Advice needed on the powers of the Charity Commision

OpalElite

Please forgive me if this is the wrong place to post but thought it maybe the best place.

We have a neighbour from hell. My parents own our house and the neighbour is in a property run by a housing associaition that is a charity.

We have had this woman threaten us with knives and to "Blow up your house" on several occasions. We had CCTV installed to capture this as the police did not believe us. They have now charged and convicted her of threats to kill. According to the housing association policies they have more than enough evidence to evict her. This is the problem they are refusing to evict this woman. There is no other organisation that can help us as my parents are homeowners.

Sorry if this sounds garbled but we had been living in fear for the past five years and this is not the first time. A decade ago when the housing association bought the property they put in a known pscyotic (not known to us). She had a long history of very violent unprovoked attacks. When she attacked my father that left him disabled and smashed up our house the association chief exec refused to acknowledge that she had done anything wrong, even when she pleaded guilty and was given suspended sentence. They only moved her on as the court imposed an injunction that meant she could not come anywhere near us, the housing benefit was stopped and then they moved her on.

The current tenant has always been a bit weird and we treated her like a village idiot, but it was when we started assualting us that we really wanted her moved. Because this is a charity I want to know what powers the Charity Commision have? Can they remove the charitable status? Can they fine them for not adhering to their own policies on anti social behaviour? Basically can they do anything to this association to scare them.

Just to clarify we loved the tenants that the council had in there before, and before that the private owners were mostly ok. It is impossible for us to move, I am visually disabled through an industrial accident so I can not go out and work to get a mortgage. We are stuck in a house that should be worth 1/4 million yet it is worthless. All our health has suffered and to have death threats with your name shouted through the party wall is not harassment according to the police.

If there is anything anyone can suggest we would be grateful. Our MP does not get responses from letters so has given up, the housing ombudsman can not help as my parents own our home and there is no one in the country who can force this housing association to adhere to their policies.

Oh we did take the current one private through the courts ourselves, £50k on the judge was annoyed at his golf game being interrupted so he found her guilty of harassing us but would not give her an penalty or imprisionment. The law has failed us.

I hope someone can either help us or at least warn others of what having a housing association property next door to a privately owned one means in terms of saleability of their home.

Helen

Reluctant_spender

The charity commission over see the setting up of a charity. Have you checked their website - http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ You will find a whole lot of info here aswell as the housing charity.

Have you made a request for information under the freedom of information act to see the policies on nuisance neighbours?

The charity commision cannot just wind up a charity all they can do if there are suffiecient grounds is to remove the trustees and replace then. This can not happen over night. Look at the above website and input the name of the charity it will give you the trustees name - you could then write to them direct.

Another thought if the housing authority are a public authority then Human Rights may kick in.

OpalElite

The problem is I am visually disabled and although using a laptop means I can do things when it relates to anything that is upsetting then my eyesight gets a lot worse. We have the anti social behaviour and the nuisance neighbour policies, each item that it says is an evictable offense then this neighbour has done it. She has broken every clause that could result in her eviction, yet they refuse to do so.

The reason I wanted to know if the charity commision can do anything is I do not want to waste my time trawling through pages of text if they can not help us. I had phoned the general helpline but I was told to refer to the online documentation and as I said that is something that will be very hard for me to do.

I am sorry that I have not posted everything we have done but it would take so long and I did not realise how much I had typed before, thank you for the response but apparently we do not have any human rights. We have no rights to privacy, (she openly takes photos of us inside our living room which is at the back of the property and not overlooked) no rights to not be harassed in our own home.

As I said this happened a decade ago with their first tenant, I believe they are doing the denial again so they do not lose revenue, their chief exec etc are all still the same people. When I have looked on their website and in their policies they constantly refer to profit. Seeing as they are a charity I was hoping that the charity commision would be able to take away their status so they have to pay tax etc.

Basically can the charity commision take away their charitable status and maybe fine them? I do not want to commit to go through text if they can not help us.

Helen

GiveItBack

I guess that you don't really want this to be public? It sounds like the kind of thing that most newspapers would love to talk about. Tragically it's also one of the best ways to get organisations to pay attention.

OpalElite

GiveItBack wrote:

I guess that you don't really want this to be public? It sounds like the kind of thing that most newspapers would love to talk about. Tragically it's also one of the best ways to get organisations to pay attention.

We are believing that making this public is the only way to go. All the information that we have given to the courts is viewed as public and we really can not see a way out of this situation. We are desparate.

So please if you have any suggestions of people to contact then let me know.

The housing association is Circle Anglia formerly Circle 33 and a decade ago I knew that they had complaints in the hundreds at a solicitors in Bow but unfortantely I never got more information. I hate to think of others having to go through what we have and still are today.

Helen

GiveItBack

is this near you?

http://www.easf.org.uk/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Suffolk+Media

OpalElite

I am in East London so unfortantely not. Although I understand that Circle 33 recently merged with another housing association and that is why they include Anglia in their name now.

Do you have any suggestions on the best people or organisations to publicise this, only I do not have a clue. I am not thinking straight as it is and now I am fighting a nervous breakdown as well. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Reluctant_spender

Have you contacted the company direst, there details are listed below and freely available from their website.

Circle Anglia London and registered office
Circle Anglia House
1-3 Highbury Station Road
London, N1 1SE
T: 020 7288 4000
F: 020 7288 4001
Minicom: 020 7288 4007
Email: [EMAIL="info@circleanglia.org"]info@circleanglia.org[/EMAIL]

The other option is to contact your local citizens advice bureau or as you have stated your are visually disabled is there no organisation you could turn to.

I would have thought the very fact that you neighbour already has a conviction for harrassment should assist in future claims and if you are being mentally bullied then you could argue that this is a form of assault - speak with the citizens advice bureau.

OpalElite

Our solicitor is in touch with the solicitor firm that represents Circle Anglia. That is how we got their policies. The conviction for harassment happened this time last year and we took it privately because the police were doing nothing. A representative of the housing association was in court and claimed that we were racist when she had never even met us. Although in correspondence with our solicitor previously she had claimed that certain things were happening and we proved her wrong on each occasion - that is why this woman has a vendatta against us (I know sound paranoid but we have evidence to back this up). CAB suggested to get our own solicitor which we have already got. We have tried councillors, MP, housing ombudsman, and the local council but no one can make this housing association evict her.

It all boils down to if they do not want to evict her there is not a person or organisation in this country that can make them adhere to their own policies. In the past they have always denied their tenants behave and they are doing the same now.

Our MP has written to the chief exec but our complaints are always handed down to this woman with the vendatta against us. It took over a year before they let our solicitor be in contact with theirs. They have even gone to the extent of trying to stop me going to court by saying they will sue us if we keep reporting their tenants behaviour - especially to the police. So they want us to get stabbed to death and that will solve the problem for them.

jobbingmusician

The answer to your question is that the CC are a toothless (and ineffectual, IMHO - and MHO is widely shared in the charity sector) bunch.


However, do not despair. Circle Anglian is of course a Housing Association. HAs are regulated by the Housing Corporation, who have a lot more teeth! Try searching around on http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/

It is also the informal view of the CC, as I understand it, that HAs should not be charities - I think it is now quite difficult for HAs to register as a charity! (I could be wrong about this last bit, though, and would be interested to hear the views of other MSEs)

OpalElite

jobbingmusician wrote:

The answer to your question is that the CC are a toothless (and ineffectual, IMHO - and MHO is widely shared in the charity sector) bunch.


However, do not despair. Circle Anglian is of course a Housing Association. HAs are regulated by the Housing Corporation, who have a lot more teeth! Try searching around on http://www.housingcorp.gov.uk/

It is also the informal view of the CC, as I understand it, that HAs should not be charities - I think it is now quite difficult for HAs to register as a charity! (I could be wrong about this last bit, though, and would be interested to hear the views of other MSEs)

Thank you for the link. I thought that there must be someone out there to have had a similar problem before. I was also unable to find any info on whether the charity commision had enforced anything.