Since 2014, landlords have had the power to evict tenants, in principle with no defence, where they have been subject to a ‘closure order’ (an order closing premises in which nuisance or disorder have occurred), or where the tenants have breached a ‘criminal behaviour order’ (the successor to the previous, better known, ‘ASBOs’). As a housing lawyer, I find myself appearing increasingly in the magistrates’ courts, before decision-makers who rarely have much understanding of the conditions you often find in social housing, let alone sympathy for tenants.
In my second week as a barrister, I represented three young men accused of anti-social behaviour. They were accused of smoking cannabis. The police repeatedly stopped them, but nothing was found. In the absence of any charges or convictions, the police applied for orders to exclude the youths from their homes. I acted for the skinniest defendant, Atik. 16 years old, the repeated searches of his family’s home had torn his mother’s nerves to shreds.
