officers says
Ben,
We seem to have crossed wires somewhere.
The last thing I intended was to question the will of individual officers to tackle these issues. My impression is that officers involved in this field are characterised by their determination and dedication. I was bemoaning the reluctance of some local authorities to take these issues seriously at the strategic /resourcing level and also, the lack of any encouragement from central government to tackle the problem. You’re experience seems to support this.
Ben Reeve-Lewis says
Yeah Dave I am sorry about my last post, no crossed wires at all, and no offence meant. I re-read it and realised I was knee-jerking on my own stuff.I am quite passionate about the injustice of the people that I see being pushed around, it takes over sometimes…..plus the guilt at how little I can actually do.
I dont think that any local authority lacks the will though, in terms of individuals within it, even senior managers. Everyone is trying to do the best they can. The fact is, the actions of rogue landlords are one of those hidden things. It is a huge problem that few seem to care about outside of those whose job it is to deal with it.
The quickest case I have ever dealt with, a landlord who admitted illegally evicting their tenant but wouldnt accept he had committed a criminal offence, took 18 months to get a summary (Magisitrates court) settlement. we won, and he was fined £400. To quote a character on the excellent BBC radio series ‘Down the Line’, “What is point?”.
‘C’. You have a really serious problem. Made more so by not being able to get hold of your local housng rights team.
I may even be the guy. I left work today with 76 unanswered calls on my voicemail. There arent enough hours in the day for me to deal with the amount of enquiries we have to deal with about violent landlords.
Wherever you live, go into the office. There are loads of things that need addressing on your case but the likelihood is that the people who are in a position to help you cant be contacted simply because they are endlessly in court dealing with cases that people dont think exist.
Most local solicitors dont know how to deal with landlord tenant matters, so your only recourse is your council’s housing advice team or a local law centre, (If you even have one left) E mail me (Tessa will give you my details) and I will try to refer you to someone who can help.
Jennifer Pillinger says
We are a legal aid firm in Southampton who deal with cases like this all the time for clients who are eligible for public funding. I know that there are not many legal aid housing solicitors about anymore but if people are willing to travel to Southampton for appointments we are happy to try to help them get injunctions, reinstatement and compensation. We also deal with disrepair, nuisance, possession proceedings and neighbour disputes. There are firms out there who deal with this type of work, you just need to really look for them!
Tessa Shepperson says
Thank you Jennifer, its good to know that there are still some firms out there doing this work!
Ben Reeve-Lewis says
Jennifer you would do well to contact your local council’s TRO or housing advice team. I guarantee they would welcome the assistance and would pass work your way.
The only reason I go to court so often is because we dont have any local legal aid solicitors who do these cases. the ones that do often cant make appointments quick enough to be of use in emergency cases
Jennifer Pillinger says
Thanks Ben, our firm is well known to the local Council and all the local CABs!
Ben Reeve-Lewis says
Excellent. I wish we had someone