Landlords Duty of Care to Tenant?

Dear Sharron

What an awful sitation!

Presumably you have reported the assault to the Police and got a crime reference number?

How can you be certain that the landlord was aware of the violent tendencies of the lady downstairs, have you got proof of this?

I very much doubt that you can hold the landlord responsible for the actions of a completely unconnected party but if he was aware of the potential for problems then he should, in my opinion, have warned you. However, whether that is a legal obligation or not I am not certain.

The Police Victim Support Unit should be able to tell you what you need to do in this situation, please report back on what they say when you manage to speak to them.

Good luck.
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You could probably make a case for saying he should have warned you – although if he told every prospective tenant his property would become impossible to let, so looking at it objectively its not hard to see why he’d keep quiet and cross his fingers that there wouldn’t be any problems.

I’m not condoning keeping quiet by the way – just saying that I can understand why a landlord might be tempted to do so.

He hasn’t got an obligation to find you somewhere else to live though – the best you could hope for is to be released from your tenancy.

Is the other woman also a tenant?

If so, then it may be possible to get her removed, but you would need to be willing to provide evidence against her, and the legal process is slow so you would be living in the same building for some months.

If she has the same landlord and he knew of her violent behaviour, then I would say you have a case, but you need proper advice: try Citizen’s Advice.

Has the woman assaulted you for no reason?, a random attack? or did you get into some sort of argument with her and it then escalated into violence?

Have the police arrested her and charged her with the crime (assault)? If so, she has probably got conditions attached to her bail that prevent her from contacting or approaching you.

The landlord cannot be held responsible for the actions of an unrelated third party, otherwise nobody would take the risk of housing anybody, and 40% of the whole country would be homeless!

Sharron, you say that your landlord “clearly knew” from previous tenants but maybe the previous tenants had no problems with your neighbour. Maybe it’s just you she doesn’t like!