I am a divorced mother of one 10 year old child. My son and I have been housed by a housing association and have lived at the present address for a year and a half, I work full time and have had on-going problems with neighbours who are ex-travellers. It started about eight months ago when I complained to my housing association about their dog barking all night and I couldn't get any sleep. Several other neigbours have had problems with these ex-travellers and have either been moved further down the road away from them or right away from the area. They have been, in the past, taken to court to start eviction proceedings but the association have been unsuccessful for reasons I do not know about. I did, however know that this road had experienced problems in the past with undesirables and I had requested on my application form not to be housed down this road. A representative from the housing association, a housing officer, said that the problems had long been resolved and it was just a case of the road now having a rather bad name, with this in mind, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and took a tenancy here. I have since found out that the association knew about cases of outstanding complaints of harrassment that have been on-going, so therefore they blatently lied to me. I tried to involve the local authority and the police (who both knew about this family) but they did not want to get involved and said it was a case for the housing association to deal with. I was quite surprised that the police took this viewpoint as my son has been beaten up by the ex-travellers children in the first week of moving here (he hasn't gone out alone since) and has been threatened recently whilst walking down the road with me. We are now subjected to children in the street constantly shouting abuse at us, using foul language and throwing balls and stones at my car and house. The police also advised me that threatening violent behaviour was not a criminal offence unless life is threatened. They also told me not to approach them to ask them to stop harrassing my son and I as it is not safe to do so. I then involved the local MP who wrote to the police and local authority and they reiterated that it was down to the housing association to deal with. The housing association wrote back to say that they have a robust anti-social behaviour policy which they feel they have sufficiently put into practice. As far as I'm concerned the housing association has done nothing but visit on a couple of occassions giving the offending neighbours guidance leaflets on how to stop their dogs barking (which, incidentally are kept out all night).

November 27, 2008 by Anonymous

20 or 30 years ago the answer to your problem was simple and effective. These travellers are very clearly guilty of a civil nuisance, and you would simply go to your local County Court and obtain an injunction that they stop their offensive behaviour. Legal aid would be available for this.

Things then changed. Legal aid has effectively been withdrawn for such applications, and in its place the government brought in new procedures. Amongst these was an obligation on local authorities to protect people from antisocial neighbours and proceed against them on the part of law-abiding residents through the courts. At much the same time additional powers against what is also harassment were given to the police. There was only one problem. Insufficient funds were made available to local authorities for this extra work, and much the same for the police.

Although your case is by any measure extreme, the problem of getting either the local authority or the police to do anything about it is common. The local authority is most positively obliged to assist you and you have the legal right to insist that they do so. That said it is a right which is extremely difficult to enforce and apart from keeping pressure on them (and perhaps contacting your elected councillor) there is very little you can do. Much the same goes for the police. It is of course quite ridiculous for them to suggest that this very clear harassment, not to mention the threats and assault is not an offence. It is and the police have an obligation if reported to consider prosecution. It is however fairly common knowledge that some families such as these are almost immune to police action, possibly because of information on crime they provide to the police.

The stock advice which many solicitors would give in these circumstances is to move. It is not bad advice and would be your simplest remedy. However I'm sure you will have considered that and I accept it may well not be possible, and in any case -- why should you. I will look at other possible remedies.

The old remedy of applying to the court yourself for an injunction is still open to you. You would have to fund it however yourself. The cost involved would be recoverable in the order obtained but difficult if not impossible to enforce. The proceedings themselves however are not difficult and if you were prepared to act for yourself the guidance and assistance you needed in preparing the application would be unlikely to exceed £200 plus the court fee (although you could be eligible for an exemption). If you feel you might want to go down this road, let me know and I will tell you more.

The only other course open to you is either to persuade or force through the courts the local authority or police to take the action which you are entitled for them to take. Theoretically an order to compel them to comply with their statutory duty would be obtainable, but this would be far from a simple application, although the threat could have some result. They would also be the possibility of an action in misrepresentation against the local authority who clearly persuade you to take the tenancy on misleading information. This could result in the tenancy agreement being set aside, and the local authority would then be under a duty under the Housing Act to find you alternative accommodation. Thinking about it, as I dictate this, that might not be such a bad idea.

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