Welwyn Hatfield BC V Holloway

01 Jan 2018

Housing

The Luton County Court has made an outright possession order in respect of a secure tenant with four children under the age of ten (the youngest is 6 months old).

The Order was made following a three day contested trial where the Defendant had argued that the owner-occupiers in the street wanted to ‘privatise’ it and were fabricating complaints in order to persuade the council to take possession action against her.

An unusual feature of the case was that one of the residents giving evidence for the Council admitted writing a death threat which had been delivered to the Defendant. The resident stated in his oral evidence that he had drawn around a picture of a real firearm and made various anonymous threats because he ‘didn’t know what else to do’.

The Judge found that whilst this resident’s actions were ‘terrible’, a number of residents had been affected by the Defendant’s partner’s behaviour (as had been evidenced by their nuisance diaries) and that the behaviour had continued without any recognition of the impact it was having on others. An outright order requiring possession to be given up in 28 days was reasonable.