Housing association wins injunction to stop 'Facebook party'

Social landlord New Charter has won an injunction against a tenant who advertised a party on Facebook to stop the event from taking place in her home in Hyde.

The Manchester Evening News reports that Michelle Mathews had already been threatened with eviction, after holding late-night parties and abusing neighbours.

New Charter staff saw her advertise a massive party on the social networking site, and sought an injunction to stop it taking place in her three bedroom house.

The order was granted by District Judge Ackroyd at Tameside District Court.

New Charter’s senior enforcement officer Alan Kibble said: “This is not about preventing a tenant from having a little fun. There is a history of parties getting out of control at the address to such an extent that neighbours are verbally abused. The information on the Facebook page led us to believe that this was one party that would undoubtedly cause a nuisance to neighbours.

“As always, going through the courts is a last resort but this result shows that New Charter is committed to tackling anti-social behaviour and we will use any power within our means to do so. Hopefully this injunction will be enough to deter the tenant from further rowdy behaviour in the future.”

Ms Mathews said the party had been due to take place at a different address and said: “I’ll hold my hands up and admit that I went a bit off the rails last year but I was suffering from post-natal depression.”

She added she had apologised to neighbours and was "sick of being victimised by New Charter”.

New Charter was formed in 2000 by a housing stock transfer from Tameside Borough Council.