Suing a Social Landlord

MCBIRNIE25

Hello all,
i want to sue a social landlord local to me for negligence over the anti social behaviour caused by their tenants.
I have been complaining to them for 2 years now, and have email logs to prove it. To date, nothing has happened. The anti social behaviour has worsened to the extant that my partner and I are now on a vulnerable adults list have had 118 police visits in the last 12 months and our relationship is being affected.
I have spent £1000 on cctv and an alarm for when I work nights but feel like a prisoner in my own home.
Anyone know the rules around a social landlord being responsible for their tenants behaviour? I would like to retrieve the costs of the cctv and enough to start again somewhere else.
I own my property on this estate, but will rent it out so I can move on and start again.

theartfullodger

Sorry to read your story.

Surely your claim would be against your neighbour(?s?) rather than his landlord?? And/or Police.

In Scotland landlords are sometimes responsible for their tenant's anti-social actions: But not if they are council or a housing association (funny that eh??).

Have you taken legal advice from CaB or a Solicitor??

Which country are you in please??

MCBIRNIE25

Hi, i am in England. Suing the family itself would be pointless. They are serial breeders who have never worked, and I mean no offence to anyone who has this lifestyle option, but they are on drugs and openly don't care what their children do.
My partner and I work 7 days a week, and had to scrape for a year to get the deposit for our home.
I would have thought a social landlord would have vicarious liability, especially when i've showed them evidence of my property being criminally damaged by their tenants.
The kids are to young for ASBOs, and the parents have been evicted form properties before for similar behaviour.

pmlindyloo

You have my utmost sympathy.

I am very much afraid that social housing landlords are very ineffective at dealing with anti social behaviour as all too often evicting the tenants leads to problems with rehousing and the whole circle starts again.

I am giving you this link

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/14873/1460701.pdf

but suspect that you have covered every avenue.

Have you contacted your local councillor/MP?

If you have a large CAB near you with a Housing specialist they may be able to help you take further action.

You may need to visit a solicitor who specialises in this area. Of course, solicitors will cost you, so maybe a no win/no fee one might be the way to go.

You could also try Shelter who are very experienced in these matters.

Despite the hooha about anti social behaviour it does seem extremely difficult to get anything done when the perpetrators are classed as (and I quote) vulnerable people.

MCBIRNIE25

Hello,
yes I have covered every action. The reason we are being targetted is due to the house builder not building our property according to plan. This is a long story, but we have no more money to sue the builder sadly, so I am looking for recourse with the social housing provider.
I am considering taking them on via the small claims court as that may be easier and more cost effective.
I've strived to find a no win no fee solicitor in Liverpool, but am struggling to find any.
As oyu say i have covered everything. My MP and I are friends, so he has tried to help, the police are here daily, but nobody seems bothered, even though we top the vulnerable adults list ourselves with the ASB team.
Thanks for your response.

pmlindyloo

Have you tried this?

http://www.lgo.org.uk/publications/fact-sheets/complaints-about-anti-social-behaviour/

MCBIRNIE25

Hi,
still waiting a response from the Ombudsman. I want to take action now though. After dealing with all this, my partner has told me she is suffering depression and feels suicidal, solely because of living in this property, so we need to move. I feel that monies I have outlayed because of the tenants should be recouped form the social landlord, after all, they have failed to do anything after 2 years of me raising concerns.
Back to my primary question though, can anyone see any reason why suing them would fail?

pmlindyloo

Based on this

http://search.conduit.com/Results.aspx?q=suing%20social%20landlord%20for%20anti%20social%20tenants&hl=en&SearchSource=1&SelfSearch=1&SearchType=&ctid=CT3196716&octid=CT3196716&CUI=UN27065365862382619&UM=1

it's not looking good.

Will keep looking for better news.

Edit. Sorry, link goes to google search - see link ''Subject; Anti social behaviour in Social Housing - Parliament''

ILW

MCBIRNIE25 wrote: »

Hi,
still waiting a response from the Ombudsman. I want to take action now though. After dealing with all this, my partner has told me she is suffering depression and feels suicidal, solely because of living in this property, so we need to move. I feel that monies I have outlayed because of the tenants should be recouped form the social landlord, after all, they have failed to do anything after 2 years of me raising concerns.
Back to my primary question though, can anyone see any reason why suing them would fail?

What would you expect the landlord to do?

kelpie35

I was in a similar position to you many years ago and I had to eventually move as the HA would not deal with the problem family.

My heart goes out to you but I don't have any easy answers for you.

kelpie35

ILW wrote: »

What would you expect the landlord to do?

Evict them.