Anti Social Behaviour - North Sheffield

 

Are you suffering from anti social behaviour? Are you aware exactly what anti social behaviour is?

 

The legal definition of anti social behaviour is “ Behaviour that causes, or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more people not of the same household”. As you can see, this is a very broad definition and covers a lot of things.

 

 

As a landlord, Sheffield Homes has many tools in its toolkit to tackle anti social behaviour, and one of the most important tools is you, the person aware of anti social behaviour occurring within your neighbourhood, either to yourself or others.

 

Once a tenant causing anti social behaviour is brought to our attention, we will normally send out an early intervention letter to the tenant who is causing the nuisance behaviour.  Tenants are responsible for not only their own behaviour, but also that of their household and their visitors. At no time do we disclose the identity of the person who has made the complaint to us.

 

The next stage in the process is for the person or persons experiencing anti social behaviour to complete detailed diary sheets with times, dates, detail and persons responsible for individual incidents. The patch officer that deals with your complaint will need to see your completed diary sheets at fortnightly intervals and will liase with you to collect these or for you to deliver them to the housing office.

 

Diary sheets are absolutely vital as they show both ourselves and, if it comes to it, a court of law, that the nuisance is persistent and ongoing despite Sheffield Homes intervening with warnings to the person causing the nuisance to moderate their behaviour and cease causing a nuisance to others. For those that have difficulty completing diary sheets due to, for example bad health, poor eyesight etc, Sheffield Homes will provide a Dictaphone to the reporter so that they can record a verbal diary account of incidents.

 

As the housing officer receives diary sheets they are able to take increasingly stronger enforcement action against the tenant who is causing nuisance (the subject). As mentioned earlier in this article, the first step is to send an early intervention letter. The aim of this is to draw the tenant’s attention to the fact that they are causing a nuisance to others. Quite often tenants are unaware that this is the case and this letter nips the problem in the bud.

 

If the nuisance continues beyond this letter, then the subject is called into the housing office for an interview and asked to put their side of the story, at the same time as being made aware that Sheffield Homes is monitoring the situation closely. Following this, another written warning is sent, confirming what was discussed at interview.

 

If nuisance still persists then Sheffield Homes serves a Caution, which is the last step before legal action commences. On continuing to cause a nuisance, the subject is then served with a Notice Seeking Possession. Continued nuisance beyond this Notice normally results in Sheffield Homes applying to court for possession of the property, allowing us to evict the problem tenants and their household. None of this is possible without evidence, and that’s where the public come in - they are our eyes and ears and we need them to give a first hand account of what is happening in order for us to take successful enforcement action.

 

Sheffield Homes works very closely with other agencies to enforce action against those causing nuisance, including the police, social services, RSPCA, housing associations and Tenants and Residents Associations.

 

Hopefully, this gives you an outline of what can be done to tackle anti social behaviour. If you, or anyone you know, is suffering from anti social behaviour, please do not hesitate to contact the ASB team by phone 0114 2930000, email enquiries@sheffieldhomes.org.uk or in person at our Wordsworth Avenue Housing Office or the local First Point at Station Road Chapeltown. Remember, we keep confidential the identity of those reporting anti social behaviour to us.

 

On Tuesday 26th August 2008, at Sheffield County Court, District Judge Mort heard an application from Sheffield City Council (Sheffield Homes ASB Team) to fix a date for eviction in relation to a Postponed Possession Order made against Amy McMillan, 23 years, of 91 Emerson Crescent Sheffield S5.

 

The original PPO had been made by His Honour Judge Moore on 5th September 2007 after a possession trial. Under the terms of the Possession order Miss McMillan was to make all reasonable attempts to pay her rent, claim for housing benefit to assist with the rent, not to make excessively loud noise in her flat, not to play music after 10.30pm in her flat, not to have more than four people in her property at any one time, not to have parties, to control her pet dog and not to leave her pet dog unattended in the flat.

 

Miss McMillan failed to make any impact on her rent arrears at all and apart from a few sporadic payments from September 2007 until August 2008, accrued arrears amounting to in excess of £2800. After, a period of calm when the PPO was made until November 2007, Miss McMillan began to make nuisance again and started to play loud music from within her flat, noisy visitors frequently attended the house and had parties, and her pet dog was continually left by itself and barked continuously, causing nuisance and distress to Miss McMillan's neighbours.

 

Miss McMillan occupied the property until very recently, but this has been unoccupied for the last few weeks and was left with a broken window and obscene graffiti on the walls inside the flat.

District Judge Mort set the date for possession of the property to revert back to the Council for the 9th September 2009. After this date, should Miss McMillan be in occupation of the property, the Council can apply for the Court Bailiffs to evict Miss McMillan and secure the property.

Miss Julie Wright, 41, of Monteney Crescent Sheffield, gave the undertaking to the court before His Honour Judge Swanson. The ASB team had applied for an injunction against her after receiving allegations from neighbours about excessive noise, shouting and swearing coming from her home.

 

 

 

Should Miss Wright, or members of her household or guests breach the undertaking, she could be brought back to court and if a breach is proved, could be punished by the court by way of a fine or imprisonment. Miss Wright was warned by His Honour Judge Swanson of such consequences if she was indeed brought back to court for breach .

On Thursday 22nd November 2007 Sheffield City Council's Anti Social Behaviour team were present at Sheffield County Court to take part in a hearing of the matter involving them and Mandy Gott, a tolerated trespasser of a property on Boynton Road Shirecliffe Sheffield. Ms Gott lived at the property with her two grown up daughters Sarah and Ann. Earlier in the year, the Council applied for an eviction warrant on the basis that Ms Gott and her family and visitors had caused nuisance and annoyance to her neighbours by shouting, fighting, swearing and making other loud noise which adversely affected the quality of life of her neighbours. The Gotts also failed to keep the family dog under control - who barked frequently and awoke and upset neighbours at all times of the day and night. Ms Gott applied for the warrant to be suspended on the basis that the family had quietened down and that most of the problems had been caused by visitors to her property - not by herself.

 

His Honour Judge Moore refused the application to suspend as he was not convinced that the situation would change for the better and that the neighbours had suffered greatly due to the disruption caused by the Gott family and their visitors - he did not believe Ms Gott's account that she did not recieve warnings from the council about her behaviour and that of her visitors. He had little faith in the fact that Ms Gott had said that the people who caused trouble would not be at the property again and they were the only people that caused nuisance.

 

His Honour Ordered that possession of the property was to be given up by Ms Gott and her family on or before 12 noon on Friday 4th January 2008.

Anna Pilgrim of Ingelow Avenue Sheffield was made the subject of an order for possession this morning at Sheffield County Court.

 

The tenant was made the subject of a Postponed Possession Order which was made in July 2006. This prohibited the tenant from making excessive noise in the premises and causing nuisance and annoyance to her neighbours. The terms of the order were that should she continue to cause problems for her neighbours, then Sheffield City Council could apply to court to fix a date for possession. Anna Pilgrim continued to allow excessive noise, screaming, shouting , banging and excessive music to emanate from her property. Miss Pilgrim was prohibited from having large groups of people visit the property after a certain time of night, but this also was ignored as she allowed groups of young people to visit the property and cause disturbance.

 

This morning His Honour Judge Swanson ordered that Anna Pilgrim must leave the property by Friday 13th April 2007. If Miss Pilgrim has not left the property by this time the Council will apply for a bailiffs warrant for eviction in relation to the property.

 

 

 

 

An eviction was ordered by His Honour Judge Moore on Monday 20th November 2006 against Leon Koffi - a resident of Council accommodation at Boynton Road Shirecliffe Sheffield.

 

Mr Koffi originally apppeared before His Honour Judge Moore on 11 October 2006. Sheffield City Council were seeking Mr Koffi's eviction on the basis that he was causing a nuisance to his neighbours by playing his stereo and his television at an excessively high volume.

 

On this date His Honour adjourned the matter until January to give him another chance to change his behaviour - however, he gave the council permission to apply for eviction before this date if the situation continued without improvement.

 

On the afternoon and evening directly after this hearing, Mr Koffi played music at an excessively high volume and continued to do this on an almost daily basis. Sheffield City Council applied for another hearing to bring the allegations to Court. The hearing was arranged for 20th November 2006 at 10.30 am.

 

At the hearing, His Honour said that he had warned Mr Koffi of what would happen if there were further instances of his neighbours being disturbed - he gave leave for the Council to apply for a warrant of eviction after the 27th November 2006 - This will be applied for as a matter of urgency after this date.

 

 

 

NO SECOND CHANCE FOR NOISY NEIGHBOUR

Sheffield City Council has obtained a possession order against a nuisance tenant whose behaviour caused misery to neighbours. The case was prepared by Sheffield Homes, the organisation that now manages Council properties and is helping to tackle anti social behaviour in Sheffield.

 

Claire Rae, of Musgrave Road in the Shirecliffe area of Sheffield, caused excessive noise by shouting and swearing late at night. She also used abusive and threatening behaviour to neighbours and two police raids took place on the property whilst she was a tenant.

His Honour Judge Bullimore granted a possession order on the property and also ordered that Mrs Rae pay £1389.29 in rent arrears. Mrs Rae did not turn up for her hearing and did not defend the claim.

 

Denise Fox, Cabinet Advisor for Community Safety said; "This case demonstrates that we can and do take action against people who cause misery to other residents. Eviction is a last resort but we cannot allow individuals to blight the lives of those living around them. We are determined to deal with anti social behaviour and will continue to take action against perpetrators."

 

 

Sheffield City Council obtained a Suspended Possession Order against a tenant who received a caution for possessing crack cocaine that was found in the property.

 

Trisa Stead has been the tenant of a property on Southey Hall Road since 18 November 2002. In September the police executed a warrant at her home and found crack cocaine and cannabis there. Miss Stead was arrested and in November was made subject of a caution for possessing crack cocaine.

 

Sheffield City Council applied for possession of her property because of the criminal offence that was committed at the property. This was a clear breach of tenancy condition 19 as contained in the booklet "You and Your Home ". This forbids tenants from causing a nuisance or annoyance to neighbours or committing illegal and/or immoral acts at the property. The possession of drugs in properties owned by the Council will not be tolerated by Sheffield City Council.

 

District Judge Mort made the possesion order in relation to the property and suspended this for a period of 18 months (until November 2007) on condition that Trisa Stead will not breach Condition 19 of her Tenancy condition as contained in the booklet "You and Your Home " during this time.

 

Should Miss Stead carry out similar behaviour during the next 18 months, the Council will make application for a warrant to enforce the possession order.