Compensation for anxiety caused by a landlord’s campaign to get tenants to leave a property has been assessed with reference to the Vento bands at £25,000.
In 2004, the claimant purchased 10 Urmaston Drive, London SW19 (a three-bedroom, first-floor flat) under his right to buy. After his family moved out and by early 2015, he had converted the flat into four self-contained studios. In February 2015, one of the studios was let to the defendants.
From early 2018, the claimant took steps to sell the flat with vacant possession. He commenced possession proceedings against the defendants, but by the time the matter came to trial in Tahir v Aghiri and another [2023] EW Misc 2 (CC) the possession claim had fallen away and the defendants’ tenancy had ended. The issues that remained to be determined by His Honour Judge Luba KC related to the defendants’ counterclaim, the substantive matter being allegations of harassment and unlawful eviction.
From early summer 2018 (and especially after other tenants of the flat left), the claimant sought to deliberately drive the defendants out of the flat by a campaign of harassment designed to achieve vacant possession. He cut off the internet service and switched off the boiler; made frequent and unnecessary attendances (often without notice), which continued during Eid and after the second defendant was pregnant; installed CCTV in the flat for no good reason; made spurious reports to the police; changed the locks on multiple occasions; and removed and/or damaged possessions.
The police were called more than once. The defendants were issued with victim support alarms. Ultimately, in April 2019, the defendants were provided with temporary council accommodation and left the flat, which the claimant then refurbished and sold with vacant possession.
Whether the tenants’ case was framed as a breach of contract (breach of covenant for quiet enjoyment, derogation from grant, breach of the implied terms), tort (trespass to property, trespass to goods) or the statutory tort of harassment was largely immaterial. The claimant’s conduct was reprehensible and unlawful.
The anxiety (incorporating emotional distress) it caused was assessed with reference to the Vento bands (being the three broad bands of compensation for injury to feelings identified in Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police (No 2) [2002] EWCA Civ 1871, which for claims presented on or after 6 April 2023 are £1,100-11,200 for less serious cases, £11,200-33,700 for cases that do not merit an upper-band award and £33,700-56,200 for the most serious cases, with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £56,200).
This case fell within the upper end of the middle band, and the sum of £25,000 was payable, together with £10,000 exemplary damages. Awards were additionally made for the loss of quiet enjoyment, items of disrepair, the claimant’s failure to properly deal with the deposit and special damages.
Elizabeth Haggerty is a barrister
