ANTI-SOCIAL tenants who make their neighbours' lives a misery could lose many of the rights under new Bolton Council plans.

Town hall bosses are considering introducing controversial rules which would see badly-behaved tenants put on "probation" for up to 18 months.

During this period, they could be evicted at any time and would lose their right to buy their home or hand it on to a friend or family member.

Cllr David Wilkinson, executive member for environment and housing strategy, said it was time for the council to get tough with neighbourhood yobs.

"We will not tolerate people who terrorise and cause misery for their neighbours," he said.

"If we choose to adopt these powers, then they will be another tool in our box against these nuisance neighbours."

But he said some councillors fear that evicting troublesome tenants would just pass on problems to other areas.

Cllr Wilkinson said: "We will have to consider this carefully because we do not want to create problems by making people homeless, or just moving their bad behaviour on to other areas."

Under the plans, the council would have to prove to a court that the tenant or a visitor to their home had behaved in a way that is "capable of causing nuisance or annoyance".

If at the end of the demotion period the council is happy with the conduct of the tenant, their contract would revert to a secure tenancy.

But, if the anti-social behaviour persists, the council may decide to order yob tenants to leave their homes.

In these cases, evidence would be collected and shown to them when they are told to leave.

Evicted tenants would then be given the right to appeal against the decision at an oral or written hearing.

The decision to evict a tenant would be down to Peter Wilson, director of central services at Bolton Council, and George Caswell, the chief executive of Bolton at Home.

Under existing powers, courts can only evict tenants immediately or lay down rules they must live by.

But Noel Spencer, chairman of Bolton at Home, said he believes the move was "a step too far".

"We already have anti-social behaviour teams in place which are having a tremendous impact on the problems on our estates," he said.

"Our tenants highly value their secure contracts and this might not be right for Bolton."