Antisocial behaviour possession claims

Ms Root was the trust’s assured tenant of a house in Clacton. Last March, the trust began a claim for possession alleging breach of the tenancy and nuisance. At the trial last September, the judge said Ms Root’s partner had been engaged in serious antisocial behaviour. He had established a business from the house repairing and scrapping cars. The garden was littered with debris.

The partner had also been guilty of domestic violence and had terrorised the neighbours and the trust’s staff. The judge said this behaviour had made the lives of neighbours and staff “intolerable”. He granted an outright possession order.

Ms Root appealed. She said the position had changed since an interim ASBO had been made last June excluding her partner from the house and a one-mile radius. She claimed she and her three children had done nothing wrong and the possession order should have been suspended.

The Court of Appeal dismissed her appeal. The tenant had had two years to address the problem but had done nothing. She had supported her partner’s claim that the neighbours and housing officer were lying. By the date of trial, she was still refusing to let the trust inspect the house and the garden remained unsightly. The judge had been entitled to make an outright order.