Harassment by a landlord may take various forms – it may involve a landlord interfering with a tenant/occupiers use of the property or engaging in intimidating or violent behaviour. Harassment may often lead to, or occur along with illegal eviction.

A tenant’s right against a landlord engaging in harassing behaviour will depend partly on the nature of the tenancy or licence held at the property. The following gives an overview of common forms of harassment.

Occasionally deeds to a property or land may contain an old archaic covenant that restricts the way an owner can deal with the land or property. This may impact on the ability to develop, which can be frustrating, should an owner want to extend their premises or build another property on their land.

A lease or tenancy agreement may contain a clause which suspends the rent in the event that the property becomes uninhabitable. The clause may state that there should be a suspension of the whole of the rent, or sometimes part of the rent, subject to how much of the property is usable.

Removing a tenant without an order of the Court opens up the possibility for the tenant to claim damages for…

The interpretation of words used in a lease can sometimes be challenged. A landlord may believe that a word means one thing, while a tenant interprets the same word another way. The impact of how a word is construed can have severe consequences, which can lead to litigation, as was the case in Triplerose Limited v Patel, Patel & Patel [2018] UKUT 0374 (LC).