dangerous male dog jumped our 7ft fence into our garden to attack our dog

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Permalink Reply by John D on February 11, 2011 at 18:12

I'm sorry you had this unpleasant situation but why did you refuse to let the owners into your house to retrieve their dog ? That would seem to be the easiest way to deal with it.

I'm not sure if the police had any grounds to press charges unless you can show that this has happened many times resulting in  injury or damage and that the dog is not under control

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Permalink Reply by ElleCarumba on February 11, 2011 at 19:18

Dangerous Dogs Act only applies to a public place which your garden is not so no criminal act has taken place and the police can not press charges.

Had it taken place in the street or a park, then the act would apply and it may be considered a criminal act but not in your garden. Odd, I know but that is the law

So only the racial abuse would count as a crime.

 

You could have a civil case for damage to the fence against the owners of the dog but I doubt that would will be worth pursuing for such a small sum. However you could look into the small claims court if you want to do this.

 

There are something called a Control of Dogs Order which I suppose might be an option if this was repeated behaviour. 

 

Here is the law:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/dangerous/#3

Dogs and trespass

In civil law a dog owner is liable if he or she deliberately sends a dog on to another person's land in pursuit of game. A civil offence is also committed if a dog owner allows a dog to roam at large in the knowledge that it is likely to kill game. No entry on the land by the owner of the dog is necessary in order for the proceedings to succeed.

If a dog of its own accord enters land without permission but does no more, its owner is not liable under civil law for trespass; nor is it a criminal offence unless there is a contravention of regulations made under the Control of Dogs Order. Under civil law it is likely that the dog's owner would be liable for any damage which it is in the nature of a dog to commit.

It is an offence for a dog to be at large, ie not on a lead or otherwise under close control, in a field of sheep. Sheep dogs and police dogs are exempted from this provision.

 

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Permalink Reply by melanie allen on February 12, 2011 at 2:03

sorry to hear that you must have been frightened,maybe it is worth finding out what breed of dog it is, if one of the dangerous types i am sure it is down to the owners to make sure that the dog is controlled at all times when coming into contact with the general public and making sure it cannot escape into anyone's property. maybe try the dog warden and see if they can help.

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Permalink Reply by pamish on February 12, 2011 at 9:38

Chocolate kills dogs. The higher the cocoa content, the more poisonous it is. Funny, that.

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Permalink Reply by Anette on February 13, 2011 at 19:43

Sounds scary. What type dog was it? Did it come from the house next door to you? You can't wait for damage to happen, not with your daughter playing in the garden. Surely the police can see that? Hopefully you can go down the route of dangerous dogs, owners not controlling it etc. Not what you need in your own garden!

And I do not recommend giving the poor animal cholcolate. It's never the dog's fault it's owners are complete idiots. If only it was legal to put irresponsible dog owners to sleep. Permanently...

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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on February 13, 2011 at 21:25

Vix,

Call the   Anti Social Behaviour Action Team ASBAT. I had a simmilr problem with nasty dog coming into my garden.  As soon as the team threatened the Landlord with an ASBO it cleared up.

 

I believe landlords have a legal requirement to ensure that the tenants are not being a nuisance, annoyance or inconveniance to the neighbours. Ditto the tenants.  It will say so on the tennacy aggrement.  

 

The landlord is saying it is not her/his business and cant do any thing about it is speaking cobblers in the hope that you will leave her/him alone. 

 

Well done for filming it

 

Good luck

 Ben

Ben  

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Permalink Reply by VIX on February 14, 2011 at 15:01

Thank you everyone for your help and advice. Love the chocoloate advice, but we have a baseball bat by our back door now.

 

The reason we did not want the owner to enter our propery to remove the dog is because they are drug scum. We have lived for 3.5 years next to neighbors from the hell and the landlord has placed problem tenant after problem tenant in the house and no real action has ever been taken, so the abuse continues.

These tenant have resided since late last summer. We have the noise team out on a weekly basis, some times 4 visits in 24hrs. They shout racial abuse regularly, have 24hr drug parties. After the police attended on Friday and left our home they hurled racial abuse over our garden wall at us saying , "white people should not have babies in Tottenham" "move if you dont like it"-these people are black Portugese and Columbian-so try to work them out, and why they would be hostile to white Londoners? We cannot work them out.

The male dog is just a new menace, it is still in the house and garden despite calls and txts to the landlord to get his tenants to remove it as it is a breach of their tenancy.

If anyone can enlighten us as to how we can take legal action against the landlord please let us now.

 

Vix&Jude

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Permalink Reply by ElleCarumba on February 14, 2011 at 17:09

Hi Vix and Jude


http://www.parliament.uk/briefingpapers/commons/lib/research/briefi...

"outlines the legal position and available remedies where people find themselves
living next door to tenants of private landlords or owner-occupiers who exhibit anti-social
behaviour".

The issue of whether a private landlord is legally responsible for the behaviour of their tenants has been the subject of a number of court cases which have largely decided that they are not responsible for them. They can inset good behaviour or no pets clauses into tenancies but it appears that only the landlord can choose whether to enforce them or not.

Here is the relevant bit for you -

"1.4 Remedies available to neighbour

The remedies open to a neighbour of a private tenant who exhibits anti-social behaviour will
depend upon the nature of the nuisance. For example, if the nuisance is mainly to do with
noise, the environmental health department of the local authority may be able to assist.

Alternatively, if the nuisance amounts to physical assault/harassment the matter should be
dealt with by the police.
Once again, depending on the nature of the nuisance, the residents involved may be able to
seek an injunction requiring the anti-social neighbours to stop interfering with their
property/person. Victims of anti-social behaviour should seek professional legal advice on
any remedies that might be applicable in their individual circumstances. "

Yours is not an uncommon problem as the report states:

The Home Affairs Select Committee’s 2004-05 inquiry into anti-social behaviour (ASB) noted
that although the response to ASB was originally located in the context of social housing,
“many nuisance neighbours are not social tenants but private tenants or owner-occupiers.”

The Committee heard that a “significant number of problems
arise in the private sector that are ignored due to absentee landlords or landlords that do not
have the skills or capacity to tackle the problems.


I think the best advice would be to speak to the Anti Social Behaviour Action Team as Ben suggests and ask them for advice. Also try your local councillor- they should be able to give you some guidance as what, if anything, you can do.

Perhaps in the meantime keep a diary of all incidents with photos/film etc as appropriate to use as evidence?

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Permalink Reply by Anette on February 14, 2011 at 19:41

This is so disheartening. Back to square one. The nice people still get abused, and the others get away with it. I say that, was we suffered for about 6 years with very similar problems, and I am terrified it will start up again.

 

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Permalink Reply by GLW on February 20, 2011 at 16:53

Hello Vix,  anyone who has been in your position will understand what it does to you. Without being too dramatic I believe it is traumatising.  It is terrible to be in such a helpless position.  We had 2 years of neighbour hell and it's taken a year before I have been able to sleep properly again.  You might want to try your local councillor, probabaly best to go for the one who is in power. You just have to keep fighting.  Good luck and lets hope Haringey gets better in time.

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