Flat below being used for sex work, what would you do?

[BoysofMelody]

The flat below us is owned as a buy to let by and has seemingly had a succession of problem tenants. The landlord who owns it is according to longer term residents,a right dodgy character who's served time for his.part in a money laundering operation.

Anyway, the last but one tenent was a woman from central or Eastern Europe who lived on her own. However it was soon apparent from the stream of male callers at all hours who stayed for no longer than an hour and the accompanying sex noises that she was working in the sex industry. At first I was relatively unconcerned, as it seems she was operating Independently, lived on her own, so wasn't doing anything illegal and I live in a city where the policing of sex work is lax to say the least and the police will turn a a blind eye to sex work so a long as it is kept off the street. There's a number of massage parlours and saunas which are well known as being fronts for brothels.

But in the last few weeks, I've been more concerned. The previous occupant moved without notice and was replaced by another woman of a similar background who is also working in the sex industry. This new woman speaks little English and there have I been a serious of loud and emotional discussions between her and a male.

What really amped up my concern was reading about human trafficking and modern day slavery. I'm now worried that this woman has been trafficked. WIBU to call the police or am I letting my imagination run away with me?

Wiifit That's illegal, without question. Ridiculous for the police not to act under those circumstances.

Did your mum call social services about the kids?

Also, who is the landlord? I am pretty certain that his/her lease will have clauses that s/he will have broken by allowing a brothel to operate.

The leases are vey strict and do not allow short lets at all, let alone brothels! The problem is proof. The residents are being told that unless they can prove it, there is nothing that can be done.

My mum did not call social services but the police did take the unattended child thing very seriously. However, by the time they came back again, those particular women and children had disappeared. It's a fairly constant stream of different ones.

Good call with crime stoppers.

You could also contact Hope for Justice.

I'm a police officer and I close brothels regularly. If I received information that it was a brothel I would pay them a visit. It's fairly easy to tell. They are issued with a notice giving them seven days to stop. Normally this works and the property will be empty on the second visit. If they're still at it, it gets shut down, everyone leaves, anyone involved in running it gets arrested.
The council ASB department work with us by contacting the landlord and threatening them too.
I would contact your SNT and council ASB department.

That is interesting Monsieur and of course you are just carrying out the current regulations but isn't giving seven days notice just pushing the van down the road? If somebody is being trafficked, the pimps will just take another short term lease in another location and move the girls there until that too is reported and so it continues.

• pushing the can!

Have you got a management company looking after the flats for the freeholder?

Most flats say you can't run a business from them - get the management company involved and they will contact the owner to point out they will forfeit the lease if they (or their tenants) continue to run a business... tends to concentrate their minds and stops it, at least in the short to medium term.

I lived in a conversion flat with a brothel below, and it was horrible - men buzzing our door in the middle of the night as they had the wrong number, not taking no for an answer when we told them it wasn't us. In our flat it was just me and a girlfriend, and we dreaded bumping into punters on the stairs as we shared a front door and corridor, not feeling safe coming back from a night out, etc. If we're going to turn a blind eye to prostitution at least have a defined sex work zone like in some European countries!

Have you got a management company looking after the flats for the freeholder?

Nope, the freehold is shared between the owners of the flats.

. If we're going to turn a blind eye to prostitution at least have a defined sex work zone like in some European countries!

Which is kind of what happens where we live in Edinburgh. 'Massage Parlours' and 'Saunas' are turned a blind eye to in an attempt to tackle the HIV crisis that engulfed the city. It was/is largely successful in tackling street prostitution, it clearly hasn't stopped the sale of sex in other smaller venues, plus it has largely put the sex trade in the hands of criminals.