Unruly tenants, where do we as neighbours stand ?

Lil_Dee_2

If there's anyone with any knowledge of where we stand with this one, I would greatly appreciate your input. We are a fairly quiet road, on a newly built estate, and for the most part we all get along rather well. However, there is one household that is creating some cause for concern (and more!).

The house, it seems, was financed by the bank of Mum & Dad, for a young man (late teens / early twenties) who was supposed to live in, and then rent out one/two of the spare bedrooms, to enable him to pay the mortgage. However, it seems he chose his 'tenant' whilst in the pub, and he himself has since moved back with Mum & Dad, leaving us with a tenant from hell.

Now, I know that the tenant is not the worst case ever, but, there have been several occasions where the police have been called (ie. 19/20 yr old girl vs. 19/20 yr old boy in middle of the road having a very noisy stand-up fight, with screaming, hitting, and punching on both sides). We have raised concerns about the noise levels, caused by the usual open windows, load music, exagerated by the placing of the speakers such that they face the open windows :mad:

We have young adults at all hours arriving/departing in noisy cars, several times 'guests' at this house have blocked driveways, as well as making the road almost impassable (when there's fours car loads of them trying to park outside the one house, it's almost quite alarming at the space you are left with to get past) and of course, the general noise and disruption that several noisy, drunken, slightly less than savoury young adults can make all add to the variety of sometimes almost intimidating behaviours. (The single female next door in particular has been victim to a rather unsavoury dialogue with a young man who had blocked her drive)

An attempt at an apology was made by the tenant, after the bigger of the two police incidents by putting a note through each of the neighbours door. It didn't exactly do much for relations, when the main point made to us all was that "it would help if you were less judgemental" :mad: :eek: :rolleyes:

Now, where do we stand in respect to making the LL aware of the problems we're experiencing, and making him do something about it?

Your help and assistance, as always, will be very gratefully received.

LD

nrsql

Can you have an informal word with the landlord? Could it be that he doesn't know anything about what's going on?
If they are causing a disturbance it probably menas that they are causing damage to the house too or at least may well do in the future.

The landlord might just refuse to renew the lease when it ends and everyones happy without being confrontational.

Hope you saved the note. Doesn't sound like an apology - more of a "why is everyone picking on me - I haven't done anything wrong" or "live with it".

trafalgar_2

When you say 'raised concerns' do you mean you and other neighbours have chatted to the tenents between incidents?

Bossyboots

Your council environmental health department is responsible for dealing with noise problems. Get onto them for advice. The landlord is now responsible for their tenant's behaviour. Environmental Health will trace them if necessary or you can download the property details from the Land Registry website and find out who owns it although that might not give you their current address. The EHD is probably your best starting point.

barnaby-bear

Lil_Dee wrote:

If there's anyone with any knowledge of where we stand with this one, I would greatly appreciate your input. We are a fairly quiet road, on a newly built estate, and for the most part we all get along rather well. However, there is one household that is creating some cause for concern (and more!).

The house, it seems, was financed by the bank of Mum & Dad, for a young man (late teens / early twenties) who was supposed to live in, and then rent out one/two of the spare bedrooms, to enable him to pay the mortgage. However, it seems he chose his 'tenant' whilst in the pub, and he himself has since moved back with Mum & Dad, leaving us with a tenant from hell.

Now, I know that the tenant is not the worst case ever, but, there have been several occasions where the police have been called (ie. 19/20 yr old girl vs. 19/20 yr old boy in middle of the road having a very noisy stand-up fight, with screaming, hitting, and punching on both sides). We have raised concerns about the noise levels, caused by the usual open windows, load music, exagerated by the placing of the speakers such that they face the open windows :mad:

We have young adults at all hours arriving/departing in noisy cars, several times 'guests' at this house have blocked driveways, as well as making the road almost impassable (when there's fours car loads of them trying to park outside the one house, it's almost quite alarming at the space you are left with to get past) and of course, the general noise and disruption that several noisy, drunken, slightly less than savoury young adults can make all add to the variety of sometimes almost intimidating behaviours. (The single female next door in particular has been victim to a rather unsavoury dialogue with a young man who had blocked her drive)

An attempt at an apology was made by the tenant, after the bigger of the two police incidents by putting a note through each of the neighbours door. It didn't exactly do much for relations, when the main point made to us all was that "it would help if you were less judgemental" :mad: :eek: :rolleyes:

Now, where do we stand in respect to making the LL aware of the problems we're experiencing, and making him do something about it?

Your help and assistance, as always, will be very gratefully received.

LD

Environmental health noise abatement, keep a diary - but luckily landlords now legally can be held to account, section 6 or maybe 7 of hosuign act that ccame in this year - orders can be served on landlord if fails to rein the tenants in

Lil_Dee_2

Nrsql - believe it or not, the LL actually comes back with the tenant to hold house parties on some weekends (sorry - should have mentioned this bit) so what I'm looking for is a legal responsibility, rather than moral, as I don't think the moral one would work. And don't worry about the letter - I will be keeping that for future reference, I can assure you !!

Trafalgar, yes, several of us have raised concerns, and basically we were told what to do with them. In a not very nice way.

Bossyboots, we are currently making a note of events, but it seems such a long-winded way of doing things, and without making ourselves a buisance to the police, how do we prove that these incidents are happening ? I read somewhere about these cases where you report noise, and ultimately you have to go to court to get them evicted - but you have to go and give evidence, so the unsavoury tenant knows exactly who to wreck their revenge upon :eek:

Barnaby - THANK YOU ! That's exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, Is this legislation anywhere to be found on the 'net, so that I can check it out properly ?

clutton_2

i am a landlady and have just evicted a tenant for exactly this. i knew nothing about it all (thought you were describing my street for a minute !!) until i got a letter from EHD with a copy of a letter from a "concerned neighbour" who had complained and EHD asked me what i proposed to do - as i am LEGALLY responsible for my tenants behaviour, whether i like it not - see 2004 Housing Act.

I spent 2-3 months visitng her, writing to her, explaining her rights and her duties and responsibilities. She improved for a while. Meantime, i asked neighbours (secretly) to keep noise/nuisance diaries which they could get from EHD. Without these diaries, EHD have no case to take to court.

BUT, with noise/ASBO type evidence, the tenants always say "sorry m'lud, a special birthday party, won't happen again" and the judge more often than not sends them back to the property !!!!!!!!!

But if you just ask for repossession of the property without having to give a reason, you do not need to provide this evidence and it cannot therefore be argued with.

I persuaded my tenant to leave of her own accord (she wanted her deposit back !!); but had she not left, she could have stayed where she was until i either applied to the court for repossession (she was on a periodic tenancy at the time so i could); of wait for the EHD to get a "body of evidence" to take to court.

HOWEVER - if the tenant leaves voluntarily, they are not entitled to Council rehousing. They need to wait till a Repossession order is granted by the court before the local authority will rehouse them.

This court order costs £150, and if you get one iota of info wrong on the form (all web-based) the judge will throw it out and you will have to do it all again for another £150 !!!!

Join a professional landlords association NLA for example, worth its weight in gold, and you get far cheaper insurance.

welcome to the oh-so-one-sided-legal niceties of landlord-tenant legislation !!!!!!!


sorry, just realised you are neighbours not new landlords !!


i would phone the landlord, not giving full name, or phone number and complain and complain and complain, make his life a nuisance. tell him of his legal duties/responsibilities.


will leave this here, as it may help others anyway.

TJ27

We have EHO's who are on call during the night specifically to attend such incidents as loud parties. We also have officers who are able to place recording equipment in neighbour's houses. And yes, it is a good idea to keep a diary. It's worth getting the council involved, although the service you will get might vary between areas.

jennifernil

As well as all the above, I would be looking to involve the "bank of mum and dad"! Or do they condone what is going on?

Mrs_Optimist

Is there anyway you can get hold of the phone number of the LL parents who are financing the whole deal? Everytime you have a problem, day or night, call them. If they get fed up with your persistence they may actually do something about it (rather than the LL who seems to be as much as a problem as the tenant)

tomstickland

"it would help if you were less judgemental"

Great. It might help him, but then again he should help you by giving you less things to judge about. Sounds like a bunch of losers to me.

I'd trace the bank of mum and dad and phone them up every time you have a problem. Keep a nuisance diary. Call round the neighbours and coordinate your own diaries and see how well they match up.