To believe there is nothing I can do to change situation with neighbour

[CantankerousCamel]

A bit of background (massively reduced)
We move into council property
Neighbour moves in 2 years later
Suddenly we start getting inspections, council on our case all the time, everything we do is ‘reported back’ Mostly heavily exaggerated and ludicrous. We were reported once for having sex at 10.30pm on a Sunday night.

Anyway. This has gone on now for 4 years, when the council route proved ineffective they reported us to the police for drugs, parties, child abuse, social services, the schools, everyone you can imagine.

Around 3 years ago, the neighbours parked their vehicle on the one-laned access road that services both properties (and the others on the lane) where they shouted abuse at me while I prepared my bike to go to the gym, they then claimed I deliberated scratched them with my bike and then scratched their car. Bizarrely this matter went to court, I was given references from police, probation office (I worked there as a volunteer) and the school. I was found not guilty (of course)

Things claimed down (court case was two years ago)

Various reports apparently kept coming to the police and council. Told the police that unless they had a warrant, not to come to the house as visits were obviously spurring things on. In the end I had to put in a complaint to the council (after asking for 6 months respite to raise my just born daughter) and accused them of not allowing me my human rights to a private family life.

This seemed to work for a while, for the last few months I have been dealing with serious bipolar depression and raising my (now 10 month old) daughter and sons.

Now the council are back on my case, two phone calls last week, an email this week, telling me I’ve been having a bonfire with old kitchen cupboards (I have not, I still have them) asking me if my cooker is new as it’s ‘Making the neighbours wall hot’ telling me my children playing in the garden is ‘damaging their fence’

It’s just utter madness.

The neighbours have no life, they spend their whole existence living in the lounge room while the children are upstairs (hence why they get a bit more disturbance than normal because of course people are awake different times in the lounge) they report me for anything they can think of.

It’s really, really tiresome...

AIBU to carry on living my life? I’m not sure anything I change would be enough for them, they seem to want me to have no visitors (they complained I had visitors the day I gave birth here, the visitors were midwives) and to play music in the garden when we are out there otherwise we have our conversations listened to and repeated back to us?

I am SICK of it but beyond ignoring them (which doesn’t seem to be working) I just don’t know what else to do?!

'Sorry I had sympathy until you said you had put 10k into your house and wasn't to buy....it's because of people like you that there is a shortage of council houses for people that genuinely need them....why didn't you put the 10k into a deposit for a normal house? What a joke.
Anyway I hope your neighbours carry on being cunts so you don't buy...why would you buy a house next to cunts?!'

WTAF? You realise a lot of council properties come with utter FA in them? No shelves, no pegs to hang a towel from, not a scrap of flooring (bare concrete or splintered wood), graffiti'd walls, not so much as a voile on any window - some have damage to doors and walls, too. If you live in one for any length of time you will find you need to put money into it to make it liveable. And £10k may get you nowhere near a deposit. But you're supposed to live with blankets on the windows and bare floors or you're taking away a council house from someone who 'genuinely needs it'? What a joke!

Lola

£10k over 6 years is not a lot of improvements

I am not going to put £10k towards a private sell because the house up the road went for £189k and we can buy this one for £85k.

Makes no logical sense to buy private when we have the opportunity to buy our council property.

You can blame me all you want for the state Of the world but really it’s high rents, inflated markets and governments who cause these problems. I will do my all not to be a burden to my family in my old age and getting on the property ladder is a big part of that.

Your judgment on my moral decisions is pointless and unnecessary

I am quite happy
It’s really, really tiresome...
I am SICK of it
I have been dealing with serious bipolar depression

So which is it, OP?

expat She's put £10k into the property and says we will let it probably and move abroad for a while. I think they can afford to move.

But clearly, it's not really a problem at all, so not sure what the point of the thread is.

When we moved in we had to spend £4k sorting out the garden as it was dangerous for children to play in.

Other £6k has gone on redoing the kitchen (we bought an old eBay kitchen and fit it ourselves wirh new worktops) plus gates, fences and so on.

The house doesn’t even have carpet upstairs, we have a huge way to go til it’s good but we are getting there and on a shoe string. Second hand reconditioned (by us) farmhouse doors, etc etc.

What an awful existence for you. Like living in a feckin nightmare. What on earth is the matter with these inbreds? I agree with SluttyButty you need to take action. Try and find out if their previous neighbours suffered as you are doing. You never know they might have left a long line of disgruntled neighbours behind them.

Hang on, you’re buying your council house to let it out while you live abroad??

Lola well aren't you a delight!??????

My bipolar and depression has nothing to do with any of it. Bipolar is a chemical reaction not a environmental one.

I suppose I wanted to see if anyone had suffered similar and managed to solve it?

Or if I was missing anything that would just relieve the nonsense. It seems quite obvious to me that when I’m depressed there are no complaints and when I’m in a good place there are loads.

I feel like there is nothing I can do to change this and I wanted some reassurance that was true... because I’m not sure I’ve missed anything? Harassment orders are not forthcoming and no help from police or council.

Yes, expat is right - furthermore, the councils RIP out perfectly good flooring put in by tenants, so any investment made by a tenant is wasted for subsequent tenants.

When vulnerable people move eventually into council properties (14 years is the waitlist round here) they have nothing to start with and often have to shell out a lot of money to make these places habitable

No we are buying our council house to raise our children in.

We may well move abroad for a year or two and let it out while we are there. Then return here

hissy

All the flooring was ripped out of this house leaving nails and glue on the floor. An absolute nightmare

I missed the bit about letting it out :(

That's not right.

Lola you're a nasty piece of work.

Camel So when you move abroad and let your property out, will you be advising all your potential tenants of the problems you have with your neighbours so that they are forewarned what they can probably expect to have to put up with?

Nice.

Why is it not right? If I buy my home I will be entitled to travel and let it while I do so same as anyone else. In fact you can even do that with a council house here, sublet it and come back.

I cannot see what the drama is? We will always keep a base in the uk. It’s our home

shatners

I was thinking students... with free reign

Camel So in other words, you wouldn't tell them, and if they had trouble, you'd do nothing about it because you'd be abroad somewhere. Nice landlord.

Oh, and perhaps you should have mentioned in your thread a titbit that you chose to leave out. Wondering why you chose to leave out of your thread that your neighbour is mentally unwell, rather than give the impression that they are merely, in another poster's words, "cunts"?

Hi Camel,
I can't offer any help or assistance, but just a shared experience. My parents had something very similar to this. A neighbour moved in and did exactly the same thing - spent all day spying on them to gather 'evidence', recording all movement in a diary, videoing comings and goings (including when I came to visit - very disconcerting). Also calling the police for various reasons, harassing them and threatening them and bad mouthing them to the community. They ended up in court (at the neighbours instigation) 3 or 4 times, with my parents winning every time. Eventually (10 years later) the neighbours moved on (to harass someone else!??). There was nothing my parents could do unfortunately, except to realise that they were crazy and to try and ignore them as much as possible. Sorry! It was horrible for them. The only slight thing they could do was complain that the police (or council in your case) was harassing them - if you can make them realise that these people are bonkers

with free reign

Which will include free reign in your house too.... hope you have a hunk of money set aside for repairs.

Shatners
I would make any agency aware of the situation. Do you think the entire lane should stop functioning in order to support these people?

I’ve seen no evidence of any mental health conditions, neighbours have children in their possession, she has a physical disability but I’ve not mentioned that here.
I have bipolar disorder but that is nothing to do with the behaviour of the neighbours, I think you’re getting confused

Could you install CCTV that would demonstrate their behaviour and also prove yours?

Um, you do realise that if you buy under many right to buy policies now you are not allowed to let it out for a number of years? And if you let to students you will need to have it comply with HMO regulations in your council and apply for a HMO license.

Eve thank you

Yes that is exactly what is now going on. The neighbours have resorted to just endless reports to the council, for a while it seemed the council got this and stopped telling me when the reports were happening, but now we are seeing an increase again (I can only assume this is because my mental health is better and as such the house/gardens are improving)

I think any further activity and I will have to complain again about the council as really it is their involvement that causes the drama rather than anything the neighbours do directly

expat it’s not something we’ve looked at in detail yet. We know we’d like to buy our home, then one day travel, beyond that though we still have school aged children and a lot of training ourselves to do.

Realistically our children will probably live here when we move or we will let it to a family, my previous comment was fairly tongue in cheek...

For the foreseeable we will be here, when we decide to travel we will consider other options but really this is so far in the future it’s not worth major consideration now

have you actually put in a formal complaint to the council re being harassed and bullied?