Please tell me i did the right thing because i am panicking.

[letthirstydogslie]

Sorry this is long :(

I live in a set of flats with a communal door. One neighbour starting stopping at his mates eighteen months ago and stopped coming back about twelve months ago however he is clearly still claiming housing benefit, benefits, car insurance etc from this address as the letters with those addresses and multiple letters from places he is clearly writing to on the outside of the envelope are in the hall and landlord definitely thinks he is here.

Anyway while he has been gone I have had a lot of hassle, police banging on door at all hours, tv license (he's never had one despite having a tv), council people , what i think are probation officers the lot. Even his sister came who said they had had a row and she had been told he had moved out but wanted to check.

I largely ignored until the Gas company started coming demanding access to the meter. At first I ignored this then one day a letter had been banded with mine and as I am with the same people I opened it without thinking and they had left correspondence threatening a warrant to break entry. This letter was not in the tenants name but none of them are.
I offered to wait in and let them in and waited four hours, they didn't show I contacted them and explained. They said they would TRY not to change the locks on the communal door when forcing entry when they got a warrant. I got in touch again and explained that wasn't good as I am in and out of hospital and one of my kids is a teen and is often home alone after school and I was frightened of me getting locked out or her getting locked in as she won't answer the door. My kids would have freaked out if someone had forced their way in. They were already shaking after the police really banged the door.

They eventually listened and marked the other flat as long term vacant and I made it clear he might come back so they said if he does come back I have to tell him that I contacted them. He has a criminal record and has been threatening before so now I'm worrying more!

I have awful anxiety and serious health issues and it is making me ill. He has already kicked off at me because junk mail from cancer research came to his with my teens name and they had missed some of the details meaning it showed my name but his number. I.e house 13 flat 1 instead of house 13 flat 1c so now my anxiety is awful incase he does come back.

Would you have done the same?

I don't see what else you could do. You don't want to be in hospital and come home to find the locks on the outside door have been changed because the gas company busted the door in to get to the meter. You also don't want to be living in a flat where anyone who feels like it can get access to the building through a broken in door while you wait for the locks to be replaced.

It's unfortunate you opened the letter in error, but a lot of people would have made the same mistake.

Because if you are in bed at night and someone unexpectedly starts absolutely hammering on the door or Trying to force entry and you can't immediately see it is the police and your alone with your kids suffering from anxiety and a child with special needs it is bloody scare!

Utility companies can definitely force entry to change meters or check a meter. I checked.

Yeah we were woken up at 2am by the police breaking in the neighbours door but my parents were very much 'phew, it's the police' rather than being scared. Dunno I guess maybe they just spun it well for us.

I've also had the police hammering on the neighbours door late at night as an adult living in a flat but there was a nice community person who came round to say oh sorry about that, can you tell me what you know about them etc.

Guess I've been lucky with my encounters!

He will go bonkers at this. That I accidently opened a letter with his address and that I've told someone he isn't there.

How would he ever find out?

Batteries I am anxious I have anxiety and depression anyway and going through an horrendous health scare and because he has already threatened me in the past and he has a criminal record.

Every time someone asks for neighbour tell them you don't know the situation and refer them to ll.

Batteries how would I be involved in his housing benefit fraud?

I pay my rent entirely separate to him for a different flat. I'm only presuming he is still getting benefits based on the envelopes at the back of the door.

If I wasn't scared of the consequences for my kids I would go to the landlord, explain the situation and make sure the locks were changed but as I said he isn't a very nice man.

I don't want anything to do with him.

And maybe the reason you weren't scared is because it was not your main front door it was your neighbours and you could see it was the police rather than just waking up to the noise of your own front doing being hammered and not knowing who it was forcing it...

Thanks all I'm not going to tell him anything about it.

People saying it's not her business don't seem to realise that is her bloody front door they're knocking on, threatening to break down and changing the locks of. She can't ignore it. She has to answer the door for a start, and she'll struggle to 'just ignore it lol' if it's broken down or the lock changed.

"Why are you children terrified from the police knocking? The police aren't scary."

I'd like to see you tell your kids this at 2am when your front door is in splinters and they're barking questions at you. "Not to worry, poppets, bow down to your heroes!"

"Are you involved in the housing benefit fraud you mentioned?"

Aaaand there's the troll.

Right, OP, you'll get good advice from people who aren't tossers, definitely get on to the landlord (but most are evil so don't expect much) and then maybe citizen's advice could help, because it's kind of a tricky one. These people and places are going to drive you to the brink.

Can you attach your Flat number on your door?

As pp's have said, just say nothing.

You don't him an explanation, only your LL, if asked about the Gas visit.

Don't engage with him.

I would have contacted the LL about the forced entry situation. It's up to the LL to wait in and allow entry.