To want to see lawyer tomorrow about neighbours?

[redrosette]

My DH thinks we should just ignore them but I've had enough! I have disabilities and am awaiting a major operation this year so I have enough stress.

We moved here about 7-8 years ago and DD was born 4 years ago. When I was newly pregnant I began to notice these neighbours 2 doors along. They had 2 dogs, always off the leash, running into people's gardens, digging them up, shtting and pssing in them all while they sat on their driveways getting p*ssed and watching. They had a newborn baby.

Come home repeatedly to find sht in my garden. Really peeing me off. Then one day I came home from work and the dogs run in barking and jumping. Lost my patience and yelled at the neighbours to get their fcking dogs under control.

FF a few days and there's a knock on the door. its the man giving my DH a hard time as we had apparently phoned the dog warden and gotten them fined. We did not phone them. Someone else must have. They did not seem to believe us and we ignored each other thereafter.

Then we had our DD 9 months after theirs and began meeting them at baby classes and began to talk. Was hopeful maybe we could try to get on as maybe the kids would play together. We even friended each other on FB.

But then I saw that the woman was mocking my disabilities on Facebook. Also her SIL was mocking me, calling me a C* and mocking DH's appearance. They were also posting racist jokes and talking about their sex lives in graphic detail on FB for the world to see. Add to this the drunken parties in their back garden keeping everyone awake.

The last straw came when she posted on FB about having a party and the police van came. She posted lots of hints that she thought it was us (it wasn't, I swear).

So I thought f*ck it, I can't be arsed with this, and defriended and ignored them.

But then they started standing outside our house and staring through the window. And when I left to go to work, she would stand right at the bottom of the driveway.

Now that DD is 4 and the weather is getting warmer, she's wanting to go out and play. Naturally I dont want her playing herself as she's only 4 and we're near some woods and I dont want her getting lost (the other kids 3 and 4 years in the street are always out themselves, including in the woods). I dont let her go into people's gardens where I don't know the parents and I did not want her near these people. I told her no she couldn't play in (their DD's) garden.

Then he comes up and shouts at me for calling his DD names! I never did. I am really sick of their accusations. They keep accusing us of things we never did! He says he doesn't know what our problem is as they've done nothing to us. I mentioned the mocking my disability. She came over and denied it. I fetched the print out I'd had the sense to make, and they started swearing and abusing me.

Since then, several other neighbours have come up to me to say I'm in the right and these people have caused lots of problems.

Today these parents see my mother and ask her how she is, nice to see you, blah blah small talk.

I get home and they come over AGAIN and accuse me of calling their DD names!

WTF is their problem???

I have done absolutely none of the things they accuse me of!

So AIBU to want to speak to my lawyer? DH thinks we should just ignore them but they keep approaching us! and its gotten to the point where I can't let DD out to play anymore and this really upsets her :(

Wankers! Seriously see different police officers this time and explain all this. You can't leave them thinking that you're the bully when in fact you are the victim.

Just saw you've called the police.

Go to small claims court website. For claim £3K its £90. Fill in forms with regard to abuse of your 'right to quiet enjoyment' under the Housing Act and add 'log of abuses provided'. Post a 'draft' thur their letterbox. Its never failed me. Done this twice now after Dept of Environment at local council proved useless. Both times they moved and i got no comeback as i listed the 'aggressive behaviour and its effect on my emotional wellbeing' to the claim and put a note to the effect that any comeback would increase my claim. In both cases i never had to actually carry out the threat ... sometimes you need to grow a pair and draw the line (tho i was wetting myself in case there was any actual comeback )!

Sorry if this has already been said, have bouncing child poking me in the eye and can't make it through all the replies.

This is a police matter and not one for a lawyer; if police advised you in the past that this is a civil matter then they were fobbing you off. Harassment is a criminal offence and mocking your disability means that this is a hate crime, which the police have to take very very seriously. Report it to them.

I worked for the police prior to having DS and used to have to interview people like yourself all the time. They will help. And if they don't give them absolute ruddy hell until they do.

they sound vile

what you want to target is scaring them legally to the extent that they realise they are better off ignoring you , so they keep the fuck away

I thunk your angle could be the disabled issue (sorry)- reason being that you can get them for hassling a disabled women

If I was you I would do as follows:BE DISCLIPLINED

do NOT engage
do not look at them
do not speak to them
delete delete delete
make it your new hobby

you say you are keeping a diary, so do this and log everything

eventually you can either (a) get em evicted or (b) done for bullying

good luck

If the neighbours were making racist comments about you then the police could act, so is there a similar law in place to prevent them harassing and mocking you because of your disability? Even if it is not the main reason they are harassing you.

Have you any proof of these comments? Facebook screenshots, neighbours who have heard them taunting you etc?

As you have said, keeping a diary of everything is a good idea too. Complain to the police and the council every time too. Would the other neighbours also keep a diary of events? The anti-social team act on noise after 11pm so call them as early as possible after 11pm rather than wait until 3am, as they sometimes can take an hour or more to actually respond and get to you while it is happening (I have experience of this from a faulty burglar alarm on a neighbouring street that went off for three weeks running at least four times a day, including at 1am in the morning every night for a week.)

And is there any way you could install some kind of CCTV on your property, not pointing at their house but so you can capture them standing and staring at the house or at the end of the drive?

Don't discuss anything else with them, don't go into their house or go to complain, if they say anything else in the street don't talk to them about it. Put it all in your diary and let the council and police know they have been approaching you.

I have some Facebook screenshots but the worst comments I dont have as I preferred just to delete and block. I didn't think it would get this bad. Now I'm kicking myself as I would have an even better case if I had screenshots of everything rather than just a few things. The new FB timeline is not good either as many posts are 'hidden'.

I dont know if other neighbours will want to get involved. They say they support me and agree with me but if the police visit them they might not want to talk out of fear etc. That's what worries me.

The police are visiting us saturday afternoon (I'm working tomorrow) to take statements from us.

When you see the police emphasise the fact that they have mocked you because of your disability. Hate Crime legislation is worded so that Hate Crime is any offense that the victim believes to be motivated by discrimination on the protagonists part. So what that means is, it's not for the police or any other independent body to decide whether or not what they are doing is an offense; it's up to you. Google it and brush up a bit so that you're prepared in case you get Plonker Plods who aren't willing to take it seriously.

It varies County to County but most forces will demand a minimum number of complaints from one party before a harassment warning can be given, so this may not be offered to you on Saturday. As well as keeping a diary you must call the police to report every single incident so that they have a record of it too.

Following them speaking to you, ask them to get back to you ASAP with an incident number so that if/when you do need to get in touch regarding further incidents, the person on the end of the phone can easily access the relevant information, and everything is kept in one place. This makes it easier to push for a warning to be given once the minimum number of incidents has been met (hope that makes sense).

To end on more of a positive note: Aside from dealing with this sort of stuff when I was a police bod, I had a similar problem as you about six years ago. It took nearly a year and a lot of pissing about phoning the police/council/landlord etc but eventually our horrible neighbour was charged with a full Harassment offence and spent 4 months in prison.

Chin up

Dont ignore them that really doesnt work it makes them worse and you will always feel like a victim waiting for them to do something.
Ring the police and get them to come out and speak to them and talk about harrassment make them know you mean business.
This is bullying and bullys need someone bigger than them to frighten them.