Trust evicts tenant for very poor condition of property
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A tenant in Ringlestone has been evicted from his home due to the poor condition of the property. The gentleman had persistently failed to keep his property in a reasonable state despite help offered by Maidstone Housing Trust and the help of Maidstone Borough Council environmental health team.
It is estimated that four tonnes of rubbish will need to be removed from the one bedroom flat. The current extremely poor condition of the property follows the enforcement of environmental health notice last October which ordered the “removal and disposal of all waste, furniture and articles within the property which could not be cleaned, required the cleaning of the property including walls, floors and ceilings and the removal of all hypodermic syringes and other drug related items.” The property has been professionally cleaned twice in the past 12 months, most recently in November 2006.
Lisa Smith, Community Safety Manager for Maidstone Housing Trust, said “We explored every avenue available to help the tenant, but he would not cooperate. As well as breaching his tenancy agreement, his lifestyle was having a poor impact on the community and our final resort has been to evict him”.
Sian Murphy, Maidstone council’s Environmental Enforcement Manager, said: “Fortunately we only have to take this sort of action infrequently, when there is no other option, such as in this case when we had to consider the good of the community as a whole.”
PC Trevor Bonett from police in Mid kent said "We will always help and support partner agencies in tackling all aspects of anti-social behaviour."
All Maidstone Housing Trust tenants sign a Tenancy Agreement when moving into a property, in which they agree to keep the property in a decent state. This is the second time the Trust has taken legal action against a tenant for poor condition of property in 2007.
date published: 25/06/2007