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Landlords report increase in anti-social behaviour injunctions as number of incidents grow
The number of injunctions being served by housing associations against tenants across the country has seen a huge spike in the past several weeks as landlords deal with an increasing number of anti-social behaviour incidents during lockdown.
Inside Housing has spoken to a number of social landlords that have seen a rise in anti-social behaviour since lockdown measures were introduced in late March and are now working remotely with the courts to issue injunctions.
Isabel Varey, customer experience director at 32,500-home Stonewater, told Inside Housing: “We have seen a rise in the number of overall open cases of anti-social behaviour, which is understandable given the amount of time people are spending at home.”
She noted that the government’s eviction ban has caused some issues for landlords looking to remove challenging tenants, but explained that courts are still permitting emergency injunctions where situations are considered dangerous.
“We have had three emergency injunctions taken out in this period,” Ms Varey said.
Injunctions are used to prevent tenants engaging in disruptive behaviour by including the power to arrest if certain conditions are broken. Landlords have said this is a useful tool at a time when the government has announced a three-month ban on evictions, which may have been used to curb such behaviour.
Chris Grose, head of housing advisory services at Capsticks, said: “The eviction ban was of course for the right reasons, but the unintended consequences is that anti-social behaviour has also been lumped into no evictions and the risk is that perpetrators feel invincible.”
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Noise nuisance is one area that associations are experiencing a high number of complaints. PA Housing reported a 400% increase in complaints when compared with the same period last year.
Sharon Butler, tenancy solutions manager at PA Housing, said the association is working on several injunctions and added that her team is seeing around six new anti-social behaviour cases each day during lockdown, compared with two or three normally.
“That includes our domestic abuse cases and noise complaints,” she said.
Jacque Allen, chief operating officer at Your Housing Group, explained that the group is trying to create more tolerance among residents during the lockdown period and is looking to solve problems.
She continued: “We have had two separate households for which we have had to get court injunctions because they continue to breach social distancing guidelines.”
Lee Russell, partner in the housing management and property litigation team at Devonshires, told Inside Housing: “A number of factors have meant that we are seeking urgent injunctions on behalf of registered providers, including to prevent domestic abuse, during lockdown.”
He noted that courts have been working remotely in a “refreshingly robust way” by embracing remote hearings.
“If that continues, injunctions may become much more widely, and far more efficiently, used by social landlords even after the stay on possession claims is lifted.”
