Can a tenant be compensated for having been
harassed or illegally evicted?
Someone who is protected by the Protection from Eviction
Act 1977 may go to the county court to claim damages if
they are harassed or illegally evicted. Under the Housing
Act 1988, for cases of illegal eviction and of harassment
which cause a tenant to leave his or her home, the court
may award damages based on the profit made by a
landlord from illegally evicting his or her tenant. Normally
the market value of an untenanted property is greater
than the value of the property with the tenant in it. In
some cases, the difference in value could be considerable.
The court, in assessing the damages to be awarded to the
tenant, may take the development value of the property
into account, in certain defined ways.
In certain circumstances a tenant may take legal action
against his or her landlord for ‘breach of the covenant for
quiet enjoyment’ – in other words, the landlord has
broken a term which every tenancy agreement contains
(whether set out in words or not) that the tenant should
be able to enjoy his or her home in peace. The tenant may
also have grounds for damages on other counts according
to the nature of the case.
A tenant may want to return home despite the events that
have caused him or her to leave. If a landlord offers to let
the tenant return to his or her home before court
proceedings are disposed of, and the tenant goes back,
he or she will not receive the damages under the 1988
Housing Act, but may receive other damages which may
be lower.
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