Do I have a case against the council?

[communication1]

I am looking for a lawyer who deals with council queries.

A little back story: 1 year of antisocial behaviour. Council didn't move us in time. The guy set our flat on fire deliberately and tried to kill us while we slept. Sadly someone passed away. The guy has been charged with arson with the potential to cause injury and manslaughter.

I would like to take the council to court for negligence, physical and mental trauma.

Ps. We escaped by jumping from 2nd floor flat, threw my then 3 and 4 year old children out of the window. We also lost everything.

They could (and should) have taken proper action against the antisocial tenant.

He should have been evicted and his flat given to someone on the housing list who wasn't a vile terrorising arsonist.

Thank you, I'm so thankful we made it out alive. Bit it should never have reached this because we could have also died.

The ASB was directly affecting us as tenant lived directly below us. It did affect the other residence but because it wasn't directly above/below their flat it wasn't as bad as us.

Well you see, what happens when the council has two tenants, and one poses a serious danger to others, breaching their tenancy, is they take fucking action. Not leaving a family to be burnt out of their own home.

And whats your excuse in regards to the police?

He was due to be evicted but it takes months sometimes more to get someone out.

His eviction was approved in Jan, so he held a vendetta against us as he blamed us for the eviction and that's why he started the fire. I first approached the council before June 2023.

No, I would still think it was a police issue. If the man has made threats and carried out previous crimes, I would want to know what action had been taken. Even more so if the OP were a home owner, because she would be even more stuck, with no option to be moved.

I genuinely think this is a criminal issue rather than a housing issue.

Highly unlikely you'd win a claim against the council for negligence or breach of contract - there's quite a bit of case law (previous court decisions from the Court of Appeal and Supreme court) that basically says they aren't responsible for the acts of third parties in properties demised to that third party where the council hasn't essentially encouraged the behaviour.

However I'm sure the Ombudsman would be sympathetic and will probably find maladministration given what you've said.

I don’t have one. It’s absolutely a police matter.

I know honestly. There was just no urgency from their part at all.

Op admits they were taking action. He was about to be evicted.

Yes thats what im saying too.

See also the UNs the rights of the child.
My local authority, and I'm sure yours is, have to take into consideration the rights of the child (ie right to safety, freedom form hard etc) in every decision they make.
So when your neighbour was causing chaos, and escalating did your LA forget the owe a duty of care to the children too. I bet they did.

The police were notified and did nothing. The police is equally to blame as they advised the council it was safe for us to return to the property when we ran and begged them to help us. That time, we were threatened by one of the drug dealers that visited the property on a regular basis.

Two tier policing.

They didn't care plus my eldest was autistic and she suffered the most with the ASB.

@communication1 You say ITV are coming? Might be an oppertunity to bring up the class issues the force has Its not just misogyny that is a problem

Don't forget, I also mentioned the ASB was occurring before June 2023. It shouldn't have taken this long. This is my issue.

Yes, that's a great point. Thank you for that.

I'm so sorry this has happened to you OP x

Thank you x

That would all be covered by household insurance through wouldn't it?

Never mind rehousing OP the council shiuld have evicted the neighbour. Easy way around housing shortage.

My upstairs neighbour is in and out of jail. Domestic violence, assault, drink and drug.... council do care. Rest of building is families with very young children 3 of whom (1 of which is mine) are disabled. Added to which its a large 3 bed home with 1 single man living in it (whn not in jail or in hiding). Yet the council do nothing. Lost count of times police have been at my door (or breaking his down).

If he is found guilty of a crime against you and/or your family you will be compensated via the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board so I therefore don't think, if that's the case, you can be compensated twice.

Really sorry you've had to go through this.

Not that this isn't a horrific case of course.

OP approach the police and ask for the log of all incidents reported by you in relation to the ASB.
Ask your neighbour to do the same, so you get an idea of quite how many times they were called.
Then approach your council for Subject Access Request relating to the ASB. This should include meeting notes, actions to take, and what they were advised to do by the police.

Then, when you have the full info, go through it, painstakingly to identify any mistakes, any times the council workers or police didn't take it seriously and get legal advice.

I have my own experience. My druggy neighbour, in the middle of a cannabis induced psychotic episode decided he was my partner and climbed onto my balcony, entered my home and demanded sex. I fled, called police, demanded the council rehome him. They refuse. I pleaded, begging them, I was not safe in my own home. They ignored me. He started stalking me, knocking on my door at 3am, harassing me.
He called 999 saying I had locked him out (of my flat), police knocked at 3am demanding I let him in because I was locking him out of his home. They would not believe me when I said he didn't live here, was my neighbour, and was harrassing me.
I slept with a knife under my pillow for weeks.
I ended up emailing the tenancy office every single incident, every door knock, every stalking incident, and doing the same to the neighbourhood police.

Eventually, I had an apology from the police And the tenancy officer had him committed for a while.

He's been as quiet as a mouse since.