To consider complaining about my neighbour?

[MamaMia100]

We live in a flat in a very nice area and all our other neighbours are lovely but a year ago our freeholder handed over the downstairs flat in our building to the housing association (without consulting any of the owners of the other 2 flats in the building) and a man moved in who is an alcoholic who has recently been in prison for ABH (I know this because there is no sound proofing in the building - it's v old - so i can hear all his phone conversations through the floor). We have two little ones (1&3) and main problems with him are 1) he smokes in the flat and the stairwell smells like a pub but most worryingly my 1 year old's room gets really smoky (I think it comes through the floor boards or something). And 2) when my 1 year old cries at night (which he dowsnt do a huge amount but sometimes for 10-20 mjns around 4-5am, and wr are always with him trying to get him back to sleep), he shouts and swears and sometimes comes upstairs and bangs on our door.
I am quite scared of him so wary of what he will do if we properly go to war with him on this, but I am worries sick about the effect on my kids of the second hand smoke and my 3 year old being traumatised by the shouting.

As I said, we live in a really nice area and this sort of behaviour is unheard of.

Sorry for the long post, but I would be so grateful for any advice - particularly to do with our rights regarding complaining to housing association etc (whom I know nothing about!).
TIA

Sorry for horrendous typing! Posting this from my phone with a shattered screen so difficult to see what I'm typing!

Um.

I think your concerns might be reasonable, but you are way OTT and you are being a right snob about your 'nice area'.

Why should someone consult you before selling their flat? Why does it matter that he's a HA tenant? You sound as if these are reasons why it's ok for you to judge him.

I would have thought it's not legal for him to smoke indoors in the communal areas? My flat is half council owned and half private and there are big signs saying it's illegal to smoke in the communal areas. That could be because the council own the communal areas of building, though, I'm not sure.

If he keeps shouting when your baby cries he's being a tosser and you're right to be annoyed. If you feel really scared call the police on the non-emergency.

I think it is perfectly reasonable to complain about those points. Could you do anything to improve the sound proofing? It must be disgusing to have smoke in your DC's room.

You may also want to ask in the DIY section on here about stopping the smoke seeping into your DC's room, that sounds nasty.

Yeah, you lost a lot through harping on about it being a nice area. How dar Housing Association people darken your door!

Complain about the genuine points only, you seem irked that someone renting from an HA is allowed there full stop. I hope that's not the case....

dar dare

Thanks LRD.

He doesn't actually smoke in the communal areas, it just comes out of his flat when he opens his door. I don't know if there are any laws against smoking in your own home. On one hand it's his right, but is it not also my right to keep my home smoke-free and for my DCs to have fresh air to breathe?

Sorry if I sounded snobby - I only mentioned the nice area thing as we moved from a really dodgy area to a nice family friendly area (and therefore live in a flat the size of a shoe box) so that we would not have to feel scared for our DCs and not have to deal with the kind of mutters we were surrounded by in our last house.

I confess I don't know anything about HAs - perhaps they are all different? But I was under the impression that they were for rehabilitating people back into society (people who had been in prison/ had drug or alcohol problems). Sorry if I am completely wrong about that! I am all for 'live and let live' - i am only judging him because he is having such a negative impact on our lives!

Essentially he smokes in his home and knocks at your door when he is disturbed by a noise. What do you expect the HA to do about it if you do report him?

Sorry - nutters, not Mutters!

HA's are not for rehabilitating people back into society, it is social housing and the rent is cheaper than a private landlord.

you cannot stop someone smoking in their own home - even if the smoke and smell goes to your flat.

you can report him for abusive behaviour i.e. banging on your door and threatening you - if that is what he did.

You cannot complain about hearing his conversations - that's just shitty soundproofing, you can complain if he is deliberatley too noisy.

If you know the name of the housing association, ring them up and complain. they might send you out some diary sheets.

this man might be on a 'starter' tenancy if he has been there under a year - although not all housing associations do this - on a starter tenancy you have to be on your best behaviour or your tenancy will not be extended - it would be worth asking the housing association about this.

If he is very noisy - loud music, shouting etc, you can call environmental health and ask them to monitor the noise. they ehave an emergency weekend number.

threatening behaviour is the police. - then report to housing association.

never make the assumption that the guy from environmental health (council) will talk to police or housing association - or that the police will talk to housing association or that the housing association will talk to them!

report report report.

you should always think of it like this - if it were too easy to evict someone, good people such as yourselves would be subject to the same laws and injustices could take place. therefore it is rightly hard to evict someone from their home and much evidence needs to be compiled before a judge will even countenance it.

This guy might have some support needs - or mental health difficulties - now the Housing officer will not tell you this, but any report should trigger them to make contact with the appropriate agencies

i work for a HA - any more questions let me know.

Have you been down to talk to him in a nice friendly neighbourly way? That would be a good start. Perhaps he could not smoke in the room below your one year olds room. You could perhaps apologise for your sons crying and explain that it will happen from time to time.
If that is all he has done I think you should be thankful some of the neighbour wars I have heard have been horrendous.

Housing associations are just a type of landlord. They often let to social housing tenants via the council but the tenants are just regular tenants who have been supported into housing by the council. They also build shared ownership properties and run keyworker housing schemes.

Have you spoken to this man? I suggest that should be your first port of call (or a polite note through his door if you don't want to face him).