To call the police to conduct a wellness check for my hoarder neighbour?

this

As a minimum I’d be asking my landlord to reduce or eliminate the rent while this is sorted out and if not that you will be giving immediate notifies as the place in uninhabitable. Landlord knows they won’t be able to rent it to anyone with her next door so they will almost certainly grant the request. It’s not a fix but it helps as paying to live there sounds appalling.

I agree with pps. Look for somewhere else.

Yes this. Phone up adult social services and tell them you’re reporting an adult protection concern.

It is a difficult thing to deal with but they need to try

Poster said they're in Scotland too, so there's now no minimum term on rentals. Only 28 days notice required.

1 Tell social services it's a crisis and she needs urgent support

1. Log anti social behaviour with the police
2. Notify the fire brigade you are concerned about fire hazard

1. You say you are private renting. Push this onto your landlord or letting agent. Be really pushy. Make yourself an absolute nuisance to them to this is their problem to take on
2. Post in the legal section - be clear you are in Scotland - and ask if there is some legalese about "enjoyment to your property" or some such which you have a right to under your tenancy agreement and that the current situation is breaching. Therefore you can notify your LL/agent that you wish to sever your tenancy. Hopefully it will prompt action

@Becca19962014 thank you for sharing your experience, it’s really important to get that perspective. I’m sorry things continue to be so difficult for you and hope that some kind of housing is sorted.

Are you in supported living just now?

Adult social services will intervene if there is a safeguarding concern, which they won't know until they've been in the property.

But some hoarding can be classed as a safeguarding concern if it means there isn't a clear exit route, the property is more 'flamable' as a result.

I'd report to adult social care.

Was going to post this. If your landlord hasn’t stepped up, and you’ve got nowhere with the HA or environmental health, I would give notice and move and tell your LL why. They can either rectify the situation or accept that they will struggle to rent your property out if the smell.state of the neighbouring property is in such decline.

Exactly - people’s expectations of social services’ power to enforce action is way too high

Adult social care can’t force entry, they can only go into the property with consent. You need the emergency services

Are other neighbours also affected?

I am another who would be working through landlord saying it’s uninhabitable as it is, and threatening to serve notice. Then when you can (depends on your contract), I’d move out.
It seems extreme but you won’t solve this easily and it sounds like you have a way out.

How are you going to prove it was her though?
Also op, if te in your new flat smell is that bad, did you not notice when you looked round? If she has been living there a long time and it is a recent smell, it may be a cracked drain

second this.

OP you are privately renting, and at the point of viewing the property it was not to your knowledge a hoarder, that affects your health and mental well being, will be sharing a common space with you.

If the hoarder has been there for 15 years, he/she must know it when he/she was letting, so it's misrepresentation of the landlord I guess?

I am so sorry you have to go through this OP. It's very upsetting indeed.

And then when they come out & get no reply to the door they'll ask other neighbours who'll confirm she's alive. So from the Police pov job done, householders alive. And they won't have seen the state of the house - so a waste of time

Lying wastes everyone's time. Report it to the proper agencies. Social work and the fire service in this case. The Fire service will definitely go out to a hoarder and they can get a SW referral done. They're probably the most effective route to get the ball rolling

Social services won't see her without her prior agreement.

Surely smearing faeces around a communal area is an anti-social offence.
I'd report that incident to the police and be contacting social services as well.

Could you call 111 and select option 2? That’s the option for speaking to someone about mental health, I’m not sure whether they would be able to help as neighbour not engaging with you, but they might be able to help with signposting for further support?

I really don’t think police would be able to do anything although I guess there might now be some crime in terms of what she’s now done to the hall which they might then be able to put referrals into social services etc.

I’d also contact the fire service and report concerns around hoarding. Basically get her on every radar you can.

Mr Trebus.. Bless him..He died in 2002.

Hoarding must be expensive? Buying stuff to hoard - unless it's junk picked up from the streets..There used to be a homeless person who lived under a flyover years ago who had built a shanty town out of rubbish - they had bags and bags of what looked like bags of rubbish tied to shopping trolleys- very sad.

It does affect people around serious hoarders though.

If it only affected the hoarder, no one would interfere, but the infamous ''Mr Trebus'' from the old TV programme ''Life of Grime'' was eventually put up in an older people's home, and seemed much happier there, as his rat infested house {Probably worth millions now} bothered his neighbours.

You have a statutory legal right to quiet enjoyment of your property and at this point I do not feel that you should be paying full rent, since the landlord cannot provide that. I know it isn’t the landlord’s fault as such, but the flip side of all the benefits of being a property owner and landlord is that the buck stops with them on things like this. Honestly if it were me I would give notice asap and I feel you should be paying a heavily reduced rent in the meantime, or perhaps a reduced rent with the proviso that you can be released from your contract as soon as you find something else. I sense this problem just isn’t getting resolved any time soon.

Human excrement is a biohazard.

No way should anyone be having to put up with that in their living environment.

Plus her hoarding will be bringing vermin to the property.

Exactly!

@Atmywitsend23 Why on earth don't you get the hell out of that literal shit hole?

There are clean, pleasanter places to rent.

This woman needs to be in a supported home by the sounds of it- It sounds like she's shitting in her actual flat, rather than in the lavatory.

Hope there aren't any animals there- of so, that is a welfare concern for them.

OP I think you need to photograph the smearing ( revolting I know) to keep as evidence. Send an email to everyone listed below with a list of the problems sewage smell, risk of fire, flies etc… Say you have photos and will send those on request. You should not be having to pay rent to live in these conditions. Email your LL, HA, environmental health, local council housing department, fire department, whichever water company deals locally with sewage, your MP, local councillors. Tell them you expect action to be taken to prevent harm and spread of disease to others.
I understand the person has a mental illness but when their behaviour risks the health of others that has crossed a line.