Authorities need to help landlords tackle anti-social behaviour

We have an excellent article above to start the campaign for previous article NRLA. Next one with actual facts about rent arrears repossession and both will show truth about the very small amount of actual "no fault" evictions. Then an ex-pose of how Shelter actually helps these undesirables rip off decent Landlords for£1000's. Need a good meeja person to produce it.

I went to a bank to report a fraud for an elderly man whose account had been hacked, and someone set up unauthorised Sky subscription, so the elderly man asked me to report this to his bank as he could not do it himself and was also very ill, next day he was taken to hospital, whilst I popped into the bank to stop that subscription Direct debit, but the bank (Barclays) were not interested in preventing this crime on the bases of Data Protect Act such that I could not stop that illegal payment, I offered the bank to call the Hospital where the man had been admitted to confirm and seek his approval through calling the Hospital but they would not stop that payment and refused to do anything unless I had written authority from the man., who was very ill. I refused to leave the bank premises unless it was done, so at closing time they had to call the police, who again were not interested in the facts that a fraud was taking place and I had come to prevent it, and to report it, instead I was given marching orders or I will be arrested and spent time in a cell.
Can we not do the same with rowdy tenants? those who disrupt peace of other tenants, and not pay rent on time, and wreck the place, try and do that in a supermarket, damage any goods, throw shelves full of goods onto floor, the Police will immediately come and arrest the culprit and promptly remove him from the scene and charge him for damage to property and anti-social behaviour, so why not change the law and make bad tenants responsible for bad behaviour and charge them for damaging property. Let us put bad tenants in that same category, Landlords do not evict any well behaved tenants, who take their responsibility seriously and pay their rent on time.

And there I was thinking that landlords are unpaid unqualified ASBO officers for Local Authorities and could be fined if they don’t act as such!

Having been through 20 months of this hell, with no help from the council or police (throughout lockdown!), I can say we are banging our heads against a brick wall. Even if it gets to court (after numerous delays and postponements by the tenant), ASB is only a Discretionary Ground, and judges will look for any opportunity to allow the tenant to stay.

In my situation, I had to wait for the 6 months arrears to kick in to ensure the Mandatory Ground, even though other residents were prepared to give evidence, including videos. But, without police or council action, I knew that Ground would fail. I should have allowed the other residents to take their own action somewhere in the 'locality'!

had a case of the same. One tenant totally causing chaos - damage to communal area, threatening the other tenant with GBH etc.
Clearly and obviously the tenant who was being harassed did not want to progress or make a formal complaint for fear of making the situation worse and potentially getting a kicking in himself!.
I got in touch with the ASBO team at the council - they did not want to know unless the single tenant made a complaint and even though I as the landlord and property owner could prove the damage he was causing. They refused to accept my personal evidence either as I didn't live at the property myself.
Eventually the Police got involved as the single tenant had enough and actually called 'anon' to the Police when the idiot started to kick the scared tenants door in while he was shouting he was going to kill him (I heard this over the phone myself)
EVEN then the Police did nothing as the nightmare tenant was not there when they got there.
I HAD to go down the S21 route in the end - mainly due to the damage being my biggest issue.
Its non sensical to have to prove for a S8 (and possession to be given) that a person has been convicted of ASBO first. It takes too much time to do this and rests on evidence that can't be obtained especially if it has to come from the victim who is still living there!

Reply to the comment left by DSR at 13/12/2022 - 12:52
I could have waited for the tenant to be banged up because he had also been arrested for downloading child porn using a neighbour's wi-fi. But the case had already dragged on for 12 months, with no sign of getting to court.

Reply to the comment left by Dennis Leverett at 13/12/2022 - 10:25
I can see there being a lot of demands for full criminal back ground checks and bank statements with a minimum of 6 months rent in the savings account as proof of affordability from either the prospective tenant or the guarantor. Well done Shelter - you reap what you sow.