to report this man to environmental health?

[Spagetthi123]

We live on generally quite a nice road - terraced houses, a bit studenty but quiet. The house directly opposite is in a terrible state, roof leaking, guttering falling down etc. The man who owns it appears to be a hoarder, as there is 'stuff' (old chairs, boxes, old CD racks etc) literally filling the living room and bedroom. This is visible from the road, and no one would be able to walk into those rooms. He doesn't live there, but comes a few times a week to bring more stuff to store in the house. I've seen him put things in other peoples skips before, and given him a dirty look or two, then left it.

Last summer, me and dh noticed loads of flies covering the living room window. As in, the window appeared black, there were so many.We rang the police as we were concerned somebody may have died. The police rang back, saying the registered owner was a man who was away, but nobody else lived in the house. He turned up a few days later with some fly spray, and cleared most of the flies.

Today, I was upstairs, when I glanced the out of the window and noticed this man. He had a bag with him, and was acting oddly, looking round and behaving strangely. He then emptied the bag by hand onto the road - it contained loads of rubbish,and started kicking it under someone's car. There was a skip 5 metres away, and loads of black bins still out.

I saw red, and opened the window, and shouted something along the lines of'Excuse me! What the hell do you think you're doing!'.He looked at me, picked up the rubbish, got in the car and drove away. He then returned 5 minutes later, and I came out and took his licence plate, at which point he drove off again, and hasn't come back.

I'm still fuming tbh! What a disgusting, disgusting thing to do. If he wanted to get rid of the rubbish, why not just put it in the skip (even though that's still not on!). I feel annoyed with myself, as he now knows where I live, but I was so angry at the time I acted without thinking.

Half of me thinks this man clearly has mental health issues, and I've given him a shock by shouting at him, so I should just leave it. Also, if I report he, he will know it was me, and maybe he'll retaliate or something?

But the other half of me is OUTRAGED, and I want to ring environmental health and report him for flytipping, and report the dreadful state of his house, so hopefully they can serve an order to force him to clean it up( I mean, it's a terraced house, surely it's a fire hazard and risk to others??)

So, would I BU to report him? What do the good people of mumsnet think?

[ChicChantal]

No, YANBU. I used to have a next door neighbour who hoarded, her net curtains were dark brown and she was a nightmare because we had a party wall and getting her to even come to the door was impossible. In the end she became ill and had to go into residential care, thank goodness. But even with a flat just full (I was told) of paper etc, the council told her she had to clear it. So do report it to the council. Those flies must have been feeding on something, after all, and the house is a fire hazard, esp in a terrace.

[crabbiearses]

he sounds like a murderer or something bringing things to the house and tipping stuff out sneakily and the flies eek

[Spagetthi123]

Ha Crabbie, I hope I haven't just shouted at the street murderer.....

[BarbaraofSeville]

If not EH, there is another council department that might help - can't remember the name but i'm sure your council will help.

Many decades ago, my parents sold their house to a man who let the house deteriorate in a similar way to what you describe.

They still live locally and DM regularly commented on the state of the property - the curtains were not washed for over 30 years for example and became greyer and greyer.

Within the past 5 years, a property improvement notice and untidy land order was served on the property and the owner was basically ordered to fix the unsafe roof, guttering and chimney and tidy up all the overgrown garden and remove rubbish.

So YANBU, and I'm sure if there is any potential mental health issues, maybe Adult Social Services could help?

In my parents house case, apparently the man had a decent job so money would not have been an issue, he bought the house for a pittance - less than £5k at the time.