Neighbours from hell

[Fullofhotcrossbuns]

I am looking for advice or options to help me against these awful people, here is a list so I do not drip feed.

House hold rubbish just thrown out into the street the latest addition are nappies.

House hold rubbish and nappies in the back garden which is now coming over to our garden we are concerned about rats.

Banging on the walls until 10:30-11pm most nights.

Drug use

Drug dealing

We went away and DH stayed home on few weekends ago they destroyed the front garden, on the Saturday they were kicking a ball against the house aiming for the windows whilst hanging around on our door step, Sunday morning they tried to break into the house but the dog started barking DH had kept it quiet to see how far they will go.

The people who visit them block our car in and refuse to move, stare at us when we are leaving the house, swear at us or make hand gestures.

Regularly have to listen to DA to the woman and kids when reported to the Police they asked what is the problem what do we expect them to do?

Benefit fraud.

Leave 4 and 6 year old outside screaming in the street during nice weather.

If driving in the area they will abuse us and the male does a “come fight me” gesture with his hands and arms.

It is all very draining and no one is willing to help us

This sounds awful. I think you need your councillor and MP to intervene. Tell them that this is destroying your health and wellbeing.

It makes me so cross that people are allowed to behave like this. You can imagine their fury if they were treated like this.

In our city environmental health are useless but you can continue to log everything.

I know it's so hard when you feel so stuck. I would move. I moved from horrible neighbors and its been 18 months and my health has only just started to improve.

Go and see your local MP at one of their surgeries ASAP, and bring ALL paperwork and email proof with you.

So sorry that you’re experiencing this.

The police you are dealing with need a kick up the arse. When we had awful, antisocial neighbours they responded to complaints and were there several times. Not that it changed their awful behaviour, but it might have eventually worn them down if everyone relentlessly reported them every time. We moved in the end as I couldn’t stand it any more, along with half the road. They were gone not too long afterwards, so everyone’s complaints might have had something to do with that. Do you have other neighbours that feel the same and can back you up with reporting them every time there is any issue?

@70kid

Oh and HA & Councils rarely evict My council could have evicted my neighbour 1000 times over under section 8 as he was convicted in Crown court

But despite what my neighbour did the sentence conviction & restraining order they still decide not to evict him and are managing an exchange for them

I fucking hate the council and I’ve made it my mission to make them 100 percent accountable for their Tennant

Even a ground 8 notice of possession can be appealed in court despite being mandatory. I had a closure order case which meant we uses ground 8 and the customer appealed and won in district court and is still at his property.

Sadly, district judges do not live on this planet.

Also depends what he was convicted for, ground 8 should only be used if the crime was committed "within the locality" of his property (which in real terms means each judge has their own version of what in the locality means) and if they throw in a mental health defense the council are basically screwed.

Also, just a reminder. It's not the council who issue the eviction notice it's a Judge. The council can want to evict 1000 times over, but if a Judge wont give the order there is bugger all the council can do about it.

Also depends what he was convicted for, ground 8 should only be used if the crime was committed "within the locality" of his property (which in real terms means each judge has their own version of what in the locality means) and if they throw in a mental health defense the council are basically screwed

Occasionally it can be used if the crime is serious enough, but we're usually talking violent crime, murder, etc not your typical GBH style stuff. Trust me, we get as infuriated by the system as you do as it's on the perps side the whole way through despite what the crime and policing act was supposed to do!!

Yes as a PP said, actually physically go to your MP's surgery / clinic meetings. Turn up with all the info and evidence you have. It makes a difference if they meet you in person

This is awful but you are not alone OP. A good friend of ours was In a similar position. They eventually rented their home out and rented somewhere else themselves.
I'm not sure how shared ownership works but id be looking to buy your home outright if you could possibly stretch to do that and then either sell or rent it out. Either way you need to get out ASAP because they will get worse. I wish you luck.

@mrziggycoco often HA houses hands are tied they can't just evict that easily but they should be offering advice and help

@GodspeedJune

IME the police couldn’t care less about benefit fraud. Sad to say neighbour disputes never end well and your best bet is just working on getting out of there.

The police don’t investigate benefit fraud, the benefits agency do.

@Nidan2Sandan
Locality wise- he lives directly opposite me

So he was in our street running around with 2 x 12 inch butcher knives taped to his hands trying to stab us .
Chasing our car down the rd to get to us . Everything caught on CCTV
Because we made a statement to the police about the assault he did the day before on other neighbours
He was on remand for 3 months
Convicted given 18 months suspended for two years
Exclusion order for 2 years so couldn’t return to the property or come within 200 meters of the street
Restraining order with no end date
Plus he’s done about 50k worth of damage to the property

It need a new roof as there was a leak that he never reported and a new staircase plus loads of other shit
I’m applying to the courts to vary the restraining order as at the moment it’s only no contact which is fine as he is not living opposite me but if he returns I honestly fear something like whet happened in Tewksbury where the neighbour was murdered and stabbed 27 times

The crown court judge was brilliant in what sentence he dished out
The fucking council have been abysmal

It sounds horrific, op, but so much here is not covered by any (enforceable) legislation.

If you are reporting drug dealing give as much detail as possible. It will go into intel, and without wishing to patronise,you have no idea what bigger scale operations are ongoing (and nor should you) that may link to what you’ve witnessed but they’re going for bigger fish. Give details of how you can be SURE it’s drug dealing, not just lots of annoying visitors.

Benefit fraud needs to be reports to Benefits, not the police. It only becomes criminal when the investigation by benefits finds criminal behaviour. So absolutely no point reporting it to police.

DA needs to be reported at the time, and to get a fast response there would need to be an immediate threat to life. After the event isn’t going to do anything, because it becomes hearsay, and they then don’t have grounds to respond. And even if you do report, sometimes there’s just not enough on duty to call.

How do you know they’re committing benefit fraud?

The environment thing is Environmental Health and keep bothering them.

To correct a pp. Police do not ‘decide’ who gets charged. They enact the law, and CPS decide what, if anything, someone is charged for.

HA & Councils don’t like having to give an explanation as to why they have done fuck all

Understandable really, when IME they spend so much time not doing things, or just plain finding reasons why they can't be done

Accountability isn't something they tend to appreciate - or even understand - and if they had to produce an explanations it would cut into the time spent in all those meetings

Police & Crime Commissioner? CEO of HA. CEO of local council. If you have legal cover on your home insurance get a solicitor.

Your HA should be looking at issuing ASB orders

@Bunnyfuller

It sounds horrific, op, but so much here is not covered by any (enforceable) legislation.

If you are reporting drug dealing give as much detail as possible. It will go into intel, and without wishing to patronise,you have no idea what bigger scale operations are ongoing (and nor should you) that may link to what you’ve witnessed but they’re going for bigger fish. Give details of how you can be SURE it’s drug dealing, not just lots of annoying visitors.

Benefit fraud needs to be reports to Benefits, not the police. It only becomes criminal when the investigation by benefits finds criminal behaviour. So absolutely no point reporting it to police.

DA needs to be reported at the time, and to get a fast response there would need to be an immediate threat to life. After the event isn’t going to do anything, because it becomes hearsay, and they then don’t have grounds to respond. And even if you do report, sometimes there’s just not enough on duty to call.

How do you know they’re committing benefit fraud?

The environment thing is Environmental Health and keep bothering them.

To correct a pp. Police do not ‘decide’ who gets charged. They enact the law, and CPS decide what, if anything, someone is charged for.

Because they have said that he does not live there repeatedly yet he is there everyday

@Puzzledandpissedoff

Absolutely the roof needed to be fixed on my neighbours house to allow the exchange go ahead
They knew about this in July last year .
They got prices - but to expensive so they wouldn’t authorise the work . Then the person in charge went on sick leave long term so no one followed it up
It’s only because of my persistence with my MP & Local Counciller that the works actually getting done
Meanwhile the clock is ticking down till the fucking nutter can return
I now have to apply to vary the restraining order to get distance include to protect myself from my neighbour should he return.

Now it’s a rush job costing about 5k more
My friends son is one of the roofers who will be doing the work
Plus I actually have an email where they say it was initially to expensive
10 fucking months to get a roof fixed

Who is where every day? And again, just because nothing happens immediately it could well be that evidence is being gathered - just you telling them isn’t evidence. It’s hearsay.

I’m presuming they are making counter allegations about you? That will make things even harder.your CCTV can cover your property, not theirs. Have a notice up. Keep a diary.

What are the rest of your neighbours like, if everyone is suffering you could group together and go to your local paper? Or even yourselves sighting how let down you are by the system?

Last resort go to the papers!

They are HA but the HA is bloody useless they can not do anything until Police actio has been taken

The awful thing is they will always be someone's neighbour - simply moved on again and again cos they have kids and they know this.

@Bunnyfuller

Who is where every day? And again, just because nothing happens immediately it could well be that evidence is being gathered - just you telling them isn’t evidence. It’s hearsay.

I’m presuming they are making counter allegations about you? That will make things even harder.your CCTV can cover your property, not theirs. Have a notice up. Keep a diary.

No they haven’t made any counter claims to our knowledge if they have they haven’t been taken very seriously and we have not been informed.

@GodspeedJune

IME the police couldn’t care less about benefit fraud. Sad to say neighbour disputes never end well and your best bet is just working on getting out of there.

No, but the DWP are pretty hot on it.

They tend to stop most benefits while they investigate, so even if it doesn't end up with a prosecution, it leaves the claimant skint for a while.

That is beyond awful - I am lost for words and suggestions

You have my every sympathy as we have been going through similar with our upstairs neighbours, reported to police, social services, housing trust, MPs, tried community trigger twice and our housing officer stopped it, we have noise, screaming, doors banging, rubbish thrown in our garden , my son hit with a shoe, had water thrown all over me from their upstairs windows, loud banging on our ceilings from the 4 kids running up and down till 1am, when we complained our neighbour put a camera facing our flat door, it got so bad my poor husband couldn't take it any more and had a stroke on xmas eve after a really bad night of noise, he died on New years day, i've been told they can't be evicted because they have children so i am now waiting to have to move, even though we spent our life savings on this flat as my husband was retiring due to Parkinsons disease, his last year should have been peaceful but it was hell, going to be in the local paper next week but only about the camera as otherwise the paper said they can be sued, i have had a physical and mental breakdown and i'm still living in fear scared to leave my flat as the husband shouts and swears at me when he sees me, this family have destroyed our life so yes you need to move and i pray that i can get out soon

Just throwing it out there but I'd try reporting as hate crime.