Noisy spiteful neighbours

[WhatToDoHmmm]

So where do I start.
My downstairs neighbours moved in a little over 2 years ago. They used to constantly argue and slam doors, verbally abuse the little girl and neglect their garden.

Household waste pilled up (bags and bags of it) in their front garden, dog mess every where and she used to let her little girl (about 4 years old) play outside on her own in the front garden surrounded by all this mess. Her little girl even left the garden on one occasion to get her bouncy ball which went in the road.
I've also found medical needles in my front garden that her daughter or the mum threw out her bedroom window.

I ended up reporting her to social and environmental health. To which the mess was cleared and is more reasonable now, yet can be bad at times still.

Fast forward to the past few months.

She's started banging on her ceiling when my boy was playing. Then started messaging me on fb asking to stop the banging, I was understanding at first and even said to my boy 'quiet feet on the floor', made a game out of it etc....

However she continued to message me and bang on the ceiling to which I said to her it's just general living noise at a reasonable hour.

On one occasion when she done this we weren't even making any noise (sat watching a film).

Since this, I have made a noise complaint about her and expressed how I feel she's been harassing me. It's really affected my mental health. I'm so anxious and jumpy all the time now and can barely concentrate on my own stuff.

Now she's being spiteful and has started slamming doors (more than usual), stomping around her flat (which scared me so much at first, I actually thought someone was in my flat). The couple communicate via shouting across the flat to each other now and they will play music on occasion which I can hear (my shazam also picks up what song is playing).

When she goes out her dogs constantly bark and, today's its been 5 hours with the dogs and even banging in her flat (which I can only assume is her dog trying to open the door).

She's also taking in a couple of my parcels and then thrown them in my garden.

I've been in contact with housing 6 times in the past month now.

I'm not sure what else I can do but it's making me absolutely miserable.

I can't concentrate on my uni work or feel like I can do much with my son in the flat out of fear of them making my life hell.

They're violent people and have smashed through 2 of their car windows since living here. So I really don't feel like I can approach them and if I did they would most likely tell me to go away, in not such a polite way.

I'm sleep deprived from staying up late so I can get a bit of peace and quiet in my own home and focus in my mental health then I'm woken up early in fright by her stomping around and slamming doors.

I'm at a loss of what to do and really can't live like this anymore

Been here, you’ll get no help from anyone. Look into moving is my advice, we had to move in the end!

I'm not sure what to suggest but I just wanted to acknowledge that must be horrendous for you and I hope someone can give you some practical advice.

Sounds awful - if you rent I'd move and if you own get it on the market
No brainer!

Log it every single time. My friend had this, she literally had a diary with everything. Then she emailed the housing officer every single week. Then emailed / logged it with the police and environmental health. You have to not give in and keep going every single time. Be the pain in their ass

Honestly, I've been in a similar situation with a nightmare neighbour. I hope you don't live in Leicestershire because they are useless. All the council and police did was send warning letters to my neighbour that they would take action against them and never did. Every letter made the situation worse and worse with no repercussions. One time
my neighbour sent this huge guy over to my house who spent hours banging on my door while I locked myself in the upstairs bathroom. The police refused to come because he 'hadn't broken the door down yet' and 'handnt physically touched me yet'. Eventually the only thing we could was move out. We sold our house and moved to a detached property in a nicer area. Id love to say that there's help but I lost faith in the council and police force.

Thank you all for your replies.

A mediator was ment to be getting involved, however I was informed 3 weeks ago that they'd call me within a few days.

I still haven't heard anything.

2 weeks ago I rang them and they said they'd get someone to call me back (the person who was ment to be dealing with it has since left).

A couple of days ago I sent an email to which I was again informed someone would call me. Again nothing.

Because I'm housed via the council it's very unlikely I would be able to move, unless I go private. This currently isn't an option.

I've been so let down by the housing association. I may have to report it all with the council themselves and maybe to environmental health and see where I get with that.

I've been making notes of it all the last few days. It's such a long list just from one day.

I'm now even more drained from all the note taking and recording snippets that it's going to take me hours just to form one email, honestly I know that's what I need to keep doing but I'm just not sure I have the energy or time to make it continuous on my behalf.

It's so unfair, it makes me so angry how they just abandon people who actually need the support. They would feel so differently if they were going through it themselves. I mean what's the point of them! Definitely go to the council and environmental health. The more of a fuss you make the better chance you have at least of some chance. I remember what it's like trying to record every thing. I found a huge load of recordings on an old tablet the other day and even though it's been over a year I still felt really anxious and panicky listening to them. And weirdly nervous of deleting them even though they'd be absolutely no use to me now. Gathering evidence became a bit of an obsession so they felt valuable in some words way. I hope you find your way through it.

This sounds awful op

Different agencies have statutory responsibilities for different things.

Noise nuisance sits with the council so contact the environmental health department there.

They have multiple tools available to them such as noise abatement notices, being able to put in recording equipment etc. They will likely ask you to complete diary sheets for a couple of weeks as a starting point.

It's worth checking out their website as there is usually information on there.

When you report it to them make sure they give you a reference number.

Also report it to your housing association and provide them with the reference number so they know environmental health are involved.

Housing associations can get involved as well, as in your tenancy agreement there is likely a clause about peaceful enjoyment of your home and if your neighbour is housing association too they will have a clause about not causing noise.

Hope you start to get somewhere with this soon.

Just an aside, the police are unlikely to get involved in noise issues on their own but would get involved if your neighbour because threatening or is harassing.

*becomes not because

I worked at a housing association for 2 months and in that time I used to get the same people call in extreme distress because of their neighbours and were advised by police and us to just keep logging everything. I was also one of the few employees who were HA tenants myself and I was furious on their behalf at how useless we and the police were but the thinking was, where do you put these people ?
I know that's no help and I couldn't tell you what the constant logging actually did but I would try every resource available including visits to your GP and haunt the council until they move you .

Move.

I appreciate this is blunt and may be difficult to achieve, but these things rarely get better.

I say this as a cop that has seen dozens if not hundreds of neighborhood disputes. Some go on for decades with neither party admitting 'defeat' and moving.

They literally waste years of their lives trying to one up each other.

You're here once, life's too short to deal with dickhead neighbours.

verbally abuse the little girl

I couldn’t get past this bit - just terrible. That poor little girl.

We had a neighbour like that, every neighbour that moved next door to them they'd smash the windows and make their lives a living hell, nobody stayed their longer than a few weeks. The neighbours upset everyone in the street by doing something. The inspector came round to everyone's home and took notes of the things they'd done, it took years to have them turfed out! You don't have years these people are bullies and will only get worse esp if the daughter grows up and has her own friends, it be constant for you. Contact social Work and see what they can do for you, even if it's temp accommodation it's better than the hell you're in just now

It sounds so stressful. Good advice from other posters and I wonder if ear plugs would help a little so you don't get disturbed when you're asleep or studying.
Earplugs have changed my life as my neighbours can be noisy and due to health issues I've had to sleep during the day at times.
I had to try a few different types before I found the ones that suited me best.

You stomping or your child is not anti social behaviour.

Her beating the ceiling is anti social behaviour.

She is obviously angry you called SS but you rightly did and if she was a decent person she would realise why you did.

I know saying move is annoying but honestly the only option.

go to your gp explain how you are affected by this situation, get a letter, give to HA for quick swap.
or you will lose your mental health.
(of course keep your logs)