Shapps to outline 'consequences' for rioting tenants

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Central Government, Local Government

Housing minister Grant Shapps has warned social housing tenants that "there will be consequences" if they are convicted of criminal behaviour in the wake of the London riots.

Shapps is due to make a statement tomorrow setting out powers for councils and housing associations, but has publicly backed, on Twitter, moves by social landlords to evict tenants involved in rioting.

Several councils including Westminster, Greenwich and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham have said they will seek to evict tenants found guilty of criminal behaviour.

Mr Shapps said today: "If you have a tenancy whether it's council housing or housing association, and you've been involved in this crime and been convicted, there will be consequences."

However, he'll have a fight on his hands, says one lawyer.

Nicholas Grundy, Head of Chambers at Five Paper, said that the stand alone grounds for possession might not cover the criminal behaviour observed in the rioting. 

He said: "There are grounds for possession that are stand alone grounds that don't have to be included as a term of the tenancy agreement.

"The ground which is to do with anti-social behaviour (ASB) is 'committed a nuisance', which relates to things coming from the premises or being convicted of an offence in the vicinity of the premises. So it has to be in the vicinity. If you live in Tottenam and travel up to Enfield that won't be in the vicinity. That's the first problem."

He said that although there are also grounds for possession from breaching the term of the tenancy agreement, "it's very unusual that the tenancy agreement would say that the tenant must not be convicted of any offence".

He said that usually the tenancy agreements "mirror" the other stand alone grounds and that possession will only kick-in if the ASB is committed within the "locality of the premises".

He said: "What interest does your landlord have of preventing you committing an offence somewhere else?"

He said there would also be complications around the fact that most of the convictions will be for young people living with their parents.

He said the standalone ground for possession covers "the tenant or a member of their household."

But added: "Very often it's difficult to establish whether somebody is a member of somebody's household. These grounds for possession are what are called discretionary grounds so the court will only make a possession order if it considers it's reasonable in all circumstances.

"If you've got a young lad whose parents have been separated, the question is, are they a member of the household? If they're only very rarely a member of the household the judge isn't going to evict the adult parents as a result of the wayward behaviour of their child.

"It's all dependent on what the judges want to do. The judges get to look at the circumstances in more depth."