Housing Association Pays Tenant £31,000 Over Neighbours’ Racism

RACIAL ABUSE - A leading housing association has been condemned by a court for failing to support a tenant made homeless after a racist campaign by neighbours.

London & Quadrant (L&Q), which accommodates 250,000 people across London and the south-east, ignored a code of practice on protecting tenants from racial harassment and was guilty of defensiveness and insensitivity, according to a county court judgment issued last week.

Lara Tate (not her real name), a young black woman who lives alone, was forced to flee her London flat in 2015 after nine months of racist abuse from a neighbouring family that culminated in death threats. The couple were convicted of public order offences and racially aggravated harassment, but L&Q failed to evict them or to rehouse Tate, who felt too unsafe to return to the property, a converted house where she and the neighbours were the only occupants.

Tate, who has continued to pay rent for the flat, has since been threatened with possession proceedings by L&Q for failing to occupy it. She has spent the last five years staying with friends and family and sued L&Q for negligence after discovering that a previous black tenant had been hounded out of the flat by the same neighbours.

She has been awarded £31,000 in damages after a judge found that she had been misled by assurances that there was no record of antisocial behaviour at the property.

“L&Q have ignored the criminal convictions and police reports and the fact that I’ve been ousted from my home,” said Tate. “They insist I stay in this abusive environment and bid for one of their other properties for up to two years.” The harassment started the day after she moved into her flat in 2014. “The couple and their three children would chant, ‘Who let the monkeys out!’, slam the communal door with all the force they could muster, make openly racist and derogatory remarks and bang on my door and accuse me of things,” she said.

When she complained about nuisance noise, the couple hammered on her door and shouted death threats in a 15-minute tirade recorded by Tate.

The county court judgment concluded that in failing to rehouse Tate, L&Q had “concentrated on the interests” of the neighbours who have three young children.

“I had to give up my job when a friend who let me stay with her in London sold her house and I had to move in with my mother in Nottingham,” she said. “The strain has affected my mental health to the extent that I can’t look for more work.”

The Observer has been contacted by another young, black L&Q tenant who has spent two years in a women’s refuge with her six-year-old son because L&Q failed to rehouse her, despite fears that her abusive ex-partner had tracked her down. The woman, who fled domestic violence in 2014, is now being threatened with eviction for rent arrears.

“L&Q offered to install a panic alarm but I still wouldn’t feel safe,” she said. “They keep asking for evidence that I am at risk, but what evidence am I supposed to have?”

L&Q told the Observer that it has a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination and domestic abuse, and relocates tenants in severe cases. “Our aim is always to ensure that our residents feel safe in their own home, and we will support them throughout the process to achieve this,” said a spokesperson. “If there is a safeguarding issue or threat to life we work with partners including local authorities, support agencies and the police to assess any risk and take appropriate measures to ensure their safety, including enabling relocation in severe cases.”

Last month the government published a white paper, which aims to make social housing landlords more accountable. The Charter for Social Housing Residents, drawn up after the Grenfell Tower fire , concedes that the concerns of tenants are too often ignored and sets out required service standards for landlords, including anti-social behaviour policy.

Article reproduced thanks to the kindness of the Guardian. 

ABC Note: Attached below is the new Charter for Social Housing Tenants. It is worth reading and taking a note of. 

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The Charter for Social Housing Tenants