To be this upset a bully who reports me to police gatecrashed coronation street party

[HairySatsuma]

Having singlehandedly organised a street party last year for the jubilee - inc risk assessment, paying for insurance, street notices, spending £500 by the end - that was a great success I stupidly did it all again this year for the coronation. I bought most of the bunting, put it up, arranged tables/chairs/canopy, decorated the canopy, went round the whole street 4x to get everyone involved, blew up an awesome balloon display, licked paper chains to decorate, contacted neighbours to remove cars, organised music, plates etc. Same as last year only a handful of lovely neighbours helped; it was pretty much all me.

But it was 'gatecrashed' by a neighbour I didn't invite who's just moved in to my building and has caused me incredible stress and anxiety - I've recently recorded high BP for the first time in my life. He's a leaseholder, I'm a freeholder and he does whatever he wants without permission. I stopped him undertaking work in a communal area about which I knew nothing. He called the police. I asked him to remove a Ring doorbell at the communal front door he was using to spy on me (not paranoid; another neighbour confirms) and when he missed two deadlines I removed it myself, told him I had no intention of keeping it but needed written assurance he wouldn't re-install it before returning it. He called the police claiming theft. Both times the police told him I was right and he needed to apologise. But the time wasted sorting all that out and writing to him to list his many misdemeanours meant I missed the deadline for official street closure which almost scuppered the whole event.

He bangs on my door, he turns up at my back door, he calls me and harangues me on the phone to the point I've had to tell him I want no direct contact with him as I consider his activity to be harassment (there's tons of other incidents). So when he walked into the party I asked him to leave. He refused and said it was his street and he therefore had every right to be there. I pointed out I'd organised the whole thing. But he was supported by two sets of neighbours who literally did nothing to help or contribute yet argued with me and then went down the pub with him when it came to clearing up (they're not friends yet; he only moved in two months ago and one of them knew of the problems).

I'm so upset that it's ruined what should have been a great day and was an even better success than last year's only because of huge cost to my time and purse. The guy's an entitled bully and I recognise him striding in to the party was part of that behaviour but it still made me cry out of anger and frustration that he was benefitting from my hard work and these two couples who just turned up and had a great time felt they could tell me what to do. AIBU?

I'm just glad neither of you are my neighbours!

The OP won’t be back.

But I have so many questions!

Missing the point but not sure why he had to take his Ring down if it's a communal hall/area. If that was me I'll be really pissed off at that.

wanders off to look it up

Next week on Mumsnet ‘ why does no one ever organise any events for things like the Coronation??
Of course I’m too busy ( and important) to do it, or even help out, but I really can’t understand why these things don’t happen’.

Did you invite him to the party in the first place?

Because you only have the right to film your own property and he doesn't own the communal area of the building.

Tbh OP, you sound like a martyr.

No one made you spend £500 (twice?!) on a street party that you knew most of the street wouldn't appreciate. Surely after the jubilee you thought "hmm, seems like most of the street don't care about this as much as me, Jill and Tony do. Perhaps we shouldn't bother for the coronation?"
The nature of a street party, is that it's open to the STREET. With all the associated knobbers who live there. The fact you spent such an obscene amount on it is irrelevant.

Could you link to that please and thankyou

The two issues are separate, he sounds like an arse and you need to be careful there.

However he is right, you cannot host a street party in a public place and exclude him from attending.

As an aside.....stop spending your money like this, it's a lovely community thing to do but you're the only one doing it all to benefit the community.

He sounds horrible. But if you have a street party (that does actually inconvenience the whole street whether they want a party or not because of lack of access and noise etc) then you have to accept that the whole street can attend.
It doesn't make any difference that you did the work. If you want a party where you control who attends then you should book a venue

You gave him ‘deadlines’ to remove his ring doorbell, you then stole his personal property, you excluded him from a street party then asked him to leave and then cried because you didn’t get your own way… you sound like a nightmare tbh. I mean, he also sounds like a twat but that doesn’t make your behaviour any more reasonable.

Yes, i think I would like to hear the neighbours POV. You don’t come across well here at all OP, you sound controlling, belittling and rather snobby.

What right had you to keep his property until he gave you some sort of written assurance? On what authority did you demand that?

@Longtimeloiterer

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/domestic-cctv-systems/

You have the right to install CCTV on the boundary of your property which would be his flat door. He doesn't own the street door and could he found in breach of the Human Rights Act (right to privacy) and in breach of GDPR if he is recording his neighbours without their consent and with no valid reason.

The only way I could see that this would be permitted is if motion detection is turned off and the camera/ mic is only activated if you ring the bell. Otherwise, he's just being an invasive creep.

I'm most flummoxed by you writing him a letter listing all his "misdemeanours", what were you hoping to accomplish with that? Who do you actually think you are, no matter how much of a dildo he is that's a really weird and antagonistic thing to do?

@Longtimeloiterer

Meant to add that it's unlikely that outside the door to the flats is public - it's likely owned by the freeholders and considered private land.

Yeah, this really.

To be honest OP you sound like a real pain in the arse neighbour.

You didn’t miss the deadline because of him. You missed the deadline because you weren’t organised enough.

And YABVU. It’s a street party, it doesn’t matter who organised it; he had every right to be there.

Well you sound like a pain as well. It's a street party, you do not own the street and cannot stop people from being there.

He'd been on holiday for weeks and I assumed, hoped, it'd last til the final bank holiday. He returned just as it was all being finalised.

Street parties are usually organised by the street - in which case I couldn't have objected - not one person: if it had rained it was going to move in to my place. If I'd fallen out with the one person who organised an event, called the police on them maliciously and been warned to avoid them because of harassing behaviour I wouldn't then seek to benefit from their hospitality. If I can't object to him attending an event I organised because he lives on the street that would suggest I can't object, either, if I invite neighbours (or anyone) round for a bbq in the communal garden and he turns up because that space belongs to him, too.

I didn't ask him to leave in front of everyone. And there is nothing 'superior' about being freeholder but you have to get freeholder permission to do pretty much anything not least on areas that are also for the use of the freeholder. Like, you can't just remove a flowerbed that's on everyone's floorplans and destroy plants that don't belong to you or start major building work without telling anyone and refuse to clean shared areas affected. Or get a Ring doorbell that records everyone's activity against data protection laws then go running to the rozzers again when it's removed as a result.

I think you sound like a great neighbour with what you do in the neighbourhood. I'd be annoyed that someone who'd been haranguing me shouting and ringing me showed up to a party I'd organised too.
I think you were quite right not to invite him. Why would you invite someone who'd been so awful to you in the past? I certainly wouldn't.
I'm sorry he ruined the party for you but try to concentrate on the bits that you enjoyed because if you allow his presence to ruin your memories and your enjoyment, then he is running your life and not you.
Well done for a great party. 🥳

Organising a street party was not a compulsory activity last weekend. Yes it was nice that you did it but you didn’t need to go to that level of expense (both in time and money) in such excess that it resulted in being your party where you controlled the invite list

On your example of a bbq in the shared space, I am afraid he would have every right to be there too if it’s communal

You do seem to have an issue with him so best keep yourself to yourself and stop wasting energy on his misdemeanours

I agree he has behaved badly. But it does come with the territory of shared gardens surely that even tossers you don’t like can sit in the middle of your bbq if they are entitled to access the area.

Thats why many people would rather have no garden than a communal one if that’s the choice.

I can't object, either, if I invite neighbours (or anyone) round for a bbq in the communal garden and he turns up because that space belongs to him, too.

That is correct. It's a communal garden.