Angelica Rokad successfully prosecutes landlord charged with unlawful eviction of family from their home

Angelica Rokad has successfully prosecuted a landlord who unlawfully evicted a family of five from their home in Chelmsford, Essex, in the middle of the night by changing the keys to their rental property, without their knowledge, and refusing to provide them with a copy of the new set.

In addition, the landlord was also charged with unlawful harassment for entering the property without permission and, once there, instructing workmen to cut off the water supply at the property which had the effect of leaving the tenants, and their children, with no other option but to leave their home in the next few days.

Following a 6 day trial, the jury returned guilty verdicts on all four counts on the indictment, and sentence is due to take place on 1 July 2022 at Chelmsford Crown Court.

These offences are rarely seen before the Courts, with recent Ministry of Justice figures from March 2021 showing there has been an average of just 24 prosecutions each for unlawful evictions and unlawful harassment per year between 2016 and 2019, the most recent period for which data is available. Out of those, only around a half resulted in a conviction.

Angelica Rokad was instructed by the Prosecuting Local Authority, Chelmsford City Council.