I attended the antisocial behaviour conference in London on 15 November 2004 and was very encouraged by John Priday’s presentation of how they had obtained injunctions (18 February, page 32).

We are only a small rural association with just over 200 homes. We don’t have a big problem with bad behaviour as most of our tenants are local families and are well known within the community. But we did have one family on a private estate who were causing significant nuisance through noise. Neither mediation nor using social services helped.

Following Priday’s presentation, we made an application for an ex-parte injunction against the tenant and her partner. It was a little nerve-racking attending court, and we had a few problems we had to iron out using “guidance on being a witness” from the court services website, but we got an injunction.

The good news is that the nuisance has stopped. The tenants are aware that if they breach the injunction they can be fined or sent to prison and this has had the desired effect so far. Having been through the process once we would certainly use the injunction route again.

Bryan Powell, housing manager Shropshire Rural Housing Association

Source

Housing Today