Could I sue the council for not taking my harrassment seriously?

Question

I had a problem with a tennant who had mental health problems. The tennant was harrassing me and the baby by obstructing my pathway, playing around with inflammable spirit, verbal abuse and there was arson and well as the tennant putting inflammable stuff across my door amongst other things. I have prove from the council that they did not take me seriously in a letter to a parliament consititient. Evenually, the tennant was arrested and is in custody awaiting trial with crown court. The council never returned my calls. Could I sue them?

Answer 1

yes you can sue. they cant ignore you.

Answer 2

Probably not. There is a doctrine of sovereign immunity which says that the state--or the federal government--cannot be sued unless it consents to being sued. And the federal government has consented to being sued in certain instances. That's what the Federal Torts Claims act is. Now, I don't know where you live, but your state may have consented to being sued in certain circumstances, but I suspect your situation is not covered. If every one could sue the government for miscalculations and not taking warnings seriously, well this government owes us a lot of money for their mistake in Iraq.

Let me also briefly talk about a case of DeSheyney--I probably didn't spell it correctly. In that case, a child was in the custody of his father. The city's social services had reason to know that he was being abused. They had visited the child, the father was warned, etc. The father eventually killed the child. The question was whether the Due Process clause entitles citizens to be protected from other citizens. In other words, did this kid have a due process right to be protected from his own father? The court said no. The due process clause only protects you from actions of the state. I just wanted to talk about that case. good luck

Answer 3

A claim in negligence may be sucessful but ultimately, the Council will defend the claim and you will have to instruct a solicitor (and probably counsel), which will be costly. An alternative would be to make a complaint using the Council's internal complaints procedure (and ask for compensation for breach of peaceful enjoyment) and if that is not to your satisfation, use the local authority ombudsman scheme, who will investiagte your complaint and, in most cases, award compensation.

The ombudsman scheme is free and everything you need to know is on their website.

Unlike the Federal Tort Claims Act (1946) which prohibits most civil claims against the US government, in the UK government is decentralised to local authorities who have no such immunity. In claims against the government itself permission from the High Court (judicial review) is needed before a claim can be issued but a claim of negligence is against the local authority who have a common law duty of care.

Answer 4

Yea, go for it.

I am not sure which country you are in and what the laws are there, but get them!!!!

I have known people in the past with mental health problems so I know what you are going though. If it was me I would not want that person to be put in jail if there was a way that they could get treatment for their problems and hopefully become a civil member of society.

Good luck with your complaint about the council and if the harassment has not stopped already, I hope it stops soon.

If you are in the UK, could I ask you to consider signing my petitions on disabilty rights

Access to work http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/jobs-disability/
Talking Books http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Talking-Books/

Thanks

Answer 5

Yes you can. I would suggest that you log your complaint first with the local government ombudsman who will write on your behalf. The council then have a fixed obligation to investigate and respond.

Answer 6

give it a try, were having similar problems at the moment