According to Nick de Bois, MP for Enfield North, neighbours of anti-social households need more rights. He is campaigning for the law to change so that the housing ombudsman can intervene when problems arise between neighbours and landlords.
A Bill to Settle Disputes
Mr De Bois tabled his ten-minute rule Housing Ombudsman (Power to Settle Disputes Between Neighbours and Tenants) bill on Tuesday. As the rules currently stand, the housing ombudsman can only get involved when there is a dispute between a landlord and a tenant. If Mr De Bois has his way, the ombudsman will be able to intervene when there is a dispute between a landlord of an HMO and neighbours.
Absentee Landlords to be Held Responsible
Under the terms of the bill, absentee landlords will be held responsible if there are problems with their tenants and the ombudsman will have the power to track down landlords and force them to enter into negotiations with fed-up neighbours.
“Presently it can be very hard to even try to locate and identify landlords when residents are seeking to enlist landlord help in resolving what can be a very disturbing cycle of anti-social behaviour, that all too often take too long for authorities to sort out, if at all,” said Mr De Bois.
“I want to put a stop to this, by giving the neighbours who are the victims of anti-social behaviour the right to deal with the landlord of properties – which I believe will help resolve the problem in a more timely fashion. Good landlords will want to stop bad behaviour if they are aware of it, and where there are landlords that don’t care then this bill will force them to take action.”
