Council question--could we sue ?

danny3_2

Over the years we have reported several problems to our local council concerningbad tenants,vandalism,throwing items from windows (up to 12 floors up ) and more besides,we have all this on record including witnesess,my question is this,if someone is injured due to something getting throwen from a high window could we sue the council ?.The council have been made fully aware about the problem and who is doing it,but to date have done very little to prevent it happening.

tbs624

(1) Involve your local Councillor(s) - it's what they are there for
(2) Get other neighbours to join forces with you - do you have a Tenant Association in your area?
(3) Log all incidents with the police
(4) back up all complaints to police/council etc in writing and keep your own copies.
(5) Have a look at the Neighbours From Hell website

danny3_2

tbs624 wrote: »

(1) Involve your local Councillor(s) - it's what they are there for
(2) Get other neighbours to join forces with you - do you have a Tenant Association in your area?
(3) Log all incidents with the police
(4) back up all complaints to police/council etc in writing and keep your own copies.
(5) Have a look at the Neighbours From Hell website

Thank you for your suggestions,its a bit difficult to say too much here but heres whats happening on the great points you make.

1,We have involved them every step of the way,nothing has changed
2, Yes we do have a tenant association,the most active in the area,council have closed ranks on us and appear set on taking us on head to head
3,We do that
4,Complaints backed up and logged
5,Will look in to the web site

I know this all seems like the stuff of madness but the following realy is happening.

A tenant gets evicted for throwing stuff from the balcony,they are evicted from one floor in to a flat further up.

Tenants evicted from other areas moved in to our flat to continue the same abuse,despite several incidents they still remain

Tenants raided for having cannibas factory,s yet keep the flat.

I could go on and on but dont want to bore anyone,we have reached the stage whare legal action seems to be the only option we have left,we are fighting the powers that be hard with everything we have,the local press are very supportive but when it comes to getting support from council to enforce change they duck for cover,the legal route is now our next step,we just dont know how we would stand with this.

poppysarah

Find out whether there's a homewatch.
Ours has regular meetings attended by councillors/police/council staff for various departments.
It's worth getting them involved by going to meetings - there should be a set part of the meeting for discussing your complaints and problems.

When your councillors don't do anything useful - work out why ... And then meet with their opposition members and see what they can do to help.

Putting everthing in writing is a vital part of the process as is collecting evidence etc.

If the council fail to follow their procedures (You should know them better than them before you go much further) then you can get the local govt ombudsman in to do them for maladministration.

danny3_2

poppysarah wrote: »

Find out whether there's a homewatch.
Ours has regular meetings attended by councillors/police/council staff for various departments.
It's worth getting them involved by going to meetings - there should be a set part of the meeting for discussing your complaints and problems.

When your councillors don't do anything useful - work out why ... And then meet with their opposition members and see what they can do to help.

Putting everthing in writing is a vital part of the process as is collecting evidence etc.

If the council fail to follow their procedures (You should know them better than them before you go much further) then you can get the local govt ombudsman in to do them for maladministration.

Thank you Sarah for your post,i am trying to give as much imformation as poss without giving too much away regarding location,you never know who is reading the site and i always think suprise is the best weapon so tend to play things close to me chest untill we are ready to fire,but will do my best here.

I know the council procedures inside out,i spent 6 hrs last night going through them again just in case i missed something,i didnt and it realy appears that they are ignoring or at least not implamenting there own procedures.I tried to find the link or web site to the ombudsman but couldnt,the council seem to have made the site as hard as poss to navigate for some issues.As to the councillors,if poss could i P.M you on this ? what i will say is the tail is without doubt wagging the dog given that its councillors who are supposed to run a council.