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17 September 2009
Categories: Legal News , Local government , Public , Housing , Community care
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Ex-tenants’ “housing” vendetta

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Court of Appeal rules council acted legitimately against anti-social former tenant

A local authority was within its rights in applying for a “housing-related” anti-social behaviour injunction (ASBI) against a man who harassed his former neighbours but was no longer a council tenant, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

In Swindon BC v Redpath [2009], Lord Justice Rix, considered the meaning of “housing-related conduct” in s 153A(1) of the Housing Act 1996.

The case turned on whether there was “a sufficient nexus between the local authority and its ex-tenant in respect of his anti-social behaviour against victims in the neighbourhood where he used to live so as to justify, in jurisdictional terms, the local authority’s continuing pursuit of a further anti-social behaviour injunction against its ex-tenant,” Rix LJ said.

The ex-tenant, Michael Redpath, had been evicted in 2006 from a secure tenancy in a village near Swindon following a series of alcohol-related incidents and a determined campaign of harassment against a neighbouring couple, who were home-owners. His behaviour continued. In 2008, the county court granted

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