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Hi, I am new to the forum and have joined because of all the sound advice given re the plight of Sid Viscious.
I will try and be as brief as I can, but need to tell the facts:
I have lived at address for well over 6 years.
Prior to accepting the tenancy I advised the housing officer that my hobby was keeping and breeding chickens and that the main reason for wanting to get back to a rural home was to get back to keeping a few chickens. I made it very clear that keeping chickens was a main reason for wanting the house.
At the bottom of our garden there is a 3m spare area where there were alot of weeds growing and household rubbish dumped, we managed to get the landlord to send someone to remove the bulky items and we bashed down and dug up and disposed of the weeds. We also had to deal with the vermin problem prior to getting the chickens as we knew once we got them we would get blamed for any vermin.
Once prepared we initially got a pair 1 boy 1 girl, soon followed by 2 more girls. So we have had at least 1 cockerel in our garden unchallenged for over 6 years.
A couple of months ago I received a phone call from the landlords stating that they were coming for a meeting regarding complaints about the cockerels. I have had 2 permanaent for about 2 1/2 years. Initially I consulted the internet as I thought there was a law that after 5 years there was a precedent set and there was nothing anyone could do? Anyway I could not find that. CAB cannot help as far to busy helping homeless and debt issues. I spoke to a colleague who breds about 18 miles away who advised me to get my local councilor involved. So I did, he came along and the meeting was all very positive.
Housing Officer said once checking I did not have writen permissin that we would never have been given permission to keep cockerels in one of their properties. I pointed out that one of the main reasons for taking the property was its suitability for chickens and that I made it clear before accepting the property. As there is nothing in writing I am told that the hens and ducks are OK, but that no permission would ever be granted for cockerels. She continued that I should not do anything rash to get rid of them now, but to try and keep them quiet at night and she would get back to the solicitor that had contacted the landlord and advise that they should also be contacting all the other people in the area with cockerels rather than just pick on via the landlord because I am a tennent. I agreed to take further measures to keep them quiet at night.
Basically it traspires that the complainant is the chap who lives in a bid detached house at the bottom or our garden, who moved there less than 2 year ago. He has whipped up his neighbours and they have jointly appointed a hot shot London lawyer.
The fact that he should have come to me direct aside, I am being picked on purely because I am a tennant. If I had a big fat mortgage instead of £100.00 a week rent, I would fight, fight fight. But my problem is I am a tennant.
A couple of days ago I had a letter from the housing officer giving me 2 weeks to get rid of the cockerels. I am astounded, she told me it would go on for months, she would keep me informed and that although permission to keep them at home would not be granted, there was a good chance I would not have to get rid of them either, so this has come out of the blue and at the time of year when people are off-loading chickens not taking them on.
One is going to market anyway but I am looking into moving the remaining boy onto farmland within walking distance, but there is them the fox problem, both 2 and 4 legged. This summer someone not far from me had hr chickens stolenincluding the houses and electric fencing. He was hatched here and in fact finished hatching in my hand and used to travel around in my pocket and still trys to get in there when I pick him up, so it would be very cruel to rehome him, and immoral to euthanase a healthy rare breed cockerel because of 1 human being.
The initial complaint was that they were crowing at night when the people were getting up in the night to tend to young baby Putting lights on! I stopped that by having a special box made for one and blacking out the other house and not letting out until after 7am. Now the compliant is that they crow during the day and that one was loose in my garden.
I think I have included everyhting. I have previously enquired, there is a long waiting list for allotments around here and they do not even take chickens.
We live on the edge of a village that is classed as rural. Because of all this we are trying to move, but finding somewhere suitable is not straightforward or quick. I cannot fight Mr Moaner financially and he has the upper hand by me being a tennent which is so unfair. My husband cannot work properly following a road traffic accident afew years ago, but we do not claim any benefits, I work for the LEA.
Please help if you can?
I will try and be as brief as I can, but need to tell the facts:
I have lived at address for well over 6 years.
Prior to accepting the tenancy I advised the housing officer that my hobby was keeping and breeding chickens and that the main reason for wanting to get back to a rural home was to get back to keeping a few chickens. I made it very clear that keeping chickens was a main reason for wanting the house.
At the bottom of our garden there is a 3m spare area where there were alot of weeds growing and household rubbish dumped, we managed to get the landlord to send someone to remove the bulky items and we bashed down and dug up and disposed of the weeds. We also had to deal with the vermin problem prior to getting the chickens as we knew once we got them we would get blamed for any vermin.
Once prepared we initially got a pair 1 boy 1 girl, soon followed by 2 more girls. So we have had at least 1 cockerel in our garden unchallenged for over 6 years.
A couple of months ago I received a phone call from the landlords stating that they were coming for a meeting regarding complaints about the cockerels. I have had 2 permanaent for about 2 1/2 years. Initially I consulted the internet as I thought there was a law that after 5 years there was a precedent set and there was nothing anyone could do? Anyway I could not find that. CAB cannot help as far to busy helping homeless and debt issues. I spoke to a colleague who breds about 18 miles away who advised me to get my local councilor involved. So I did, he came along and the meeting was all very positive.
Housing Officer said once checking I did not have writen permissin that we would never have been given permission to keep cockerels in one of their properties. I pointed out that one of the main reasons for taking the property was its suitability for chickens and that I made it clear before accepting the property. As there is nothing in writing I am told that the hens and ducks are OK, but that no permission would ever be granted for cockerels. She continued that I should not do anything rash to get rid of them now, but to try and keep them quiet at night and she would get back to the solicitor that had contacted the landlord and advise that they should also be contacting all the other people in the area with cockerels rather than just pick on via the landlord because I am a tennent. I agreed to take further measures to keep them quiet at night.
Basically it traspires that the complainant is the chap who lives in a bid detached house at the bottom or our garden, who moved there less than 2 year ago. He has whipped up his neighbours and they have jointly appointed a hot shot London lawyer.
The fact that he should have come to me direct aside, I am being picked on purely because I am a tennant. If I had a big fat mortgage instead of £100.00 a week rent, I would fight, fight fight. But my problem is I am a tennant.
A couple of days ago I had a letter from the housing officer giving me 2 weeks to get rid of the cockerels. I am astounded, she told me it would go on for months, she would keep me informed and that although permission to keep them at home would not be granted, there was a good chance I would not have to get rid of them either, so this has come out of the blue and at the time of year when people are off-loading chickens not taking them on.
One is going to market anyway but I am looking into moving the remaining boy onto farmland within walking distance, but there is them the fox problem, both 2 and 4 legged. This summer someone not far from me had hr chickens stolenincluding the houses and electric fencing. He was hatched here and in fact finished hatching in my hand and used to travel around in my pocket and still trys to get in there when I pick him up, so it would be very cruel to rehome him, and immoral to euthanase a healthy rare breed cockerel because of 1 human being.
The initial complaint was that they were crowing at night when the people were getting up in the night to tend to young baby Putting lights on! I stopped that by having a special box made for one and blacking out the other house and not letting out until after 7am. Now the compliant is that they crow during the day and that one was loose in my garden.
I think I have included everyhting. I have previously enquired, there is a long waiting list for allotments around here and they do not even take chickens.
We live on the edge of a village that is classed as rural. Because of all this we are trying to move, but finding somewhere suitable is not straightforward or quick. I cannot fight Mr Moaner financially and he has the upper hand by me being a tennent which is so unfair. My husband cannot work properly following a road traffic accident afew years ago, but we do not claim any benefits, I work for the LEA.
Please help if you can?
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