Anti social neighbour threatened me several times - Advice on solicitors please

[DaisyCa]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has had to seek legal advice in this area and could recommend a solicitor in London...

I own my flat. I have a downstairs neighbour who is anti-social. Loud music, TV, really loud banging, shouting, arguing, front door slamming (sometimes at 4am - which is weird because she's meant to live alone with an infant...) shouted and sworn abuse at me, has threatened me several times. Been overheard planning to attack me etc. (I've tried to have civil conversations with her and mediate - didn't work as she has volatile and immature)

I have reported to the police, the council and the landlady. Authorities have been useless....The landlady has said various times she will end her tenancy but is yet to. Since the last threat of violence and aggressive confrontation, my mental health has deteriorated so badly that I have had to leave my property. I've been sofa surfing for a month now. The landlady isn't doing a lot. She says she will get a solicitor one week, or end tenancy the next... but nothing has happened and now I have to move out because I haven't been able to work for over a month because of it, I'm behind in bills and my mental health is in tatters....

Can anyone recommend a solicitor so that I can ask where I stand legally? I've suffered loss of earnings, I don't have a fixed abode, I've become ill over it. It doesn't seem legal, I've googled it endlessly but all the info seems grey.

thanks all! xxx

I suggest you Google the housing Ombudsman they are open tomorrow @ 09:15 but you could also contact Citizens advice by phone.

Hope this helps

are the police not treating it as harassment?
id be going back in and making a formal complaint

whilst you shouldn’t have to I think I’d move

Police as harrassment. Log every single incident.

Council ASB team. Look up your local councils community trigger threshold and then activate it.

The police have said all they can do is have a word with her. She will just retaliate like she has the previous times.

Also, I'm exhausted now and feeling quite gaslit from repeatedly going to the authorities. No one does anything.

I think it's best I just find someone who knows the law really well and where I stand - seems absurd someone can be bullied and abused out of their own home with no legal rights...

Are the flats leasehold? Usually there is a clause about antisocial behaviour which can result in the freehold taking possession if remedial action isn’t taken within a cited period.

What a dreadful situation. If you haven’t already contacted Shelter, give them a call tomorrow. Hopefully they can give you some support. england.shelter.org.uk/get_help/helpline

Mine is. The freehold belongs to the one below, with the problematic tenant.

thank you - i'll try shelter! see what they say. Although I think maybe they only deal with tenants and not home owners.

Can you sell up and move?
If you have a legal dispute with your neighbour it migh make selling your property more difficult in future because you'll need to declare it on one of the conveyancing forms.

No, selling and moving is not an option right now as it's too costly. I want to talk to someone about legal advice as the problem tenant should be asked to leave.

Have you had a recording device fitted from environmental health?
Cos everyone can get one of them so they can record the noise for you to get further.

Regarding the threats to you, when is this? Is this when you're passing her flat for example? Or does she seek you out? Because if it's predictable you can film with your phone. Or even just have it at the side of you so you're filming her voice at least and it's not obvious. This is legal and will get evidence to get further

Could you threaten legal action to the landlady? Be interesting to ask a solicitor. I am sorry you are in such a horrible situation.

@DaisyCa I’m hoping Shelter can at least help you find the right legal advice. A local councillor could also support you in your dealings with the police. l hope you can live in your home again soon.

Wheresmywoolyjumpers - My therapist has basically suggested this.

Seymour5 I can try, but I know quite a bit about Shelter (have worked with homeless charities and had a friend who worked with them) I don't think this is their area. I've also seen them giving out poor advice to others. For example, if the problem tenant is asked to leave Shelter would actually advise them to stay until bailiffs come. This would leave the person with a black mark on their name and causes landlords and councils loads of money and stress.

I think I just want a professional solicitor who knows what they are doing at this point. It's ruined my life for the time being and I need trustworthy advice.

A few things come to mind. I'm so sorry you are going through this.

Firstly, does the flat lease allow subletting? If it doesn't then the freeholder can be contacted and the lease may be forfeited.

Secondly, this woman is potentially committing a criminal offence - threatening you and being abusive. The police need to step up. You may find your local councillor helpful here, as I think has already been suggested.

There may also be other clauses in both the AST and the lease for the other flat which mean the tenant can be got rid of for breaching the agreement. I would find a lawyer who specialises in landlord and tenant matters and see if they can help.

WeAreTheHeroes Thanks! It is definitely a criminal offence, and she is definitely anti-social. All the police have offered is to come and speak to her. Watching her behaviour patterns, this will only antagonise her. I am genuinely concerned for my safety and I've had multiple panic attacks now. I don't think there's much the police can do as it's not in a public space. The only solution is for the problem tenant to leave now. The police have said she needs to be moved on.

The landlord knows this. My issue is she is being hesitant to service an eviction notice because her tenant is council, on benefits and has a small infant. She keeps claiming it's too hard to evict someone like her. Meanwhile I'm suffering greatly. I've got witnesses to her abuse, a crime reference number etc... Plus I have family who are landlords and they've said all she needs to do is serve a section 21 but she's not. So I just want to know legally what I can do, it's costing me so much money and stress.

Not sure what you mean about subletting as there isn't any sublettting involved, but maybe I am confused?

The tenant is definitely breaching her tenancy, in multiple ways. The landlady knows this and has warned her several times. The girl hasn't changed her behaviour.

Ok I have recent experience of this with a ex neighbour who got a lifetime restraining order on not to contact me

and I’m now trying to ensure that he can’t return to my street - it’s taken a long time and that’s with a crown court conviction

if you have made more than 2 complaints to the police in 6 months you can apply to the courts for a civil injunction
look up solicitors that to civil injunctions
it can be hard to find one that will do it against a neighbour though
you need to document this
so get the police reference numbers
get any emails you have sent to the council and their response
You could contact your MP & Local Counciller mine have been amazing and have really held the council to account

their is also a thing called community trigger
all councils have this
look under their ASB policy

If you can get cctv ring is good as it has audio
you want as much evidence as you can get

unfortunately The landlady won’t evict unless she has to
The Tennant won’t move unless they have to by way of an eviction which is costly so most landlords don’t want to evict

my ex neighbour used knives : machetes crown court conviction and they still haven’t evicted him although at present he can’t enter the street so he can’t come near me

Good luck just keep reporting it but you can report stuff and ask the police not to speak to the person in case of retaliation
Thats what we did over several years

sorry it’s 3 reports over 6 month period
councils hate this as they are held to account

asbhelp.co.uk/community-trigger/

However if your not prepared to move back in it’s going to cost you a lot of money in rent / work cost living elsewhere
This isn’t going to be something that happens overnight either I’m on almost 2.5 years since my neighbour tried to stab me with knives and machetes - he was on a rampage over the weekend beat up to other neighbours and although he isn’t at the property he still had the tenancy from the council and I’m forcing them with my MP & local Counciller to make him move or evict him but it’s taken well over a year to get to this point

i would put up as much cctv as you can
Ring do excellent cctv set with cameras you can put indoors on windows to view outside
most have audio as well

70kid that’s insane, it should have never come to that. I’m gobsmacked how the authorities relinquish responsibility and let people come into harms way like this.

i really don’t have the option of staying. I suffer from C-PTSD and anxiety which I’ve been in therapy for for 3 years now. I did look into cameras…. But then I was there with a friend and we over heard her shouting on the phone to a friend planning to attack me. I don’t even know why. She’s quite unhinged. When she first moved in the police were called to the property because her and her boyfriend had a violent fight.

Im not confrontational at all. I’ve tried to negotiate, reason etc… I can’t sit here and be abused and harassed, scared to leave my own home. I spent weeks documenting the noise like the council said, doing all the right things. I’m a nervous wreck now and I need to put my health and safety first… so at this point I just want to see if the landlord has a legal obligation to fix it - ie end her tenancy like she’s been saying she would for weeks

Talk to shelter. I had this exact situation with my upstairs flat neighbour. I got legal advice through citizens advice who advised the landlord to evict the tennant (as I had a competing right to peaceful enjoyment of my property). My complaints were backed up by police reports.

in my case the landlord didn’t act, so I refused rent payments (we had same landlord) and they had no recourse to collect them (they tried to threaten me with legal letters etc, but my legal aid wrote back saying no etc) I know this isn’t the exact same as you are home owner, but I’m sure there is so legal route here, even if it’s just a letter to the landlady to compel her to act as her tenant is a nuisance

good luck. And sending support- I found living with a neighbour like yours was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to cope with x

Not sure what you mean about subletting as there isn't any sublettting involved, but maybe I am confused?

Most flat are leasehold although the leaseholder may also own the freehold or a share of the freehold for the building the flat is in. The lease on the flat which the owner has might state that the flat cannot be sublet. I.e. the leaseholder has to live there, they cannot rent it out to someone who isn't the leaseholder.

@DaisyCa
The councils are absolutely the worse landlords ever they really really don’t want to evict someone ever no matter what they have done . All they want is their rent and fuck what their tenants do .
whenever I write to them I regret to him as @Your Tennant “ as I know they

I truly fear that if he was to be allowed to return to his council house which is 10fT from my door it will be an incident like the one in Tewksbury where the neighbour stabbed his neighbour to death.

Ive made sure that I have documented everything and even got a copy of the court transcript where the judge says he has no doubt that he tried to stab and severely harm or murder someone

I’m in the process now of hopefully getting the restraining order changed to include distance so that he can’t come back
I had to go direct to the crown court judge clerk to get this started

Honest if you can move I would
but I understand why you don’t want to as I won’t move either

As this point I just want my sanity and health to be intact. I'm working towards a new career and doing a lot to improve my life. I don't want it ruined by someone anti-social and abusive. I just don't think it's fair I have to foot the financial bill, as well as the emotional bill. Doesn't seem legal.