to not know what to do about my neighbours?

[CanIbequitefrank]

I don't even know where to start with this.

Next door neighbour was a single man who lived alone and he died last year and his teenage (18) son moved in about 2 weeks later.

All was fine for a while but then one by one mates of his started staying longer and longer and now there are 5 teenagers living there.

From what I can gather 3 of them work at the same place (they all seem to wear the same uniform and share the same taxi but I have no idea where they work) and 2 of them stay at home all day every day.

So none of them really caused me any issues - yes its louder than usual because 5 blokes live there but during the week the noise stops around 11 ish which i am happy with.
I have had many discussions with the son who owns the house and he has been trying to make improvements to the house but there are many problems with it that his dad never got round to fixing such as the chimney breast his side is apparently very damp, the floor in the lounge is rotten, the windows in the kitchen are leaking and rotten (wooden frames), the bath is cracked and leaking, the boiler is broken, the attic is full to bursting with stuff, some roof tiles are missing.

Anyway, it is now apparent that the son has moved out leaving his mates living there because he couldn't cope with the amount of work that needed doing to the house.

Since the son has left the following has happened:-

Attic has been emptied and piled up out the back of the house
Front patio has been taken over with weeds
back patio has been taken over with weeds and dog mess all over it - the stench is lovely this time of year
the garden has completely overgrown
the smell of weed coming from there is overpowering
Dog barking and waking me up at around 5am presumably as it needs to go out
the back door "sticks" so whenever they let the dog in and out the door has to be slammed repeatedly for it to shut
The rubbish bins when they do bother to put them out are just left on the pavement for weeks until one of the neighbours gets fed up of having to push the pram around it and puts it back in their front yard.
Girlfriends of the one guy has now moved in and they have loud sex and wake me up

I tried banging on the walls whenever any shouting/loud sex is going on but nothing changes, i have tried speaking to them but they never answer the door, when i do manage to bump into them when they are coming home I get apologies and promises to do things about weeds/garden/keeping noise down etc and nothing is ever done.

I have no way of contacting the son - they won't tell me where he is or give me a contact number

The land registry is still in his dads name.

I have phoned the council to complain about the rubbish and told them i can see rats running in and out of the rubbish but they are not interested in the slightest unless it was out the front of the house.

The other neighbours are disgusted by them also but as they aren't attached to them they are less bothered about it than I am - also at some point this year I am planning on selling my house but that's going to be impossible at his rate

I had a council tax bill through the post yesterday but it wasn't my bill it was next doors i didn't realise until i had actually opened it. It's in the sons name with a single occupancy discount! There has been 5 people living there since last year so not exactly a recent oversight.

I'm half tempted to ring up the council and drop them in it but will they actually even do anything without proof?

What else can I do? If the state of disrepair continues surely its going to start affecting my house?

There isnt anything you can do about the disrepair - one persons weeds are another persons butterfly garden etc>

You may not know where he lives but you can find out where he works by looking at the uniforms the others wear.

I would dob them into the council about the council tax, that might galvanise something , I'd also report it as a HMO:
www.gov.uk/house-in-multiple-occupation-licence

A house in multiple occupation (HMO) is a property rented out by at least 3 people who are not from 1 ‘household’ (for example a family) but share facilities like the bathroom and kitchen. It’s sometimes called a ‘house share’.
If you want to rent out your property as a house in multiple occupation in England or Wales you must contact your council to check if you need a licence.
You must have a licence if you’re renting out a large HMO in England or Wales. Your property is defined as a large HMO if all of the following apply:
it is rented to 5 or more people who form more than 1 household
some or all tenants share toilet, bathroom or kitchen facilities
at least 1 tenant pays rent (or their employer pays it for them)
Even if your property is smaller and rented to fewer people, you may still need a licence depending on the area. Check with your council.

Write to the tenants saying that you are unhappy with the current situation and let them know that unless the son contacts you within 7 days to discuss the issues then you will be left with no other recourse but to report them as an HMO and for council tax liabilities

That should mean that he will get in touch with you pronto.

Then let him know your list of demands. Assure him that you usually work on a live and let live basis but if he doesn't sort it out you will dob him in

Things will improve for a while, but it is likely to be temporary. Ask him if he is planning to sell when probate is finished. If he says no, get your house on the market pdq

does it count if they aren't actually paying any rent though?

During one of the "please sort out the crap out the back and mow your garden" discussions they said that they had no equipment and not enough money to sort it so I said well surely the money you are all paying in rent should be paying for the upkeep to which they replied that none of them are paying any rent they are essentially just "house sitting" so I don't know if that's been done so that he can't get into trouble for not being a proper landlord etc?

I know that the son isn't planning on returning - certainly not any time soon anyway. I did ask them to get him to contact me but either they haven't let him know or he couldn't care less either

You may not know where he lives but you can find out where he works by looking at the uniforms the others wear.

it's just navy blue jumper, navy blue trousers with no logo or anything on there so without actually asking them outright where they work I have no idea

FB etc is your friend. Surprising how much info people have out there :)

He won't need any kind of HMO licence if he's not letting it out officially which it doesn't sound like he is anyway. So that's probably not relevant here