taking a Landlord to court for tenants actions

Guest101

digger65 wrote: »

hi
we are owner occupiers with next door being privately rented from a local landlord with a number of properties
There is a letting agency involved but only on a collecting rent basis
Essentially we have had a lot of problems with the tenants loud arguments, swearing at each other late into the night and finally a rather worrying allegation (at full volume) from wife directed to husband involving child abuse!
Now as we have a small daughter i am obviously extremely worried
we have informed the police, they have visited 2 times previously in relation to noise however i found out today from the letting agency that despite many complaints to the landlord via the letting agency he has not done a single thing!
I am rather disgusted that he has seemingly not carried out background checks on these people and that he doesn't consider my families well being and safety to be of any importance whatsoever.
I personally consider his non-action to make him accountable as surely he has a social responsibility of some sort?
I am curios if anyone has ever taken a landlord to court on these terms or if anyone had any advice for us?
many thanks
D

What?!

Are you mad? He could rent his place out to a mass murderer and you couldn't sue him. It's his house, he can do what he likes.

No he has no responsibility to you, just as if they owned the property. You may have a case against the tenants (though im not sure, it sounds like 50/50 to me, and that's the way you've described it)

But you cannot sue the landlord because you dont get on with your neighbours. What planet are you on???

TopQuark

digger65 wrote: »

thank you for both your input and opinion
but i came here for neither, just advice on a matter effecting me and my family
if you have no advice to offer kindly stay out of this topic and your opinion is no interest to me

I'm sorry but you don't 'own' this thread, so please refrain from telling other people to stay out of it.

What do you think advice is on a public forum, if not input and opinion? Responses to your query may not be exactly what you want to hear, that's the nature of the beast I'm afraid.

I feel sorry for your noise issues, but unfortunately your options are limited, just as they would be if your neighbours were not tenants (and perhaps even more so, as the likelihood of owner-occupiers sticking around for longer is higher).

And I think you're being paranoid about the child molester thing tbh.

Guest101

digger65 wrote: »

thank you for both your input and opinion
but i came here for neither, just advice on a matter effecting me and my family
if you have no advice to offer kindly stay out of this topic and your opinion is no interest to me

You've been given plenty of advice, your ignoring it.

Sounds like you dont have enough drama in your life, because if you did, you'd be keeping detailed diaries and contacting the council.

The LL is nothing to do with this. He has no responsibility to you. You could be literally dying on the street and he could, legally, walk away. So why do you think he is responsible here?!

And no im not a landlord, im a tenant, and you're attitude is shocking.

Why do you think all landlords are rich? You are very naive, based upon your comments. I would seriously reconsider the responsibility of owning a house, your clearly not ready.

bewilderedhelpneeded

Im a landlord and I can give you my perspective.

Whilst I sympathise with your plight, you need to be speaking to environmental health. The landlord cannot just evict the tenants as they will have a tenancy agreement. He can write to them stating that he has received a complaint but legally there is nothing he can do as long as the terms of the tenancy agreement are being met. He can chose not to renew the tenancy at the end of the initial period or if it is past that then issue relevent paperwork to end it but that is all. But if they are paying rent on time why would he do that as he would have empty property and fees to find another tenant who might be just as bad.

The route you need to go down is environmental health - keep diary of dates and times and nature of incident. If they are having noisy partys etc environmental health have powers to convescate equipment and police will be involved to force them to stop. Councils have powers to evict council tenants but it is very difficult and takes long time. They cannot evict private tenants.

Have you spoken to your other neighbours? It might make environmental health take more notice if they complain too. Have you had word with your neighbours to make them aware their arguing is loud and upsetting you? Might make them tone it down a bit.

You have been given good advice here although it isnt what you wanted to hear. If you go onto your councils website and have a look under environmental healthyou will find info on what they can do and evidence you will need to collect

Werdnal

digger65 wrote: »

thank you for both your input and opinion
but i came here for neither, just advice on a matter effecting me and my family
if you have no advice to offer kindly stay out of this topic and your opinion is no interest to me

Public forum I'm afraid, you win some, you lose some.

Assuming I am one of the "both" you are referring to, where have I said anything that is not advice?

Guest101

Actually i'll give one other bit of advice, if you want to control who your neighbours are, offer to buy the house from the LL, then you'll have the say in the matter.

bewilderedhelpneeded

Short answer to your question - you have absolutely no grounds to sue the landlord of the property next door. No solicitor will take it on as you simply do not have a case against the landlord. If you chose to take it to court yourself ( would have to be small claims court) you would find yourself heavily out of pocket by time judge had informed you landlord did not have a case to answer and you had paid all of the landlords costs too. And going down the civil case route with court would mean you have to put a monetary value on your 'loss' and you havent lost anything! Its for environmental health/police to decide if crime has been committed and prosecute tenants on that basis. Quiet word to tenants by police might work once you have shown them your diary evidence if they decide its serious enough.

adouglasmhor

ILW wrote: »

Brumby v Octavia Hill Housing Trust
a quick google but there is more, i am sure some helpful soul here will pick the bones out of it and throw them at me while laughing atop their vulgar property portfolio telling me i am stupid or my grammar is incorrect while coining it in having already raised property prices beyond most ordinary mortals reach..extolling the virtues of greed and absolving themselves of any wrongdoing their tenants may wish exact upon us, we who really just want to be able to sleep safe and sound at night and make a modest return on our "homes" remember that word?

So how are your neighbours trespassing? Because that is what the case refers to. Did you read it?

bewilderedhelpneeded

Guest101 wrote: »

Actually i'll give one other bit of advice, if you want to control who your neighbours are, offer to buy the house from the LL, then you'll have the say in the matter.

Good point - this would be the only way to control who you live next door to but even then you couldnt just ask them to leave if you dont like their arguments. They would be protected by a contract and there would be official steps you would have to follow before evicting them. Your other neighbours could not sue you for anything if you were landlady and it was your tenants who were having noisy arguments next door! And you could not force them not to argue anyway!

Guest101

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

Actually it's tenants whom you are insulting.

You are implying they're lesser breed of people who require an authority figure to enforce strict behaviour rules (that only apply to tenants) so they don't offend the higher status home-owners.

And we are all basing this on the say so of the OP too.

You're absolutely right, from their point of view, this person is jeopordising their home. Trying to get them evicted.

By OP's own words, the arguments have been 2 ways.