To hate student neighbours?

[LittleMilla]

We moved in to our first home in June 2012 and have painstakingly renovated it. We love it. But there's one small problem: the house next door (not attached to us) houses 8 students.

First year was fine as we hadn't done the garden and the students were relatively quiet and not really much bother (big stoners). This year has been much harder - 8 hard-partying boys.

Weekend saw 4 of them come back at 6.30am with mates and they were then in the garden all day drinking/popping pills. Cue lots of wide-eyed individuals and a dealer coming at about 4pm to provide more drugs.

Weve got two little boys, love to use our garden with friends/family but this is all upsetting me so much. I am contemplating just moving as I cannot handle another shit summer if the next lot are like this. When they're all out there 'on it' it is hard to relax and the garden wall is so close - they may as well be in our garden.

The boys individually are OK and I've been in at various times since last June to chat about bins and few noise whinges. I just don't know what to do. The music is at a reasonable level, so I can't complain about noise.

During my rational moments I tell myself that living in a city with two universities students are an inevitable part of life. And crap neighbours can happen to anyone - at least I know that this lot are going in June.

BUT I HATE HAVING THEM NEXT DOOR TO ME!!!!!!!!!!

AIBU and WWYD - move or adopt more coping strategies?

How do you calculate 34k per year?????

I've posted too many times on this thread. I calculate 31k at my old rates from 5 years ago. That's not all profit tho... I hope

Contracts are for 12 months. 8 of them paying £350 per month.

Thanks Little. I don't see much point in contacting the uni. I assume the house is privately owned? If so, it's between you, them, the landlords and the Police if it comes to it. fudge - what communal garden?? It's one house, a group of eight students rent it.

Save yourselves the hassle, buy something somewhere else, and let yours to students.

Grandmother has had student tenants next door (not attached) for about the last ten years, and there's only been a problem one year, and that was with rubbish disposal. I have student next door neighbours now (terraced house) and there have been no problems. You do at least know that they will be moving on quite soon.

In fact, it's easter soon (probably breaking up in about three weeks, and then off for a month), When they come back they'll be in exam mode. Exams will be over early June or so, and then they'll all go home for the summer. So chances are that you'll get perhaps one more party between now and Easter, and one post-exams party - and when you put it in those terms it doesn't sound too bad.

Some students are crap neighbours, and others are really quite nice neighbours. The same can be said of all other sections of society. Some permanent residents seem primed to deem all students as trouble - I remember having one neighbour who came out and got rather ranty because we were having a daytime / early evening BBQ with music of a reasonable level, no drugs and non-excessive alcohol, but she got ranty because she'd "had this trouble with you lot last year" (NB completely different set of tenants ) and so her ranty attitude made us rather less likely to work with her.

Part of me says that you should have thought about the fact that you were going to have student neighbours though - it is kind of part and parcel of living in a student area, and this lot don't even seem that bad.

A house down the road from me is for sale at the moment - currently let to 7 students with an income of £35k a year (that's for a house that is basically a five bed, one bathroom family house, but they have turned the living rooms into bedrooms too). Of course the landlord has never been interested in any complaints about loud parties etc - why would you if you can make that much money.

The local university now has a local community liaison person who has the unenviable task of trying to improve relations between students and their neighbours. It's definitely worth contacting the university to ask their advice. I heard ours now has a scheme which offers grants for communal activities to help students & other residents get to know each other and possibly make students behave more considerately.

I echo what 5OBalesofHay says - if you can do that.

It's the landlord more than the students - though they are inconsiderate arseholes too.

I feel very sorry for you.

Try and console yourself that in 10 or 15 years time they'll have the same problem.

Not much of a consolation right now though.

Remember that to them you will probably appear to be "proper grown ups" so if you address them directly about their behaviour you may get a good outcome - if not, landlord, university (would probably show an interest) and police if necessary and repeatedly if required. Hope they grow up soon

If there are 8 students the LL should have an HMO lisence. It might be worth complaining to the council about them as the LL could have his lisence revoked and then not earn as much.

YANBU to object to the drugs and the swearing.

But while you can complain about the drugs and foul language, as long as they aren't making too much noise I'm not sure you can do much about them drinking in their own garden (I'm assuming it's not a communal garden). I can see why it might be annoying, but I don't think you can stop people using their garden in any way they like- so long as what they are doing is not illegal (such as the drug taking).

I'd go round and ask them to stop taking drugs so openly (e.g. in the garden) and having dealers dropping by. Tell them what you'll do if they don't (e.g. contact the uni, the police or the landlord).

I wouldn't go round "telling them how it will be" on the other aspects though- you're not likely to get a co-operative response and if they're not causing a noise issue or damaging your property, I really don't see how you can stop them being in the garden drinking.

In addition to tackling the drug issue, I'd ask them to make sure noise is kept under control (which you say they do on the whole) and also to keep a lid on the swearing as you don't want your children to hear it. If they don't do either of those things, YWNBU to complain to the council (it will be a HMO licensed property), the LL, the uni etc.

To those who say that it's what you get for buying in a student area I have to disagree. The city we live in has two unis and students are spread across the city living in the nicest neighbourhoods generally. Our giant long road of 130 houses has 10 student ones. So the majority have families in them.

We rationalised when we bought the house that we could buy somewhere without students that could easily be bought up by a landlord in the future. Part and parcel of living in the city.

My hope is that house prices have sky rocketed in the last 12 months so landlord might get a sniff of what he could earn from selling up and cash in

Little Mila, I feel your pain we had shit neighbours for so long, its painful to be cooped up all winter, then you cant go outside because of this sort of behaviour, your not being precious at all.

I would contact uni, phone police at any signs of drug parties, ( they will soon stop or go elsewhere) also contact EH and keep on at the LL.

Its easy money for him, dont let it be, make it a problem for him.

evesmummy you sound very ignorant.

I'd go round and ask them to stop taking drugs so openly (e.g. in the garden) and having dealers dropping by. Tell them what you'll do if they don't (e.g. contact the uni, the police or the landlord)

Nooooo

The last thing you want to do is tell them what your going to do. Just do it.

Then they wont know who is dobbing them in.

Just call the police its what the people on my road do about their problem house, every sign of a whiff of trouble 101.

Again thanks all for the practical advice. I now need to psych myself up for the chat and pick a time when they'll all be in. Did it once before when ds2 was 8 weeks old and they had woken us all up at 4am. The naughtiest ones weren't around though and they're the ones I need to get on side.

The proper grown up comment rings true actually. My favourite one who desperately tried to keep the others in check has asked if we can help him find some work exp as my DH has mates that do surveying. And the others are often quite "yes mrs Patterson" a la Kevin and Perry when I see them on the street.

Fuckers!

Little Mila, may I say, give yourself a time limit if your going down the mummy to them route, and say if they still kick up after that, no more.

Born - you're right. On the one hand I spend hours mithering about how pissed off I am and how I want to just move. But then I find myself rationalising that they're ok lads really and simply don't know any different. So bottle being too hard for fear of rocking the boat. I really want to keep them on side, really.

Argh

It's good you have a foothold in the house via the sensible one, but you're right that it's the main actors here that you need to address. Perhaps take DH along too? Just so long as it's clear from the outset you're there to talk not argue or shout.

The university where I live is extremely pro-active in dealing with students in private lets who make their neighbours' lives difficult, up to and including suspension from the university for extreme cases.

The university also organises mediation meetings. In fact most universities now have some form of neighbourhood mediation service. Have you checked the university's web site?

YANBU unreasonable for finding these particular neighbours difficult - but you would be unreasonable to hate all student neighbours! (Which I initially thought the thread was going to be about when I saw the title).

I think it must be hard to find the best way to negotiate with student neighbours. As a (now graduate) student I always found it very frustrating when 'real grown up' neighbours felt they had a right to talk down to myself and my housemates just because we were student tenants. (That said, I could have written an aibu thread about our 'grown-up' neighbours who objected to us, hmm, speaking in our own garden). So taking the stern approach might actually make them feel a bit indignant and less likely to co-operate.

So I would say pick your fights - let a bit of boisterousness in the garden pass (after all, as you say they are paying a lot for it, and they have as much right to use their garden as you have to use yours), and maybe try to approach them adult-to-adult. Perhaps if you try to speak to them as reasonable adults they'll be more likely to act that way?

Out of curiosity, is one of the two universities in your city a, hmm, mildly prestigious institution that is split into colleges? I only ask because I can't think of many dual-university cities that would have such insane rental prices. If so, and if you knew the boys' college, it might be worth quietly approaching the college rather than the uni if they continue to cause problems, as they might be better set up to deal with the issue both well and reasonably. But ignore me if I'm wrong on that guess!

I can think of several two-university towns/cities with high rents - Bristol (Bristol Uni & UWE), Bath (Bath Uni & Bath Spa), Oxford (Oxford Uni & Oxford Brookes) etc. It's an issue all over the place.

Those rents aren't extortionate. I paid only slightly less than that (£320) for a house in a large northern city with a seriously questionable maintenance record.

Landlords know they can get away with charging students more because there are 8 incomes coming in to fund the rent, not just one or two as there would be with a family.

Speaking as an ex-druggie student, I think that talking to them rather than the landlord is a good strategy. But it sounds like you have already tried that. ..

Now I am a grown-up mum, I think you should phone the police as soon as you get a whiff of a dealer attending the scene.

The trouble is, even if you get the current lot of students on your side and behaving considerately, you may have to repay the process next year, and the year after. ...

Repeat. I meant repeat the process.

Year after year after year. ..

Tbh, in your situation, I would be looking to move.

rightsaidfrederick

But £320 per person, £2560 per month for the whole house?! Please tell me that isn't so common...

Then again I now gratefully live in a tiny and relatively remote village but with a sea view, so a pot-holed commute has its rewards.

exexpat

Yeah, I knew I probably just wasn't able to bring the probably many two-university towns into mind at that moment! It was mainly that if it was Oxford or Cambridge University that the students were at that a different tactic to actually approaching the institutions might be better. (Going via the colleges rather than the uni itself).