Circle 33 Housing Trust
Mr and Mrs M have lived in their home in London for almost 20 years. However for two years, three teenage girls living in the flat upstairs made their lives unbearable.
The girls regularly hung around with friends outside Mr and Mrs M’s home and caused a lot of noise and covered walls in graffiti. The girls poured paint onto their car and threw a concrete block through their front window which was very upsetting and made Mr and Mrs M feel very anxious.
“The anti-social behaviour destroyed our quality of life for two years,” said Mrs M. “We couldn’t relax in our own home or sleep properly.”
Mr and Mrs M didn’t want Circle 33 Housing Trust, which is part of Circle Anglia, to evict the residents but despite trying to get them to change their behaviour, nothing worked. They then decided that eviction was the only answer.
Mrs M was asked to keep a diary of everything that happened and report all noise to the council’s environmental health department.
“We tried to sort the problem out but in the end the only thing left was to evict the girls. Keeping the diary was important in case we had to go to court and it was useful to see the extent of the problem.”
Amanda Ross, customer service manager at Circle 33, added: “We looked at different ways of tackling the problem but the girls were making life dreadful for their neighbours and we had to be tough. We won’t accept this type of behaviour.”
Success stories: Cambridge
For two residents in Great Cambourne, Cambridge, life became unbearable because of anti-social behaviour caused by two of their neighbours.
However, Circle 33 and residents worked together to evict the couple after it was decided enough was enough.
The couple caused problems by rowing day and night, playing loud music, having frequent visitors and dumping their rubbish in neighbouring and communal gardens. They were also alleged to be taking drugs.
Their neighbours, Mr and Mrs J and Mr S, were tired from having disturbed sleep and were under a lot of stress caused by the behaviour of the couple. Circle 33 and the environmental health office had warned the couple but they would not change.
Finally they were taken to court and a number of neighbours gave evidence from diaries that they kept. The court agreed that the behaviour should not be allowed to carry on and that an eviction was necessary. However Circle 33 decided to give the couple one last chance to change their behaviour or be evicted.
This still didn’t work and the disturbances carried on. Circle 33 had no option but to return to court and get the couple evicted.
Customer service manager Wendy Cornell said: “The couple caused so much misery for their neighbours. We gave them several chances to change their behaviour but they were not sorry for what they had done and did not care about their neighbours. We won’t tolerate behaviour like this and they ended up losing their home.”
