A disabled Bath tenant who says she’s been begging Curo to rehouse her for more than two years has been taken to court by the housing association after bombarding staff with hundreds of emails.
The Curo offices on the Lower Bristol Road
The tenant, who we are referring to as Miss X, appeared at a hearing at Bath County Court on 12th June.
She suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from childhood trauma and a life-changing car accident in 2019 left her with traumatic brain injuries.
She has been requesting to be moved since April 2022, due to abuse and harassment from her neighbours who are also Curo tenants. In August last year she sent a formal notice to Curo with an urgent request to be rehoused, via a direct let.
In court on 12th June, she accused Curo of “gaslighting” her and said they had failed in their duty of care, leaving her at risk from problematic tenants, including one who has criminal convictions.
Miss X claimed her neighbours had breached their Acceptable Behaviour Contracts with no consequence from Curo.
She claimed her problems have been exacerbated by Curo ignoring her complaints and specific needs when she has done her best to explain her situation to them.
She said Curo had received letters from GPs, psychologists, three safeguarding referrals and five independent witness statements, which had all been ignored. She told the court how she had considered ending her life on a number of occasions.
An out-of-court agreement was revealed during the hearing. Miss X claimed this underpinned the inaction of Curo to meet their duty of care and their desire to silence her by way of injunction whilst ultimately seeking to achieve a “revenge eviction”.
At the 12th June hearing, the counsel for Curo asked the court to amend and extend an existing injunction order imposed on Miss X last August for housing-related anti-social behaviour.
At last year’s hearing, Curo had said injunction proceedings were more appropriate than a move, due to her behaviour towards residents.
The barrister said that Miss X had employed a “scatter gun approach” to contact Curo, resulting in 450 emails being sent over a 12-month period, with numerous recipients at all levels copied in.
He said the housing association has a duty to protect staff, as well as its 17,000 tenants, and Miss X’s demands had been “unrelenting and go beyond what is reasonable”.
He said there must be “clearly defined boundaries” and that she could contact her named officer once a week but other than that asked the court to rule that she has no contact with Curo, except in emergency situations.
Representing herself, Miss X maintained there is still an appeal in process against the previous injunction issued last August.
Explaining the reason for sending hundreds of emails, she spoke of her “despair” as no one was listening. She said the term “scatter gunning” had been hers and that Curo were using her words against her.
She said: “Seeking accountability and truth is not harassment. I am a victim of harassment.”
She said she feared that limiting who she can contact at Curo and about what will cause her further harm.
She reiterated that she just wants to “sit down and have a conversation” with Curo about finding a new home.
Delivering his ruling, Judge Byass agreed that the volume of correspondence had caused anti-social behaviour in terms of housing-related nuisance/annoyance.
He imposed an order that will run for 12 months from 12th June and limits Miss X to contact with a named member of Curo staff. Other than that, she can only contact Curo in the event of a fire, flood or urgent disrepair emergency.
The judge advised her that if she has a complaint regarding a criminal matter, she should go to the police.
Curo had sought to extend the injunction put in place last August but the judge said that he had not been provided by Curo with the evidence to do that. He did not agree to Curo’s barrister’s request for costs against Miss X on this occasion.
Curo challenges Housing Ombudsman’s findings
In her evidence, Miss X cited a recent notification she had received from the Housing Ombudsman, who had found maladministration and ruled in her favour following a complaint that stemmed from having a wet carpet in her accommodation for three years.
Miss X said the chief executive of Curo had been ordered by the Ombudsman to apologise personally for the way she had been treated and Curo had been told to pay her compensation.
However, during the hearing, counsel for Curo told the judge there had been “failings with the Ombudsman’s handling of the case” and it was being looked at again.
Although the entire matter is being examined again by the Ombudsman, the initial findings also included that Curo should carry out a full senior management review of the case to identify what went wrong and had recommended that the landlord support the resident with her request to move and discuss her options with her, if it had not done so already.
‘Long-running dispute’ between neighbours
In a statement this week, Curo said: “Miss (X) has a long-running dispute with her neighbours. They have complained about her, and she has complained about them.”
“On 1st February 2023 Miss (X) was convicted of criminal damage having smashed her neighbour’s windows. An Anti-Social Behaviour Injunction was obtained by Curo against her on 1st August 2023.
“Since then, she has bombarded Curo staff with hundreds of emails which have often been abusive and aggressive, and she has been verbally abusive to staff at our offices.
“An amendment was sought to the injunction order prohibiting her from excessive contact with our staff and we’re pleased that this amendment was granted by the Judge on 12th June 2024.
“Senior Curo staff have met with Miss (X) in person and she has been offered a move to several different properties, each of which she has refused.”
This week Miss X maintained: “Curo have ignored multiple requests to move over two years and I have not been offered several properties at all.”
She added that she had denied the allegation of criminal damage.
During the hearing on 12th June Miss X told the court she had received apologies from the police for their failure to investigate complaints about her neighbours.
The Bath Echo has seen correspondence dated from August 2022 from a senior police officer apologising that the Constabulary had failed to listen to Miss X’s full account of incidents and capture the evidence she had collected, which could have prevented further distress.
Doctors’ letters call for ‘urgent action’ from Curo for ‘vulnerable’ patient
Miss X is fully in support of her story being published although for fear of reprisals, she has asked us not to name her.
We have seen letters from her GP surgery asking Curo to “urgently” investigate her concerns dating back more than two years.
One was dated 25th April 2022 from a GP saying Miss X had contacted him about abusive behaviour by her neighbour and an ongoing damp problem in her accommodation.
The doctor wrote: “As you may be aware, (Miss X) is a vulnerable patient who has a history of mental health problems including complex PTSD. She is under considerable stress and these issues are having a major detrimental impact on her mental health and wellbeing. Please could you investigate these issues as a matter of urgency.”
A follow-up letter was sent in July 2022 from another GP at the practice. That GP then wrote another letter in September 2022, stating that Miss X “feels that the way Curo have managed this is triggering her complex PTSD. She does not feel she is supported by Curo in dealing with her complaints about her neighbour. She feels that this is worsening her mental health considerably. Please could these issues be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
A letter from the GP dated 9th June last year says the issues have still not been resolved and her patient continues to report concerns about her safety at home regarding her neighbour and ongoing harassment.
The GP notes the impact of these problems is causing her patient “worsening distress” and is having a “considerable detrimental impact” on her overall mental wellbeing. The GP adds: “Please could these issues be addressed as a matter of urgency.”
The day before this month’s court hearing, another GP’s letter was written highlighting Miss X’s ongoing struggle with her neighbours and landlord, and outlining the medication that she is taking.
