Very shaken neighbour incident

[Shakennotstirred1]

We don't speak to our neighbours. They are very difficult people & after a string of incidents previously we are no contact.
However today DH was out our front garden (terrace house attached to our neighbours) & hung up a santa with fishing wire.
About an hour later we heard a crash against the window & DH ran out. The neighbour climed a little ladder & had cut the wire & the decoration crashed against the window.
DH roared what are you playing at. The neighbour was roaring the fishing line (which was invisible) was over his garden (it wasn't, was completely in our garden) & then proceeded to call my DH a fat c**r & called him out onto the footpath for a fight.
DH lost the rag back at him but thankfully didn't rise to the bait.
I'm very shaken & after a tough year was excited to put up the decorations with my girls.
Don't know what the next move should be, part of me wants to get even but I just don't want any more agro with them...

Log it with police and continue to log every incident. Then wait for a year to find out if it makes it to the CPS.

We have had two incident free years & I had hoped all had been resolved but this incident today was totally out of the blue. Unfortunately we can't afford to move at the moment. No deposit saved for a new home.

You need to report this . Do you both own the houses ?

A lot of "roaring" going on there...

I agree, move!

You get a bigger better santa is what you do

Possibly one that sings Christmas songs all day long

I'd get it straight back up. If you ensure nothing is attached to or trailing their land then they don't have a leg to stand on. Do you have any cameras that could catch him cutting it down again?

Yes we do. We are homeowners as are they.

Sadly reporting is vital to build a case. He is sure his bullying won't be challenged. Report right now op...

I would move as it’s not going to get any better.

You don’t need a deposit as such, you use the proceeds from your current home.

Roaring!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Why did you not call the police??

They are cutting your stuff on your property, threatening you and you have footage.

They obviously have no issues calling the police on you for non issues and they will do so again in the future. Have the police make a case file with all incidents so when it escalates you will have the law on your side.

I'm so sorry OP.

Does the neighbour bother anyone else? If so, a "community trigger" can be made against them which is one of the steps toward actually getting something done about them.

I do understand it may be difficult if there are gaps between incidents, so now is really the time to start reporting and recording.

Call the police.

Sorry to hear this, but you wouldn’t need a deposit right now if you exchange & complete on the same day, as the money you have paid into your mortgage so far would be used towards the new house & therefore be the deposit.

I completely understand if you don’t want to move, especially as it’s been quiet for a couple of years but it sounds pretty stressful to me & once police are involved it might make it harder to sell in the future. Good luck with whatever you choose, it sounds awful.

@Shakennotstirred1 the neighbour is the one sounding like a c**t.

In terms of deposit, you can use the equity built up in your current property, not sure if you were aware of that. We put no cash towards our onwards purchase.

I would log it with 101 in case neighbour escalates in future.

Can you move?

If that is at all a possibility I wouldn’t bother with the police and just get out of there.

Edited to apologise - have just seen that you cannot move. In that case I would call the police and document/record everything.

What a horrible thing to happen

I am amazed by this - round here Police are only likely to respond to murders, not neighbours cctv.

This you might need moving cost and expense money upfront - but sale of current house should give you deposit for next.

You could try reporting especially with CCTV but I think you may have to declare that when selling - so I'd suggest checking this - it's why I never reported our previous neighbour though it was also our word against theirs. We worked to a get to a point we could move.

Report, report, report. You need to establish an audit trail with the Police, the great thing is that you have contemporaneous evidence, all the better if you have sound.

I am sorry you have had to endure this during what should have been a fun happy time but you have to be strong and deal with it, I think you are probably not the only family on your street who have had to deal with this.

I'm so sorry OP. I also have the neighbours from hell and it is surprisingly difficult to do anything about it. It has a terrible impact on your mental health. You could contact the police but the neighbour would obviously know it was you (that's if the police took any action anyway). I think moving is probably your best bet. Your DH is right not to take the bait, he'll be the one in the cells not the neighbour.

Report it to the police immediately, before they do.

If you are considering moving, bear in mind that if you report them to the police, you would not be able to say no when asked if you have had any disputes with your neighbours.