Neighbours from hell.

[Taurini]

Long post sorry.
So I've been living here a few years now.. I chose this property due to health reasons and it being close to my childrens school.
After being here a a while I noticed fag ends all over the front garden and back garden (gate always locked) near our fence in-between mine and my neighbours property, I thought the people who lived here must have smoked so I cleaned them all up.. a month or so later loads more appeared in the same places.. and a dog poo bag right outside my door.. It was full blown lockdown.. we had no visitors since we moved in and none of our household smoke, my partner hates smoking and our kids were still I'm primary school so it wasn't them.
But my neighbours and their kids smoke and have dogs.
I vented to someone on the street about my frustrations like a fool.. and they told my neighbours.. my neighbours came banging on my door telling me they've heard I've been slagging them off and that if I have a problem I should say it to their fcking face.. they ain't fcking tramps and that if I know what is good for me I will shut my f*cking mouth...
They breed dogs and leave weeks worth of poop in their back garden then hose it away.. they don't train them, leave them inside the house whilst they work and just boot them outside when they're home.. they breed them and breed them for money then eventually sell the dog they bred from and get another.
I've had people do work on my house come up to me and tell me they can hear the neighbours hitting and yelling at the dogs.. as a dog person it breaks my heart.
My dog is a big chicken and when their dogs bark he starts barking in response and won't do his business.. I cant leave him out to play because if their dogs aren't out and the kids are and they hear him they start making barking noises at him to set him off..
I have a baby and have a set amount of time I can take him out supervised and they still do whatever they can to set him off..
They have off road bikes that they drive around the streets and parks with that are ridiculously loud and shoot down the path outside there house which is next to my front door (my fence decides their path from ours)
This wakes my baby and sometimes sets my dog off barking because it's so loud.
They know this.. and have now started just sitting on their bikes next to their front door (across from my front door) just revving the engines...
They also use our fence to pull themselves up onto their bins to jump up and down on their bins to crush down the rubbish, which smashes my fence back and forth which bangs and sets my dog off barking.. its also breaking my fence..
If the sun is shining they all sit outside drinking and smoking together swearing and shouting, even the kids in secondary school are sat drinking cans of beer and smoking with them. Their youngest sits drinking vkd with them.
They talk about all the drugs they take and crimes they commit with eachother.. its shocking if I'm honest.
Theyre so loud that when it's hot I have to shut the windows in my childrens bedroom or they can't sleep..
You'd think I would get a break when they're at work and school but one of their lads from secondary school skips school most days with his friends and sit out revving their bikes and barking at my dog to set him off and waking my baby.
I put cctv all over my property to hopefully discourage them but it hasn't.
I've told my partner I want to rehome our dog.. I'm devastated to say it but I cant cope..him and the children aren't happy with me.. but I don't know what else to do, we can't move as we have to be close to school due to my health.
I'm not sure who I could report my neighbours to, i think things would escalate if i did.
The lad who skips school and revs the bike outside my door has been in trouble with the police for armed robbery and criminal damage but they can't do anything because he's too young.
I honestly don't know what to do anymore.. even if I rehome my dog the revving of the bikes alone wakes up my baby..
Has anyone else been through anything similar who can give advice?
I'm getting close to having a break down here..
I feel like they can just break the law, treat my property however they wish and treat us like crap and we have no rights whatsoever 😩

I think you should move.

I’d move
It doesn’t sound like they will take kindly to any police or rspca visits and it’ll just cause you more grief
even if in the short it’s harder to get dc to school they’ll soon be old enough to walk or get the bus

You need to move. There is literally nothing else you can do.

What have you done so far? Started a complaint with council? Police? You haven’t mentioned anything at all. If you haven’t, or won’t bother, then you’ll have to move, or put up with it. Those are your options. Scum doesn’t change.

If you went down reporting etc you would have to declare this which would put people off buying your place.

because you own you also have the flexibility of moving where you want to. I understand how hard this is when your dcs enjoy their school and you have health issues. However as they age they will become more independent and will want to take themselves to school, play out with friends etc

Report the ddog breeding to the Council. They need a licence.. Report antisocial behaviour online to the police every time. Keep your ddog.
Report the dc off school to ss and the council. You can't make things worse for yourself so throw everything at the situation..

Stop comparing what would happen to you - it's irrelevant and you've no idea whether they are indeed in contact with schools or social services.

I understand you're worried, but as a result you've not made much effort to do anything about this, so it's hard to blame others when they don't know what's happening.

Phone 101 and speak to the police. They don't tell people who reports to them.
Break it down in the conversation - have notes with you.

Antisocial behaviour is one issue, but it's also got a very dangerous element beyond the bad language - drink or drug driving, unlicensed, probably uninsured, quad bikes on public roads and footpaths, right by a school. Raise it on that basis - safety of local residents and school kids.

If you report harassment, they will have to know who they are accused of harassing. Maybe keep a diary before you report that?

Phone the council. Report unlicensed dog breeding. List your concerns - dogs bring beaten, lack of training, lack of socialisation, not meeting the dogs needs, apparent aggression towards other dogs in the area. Have you found adverts for their puppies? Can you show how many litters they are selling per year?

Also to the council - the antisocial behaviour, including everything you tell the police. Also your concerns about the wellbeing of the children at the address - especially give the recent example of the boy covered in blood, all the quad biking etc.

I assume you aren't the only neighbour? So I'd start with complaints about issues that could come from more than one source. Work your way up to the harassment if you need to.

Keep extremely detailed diaries. This will be your evidence for all of this, but especially the harassment. Noise, words, bikes, violence - all of it. Write down dates, times, names, descriptions of people, clothing, levels of noise, their actions, their behaviour, any drugs or alcohol seen.

Get a big A4 book, preferably one with a binding, write the date at the top of a page and just add lines in to that day when you need to. It's slightly less work that way.

Burn their house down. Or move.

This happened to me. It made me so unwell I was almost hospitalised on 3 occasions. Take the hit and move. I reported them and followed every official route and all it did was enable them to bully me further - using agencies to help them. I had social services investigating various lies, the Police were repeatedly called and despite telling me "We know it's them not you" I was threatened with being charged with a hate crime based on no evidence and we had full video evidence of these 'vulnerable disabled people' attacking DH, damaging my car, trying to poison my cat and staging a fraudulent insurance claim. The police have no interest in tackling these highly antisocial people. We gave full disclosure to the woman who bought the house and she managed to make them move by taking a very different approach from day 1. She was also in a teir 1 job at the council so got a bargain and I am sure was able to influence the police/EVH etc.
Please move, it will not get better.

Re. the dog breeding and abuse. Report them to the RSPCA, the council (who issue dog breeding licenses), trading standards and the HMRC (because I doubt they are paying tax on their profits). puppycontract.org.uk/puppy-buyer/puppy-breeding-laws

You can also report them here: www.four-paws.org.uk/campaigns-topics/topics/companion-animals/report-illegal-puppy-traders

We also had issues with dogs, various birds and other animals being illegally bred and treated appallingly. The RSPCA told me the wouldn't be visiting as they believed it was unsafe for their officers to do so and the police would not escort them.

They’re clearly breaking many laws here, but proving it is another matter.
They don’t sound like people you’d want to get on the wrong side of, and I’d worry about repercussions. That being said, you’re right that they shouldn’t get away with such appalling criminal behaviour and no doubt the police/ authorities will be aware, but have yet to pin anything on them.
Do you know how the other neighbours feel about them? You mentioned you’d spoke to someone else, but they then told your neighbours what you said- be careful what you say and who too.
If moving(even if it’s to the next street) isn’t an option, then you have to report them. Contact your local police and ask for advice. Good luck.

Yes, you need to move x

It's all very well saying she should move, but somebody has to live next to these people. My heart drops at the thought of being all excited about a new home and finding out there was a problem like this all along.

OP - are the other neighbours not impacted by their behaviour? Also, you mentioned that one of the other neighbours you spoke to then told your immediate neighbours so are they all on good terms because you said the rest of them are nice and to be honest, if they were, they shouldn't have told your neighbours what you said knowing what they are like.

I had a similar problem with my neighbours but they were renting - I still had to take matters into my own hands because they were on a 12 month contract and it was during Covid so the landlord couldn't evict them. It wasn't as bad as your situation but they were playing loud music, drug dealing, parking cars where they weren't allowed, throwing joints and cigarette butts into the other neighbour's garden. They also used to accelerate down the road leaving tyre tracks of the new road. The whole of our street were against them so we all submitted noise complaints, filed cases with Crimestoppers to say we suspected drug dealing, complained to the landlord and the managing agent (it was a new build development).

They definitely curbed their behaviour within a few weeks but a lot of the behaviour would still occur sporadically and the greatest relief was when they finally left after 12 months. I'll be honest, the only thing that made things bearable was that they were tenants and if they were permanent residents/owners I would have moved. I appreciate you like your house and location as it is near DC's school and suits your health needs but it doesn't sound like it is helping your mental health needs and it sounds like it is impacting your mood and how you behave around your family. I was exactly the same, those 12 months I was a different person, mood swings, stressed all the time just waiting for the neighbours to do something that would wind me up and to my great shame, my wife and kids bore the brunt of it for which I'll be forever sorry.

You are certainly not alone in experiencing what you are going through but I think you need to sit down with DH and decide whether the positives of staying really outweigh the negatives. This is your life - why would you want to spend it next to these type of people.

I know you will not want to hear this OP but there are no organisations that can protect you, your family and your home from this type of person. All you can do is move ASAP.

Is it fair? No. Is it right? Absolutely not. However, for your own mental health you need to make the change because dysfunctional families like these rarely improve.

To everyone saying the OP should just move.... NO! that's the reason vile people like this can keep doing what they do! The OP has explained how her home is in the perfect location for her. Why the heck should she move?!

She's also admitted she's not so much as reported to police or even tried the RSPCA route.

I'm tempted to go talk to the police in person to ask what I should do about it all..

Yes, OP, you definitely should. No point moaning if you don't even try to get the authorities involved. They can't help unless the know what's going on. Go talk to the police in person and tell them all you've been experiencing. They might not have quite enough evidence to act immediately, but at least they'll have a record and might be able to send some community police to provide a visible presence.

As some posters have suggested, keep a detailed log of all incidents.

This kind of thing only ends when people stand up to sh*ts like these.

God that sounds awful, you have to move.

Sell up and move. Do not involve police or council it will never fully resolve to your satisfaction and this will all have to be declared to potential buyers if you have officially raised issues with the neighbours

Sadly this is Tory Britain. If Boris, Cummings etc can do whatever the fuck they want. Why can’t any lazy and entitled family?

Report the nasty fuckers to both the RSPCA and police! Record them shouting and hitting the dogs too and explain everything that has been going on. I also live not too far from a place where parents fail to raise their children properly and as a result they are a nuisance to everyone, they steal, are verbally abusive, video cruelty to wildlife etc, everyone is too scared to speak to their parents, so everyone just tolerates it until they’re put in prison, where they belong.

I did start contacting the council about the fags and dog poo being thrown over the fence and dog poo on their garden, and music blasting etc.
They had a diary and photos.
But because they became agressive when a neighbour told them I wasn't happy the council said it could make things escalate so we agreed not to take it any further and they told me to get cctv which I have.
I reported the bikes to the police the other week because they go through jetty ways where elder folk and kids walk through with dogs etc.
The police went over and had words.
The police called me and said they know the bikes are very loud and are very apologetic etc and that it should now stop, if it doesnt they want me to try and get video evidence without them knowing it was me so they could use that.. but that's pretty much impossible.
The police said they didn't tell them who reported it.. but since then they've just sat on their bikes outside my door (behind the fence in-between our properties) revving their engines on purpose.. so it made things worse.
My kids and partner don't want to move, they don't want to get rid of the dog..
But they're not at home all day every day detailing with this...
My family are sick of hearing me talk about it.. more than anything I needed a place to vent.
Just really struggling right now.. sorry everyone.

You have to move. Your life will be hell. And when you've gone report them to the RSPCA and police and H.A if you are renting.

Please, please move. I was in a similar position twenty years ago. We bought a new build house and found a set of neighbours from hell. They made life a misery for quite a few people. They also owned their house so couldn't be persuaded to ease up on their behaviours which included street fights, random violence, theft and drug taking. The police seemed unable to help us. While the location was perfect for our needs we decided we had to move for our sanity and our safety. We'd moved out less than 18 months after moving in. Irritating yes but the sheer relief after living in a home where we could not relax felt amazing. Do not underestimate the dread that your children will feel living in a home where there are such vile neighbours. And their pain at losing their dog because of those vile neighbours. Moving to a new school will be far less painful. So don't rehome your dog. Rehome the whole family and dog together. Start looking elsewhere. You and your family will thrive in a home where you don't feel threatened.

Just wanted to add my thoughts to the people saying that the OP shouldn't move because either i) she shouldn't have to or ii) someone else will have to live there.

I think most of the ppl are right in that the situation will never be resolved to the OP's satisfaction because whilst the drug dealing might stop, they are just going to antagonise in other ways like playing loud music once in a while, loitering around outside their house smoking etc. - there really isn't anything the police or council can do with this type of behaviour.

Also, in some ways, rather than have the OP continue to live next to these neighbours, it's probably better that new people move in and the 'pain' is shared whereby there is a cycle where every 2-3 years you get ppl move, hate the neighbours, sell and move on with new ppl coming in. This isn't the OP's fight (it should be the RSPCA, police and local councils') but even if it is, she clearly isn't the type of person to take up the fight but who knows, maybe the new buyers might be and will put them in their place?