Crazy neighbour, really worried

[sassypants72]

My husband, myself and dd live in an end terrace, we had new neighbors move in about a year ago (they rent). We didn't get off to a great start as one of there sons was kicking a football up at the wall along the side of our house, my husband went and told him off which resulted in the mother kicking off at our front door.

Anyway things have gone from bad to worse. Her 15 year old son has been repeatedly playing really offensive music, really loud and has ignored our attempts at asking him to turn it down (my husband went outside one evening and shouted up at his bedroom window telling him to turn it down). Nothing changed so we reported them to environmental health.

Anyway tonight she has had a Beyoncé song on repeat and very loud all evening, we've tried repeatedly knocking on her door to ask for it to be turned down, but with no answer. She then repeatedly started banging on our joining wall later in the evening. The banging on the wall happens most evenings.

About 1/2 an hour ago she came banging on our door absolutely kicking off at us for repeatedly knocking on her door to ask for the music to be turned down.

Anyway she's now accusing my husband of being a paedophile for shouting up to her son and saying she's going to phone the police and report him !!!

I'm really scared. Anybody who knows my husband would laugh at such an accusation, but surely the police have to take this kind of thing seriously. It could rip our family apart. Dd is only 8 and is very close to both of us, I can't imagine what it would do to her if he had to move out.

If i were you i would complain to the landlord or move.

Looks like you’ve got a war on your hands. I doubt she’s going to phone the police, as she’d be done for wasting police time.

I don’t understand why you think it will rip your family apart or are scared though, if all he’s done is shout to turn the music down, there is no issue.

She is a bully. The poor police have enough on their plate without people like her
If you rent too, I would look for somewhere else, if not I'd record everything and report her to EH
She sounds vile

It's a horrible accusation, but I don't think the police are going to take it seriously. I would log all the noise complaints. It's going to be clear that it is vindictive.

Is she on your doorstep making these accusations and complaints? She’s breaking lockdown guidelines. Tell her you’ll phone the police and report her.

I presume you have a smartphone. When she comes next to bang on your door, switch it on to record.

When she's at the door, calmly and politely listen. Make effort to offer sensible recourse (it's like pouring oil on a fire with people like that and she'll get more angry in puzzlement) but be the reasonable party.

Get that kind of evidence together because without it, it's one person's word against another.

Before people ask - it's not a crime to record, it's a crime to sell the recording or profit from it, but if you're keeping it for personal use, then great. If it's then used as evidence of wrongdoing in future, so much the better.

I moved because of a problem meighbour. They are never going to change.

Maybe if the police come they could have a word with her? She has no evidence that he has done anything wrong and she is wasting police time.

Are the properties HA? If so give them a call and speak to the anti social behaviour team. They will help.

it's a crime to sell the recording or profit from it

No, it's not.

What a lovely place the world would be if this was a true example of paedo behaviour - shouting up to a teenager to turn their offensive music down.
I am sure the police receive malicious accusations like this all the time OP - you need to log this incident with the non-emergency police as this is a false accusation and you are concerned about defamation of character.

Get back onto environmental health and your local anti social behaviour team. Do you know what is anything environmental health have done so far?

You will need to gather evidence as they are causing a noise nuisance and causing anti social behaviour. I suggest gathering as much evidence as you can - keep a diary noting times, dates and what happens. Ask environmental health is they have the noise app, if they don't record any noise yourself using your phone. You could even ask to have the noise equipment installed to try and capture this behaviour.

Speak to environmental health/ noise and asb team about serving the family with a CPN - community protection notice. This is issued to people who's persistent behaviour is causing harassment, alarm and distress to people. You could also speak to the police who can issue these.

You could also try having a word with the landlord. Most reputable landlords don't want people in their properties who cause issues.

To be honest, your only real option is to move. If she is crazy enough to do the things you've reported, she is more than capable of spreading the paedo rumours around. The police probably won't believe it but the trouble is the people who will believe it are the sort of scum on the same level as this woman.

It's not worth the hassle. Sell up and move on. Be aware you have to disclose the trouble you are having with the neighbours so you will probably have to sell cheaply to get someone to take it.

They sound like an absolute nightmare. Can you move?

Record it and send it to their landlord.

She sounds vile. If it’s a private let, I’d contact the landlord. I’d also do as PPs have said and make a diary of her noise/harassment. Wouldn’t worry too much about her threat - though I’d calmly warn her about the consequences of wasting police time if she repeated it. She sounds unhinged.

Neighbours like this are disgusting and I think it is very likely they were moved on from their last dwelling for the same reason the OP is describing. Families like this will just go from property to property making neighbours' lives hell and I don't know the answer as no organisation is going to allow a family to be homeless if there are children involved.

The OP and her family should not be the ones who have to re-house themselves but I fear that may be the only option. Then the new occupants are to be pitied as they will not know they are moving next door to the family from hell.

Disclosing neighbour problems will scupper a house sale to a family and not mentioning it could cause future problems which I am aware of but not the details. Only other option is to sell to one of those companies who take it off your hands but you would lose thousands.

Omg I feel so sorry for you. We've had similar issues with a neighbor during the lockdown and it's enough to drive you crazy.

Firstly I'd pop in to your local police station to ask for advise on how to deal with this, they still have staff in and they were happy to take the time to advise us, this will pop the issue up on their radar and also inform you better. If you speak to them about whats happened so far they may be able to say if it's enough to make a report or for them to go round and speak to them.

I would not engage with the neighbors any further, and keep your phone on you. If they threaten or abuse you, you should call the police and try and record it if you can. If you have a recording they can issue a behavior order if you don't they can't.

Report each incident of noise to the environmental team, every time or every day if all day. Report each incident of anti-social behavior online. Keep a diary of all incidents and reference numbers.

Because of Covid the environmental team may send a warning letter right away without coming to inspect, but this may also be very delayed due to a lack of staff in the office. Once sent you should receive one too. If you don't after one week send an email to your local councilors, we did this and got the letter hand delivered after two weeks of being promised that one would be sent out.

Once the letter has been sent out, if it hasn't resulted in a reduction in noise, I would email a letter to the agency/landlord with the diary and steps taken so far, continue reporting and keeping the diary, and also update the councilors or contact them.

*As for selling and moving. If they had bought the property then I would advise this, however as they are tenants it is unlikely that their lease would be renewed if the landlord was aware of such issues ie. if someone behaves like this they are very unlikely to look after the property and/or pay all of their rent on time.

If there is any indication of damage to the property or concern for the property then inc. this in any correspondence with the landlord will probably concern them more then the noise your suffering from.

Tenants sign an agreement which includes no antisocial behaviour. If you complain to the landlrd it will be logged thett they are in breach of their tenancy agreement and should be evicted if this is still allowed during lockdown

Disclosing neighbour problems will scupper a house sale to a family and not mentioning it could cause future problems which I am aware of but not the details. Only other option is to sell to one of those companies who take it off your hands but you would lose thousands

You legally have to disclose any reports made when selling. So in some (and normal) circumstances it might be wise to decide to not make a single report and try and sell up instead (especially if the problem neighbors have bought)

We had a really good relationship with our previous neighbours for 7 years until their teen grandsons moved in and made our life absolute hell. They played loud offensive music into the small hours of the morning with all their mates in their bedroom causing havoc, they were so loud we couldn’t even watch tv in the living room downstairs let alone sleep and when we complained we got a barrel of abuse from the gran saying she couldn’t hear anything. To be honest I think she was scared of them as the violence between the boys would often spill onto the street and the police were at the house constantly.
Our local council were useless, kept saying to record it and when we called the police usually 2-3 times a week they would turn of the music as soon as they seen the police car turn into our road. Once the police watched our recorded videos of the noise and when they went round to speak to them about it the officer had mentioned the footage. Next day my husband had a meeting with his management as there was a call from one of the lads (who had the actual brass neck to leave his name) accusing him of being a paedophile saying he filmed in through his bedroom window.
Our friendly 7 year relationship with the neighbours was over in the matter of the months, we couldn’t go outside in the garden as we’d just get a barrage of abuse. After 3 years of hell we couldn’t deal with it any longer and had to move.
I really feel for you op. Nightmare neighbours can make your life a living hell.

This sort of thing makes me very angry to read. Why should OP have to move because of anti-social behaviour? What if next move lands you somewhere similar?? Unfortunately neighbours like this know that that short of assault they can do what the hell they like and that includes spreading malicious rumours. Your one beacon of hope is that they are renting and hopefully will have a tenancy agreement that they are breaching. I wouldn't hesitate to serve notice on a tenant like this but of course things are very different at the moment and eviction is not possible. You've been on to EH once I would do so again and pronto; keep everything in writing and start recording all the noise. What about other neighbours, there must be others that they are disturbing, have you spoken to them? Will help greatly if there have been other complaints. Hope you can sort it without months of grief.

Keep reporting everything. It helps the agencies build a picture of their character.

It could rip our family apart. Dd is only 8 and is very close to both of us, I can't imagine what it would do to her if he had to move out

With the greatest of respect, you’re jumping waaaaaaayyyy ahead of yourself here.

Going forward, every time they play music loudly, report it to Environmental Health, if they bang on your door, report it to the police. Make sure you’re keeping a diary of every interaction with them, then complain to the landlord.

If it was me I would stop complaining to them. Ignore the music and knocking if they don't get a reaction they will get fed up and stop.
I wouldn't antagonize a crazy neighbour for the sake of a bouncing ball or some loud music played by a teenager.