Under the terms of the Tenancy Agreement, tenants are responsible for their own behaviour, and for that of anyone either living with, or visiting them.  If we have evidence that the tenant or other household members have breached their tenancy conditions, we can serve a legal notice on the tenant, and ultimately can ask the Court for permission to evict them.  

The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 gave social landlords new powers to deal with nuisance tenants.  Evicting people from their homes and making families homeless is now seen as a last resort after other options available to us, such as Injunctions and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders to encourage troublemakers to amend their behaviour have been used.  This is because Injunctions and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders prohibit people from engaging in nuisance behaviour, whereas evicting anti-social tenants simply moves the problem on and leaves their behaviour unchecked.  

In Court, a Judge has to consider whether it is reasonable to take someone’s home away from them.  A Judge may decide that it is not reasonable to award a Possession Order, or to postpone the Possession Order on the condition that the tenant complies with their Tenancy Agreement from then on.  However, if the person responsible for causing the anti-social behaviour holds an Introductory Tenancy (usually within the first year of them being an Ashfield District Council tenant), the Judge must allow us to take possession of the person’s home if a breach of tenancy is proved.