Nightmare neighbours

[eatmyshorts89]

It's long but I'll cut it as short as possible.

Me partner and kids moved in here 7 months ago. It's through a housing association and at first we loved it.

We noticed there very noisy I mean like constant slamming doors sometimes goes on until 2-3 in the morning I've already had to move my sons bedroom who's 10 months because he wasn't sleeping.

She's got 5 kids and she's a single mum. One of the kids particular is a nightmare he's always outside swearing and smashing glass bottles everywhere he's only 11, his little sister who's 5 she's lovely but often plays out until 11 at night. The other night they boy and some other boys were in there garden setting stuff on fire god knows where there mother was rang police they didn't want to know.

A few months back they were kicking a ball at my car so I asked them to drop they blanked me and did it again so I did scream at them and then got into a argument with there mother who defended them even though I seen it all. Then the next day my windows coincidently got egged.

Earlier on today the 11 year old boy was in the street with a bbq setting fire to it and other things it was right next to our cars so my partner went out to next door knocked her door and said do you know your kids setting things on fire she snapped and said yes I know I'll sort it.

We nipped shopping came home and the windows were egged again coincidence. She doesn't look after her kids very well,

Half the street have complained at various times and tried to get her evicted it went to court but she managed to blag her way out of it, her sons being tested for ADHD.

Why I feel for her going through that, she sits in her bedroom smoking weed all day, her kids run riot,

me and my partner are both working 12 hour shifts and to be honest am sick to death of coming home to this and the noise and the kids everywhere smashing stuff up and setting fire to stuff, there horrible to my kids breaking there stuff my kids(even though are not paying out atm )
Won't play out though fear of them.

And yes her children have been playing out through all of this despite the social distancing she doesn't care.

We're looking to move but it feels so unfair we both work our back sides for our home, it feels so unfair. There is a lot more they've done a lot more than this.

Please any advice I'm desperate

Thanks x

So the authorities are ignoring complaints both from you and the previous occupant? Your neighbour sounds like a nightmare. What's the point in documenting anything if nobody does anything? Best plan? Move. Sooner rather than later.

Contact your housing association and also the local authority noise and asb team/ environmental health to report the issues. From what you say in your post I doubt this will be new information to them.

Make a note of every incident that occurs - dates, times, etc. If your housing association or local authority have the noise app download it and make as many recordings of noise/incidents as possible. You could also enquire if either have any noise equipment you could have to make recordings.

Trying to evict someone through the courts is very hard, at the end of the day it's a judge that decides if the person stays or goes. Judges are reluctant to move people as they will just come back into the system if evicted and it just moves the problem. You need to ask the housing association or local authority to consider using other powers under the 2014 anti social behaviour, crime and policing act. Community Protection Notices are always a good power.

A housing association the size of Orbit is bound to have an anti-social behaviour officer who deals with this sort of shit. Find out who they are and report every incident. They need really good evidence before they can do anything, so as PPs have said you need to keep a log of every thing that happens, with dates, times and descriptions. Include how the incident has affected you and your family, eg were you frightened, distressed, sleep disturbed etc. When lockdown is eased or over, ask for the ASB officer to visit to discuss these issues.

Bear in mind that, even though you know that (for example) the egging was to do with them, that won't stand up as a fact unless you or a neighbour actually witnessed it. Logging things as down to them when you didn't see could look like victimisation, so just state known facts.

The usual course of events is that the offending tenant is asked to agree to an acceptable behaviour contract. Then breaches of that contract can be used in possession proceedings. However, judges are very reluctant to make people homeless, especially when they have children. The most they will do at a first hearing is issue a suspended possession order. Once that is in place, each further incident will be a breach of that order, and in time the HA will have enough evidence to go back to court and ask for a full possession order.

Social services can be an ally here, so report the lack of control to children's social services as a safeguarding issue, again with details, dates, times etc. This is going to sound awful, but sometimes having a child taken away ends in the nuisance neighbour moving, because they then can't afford the property because of the "bedroom tax". State explicitly that the mother is using drugs and that she appears to be unable to care for her children because of this.

Report things like lighting barbecues near cars, vandalism, any threats, visible drug use etc to the police. And they're the ones most likely to instigate ASBO proceedings.

All the authorities will know of this family. They will all want to take action but the law is complex and they (rightly, imo) need good, strong evidence before they can act.

And prepare for this to be a long haul. I was professionally involved in a case that sounds similar and it went on for 10 years. The eviction was eventually done on grounds of rent arrears following children being taken into care, and I know colleagues had similar experiences. Having said that, this has clearly been going on for a long time and they may already be quite a way down this road.

I really feel for you, it only takes one resident like this to make lots of people's lives a misery.

She's in breach of her tenancy by doing drugs on the premises as well as failing to control her anti social child.

There is strength in numbers, if all the neighbours can club together and put pressure on the local mp, police and housing office something will eventually get done ie she'll be evicted. She's kids need taken into care by the sounds of it anyway. What a way to be brought up.

When you are reporting things, make sure you get an incident number & add it to your written records.

Always ask who you're speaking to as well and the position they hold ie housing/social work.

Keep phoning. Police, social service, council. Sooner or later someone will do something to help. You have to persist.

Sorry to hear this OP.

I don’t want to speak out of turn here but what is the point of social services/ police/101 etc lately? They don’t seem to do ANYTHING productive anymore. Who are these people who they are apparently ‘helping’ as I don’t know any. This country is getting ridiculous and this virus is going to be used as an excuse for the next decade to justify it.

Just an update,

So the problems just got worse and worse, the kids broken into my garden with her friends kids and stole my daughters bike smashed it up on camera (that fortunately my partner filmed why he was bathing our son and I was at work due to them hovering around) and put it outside our front door.

When confronted the kids kept screaming my partners a nonce for filming, the parents didn't give a sh*t and the police were called.

Since then , there's been problem after problem, we fitted a camera but are not allowed to film past our garden so can never catch who does what.
Windows constantly egged, water balloons thrown through empty windows containing bleach into my little boys cot, verbal abuse to my partner constantly and me (I'm due a baby in 2 weeks)

The neighbour that we have problems with is friends with another neighbour at number 7, the one at number 7 has two twin boys that are a absolute nightmare, they join with the child next door and just are constantly causing us problems. There mum the one at number 7 is very Abusive (can see where her boys get it from!) she came over the other day screaming at my and my partner for having a camera up saying we were filming over her garden, obviously we wasn't, telling us we had to take it down etc and called my partner a fu*king pedo in the street she was very abusive and threatening! She threatened to do stuff to the house, we called the police, police gave her a warning for a public offence order, but tbh were not much help they clearly didn't care.

Since then they have chucked water over my washing, egged the house again, threw water balloons through windows (it's roasting hot I can't shut all the windows) it's just none stop and constant.

I have had direct contact with a housing officer from orbit, and a pocs officer everything is reported, but I have no proof as the camera can't pick up who's doing it.

We are literally being terrorised one our own home. I'm on maternity leave now, my partner has had to go go of sick to stay home as I'm very poorly with the pregnancy and the stress is all getting to much.

We're thinking of just going to stay with my mother on law to get away from the stress as it's causing high blood pressure, but I will then be worried about what they will do to our house ☹️

Please any advice were at out witts end, we have done nothing wrong we just keep ourselves to ourselves and want a quiet life.

Omg what your dealing with sounds horrendous and its not ok that no one is doing anything to help you.

Honestly I would move, is it an option to live with your MIL for a while until you can move elsewhere.. i dont how the housing company work but can you leave with immediate effect? ....could you go into private renting?

I wouldn’t worry about filming the street. There is no expectation of privacy on a public street, and no law to restrict you filming anyone in a public place. Gather the evidence you need and take it to the police. Filming private land, like their garden, is a different matter and shouldn’t be done.

Actually, it might be that it isn’t illegal to film their garden, either.

ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/domestic-cctv-systems-guidance-for-people-using-cctv/

Yep, get out. Go and stay with your mother in law and find somewhere else. Doesn't sound like it's going to get any better. It will be a long summer with those bored, feral kids thinking of ways to ramp up their already horrendous behaviour towards you.

Omg op.
I don't have experience of this but I agree that you can film the street and all around your house. We have a ring doorbell and that films the pavement outside my house.
I think I would move.
Then report the mother and children to the school on the premises of being concerned about child welfare. State clearly she is a druggy and the kids are neglected. Quite often they report to ss.
Report to the young girls school too. They might also report to ss.
I'm sure at 11 a child is legally responsible forthwith actions and the police should be having a word with him.
They sound like scum.

Get dash cams fitted on the cars OP that way you can legally record activity in your street. Try to have your cars parked outside your house so hopefully you get some of it on camera.
Only other suggestion is just keep reporting them to everyone SS your HA and the police, the local council. Anyone that will listen. Someone will have to step in eventually.

Do you have a shed at the back of your house that you could put the cctv on. Get it to focus on your house so that you will at least catch them if the come into your garden or at least catch the direction the water etc is coming from.

Snap to dash cams.

Start the complaints procedure with your HA.

Hi OP

I'm so sorry you are going through this.

I have had crappy neighbours and I am a coward and just moved. Did this twice as it takes so much energy and effort.

However in hindsight please take the advice and log, complain, report CCTV etc. In the long run if you are happy then having this woman evicted or warned will be better in the long run if you like where you live. Be brave, you can do this.

Wish you all the best, x

I totally feel for you OP as a young mum many years ago I lived next door to vile neighbour's ☹ Loud music! Clothes stolen from washing line! Car damaged! Fence damaged! Milk delivery pinched from doorstep! Ferel Kids! It was a nightmare! Nobody I complained to wanted to know! I had to move in the end for me and my daughters sanity xx so sorry you are going through this xx

Thankyou all for your advice, it's mainly the back garden that they damage, I do have a camera but it's only on my garden which makes it difficult to catch them throwing things from there garden/the ally way behind our house etc as there's other gardens of that.

The snt officer called this morning to assure me that next door are being evicted and that they don't need it to go through court (she's been court before for a eviction but it fell through not sure how!)

They told me there was a lot other stuff going on in the background with her aswell that they couldn't discuss.

They explained it's just taken longer due to the coronavirus holding things up.

I'm relieved is an understatement!! Maybe one day I will be able to sleep at night again without constantly worrying about every noise and who's damaging my property! X

That's really good news for you. I hope you get to enjoy the rest of your pregnancy in peace

So sorry you are experiencing this. I used to work for a housing association and it's a really long process to evict for anti social behaviour, judges will give some families chance after chance, even when members of a household had been convicted of quite serious criminal offences, as its just moving things from one location to another if they evict, and often into a less regulated private sector. Whilst I understand the logic, it made life miserable for all the other tenants while the situation escalated.

Can you request a transfer to another property? You may get priority internally with the housing association if it's due to harassment, although I don't know how Orbit policies work.

Don't be fobbed off, press the housing association for more details of what they're doing and timescales. They may still be looking at months and months before they complete the legal process to evict, and often people got legal interventions at the last minute extending their stay even longer, so you can't rely on things being sorted in a week or two. Plus there is a possibility once they're evicted they could return to still harass you as may not be moved far if kids still school age (sorry I don't mean to scare you, just basing on my own experience).

You may have to decide if it's worth the stress and either move out temporarily, or permanently. It's unfair for you, but in my experience these things are not quickly resolved.

Keep reporting to HA, keep a log of every incident, this is really important as most people complain but can’t be arsed keeping a log so the HA have no evidence with which to issue an eviction notice. Keep on at them.

I really hope this happens quickly OP

Throwing balloons full of bleach into your child's cot???? This could kill them. I would personally get CCTV that films beyond your path but is clearly sign posted.

More info here- ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/domestic-cctv-systems-guidance-for-people-being-filmed/

Have a motion sensed security light that comes on and showers them with light at night the instant anyone stops on or near your path and a camera that then starts filming. Submit all evidence (before they can start complaining and even then they would need to follow the guidance regarding footage as in the link I sent which doubt they would know how to do) within a week/2 weeks to the police/social services/housing council- anyone and everyone.

Sorry, I meant to add, contact your local councillor and keep them in the loop