LHA Help Please

jenando999

I am urgently needing to move out of my housing association flat because of problems with anti-social neighbours. I have always shied away from renting privately because of the high rents but when checking on entitledto and reading a few threads on here it seems I would actually be paying less than I am now even though the rent is higher.

I work 25 hours per week and get WTC and CTC, does this sound correct because it doesn't make sense to me lol.

Jowo_2

Think very seriously about giving up your lifetime secure tenancy with cheap rent to go into the insecurity and potential poor management of properties by private landlords. There are millions of people on the social housing waiting lists who would covet your tenancy.

Is there any reason why you don't have any confidence in the anti-social processes your social housing landlord or local council has in place? Or a mutual exchange.

Cheap rents in social housing offer a great ladder into employment and higher income ,whereas the high rents in the private sector operate like a benefit trap, taking away more of a person's income as their income increases.

BERFFRO

The number they give out is the maximum entitlement, Because you are working 25 hours the figure would be slightly less. Phone your local council they might estimate of how much you would receive.

jenando999

Jowo wrote: »

Think very seriously about giving up your lifetime secure tenancy with cheap rent to go into the insecurity and potential poor management of properties by private landlords. There are millions of people on the social housing waiting lists who would covet your tenancy.

Is there any reason why you don't have any confidence in the anti-social processes your social housing landlord or local council has in place? Or a mutual exchange.

Cheap rents in social housing offer a great ladder into employment and higher income ,whereas the high rents in the private sector operate like a benefit trap, taking away more of a person's income as their income increases.

I understand what you are saying Jowo but the situation with my neighbours has become unbearable. It has been going on for over ten years and has escalated to the point where I have gangs of teenagers trying to smash my windows and kick my door in.

Police are doing what they can but none of my other neighbours are willing to state that they have witnessed anything happening and the housing association are totally useless at dealing with the problem. The council's anti-social team can't help because we are not council tenants and housing associations are supposed to have their own procedures in place.

I cannot be rehoused by the local authority or get a management transfer to another housing association because I am "adequately housed".

Jowo_2

How far up the chain have you escalated the HA issues? Have you spoke to Shelter for advice, seen a local councillor for support? What has been the HA response to your reports?

Have you thought about installing a hidden camera to catch the anti-social neighbours to provide evidence that would help speed up their eviction rather than lose your home?

Perhaps the neighbours would come forward if they knew the Police had concrete evidence and could prosecute them or the HA will issue a warning to the neighbours on the basis of your evidence?

Post a summary of the problems you are experiencing with the neighbours on the Housing forum to see if people can give you extra tips and advice in how to tackle the problem rather than have to move away from it.

I take it that your relationship with your neighbours will make it hard to find someone to transfer with you, I assume you have to 'fess up to this kind of thing to the prospective swapper?

Blackpool_Saver

Just get away from the place, there are loads of nice private rented properties out there, especially now....

Jowo_2

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

Just get away from the place, there are loads of nice private rented properties out there, especially now....

There probably are but the house forum on this site is stuffed full of posts by people who have been served notice once again by a landlord and have to scrape another deposit together and shift their belongings again.

Not to mention those complaining about slow or no repairs by their landlord and so forth.

jenando999

We have tried many things including mediation, the main family involved have had many warnings from the HA but the problem is they know how the system works and will keep themselves out of trouble for a few weeks knowing that our HA will clear all previous complaints from the system. I have pointed out how ridiculous this is to the HA considering the problem has been going on for so long but they say that's how it works and they have to give people a chance to change their behaviour! My point is that over the course of ten years the behaviour has only gotten worse.

And yes unfortunately we are duty bound to tell any swappers about any problems with anti-social neighbours, and to be honest I would feel terrible putting another family in this situation.

Oldernotwiser

Move if you feel you must but remember that you have no security in private rental and might have to move every 6 months.

Jowo_2

jenando999 wrote: »

We have tried many things including mediation, the main family involved have had many warnings from the HA but the problem is they know how the system works and will keep themselves out of trouble for a few weeks knowing that our HA will clear all previous complaints from the system. I have pointed out how ridiculous this is to the HA considering the problem has been going on for so long but they say that's how it works and they have to give people a chance to change their behaviour! My point is that over the course of ten years the behaviour has only gotten worse.

.

How about speaking to your local councillor or MP about the HAs bizarre policy whereby neighbours are free to blight other tenants for the best part of a decade because the HA regularly expunges historic complaints? Make them aware that the HA essentially ruins building a case against the tenants to evict them by regularly forgiving them! And that it has actually lengthened the harassment suffered in the area because the tenants feel they are allowed a handful of tenancy breaches each year instead of a handful across their lifetime tenancy.

Get someone on board to challenge the HAs policy to ensure they start to class all issues across their actual tenancy rather than the current model where they have modified their behaviour to aggravated other tenants by the number of times each year they know they can get away with it.

Ask the MP/councillor to make representations on your behalf so the complaints process builds a case that includes all reports during the length of a tenancy instead of dividing them by annual occasions, which dissipates the impact on paper, but not on the neighbourhood.

Ask them to a Freedom of Information request on your behalf (or do it yourself) to the HA asking them for the entire total of anti-social and tenant related breaches reported at that address across the entire tenancy, then broken down by years, plus the amount of times the HA has intervened and issued warning letters to the tenants. This will provide evidence that overall, you've been suffering from tenants from hell for a decade while the HA shrugs off all previous years incidents by giving them a clean slate each year.

Speak to Shelter about your options to address this through the HA ombudsman or similar. Speak to a solicitor to see if you have any grounds to take the HA to court for failing to honour their obligations towards you.

jacnorm

We moved from our council property where there was a lot of anti social behaviour and we are in private rented and to be honest its been the best move for us. We have been here for five years now and love the place mind we did look carefully at the area etc before we moved. When you are trapped with youths behaving in this manner nothing ever seems to get done quick enough and though people are trying to help they are not the ones left frightened in the house at the end of the day. As blackpool-saver said just move and get some peace.