Landlords’ rights and responsibilities: Dealing with anti-social tenants

When tenants engage in anti-social behaviour, landlords are often left wondering what rights they have and how the eviction process works. Grace Hughes, Legal Adviser at ARAG Law, tells you what you need to know.

How does the law define anti-social behaviour?

Antisocial behaviour is generally defined as “…behaviour by a person which causes, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to persons not of the same household as the person.”

Common examples are excessive noise, graffiti, littering, vandalism or large groups outside a property causing alarm or distress. Whilst there may be a wide range of behaviours that could constitute anti-social behaviour, not all behaviours give landlords the same rights when it comes to evicting the tenants.  Legal advice should be sought on how the anti-social behaviour affects landlord’s rights.

How can landlords prevent or deal with tenants causing anti-social behaviour or nuisance and what powers do they have?

There are a few things that landlords can do to try and prevent taking on tenants that may become a problem for anti-social behaviour. Landlords could look to carry out pre-tenancy checks such as obtaining a reference from the prospective tenant’s old landlord or trying to obtain a general character reference from somebody reputable such as an employer. Some local authorities hold tenant accreditation schemes which allow landlords to contact the local authority and find out whether the prospective tenants are recognised as good tenants.

Anti-social behaviour can often involve incidents of excessive noise. To try and mitigate such issue landlords could look to install soundproofing (particularly in flats) within their property.  Landlords could also look to include specific terms regarding anti-social behaviour within their tenancy agreements. By including such clauses, landlords can ensure their tenants are aware of their responsibilities as tenants and should an anti-social behaviour issue arise landlords could look to rely on those clauses when needing to act.

Further preventative measures that landlords could take can include talking to the tenant as soon as there seems to be a genuine issue with their behaviour. Landlords should be emphasising that it is not acceptable to behave in such a way and warn them that they are in breach of their tenancy terms. Where multiple conversations are taking place landlords could also remind tenants that there may be consequences should they wish to continue behaving that way. It would also be wise to follow up any conversations that landlords have with their tenants in writing as it could become useful evidence if the issue progresses further.

What do you as a landlord need to be aware of?

Landlords are not obligated to act against a tenant when they are in breach of their tenancy agreement and are generally not liable for nuisance tenants.

However, where landlords fail to take reasonable steps to stop such behaviour, or that the behaviour was evidently authorised by them, it can be argued that responsibility should fall upon the landlord either wholly or partially with the tenant. Landlords should therefore take anti-social matters seriously as they do not want to get themselves into a legal battle with third parties who are suffering from their tenant’s behaviour.

Landlords are also not alone when faced with such issues. They can contact the police or any relevant departments within their local authority to see whether there are any steps they could take to help the situation.

On what grounds can I evict tenants for anti-social behaviour / nuisance?

Eviction should be treated as a last resort. To lawfully evict tenants’ landlords would firstly need to serve notice. Landlords could look to serve a Section 8 notice where they would need to provide certain grounds on the notice that are set out in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988.

If a landlord is dealing with a case of serious anti-social behaviour, they could look to rely upon ground 7A which is a mandatory ground if the legal criteria is met. Landlords are urged to take legal advice to ensure notices to tenants are in the correct format before serving.

What evidence does a Landlord need to show that a tenant has been anti-social?

The court will expect landlords to show that their tenant has been anti-social. Evidence that may be useful could include the following:

What are the rules for repossession in cases of anti-social behaviour?

The amount of notice landlords are required to give tenants for repossession varies depending on the grounds used. Where a landlord is seeking to rely on ground 7A the minimum notice period is 4 weeks for periodic tenancies and 1 month for fixed term tenancies. As a landlord you have one year to commence possession proceedings for eviction. For assured shorthold tenancies this runs from when notice is served on the tenant.