Jumpingmedic said:
No one is responsible for this guy going out and killing someone apart from the guy himself.
In a criminal sense, yes. In a contractual sense, that depends entirely what the contract that all parties agreed to states.
In the contract in question, it places joint liability on everyone living at the house if criminal activities are undertaken by one of the occupants. That's what was agreed to when they moved in.
Families always get screwed over for things one member did. Ian Huntley's mum had to go into hiding. There was that couple a year or so back who were killed in revenge for something their son did.
But this is a simple contract dispute, not someone going into hiding or being hounded. This is something that the familes involved have to accept responsibility for because that is what they agreed to do when they took that house.
pin the blame where it belongs, not on members of his family. I imagine the shock of having their son convicted of murder is far more than they ever deserved.
Most likely it probably is.
I'm not arguing the legal point here because clearly thats what the contract says and that's what will happen. I'm just saying that it is quite disgusting to make a whole family pay for something one member did.
Change the crime and see if you reconsider. If the son was an anti-social thug who spent his days stealing from neighbours houses to feed a drug habit, would you still advocate the family shouldn't be evicted? What about if their son was a one man crime wave, stealing cars for joyriding, abusing passers by, regularly committing minor assaults etc?
The clause is fairly standard in most tenancy agreements, and most tenancy agreements cover all residents.
And no I don't believe any of the family share any blame over this murder. Parents cannot be held accountable for a teenager. If their son had done this when he was 5-6 then I'd be inclined to agree that something horrible had gone wrong with the parents. But a 17 year old is fully responsible for his choices and it is unfair to try and blame the parents.
Legally, you're absolutely right. Hence why you won't see criminal charges against the parents.
However, that doesn't extend to protecting them from being pursued for breaches of contracts they have made.
