Verbod op bendelidmaatschap in huurovereenkomst

In Engeland heeft een woningcorporatie een verbod op lidmaatschap van een bende opgenomen als voorwaarde in een huurovereenkomst. Wordt deze voorwaarden overtreden, dan kan de huurder zijn woning verliezen. De voorwaarde is opgenomen om als extra instrument in de strijd tegen overlastgevend gedrag (anti-social behaviour) te dienen. Inside Housing meldt:

“A housing association has introduced a clause banning gang membership to all its tenancy agreements.

Viridian Housing’s tenancies will stipulate ‘you or anyone living with you must not become a member of a gang or allow a member of a gang to visit the property’.

The 16,000-home London-based organisation’s in-house legal and anti-social behaviour teams worked together to develop and implement the clause.

Nick Billingham, partner at Devonshires solicitors, said: ‘Gang membership increasingly underlies a lot of ASB cases we deal with and a tenancy condition like this could be really useful in ASB proceedings if it is difficult to pin down who exactly is causing the nuisance – which inevitably is often the way with gangs.’

The association – which has properties in the midlands, West Sussex and London – has taken the Met Police’s definition of a gang to be a ‘group of individuals involved in persistent criminality for some form of personal gain (this includes profit and/or to gain or to demonstrate status) which is causing significant harm to the community and/or is of cross border concern’.

It follows the Association of Chief Police Officers explanation of ‘significant’ harm, which can have one or more of the following characteristics: significant profit or loss; significant impact upon community safety; serious violence; corruption; exercise of control.”

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