Evicted, locks changed, no notice...

BitterAndTwisted

The gulf between the offences Fire Fox mentioned and this one, as I see it, is that they appear to have been committed in the heat of the moment where this very nasty piece of work of a landlord planned it in cold blood and didn't appear to know or care about the consequences to the OP. If that doesn't deserve the harshest penalty I don't know what does. Of course, a magistrate or judge when deciding on a suitable penally has to take into account the risk of re-offending, which in this particular case I would have guessed at nil or practically non-existent. A shame really, as I'd love to hear of this dreadful woman spending a night or two at her Majesty's Pleasure.

RedXIII_2

What would be the best advice for people to avoid this situation?

Is it avoidable at all?

lynzpower

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

The gulf between the offences Fire Fox mentioned and this one, as I see it, is that they appear to have been committed in the heat of the moment where this very nasty piece of work of a landlord planned it in cold blood and didn't appear to know or care about the consequences to the OP. If that doesn't deserve the harshest penalty I don't know what does. Of course, a magistrate or judge when deciding on a suitable penally has to take into account the risk of re-offending, which in this particular case I would have guessed at nil or practically non-existent. A shame really, as I'd love to hear of this dreadful woman spending a night or two at her Majesty's Pleasure.

but we dont know this and nor does the OP.
If the OP phones the private sector officer at the council they may well have a number of complaints about this woman from previous or other tenants. She might have done this before and got away with a fine.

We just dont know.

[Deleted User]

If a person wanted to find out if someone like this has previous convictions.., can u just phone a court? Do u have to be a solicitor to find out? Or is there somewhere else u phone (I see the private Sector officer mentioned above, but don't know what they do exactly)?

lynzpower

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/eviction/harassment_and_illegal_eviction

this might help get a view on who-does-what

terryw

deannatrois wrote: »

If a person wanted to find out if someone like this has previous convictions.., can u just phone a court? Do u have to be a solicitor to find out? Or is there somewhere else u phone (I see the private Sector officer mentioned above, but don't know what they do exactly)?

Basically nowhere.

Try "google"

poppysarah

If you're really nosey you could ring the local press - they report on crime and have good memories as well as an ear to the ground. If you give them a snippet of gossip about a nasty landlord they might look into it as it's a great human interest story...

GDB2222

Rather than speculating about what is appropriate, you could look at the magistrates court sentencing guidelines and look for something comparable. http://www.sentencing-guidelines.gov.uk/docs/magistrates_court_sentencing_guidelines_update.pdf

You might start at page 70 (different sort of harassment, though) or page 35 (burglary). First offence burglary, with low value goods stolen, would indicate something like a community service order, but I'm not a magistrate so I'm not sure. I'd expect this to rank higher than that, though.

clutton_2

i think this is a truly shocking episode and brings good landlords further into disrepute

i would suggest however, that if courts have the option of fines and/or prison - that for a first offence with no violence against a person that they are more likely to give a hefty fine... if offenders do not pay fines i believe they can be taken into custody....

poppy10_2

poppysarah wrote: »

If you're really nosey you could ring the local press - they report on crime and have good memories as well as an ear to the ground. If you give them a snippet of gossip about a nasty landlord they might look into it as it's a great human interest story...

Yep. The local papers love human interest stories, and if your case gets media attention the police are more likely to prioritize it - sad but true.