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?

Ok - so we have a date for mediation, in two weeks.
I have concerns about this.
The twats seem awfully keen tbh and this worries me.
The officer who served me the pin is also the officer who decided not to serve the pin on grandad and will also be present at mediation.
I think the Twats feel they have support from her and they may do.
The ndn have been informed previously of our issues to discuss. We have yet to be given any information about what they want to discuss.
I've emailed the officer to ask for this as I feel it's unfair of us to go in on the back foot.

The appointment with the solicitor went well.
It's as we suspected - they are definitely unreasonable and our conveyencors info at the point of purchase was correct.
The solicitor was boggled at the thought that they may think they have a leg to stand on.

The solicitor is going to give me a letter to take to mediation explaining all.

If they don't stop after mediation then we'll go in heavy.

I'm nervous about mediation though as I always thought I was untouchable because we genuinely haven't done anything but now I don't know what shit they'll throw at me and I don't really trust the police.

I'm sorry this has got even worse! Are you able to speak to the original officers and ask why this has happened? I do think that the police have been completely hopeless with the whole thing.

The police ignored the guy hosing your daughter and visitors. They didn't interview any of the teenagers even though they could all have given evidence. What are they waiting for him to do? To be honest I can't believe you've just let this go either. (and I appreciate you're trying to walk a line where you don't exacerbate this)

In a two second google I can find several reports about police arresting/ cautioning people for spraying neighbours.

What do you have to lose by making a complaint if not about the general goings on then about this specific event that has other witnesses? Why are you having mediation with this man?

Could you get another appointment with the solicitor to discuss strategies during mediation? Eg what to do if they come up with fabricated information, how to respond etc?

There is still the possibility that they won't go to mediation.
My solicitor recommended I go- she thinks I'm already in a strong position although we concentrated on the ROW.
If they don't go then we will be able to demand costs in court. If we don't go it will weaken our position.
The police have been useless. I am gathering evidence and info and we are planning on making a complaint, however we don't think it will be wise to make a complaint against the officer who is mediating before mediation.
We have asked for her superiors name and she seemed surprised.

They've got back to me about what we want to talk about in mediation.
I will send in to the officer what we want to talk about and ask him not to send it to the ndn until he receives their points to discuss and exchange at the same time.

My next question to you all is...
We are thinking keep it simple.

1. Stop parking deliberately to block our ROW
2. Leave us in piece to enjoy our life undisturbed and ask your visitors to do the same.

Simple requests - no chewing the fat of accusations and bullshit. Simple.

However...they will probably come back with 10 pages of ridiculous demands and accusations, that we cannot possibly agree to.

Do we just let them do that and will it make them look even more unreasonable?

*laurey

I def didn't want to let the hosing go. I was at the station in tears.
We demanded they do something.
They have been pitiful, it's the safer neighborhood team and the sergeant doesn't seem particularly motivated.
Or perhaps just not with this stuff- maybe she's much more interested if she feels it's worth the effort.

Like I said - they present quite well outwardly. We live in naice houses. I think they are inwardly eye rolling. And why wouldn't they it's fucking ridiculous? Doesn't help me much though.

*ndn

*police

I think simple is the best. And have your solicitor help you prepare once you have the ndn's things they want addressed.

I think it will be very helpful having the letter from your solicitor setting it out clearly. Do you have the legal docs that go with your house purchase that make it clear that you have the right of way over that part of the shared drive? Normally this sort of thing should be really easy.

I would think that it would be very easy for you because there's nothing that you're doing wrong. You need to be able to use the shared drive to manouvre - that's what it was designed to allow. You're not filming anything or taking pictures of anything that you're not allowed to. You're not harrasing them in any way (apart from calling the police of course). What can they demand that is legal?

The problem is mistle that they lie.

They will probably come into mediation saying-
1.stip driving in front of my house & staring in my window

1. Stop filming me & my dc
2. Stop laughing at us and harassing
3. Stop driving your vehicle towards us

Basically a collection of things that they do to us and nothing that we've ever done.

Should we stock reply

We can't agree to stop doing that as we never have. But we can agree to continue to NOT do any of those things.

They have lied to the police about us continually and I have just discovered been calling in regularly with bogus complaints including a 999 call that got her a lecture from the police.

You have two options, you can peruse them under common law for nuisance. Alternatively you may try a private criminal prosecution for harassment and common assault. It mostly depends on how much you are willing to fork out and what you want to achieve.

I can't believe you have a PIN!! FFS!

I would add

3. Stop harrassing you and your family (children) - verbally and physically
4. get F**king lives!!!

Honestly - I don't know how you haven't smashed up the police station by now!

Do you need to be specific about the reversing? And the easement? I think simple yes but also reasonably specific. What was the line up thread about 'use of the existing easement' maybe adding 'as per land registry document x' and 'including legal manoeuvres such as reversing' 'without visible or audible reaction'? Or is that all too complex?

If mediation doesn't work we are going in heavy with the solicitor and we are prepared to pay.

The solicitor is preparing us with details for ourselves but also a seperate notice for mediation iyswim
We will take it into mediation with us to give to them...at the appropriate time and not before they admit to deliberately parking because they mistakenly believe we have no ROW.

I believe this all stems from them mistaking a belief they have as an actual fact.

I don't think for one minute they know we've got ROW.

To all the posters having a pop at the police here. Put yourselves in their shoes for 5 mins. What do you suggest they do?

1. This is really really petty low level stuff. Reversing/Laughing/Staring into windows.
2. Both neighbours are accusing one another of this. Multiple multiple times.
3. There is no evidence.
4. There are no offences. You would really struggle to get this through under PHA.

Unfortunately there's not a "acting like a cunt act 2017" BOTH neighbours probably think they're in the right. BOTH will be thinking the police are siding with the other.

RTFT. There is dashcam footage and the ndn hosed down the OP's daughter and her friends getting ready for prom.

I have read the thread. Dash cam footage of being "cut up?" Awesome, was that on the road or private land? Did it meet the threshold for driving without due care and attention/careless driving? Were the police made aware of that before the window for a NIP was shut? Because you know without that being clarified you have absolutely no fucking clue whether that constitutes an offence or not.

Being sprayed with water? Did the other girls' parents wish to pursue a complaint? Is there any evidence of this? Has he already given "his account" of what happened? Again tit for tat reports with no supporting evidence

Rodhullstvaerial this neighbour has continuously harassed and threatened the op.
The police have done bugger all, damm right id be complaining!
They've gone back on their word repeatedly!
Im usually defending the police but they've behaved appallingly.

Kali, under what legislation would you like the police to have acted on? What do you think that they should have done?

I think rodhull raises a very valid point, if twatty neighbours were to put their case on here, it may sound as convincing as the op does.

With regards to complaining (and this is anecdotal granted) NH officers receive the most complaints out of all the departments. More than armed response, CID, traffic etc. Purely because they deal with the most petty of petty. Where there is no solution, where both parties feel THEY are the victim and the police aren't doing what they want.

^
And this is where the problem lies folks

Alrhough actually... I will say we do have some evidence ... where they have none.
Plus his admittance to the officers that he parks deliberately to prevent us.
The police didn't investigate the water , if they had we would have had evidence of that also