Allegations and invalid eviction served by housing association

LindaT66

After the officer told me about the washing, I no longer dried it outside.

After the officer said the TV should be off at 8pm, I complied (funnily enough my TV isn!!!8217;t usually on past this time as I sleep very early anyway) but since the officer said this, I have complied. So for those two reasons to be listed on an invalid grounds for eviction, I!!!8217;m a bit confused.

moneyistooshorttomention

HA's do do checking to see who is telling the truth/being reasonable or otherwise in my experience.

One person complained about noise from my flat one time (NB: I'm a pretty quiet person by any standards) and, when I told them that the noise complained about was:
a. My hairdryer being used after I'd had morning bath
b. It was being used at about 8.30am

that was the end of that and they obviously decided it was the neighbour being unreasonable (as it clearly obviously was in that case).

One can see that sometimes they do need to check the facts if they're getting a "He said / she said" scenario (as I imagine they often do).

elsien

So if it wasn't an S8 or S21 what exactly was this "invalid eviction notice"? A letter? Some other sort of form? Something tacked to your front door? Any hints you are prepared to give as to what it actually said?

LindaT66

It was a letter, stating that I have two months until I am evicted, with a specified date on after which it I hadn!!!8217;t provided notice to leave, it would be taken to court for possession. Included was grounds for eviction - Washing outside, noise and ASB due to visitors.

I took it to a specialist housing advisor who said that it was an attempted eviction notice but wasn!!!8217;t on the prescribed form and didn!!!8217;t have a section on it. It was delivered through letterbox.

moneyistooshorttomention

Hmmm.....how do you know for sure that this "eviction notice" was really from the HA?

One would have thought HA's would be more au fait with proper procedures than that. Has the thought crossed your mind a neighbour might be sending you a "fake" notice?

Cakeguts

LindaT66 wrote: »

It was a letter, stating that I have two months until I am evicted, with a specified date on after which it I hadn!!!8217;t provided notice to leave, it would be taken to court for possession. Included was grounds for eviction - Washing outside, noise and ASB due to visitors.

I took it to a specialist housing advisor who said that it was an attempted eviction notice but wasn!!!8217;t on the prescribed form and didn!!!8217;t have a section on it. It was delivered through letterbox.

Unlikely to have been from the HA then because they would have got it right. Could it have come from the person who is making these false statements about you? Is the HA visiting often to check that you are not being harrassed by the person making these false statements?

LindaT66

My housing officer called me two days later saying I haven!!!8217;t heard from you in response to the eviction notice, to which I explained that I had receieved it. The officer the proceeded to tell me I needed to give one months notice before the date that was on the eviction notice.

Since then, my housing advisor at my local council has had a meeting with the officer so it!!!8217;s definitely from the HA. Baffled that a housing officer and HA would send out invalid notices - it doesn!!!8217;t sit write with me and seems like it was a way to get me to leave quietly, without questioning. Don!!!8217;t know but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that this has happened.

[Deleted User]

But telling a tenant to turn tv off at 8pm is a bit OTT. No one can be expected to do that surely.

I tend to watch what TV programmes i want, through my pc, with headphones but that's because I move around and use the headphones to block out outside noise. But this is an option for the OP. But I still think expecting a tenant to not have any TV after 8pm is ridiculous.

In the tenants position, I would refuse to do visits unless I could have a witness present (except audits) to make sure there are no misunderstandings (Shelter or the council might possibly help with this as the OP's tenancy has been in danger) and I would tell the HA that any conversations and instructions should be given in writing, at the time or later to make sure no understandings.

The problem is, if the OP makes a complaint, its his word against the Housing Officers, with no proof of what was actually said. And no prizes for guessing who the HA will believe. He might possibly be misunderstanding what was said, the HO could be very bad at communicating. I know I have ASD and I misunderstand things, take things too literally that are meant to be passing comments and get quite stressed about these passing comments, not knowing which comments are a hint I need to take notice of and which ones I can just laugh at and ignore. I am making no judgements here, I have had people overstep the mark as well.

So the only way to eliminate that and to make the HO more careful what he/she says is to have a witness present at all visits/meetings. I still find, although Housing know I have ASD they don't seem to have a filter for what they say. They know I can react OTT but just shrug their shoulders, its my fault for 'over reacting' not the fault of what they said and how they said it. Fortunately by now I only communicate with them in writing.

I don't know if making an SAR would help the OP collect evidence but not sure what data could be provided (like with the complaint records, there might be data protection problems with getting records of those). OP would have to pay something to the HA for this. https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information/

Cakeguts

I have no explanation as to why an HA would send out notices that are not valid. There doesn't seem to be any point in doing it because if the HA wanted to evict you they could just take you to court and get you evicted so there doesn't seem to be any point to the invalid notice.

If it wasn't on the prescribed form it seems as if the person it came from didn't have access to the correct paper work. Are you sure that the housing officer who is visiting you is the same person that the council housing officer is speaking to? I can't understand why an HA officer would keep calling in on you when they are supposed to have an appointment with a different tenant. I think you are right to ask them to follow the correct procedure before visiting you.

Does the housing officer who visits you show you their identification from the HA when they visit? If so is it always the same person and do you know their name? Have you tried asking the HA if this person actually works for them?

LindaT66

Yes - I can!!!8217;t believe that it is something that would be done either. This person is the exact same person, same name on their ID and on the invalid eviction notice, and the person my housing advisor called in front of me during my appointment at the local council offices - my housing advisor had to leave a message as housing officer wasn!!!8217;t in the office.

I!!!8217;m left thinking that the housing officer doesn!!!8217;t know their job, or worse yet they deliberately did this thinking I would move out without asking questions or getting advice elsewhere. But yes, this is definitely the person who keeps popping up at my door and signed the letter.