Son hurls abuse

After all the tenants belongings had been returned, it was possible to get a good look at the flat. There was effectively no hot water, because the gas pipe leading to the califont burst into flame whenever it was lit; there was no washing machine, no vacuum cleaner, the gas stove was so old and rusted that most of the elements did not go. It was impossible to tell what damage had been caused by the removal of the tenants and their belongings, and what had been there before this. The landlady's brother gave the tenants screws and a lock for the front door, because the old one had been removed, and went away.

Police conferring with landlady. In the foreground, some of their ejected furniture.

Later in the night, the landlady's son returned to shout abuse at the tenants and a TPA member who had stayed with them, and smashed two glass panels in the front door. Although the police were called, they never came. The landlady's brother made a final appearance, refusing to look at the damage his nephew had done, instead saying his sister had chased "the girl" only after she had got in the first punch, and asking whether TPA would help the tenants clean up the flat, and what we would do with tenants who left dirty dishes lying around, or who had a rubbish tin in the kitchen.

Incidents like this are not common, but the peak to which feelings can rise between landlords and tenants, and the unreal situations they can produce, are fairly typical. Landlords feel that tenants who do not have the same values and standards as themselves do not qualify for all human and legal rights. "Have you seen the place? How can you say people who live like that have any rights? What would you do if tenants of yours treated a house like this?" And TPA must explain to them that even the lawmakers have given all tenants some small protection against arbitrary and immediate eviction and that, subjective issues like who is right or wrong aside, these tenants in particular will receive at least the protection the law offers, as well as any other kind of protection TPA can give.

Tenant's child, bewildered by it all.