Can you bring the Council to court over Anti-social behaviour?

Hi all,

This thread is about a girl I know that lives in a house estate in the same town as me. She's living in an estate operated/owned by the Council and her house is a council house. As far as I know, lots of houses in her estate are privately owned via schemes where you can buy your Council house from the Council once you meet certain criteria.

(I know in my own estate, which is also a council estate, a surprising majority of the houses are privately owned, so I'm just presuming the same is true of her estate).



Anyway, to get to the point, she's a fairly quiet girl, lives with her mother. Her mother is in her 70s id guess and the girl herself is probably mid 30s. Their house is an end terrace house near a roadside, and they have issues with teenagers hanging around the side of her house. She wants the council to sort the issue and has given proposals/solutions to the council that she thinks would work.


So far, nothing has been done. They've been in touch with the Council regularly, but no real response back to them at all. Since then, they've had a broken window and the stress/anxiety of having the teens hanging around a lot.


This is where it gets interesting (to me, personally):


She said her friend is a solicitor, and she was chatting to her about it recently. Her solicitor friend is apparently of the opinion that the Council have a duty of care to residents in estates managed by them.

She reckons that if the Council have been made aware of an issue, and have not within reasonable time-frame addressed the issue or responded in a meaningful capacity, then the girl in the house can apparently (not even 'can', but was encouraged to) begin legal proceedings with the Council.

She (the solicitor) is of the opinion that the least they'd get out of it is money to pay for any repairs that were necessary on the house itself (broken windows for example) but could also go in for suffering from stress, anxiety, etc and a general knockdown in quality of life.



This all seems (to me) to be a bit... i dunno... optimistic?

I know that approach will work with a pot hole (the Council will pay out for damage done by a pothole that has been alerted to them previously and wasn't fixed) but for some reason i can't see the Council taking responsibility here (although theoretically they are responsible for residents in their estates, regardless of whether they live in council housing or private?).


I just thought I'd throw it up here as people on here generally have a good idea of the law (or past cases that may be relevant). I find it fascinating. I live in a council estate myself, albeit i don't really get much hassle from anyone (though that wasnt the case about 20 years ago). If this is a legitimate route to address such issues id imagine it would be exhausted by now with people taking the Council to court?


Just wondering what other people's thoughts are?

famagusta

Talk to local councillor asap

pablo128

She needs to ring gardai every time there's a disturbance or incident and ask for a pulse number. She needs to be able to prove to the council that there is an issue. They will do something then.

Hi folks,

As far as I am aware she's onto the Gardai regularly, albeit she complains of no real response (perhaps its just not seen as important to the Gardai?). She has reported it in the station in person and gotten a 'pulse ID number' to fall back on (from what i understand, the gardai wont issue a pulse number or make a formal report over the phone, it has to be in the station itself). So she says she has a pulse number, but im not sure if she should have one for every instance?

She also has been in touch with councillors. She reckons one or two of them are in touch every now and again, but only when she contacts them, and usually just in a 'i'm working on it' manner. So far, obviously, no one has actually done anything.

nuac

Mod
She should consult solicitor.
Leaving open for general discussion subject to forum rule against legal advice

Dont suppose anyone has any other views or opinions on this?

Peregrinus

I'm not seeing how the Council as a landlord is responsible for the conduct of its tenants. It's one thing if the tenants' conduct is making the tenants' house itself hazardous or injurious to the neighbours, but if tenants are misbehaving in the street, for example, there is nothing a landlord can do about that, and I don't see how they could have any legal obligation to do anything about it.

splinter65

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Dont suppose anyone has any other views or opinions on this?

Whilst teenagers hanging around on the street outside her house is annoying, it’s not clear as to which law you think they’re breaking?
People can congregate on a public street. Remonstrating with them and threatening them with solicitors, Gardai etc is counter productive as they will invariably retaliate.
If they’re damaging private property then she needs to ring AGS every single time.
If they’re playing very loud music or shrieking and screaming then do the same.
But I can’t see anything else but just ignoring them really.

Phoebas

Why would this be a council issue?

If there was disruptive behaviour from council tenants from inside a council house, then I could see the council having some role, but these kids are outside on a public street .

Maybe she could start off by raising the matter with the local community Gardai.

Council tenants undertake not to cause any issues.

The council aren't responsible for the behaviour as such but they would absolutely be under onus to take action on a tenancy where asb had been proven

Whether that action would be effective or whether your friend would be opening themselves up to the risk of further and more serious asb......I wouldn't be confident