Would you leave this neighbour a note?

[WhiteCoyote]

We’ve had a neighbour move in around 6 months ago - he’s ex forces and has an ex forces rescue German shepherd which is highly aggressive, but he’s very good at keeping it under control, only taking it for walks at night and making sure the communal hallway is clear before taking it out.

He’s very odd, sometimes he’ll come out and talk to us like we’re old friends and invite us in, and sometimes he’ll completely blank us when we pass and say good morning to him. I’m certain he’s an alcoholic, my dad is and I can see all the signs.

The problem is every time he takes the dog for a walk, he leaves the bags of dog shit outside the communal front door - not directly next to it but just off to the side. Sometimes he leaves them there for days at a time - the weird thing is he has to pass the black bins to get to the front door so there’s really no reason to bring them past the driveway or leave them outside.

I’m worried about leaving him a note asking him to put the bags of shit in the bin as he’s completely unpredictable in his behaviour, sometimes he’s lovely and other times he’s really aggressive- he had a mental fit at my landlord when the landlord was installing a new doorbell yesterday afternoon. Landlord wasn’t drilling or making any noise, just one of those stick on ones. Neighbour came roaring out of his front door telling landlord what he was doing was illegal and was getting up in his face.

The smell of the dog shit is starting to drift into the communal hallway. WWYD?

[UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername]

Ask the landlord to deal with him.

[constantnamefails]

Do you know who his landlord is? You need to speak to him about it. I would've leave a note, he sounds too unpredictable.

[constantnamefails]

*wouldn't

[WhiteCoyote]

Unfortunately I’ve got no idea who his landlord is. I also rent through an agency so I can’t contact my landlord directly myself - we tell the agency when the flat needs a repair and the landlord comes to fix it. Should I just sent the letting agent an email? Could they find out who the neighbours landlord is/do anything about it?

[Rudgie47]

Yes just drop the letting agency an email and if nothing happens after a week or so regarding the dog dirt, I'd ring them. It sounds very unpleasant I hate funny smells.

[dancingqueen345]

Can you not just bin them yourself? I know it's not fair but I wouldn't leave dog poo outside my door for days at a time. He might notice someone's doing it and prompt him to do it himself (although appreciate that it's more likely he'll just think winner someone's clearing up for me!)

[SoupDragon]

I would talk to him when he's in "lovely" mode when you can pitch your request in the right tone. A note rarely comes across well, especially since you know he is unpredictable.

[PositivelyPERF]

Could you put a notice up, stating that no rubbish or poo bags are permitted to be left at/near the entrance, as it is attracting rats?

[Sparklesocks]

Agree a note can be seen as pass ag, I think you’re better off bringing it up (gently) when you’re talking to him and can see he’s in one of his better moods.

[newrubylane]

I'm with SoupDragon. Wait till the next time you catch him on a good day and just mention it as nicely as you can.

[Justaboy]

I bet the poor sod has a form of PSTD a lot of them come back from deployments such as Afganistan with this sort of syndrome and I very much expect he's hitting the bottle to cope.

Not much help to you perhaps best bet is to see if his landlord can get him to change his ways. He might even in a good mood day react adversely

All rather sad really..

[kateandme]

sounds to me like whatever you put in the note though he would read what he wants/thinks to read depending on what mood hes in.writing is already really difficult to see the emotion behind isn't it.
id try to contact his agent first if you can.

[MsLexic]

The most anonymous thing you can do is leave a note on the bags.

[CaledonianQueen]

Justaboy has got it right, my lovely brother has ptsd (not ex military just unlucky to have witnessed the most horrific accident as well as other awful violence) and he can go from his usual lovely self and then with a switch he is aggressive, he is hyper alert too. He has frequent flashbacks and drank heavily to try to drown them out.

He is doing better now after an ex forces friend supported him and he went to his gp for help. He saved a mans life recently and it brought his ptsd symptoms flooding back. The human brain is not designed to cope with such awful trauma. Interestingly his dogs are amazing with him when he is distressed! I bet your neighbours dog is a great comfort to him too.

Is the landlord male? If your neighbour is always polite/ friendly with you then there is no reason to assume that he would be aggressive to you. My db is very respectful to women.

Is the bin communal? I wonder if he saves them up then takes them to a dogs dirt bin? I would perhaps start up a friendly conversation saying

‘hi, I noticed that you have been leaving your dog poo bags outside the front door. If you are worried that we won’t want the bags in the communal bin then please don’t. We have no problem with you putting the bags in the black bin. It saves you having to take a large amount of smelly bags to find a dog dirt bin and should stop any pests from getting into the bags. I heard rustling the other night and I’m sure none of us want rats or foxes being attracted by the smell’

[WhiteCoyote]

justaboy I’ve often thought the same myself regarding the drinking problem. I can understand why he’d do it but it doesnt make me any less uneasy about his moods.

I’ll give it a week or so and see if I can catch him in a good mood, if not then I’ll contact the letting agent and see what they think. I think kateandme is right in saying he’ll read the note according to his mood.

[blahblahblah18]

Don't diagnose people with anything, especially people you don't know. It's rude, offensive and daft.
Be a normal person and just speak to him

[TSSDNCOP]

This is precisely what letting agents are for, so that tenants and landlords enjoyment if a property arrangement aren’t compromised.

Letting agent first.

Council second perhaps.

Leave direct contact out of it completely.

[WhiteCoyote]

CaledonianQueen that sounds absolutely awful for your brother :( I’m so sorry to hear he’s going through that.
That’s actually a great point about being respectful to females, my colleagues partner also had ptsd and when it’s triggered, he’s only ever aggressive to other men or himself - never women.

The bins aren’t communal, we have one numbered normal household bin each, all kept at the front of the driveway which you have to walk past to the front door. I’ve wondered if it’s a kind of territorial thing that he goes to the effort of putting them by the front door when it would be easier to put them in the bin on the way home.