A landlord in Sheffield has settled a case against tenant rights campaign group ACORN and been awarded nearly £100K in damages and costs after suffering a campaign of harassment, intimidation and defamation by the group over a disputed deposit of £300. The dispute had originally been dealt with by the deposit protection service which had decided in the landlord's favour.

However, ACORN carried out a campaign which involved leafleting the landlord's neighbours and referring to the landlord, in the leaflets, as "dodgy", singing Christmas carols outside the landlord's home as well as filming and confronting her in public, posting abusive statements on social media platforms and "threatening" her using a loudhailer. In addition, they held a "public meeting" about her outside Sheffield town hall.

Solicitors representing the landlord stated that the campaign of harassment went on for 4 months. ACORN have also had to write 2 letters of apology to the landlord and agree not to repeat their behaviour.