AIBU to ask your advice on wether it's worth taking my Neighbours from hell to court?

[Totallyattheendofmyrope]

I've had threads on here about my neighbours from hell.
We've been threatened, sworn at harassed and our visitors harassed.
We have involved the police who initially wanted to issue a harassment order against said neighbours but were overruled by their superior officer who said " it never ends well in neighbour disputes"
The actual abuse has reduced significantly though we still endure low level harassment.
I'm keeping notes etc as recommended by the police.
I've pushed for mediation and have met with the mediator however neighbours are stalling and I doubt very much they will attend.
Currently the favourite form of harassment is to park their vehicles to make it quite difficult for me to park. I can get in and I can get out but I do dread weekends and I dread coming home as I'm always so anxious about what they will have done and will I be able to get in ok etc.
I have checked my deeds and they are blocking my "easement ' and it states in the deeds that no one is allowed to do anything to hinder another's ingress and egress.
Currently the neighbours are freely enjoying and utilising the easement I honour and provide them with on my land.
So- Aibu to consider starting legal proceedings or am I just feeding into their crazy?
What would you do?

So was the PIN served? Just spent the best part of this evening reading this read. Saw the first ages ago. It missed this one somehow. Kids should have been in bed a half our ago but I've left them to play while I see what happens.

OP you are a far better person than I am I think. Although I have a twat neighbour all to do with notes being left on any car parked outside his house. It's not massively escalated yet but may do at some point. I'll try to think of you if it does.

So --- dh and I went to the pub earlier ... que our dd coming to get us - there is an officer at our house wanting to speak to us.
We came home.
Cue us spending 2 hours going through things with an officer who is supposed to be issuing the pin.
He went to twat ndn yesterday ( which explains the missing forte when we got home last night) and he wanted to hear our side.
He left 30 minutes ago to supposedly serve ndn with the pin but is still there...

So the officer has just left/
Not without a display from the test ndn on how they park their cars... to demonstrate that they don't encroach our land.
Dh is fuming. It all appears so softly softly and we keep having to justify ourselves.
I think the pin has just been served- the officer signed it in front of us and told us once served he wouldn't come back to our house.
The whole family was out on the drive gesticulating. They're still parked like twats.

As part of the pin he disclosed to us the complaints tests has stated about us.
Apparently she dialed 999 a couple of days ago because I was " filming her house".
This was dismissed by officers and a lecture served to her about the 999 procedure.
She's also informed the police that her dc are "terrified of me"

So do they have to refrain from parking like twats or can they still do that?

Well...they are still currently parked liked twats. The whole driving display in front of the officer was..i believe...a demonstration of how they don't encroach on our land so we shouldn't encroach on theirs.
Why the pc even entertained it is beyond me.
Now the pin has been issued our next steps are to consult a solicitor and we will also be scheduling an appointment with the officers dealing with the situation to explain the lack of continuity.
We are going to screw the pressure tightly now.

I'm smoking and drinking and practically sitting on dh who is incandescent with rage at the lack of strong arming by the pc.

Is it freehold or leasehold ? Could the builders get involved ?

Nota
I'm looking into that possibility but it is unlikely that we can change things due to covenants etc.

Really you couldn't make this shit up.

We had to yet again, plead our case with a completely out of the loop officer who had absolutely no idea what has been going on. When he went to serve them on Saturday the twats talked him out of it and he came to us for "confirmation" ffs
We passed muster but seriously - that's policing- why the fuck are they at the stage of serving finally and we're dragged back in again to defend ourselves????
We're feeling absolutely and totally let down by the police. This pin has been a fucking joke and if he served it---which he assured me he was about to- in almost sure it was almost with an apology, Because of course they look like such good people.

I'm absolutely done in right now, wondering what the fuck else do we have to protect ourselves.

I'd let your DH go to the twats employers. No more nice, fuck with this guy without them knowing.

Also, if you live nearby, I'll get DD and my gobby friend to come by and we'll sit and watch their house. I'm sure we could amass the mumsent army.

There must be a complaints procedure on the police website for your area. Please go on it and initiate this process.

You're being badly let down.

It sounds awful.

This is awful. The PIN was delayed because the officer was off sick. And then an out of the loop officer served it anyway. So it could have been served much earlier. And then that stupid toing and froing on the day!!!! All of this just weakens the effect of the PIN and empowers the Nasty neighbours.
The police have certainly failed in their duty towards a child and towards victims of harassment/stalking offences.
As a starter ask for the police force's policy on dealing with harassment complaints and PINS and safeguarding of children. When I researched PINs in a professional context recently I found the policies are very strict and I think you certainly have a complaint to bring.
The police have made this all worse with their softly softly approach!

Thanks for your advice - I am certainly going to move forward with requesting all the info as stated above.

📢
THE PIN HAS BEEN SERVED

Finally.

This is what we hoped for in order to legitimize our complaint. Now we will move forward more assertively. Dh is focused on the legal route currently and will be meeting with a solicitor this week.
Also this week the grandad will be served a pin.
We will be more proactive and less passive now.

The twats want to go to mediation now.
Go figure?

I do think that the police have acted very poorly over this whole thing. Second getting their complaints process going.

x posted. Glad it's been served at last! And that you're looking at the legal route on top of this.

I can't see what mediation would achieve - all you want is for them to park where they legally are meant to and leave the area that they should leave vacant for manoeuvring space vacant - and of course, stop all their nasty behaviour. There's nothing you can do in exchange that you're not already doing.

Mistle-

That's exactly what I told the officer today- I also told her that under no circumstances was I going to partake in mediation if they did anything abusive towards us or our dd.
I didn't say about the parking because frankly- I think we need the solicitor for that. I actually think they are quite thick (sorry if that offends anyone).. they believe what they believe regardless of the facts iyswim?

The fact is now they want mediation so it has impacted them.

Mediation will probably just be a way for them to throw accusations at you, an audience for you to look unreasonable in front of.

You've already tried to work things out your end, if they actually want a solution they know what to do. It's not rocket science.

I feel very cynical about it.
When we were trying to resolve issues they were harassing us mercilessly.
Now they've been served a pin and middle neighbours have an alternative narrative they want mediation?

I am very wary.
They have repeatedly lied to the police and made false statements about us.
They wish us harm, the reasons they tell themselves they do this is irrelevant.

But what is there to mediate about? You've done nothing wrong. You're not blocking the shared access section of the driveway. You've not filmed their house. You've not constantly harrassed them. You've not thrown water over their child and they child's friends when they were off out to the prom. You are just going about your business, trying to use your property and the access rights that it benefits from as they were meant to be used. They meanhile....

So I really don't know what the police expect mediation to resolve? Perhaps this might be something they could advise you on? You are not the ones being unreasonable.

It's a bit like asking the people that live above the flat that has all-night parties that keep the whole street awake to go to mediation with the noisy flat owners when all it needs is the noisy flat owners to stop the noise!

The police have let you down, this could all have been nipped in the bud if they had acted sooner and when they said they would - there are no excuses, please do complain. Do you have a Police and Crime Commissioner in your area? It might be worth contacting them.

I cannot understand, as I am sure you can't either, why your neighbours have such an issue with you reversing into your driveway it is actually safer to do that so you exit frontwards into traffic. Funnily enough some years ago the rather jobsworthy local policeman ticketed people in the village I lived in for reversing out of their driveways onto the main road.

I agree with you about the mediation, there seems no point - you were prepared to do that quite a while ago and they weren't so that's their look out.

I really feel for you as this has dragged on for a long time and escalated even though you've done everything right and as you were advised. There was no need for it to come to this.

I would keep the idea of contacting the Company he works for on the back burner for now, as the PIN has been served you have more ammunition if you go that route.

Fuck mediation, they only want to go now they've beenserved.
When you seek legal advice ask about the police complaints procedure, they have completely let you down. They deserve one massive complaint

I keep coming back and hoping for good news. Bloody hell the police are utterly shit!
Finally a PIN but at what cost?
Stuff mediation like you say. That was months ago.
Compain and complain loud. Do it, start it - get the form and explain that the police are letting harrassment occur.
Feel SO sorry for you and the stress these utter arseholes have inflicted on you all. The police have made it worse and prolonged it but the twatty neighbours need a bloody beating (and I am anti violence) hugs again.

Has the parking improved since the serving of the PIN or does it only cover the harrassment that you've been subject to?

The pin does cover the parking.
The twat dh has not been home so we're unsure at this point wether he will park appropriately or not.
I doubt he will tbh
We have been really let down by the police really- they needed to be told but when the officer left they were still justifying their behaviour.

They have openly admitted to an officer that they park the way they do to prevent us reversing.
They really needed to be told iyswim .

My dh has chosen the solicitor that we will go with and he's scheduling an appointment asap.
The grandad is supposed to be served his pin this week...

So a pin for the twats, a pin for grandad a letter given to nice middle neighbours outlining the situation and a solicitors letter next week at the latest----hope fully that will turn the screws nicely to apply lots of pressure on them.

Completely agree, the police have let you down and I would honestly consider making a complaint or taking this further. They assaulted a group of teenage girls and no-one should be allowed to get away with such intimidating behaviour.

That said, I hope the pin's and legal action help and make them realise you are not messing around. Good luck.

Well- as I suspected.

He's parked like a twat the pin hasn't made a blind bit of difference.