February 01 2010
You Need Protection (But Don’t Ask the Council)

It might reasonably be assumed that if you are a council tenant with neighbours who are likely to use violence against you and you inform your landlord of this fact, the council has some degree of responsibility for making sure you are protected. However, following two recent cases, one in the Court of Appeal and one in the House of Lords, this appears conclusively not to be the case. In each case, the council landlord was made aware of the violent tendencies of neighbours and in each case did nothing. In each case, the tenant who complained was attacked and subsequently sued the council. Both tenants lost. In principle, no one owes anyone else a legal duty of care to protect them against the criminal acts of a third party. You cannot normally rely on a third party, such as your council or the police, to protect you from violent neighbours, although you can try to persuade the council to apply for an anti-social behaviour order or similar order.