To have taken neighbour's sign down?

[ClawHandsIfYouBelieveInFreaks]

I live with DH and two DC in a second floor flat. The block is made up of 4 flats...2 on the bottom and 2 on top. We all share a corridor and back and front doors.

One of our bottom neighbours is weird and aggressive and is always trying to boss everyone else about. trying to put his stamp on communal areas (he has put a table and plants outside his door and when we go outside, he locks the door so we can't get in and have to bang on it to draw attention.

I think that because the back door to the garden is right by his precious plants and the door to his flat that it stresses him out when we use that door...but it's the only one! It's communal and we use our garden.

Early on, he also tried shouting at me and DH. We told him what to do with that the first time he attempted it....roaring at us for basically using our own private garden in the summer...not being loud...just having a game of skittles. Lots of other things too....made the other girl who lives on our floor cry by threatening to have her evicted because her baby is too loud when she crawls on the floor!

Anyway...dh and I don't smoke...one of our visitors did the other evening...so he went out to the front of the building, well away from the entrance, he stood by the gate sort of on the pavement, had a cigarette, put it out and then put it in the bin outside.

Next evening I see that nutty neighbour has put a NO SMOKING sign at the bottom of the stairs, so it's the first thing we see when we come out of our flat.

Big, red official looking sign. I called the landlord to check he hadn't arranged it...no...not him.

DH took it down and threw it in the bin.

Now throwing it away MAY have been unreasonable I know...it wasn't DHs to throw away.

BUT we've been sorely tried by this man....how dare he! Our visitor was nowhere near the main building and disposed of the one cigarette he had. This neighbour is always trying to intimidate and to rule the place.

We don't want the communal entrance to look like some institution! This is our home and there is no need for a no smoking sign. It was nowhere near nutty neighbour's flat so obviously a comment to us.

Report the table & flowers as all blocks arent allowed them due to fire risks!!! Get fire brigade to come do a check!

YANBU. I'm not a big fan of smokers myself but your guest sounds like he did the right thing and your neighbour just sounds like a miserable pain in the bum.

Our neighbour next door is like this and during our renovation has made our life hell (and cost us quite a bit of money), you have my sympathy OP.

get them to change it to a normal chub lock, and each flat gets their own key, if he starts locking people outside and leaving his key in the lick, then they take his key away! if they refuse Id be tempted to get together with the neighbours and do it yourselves and "forget" to give him a copy.

ddub I don't know about that...we had a man come out recently to check safety and he never said anything about the table...nasty orange pine it is. That's the most upsetting thing!

There's no need for them to lock the door if there's no other route into the garden, surely?

I agree that you need to get the HA to change the lock. What if you went out into the garden in freezing weather, someone else locked it and went out, and your DH wasn't in either?

That's my thinking Sky The place is landlocked! It USED to have a low fence at the back which was accessible from a cycle path there but that's now an 8 foot fence! So no need at all.

Have you actually approached the HA about the lock?

Sorry if I sound arsey, but you've posted about this hundreds of times now with seemingly no resolution. I think I'm getting more annoyed about it than you are.......

(If you're in the SE and you want someone to come round and 'ave a word wiv 'im I'll do it gleefully)

Ask HA to change the lock.

What you need is an "escape lock." They are very common in flats.

You can always open it from the inside without a key (e.g. to get out in an emergency, hence the name) but it can be opened from the outside using a key (or combination, or electronic fob). This makes it safer than an ordinary chubb or other mortice lock.

You want one with a latch that automatically catches when the door shuts, in the same way that a Yale nightlatch does, otherwise people will leave it insecure. You cannot rely on people remembering to lock it when they come in. You will have to remember to take the key when you go outside. It is possible to fit it to take the same key as the front door, at extra cost.

Because of the way it works, an intruder might get in by smashing glass and operating the handle, but presumably you all have proper front doors on your own flats.

Is there another option do you think? One which offers security at night but which can always be accessed from outside by those who live here?

There is another option. They could fit a lock which automatically 'locks' on closing, but has a coded re-entry on the outside.

Ahh this brings back memories although I dealt with a management company instead. We had a front door (communal) which had a key which also was the key to your indoor door. However I would have thought they would be able to at least give you a key based door system even if it means having an extra key.

We had the opposite issue which was people were leaving the front door on latch. Against the lease agreement so the management company removed the latch facility on the door.

Also had one neighbour storing things (lots of things) in the hallway. It didnt bother me as they were the flat on the top floor but soon as they started running an air dryer up there I decided to report the whole lot.

Again it was against the lease agreement and a fire risk. All
The stuff was removed.

In the end, most places that are shared have a lease agreement and all you have to do is complain to whoever is in charge of maintaing that.

Saucy in all fairness this OP wasn't about the lock. It was about the sign. And people just got more interested in the lock...which I mentioned but was not the point of the OP.

Incidentally not one person has mentioned if DH was bu to take the sign down!

Have you spoken to him about locking you in the garden?

Your DH was not being unreasonable at all. This man sounds awful. Good on you for sticking up for the neighbour with the baby as well. He is a sad bully, carry on standing up to his bullshit and he will soon learn (his poor wife )

Your dh was not being unreasonable to remove the sign, after all this twonk of a neighbour has neither permission or the authority to post such a thing.

He was being unreasonable to throw it away though.

Tapir yes... I asked him why he binned it and he said "Well he'd just have put it back up wouldn't he? And then we'd have had a whole, boring round of up and down with it!" So I suppose I see why he did it.

Fair do's. I don't think your DP was U to take the sign down if you think it was intending to intimidate you.

TBF on your neighbour tho- it is absolutely standard to have "no smoking" and other institutional signs up in social housing blocks. It is round here anyway. I'm surprised you didn't already have one up tbh.

Well it's not around here Saucy I've been in a few and none have any. We keep the shared areas very clean and cared for too.

Put his sign back up. And out up your own official sign too, on the door

Your block of flats will end up looking like Hogwarts under the rule of Dolores Umbridge with all the signs up for every little thing. it will be awesome please do that

I remember your last thread too OP and the man is a horrible bully. I second a previous poster's advice to call the police if you hear him arguing with his wife again. The poor woman, her life must be a misery living with a petty gobshite like him.

I did almost put a sign on the back door in summer....something like GARDEN IN USE DO NOT LOCK DOOR! But failed to organise it.

I should have! I can't call police for a non violent row though. That would be a bit much. There's no bumping or crying.

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand why he binned it, and I would have done the same thing myself.

It's just that this twonk of a neighbour could try to make trouble over it, if he wanted to.

Make sure you carry on keeping a record of all his unreasonable behaviour though, you never know when it may come in handy.

I thought that if he mentions the sign to me I will just say "What sign?" as there's none there. I never saw any sign. Neither did DH. There are no cameras in our hallway at all.

I would complain about the table.

My friend has lived in several flats that's in a block. It clear nothing is to be left on landings or stairs.

You call the police at signs of domestic abuse. It's not just Violence. Domestic abuse could be emotional, sexual, financial... If you have reason to think someone is in fear you phone the police!! If they're rowing all the time like you say then ring it in.

Claw

That's what I would do too.

Claw deny all knowledge of the sign, it's not there "Sign, what sign?". If he says "the one I put up" reply "are you allowed to put up signs then because I was thinking of putting one on the back door to stop whoever is being inconsiderate enough to keep locking me outside!".

Your dh should probably have returned the sign to him, but then again how would your dh know it was his.

As others have said log every incident of his unreasonable behaviour and report every incident. Also, even though this is not what you asked, I would ask the HA to replace the lock on the back door to one that can be operated by a coded entry from the outside. The less he is able to do to irritate everyone the better, he sounds horrible.