To raise complaint about neighbor to HV

[Tir3edAndTested]

So we have a 15m old daughter, we bought an Ex-council house when LO was 4 weeks old. Our neighbours also have a baby, they also have (I think) a young XL bully. There's 5 people in this 2 bed house, not a huge problem. The lady and her partner/ teenage children regularly have loud arguments with banging and crashes in the middle of the night. There's huge piles of garbage in the front and back garbage and used nappies just loose on their front patio (one has been there for at least 3 weeks). There's dog poo everywhere. We have to walk past their front gate to get to ours, and it always STINKS of weed. The mother used to smoke it in the front with baby in the bassinet when it was young but now the smell is coming from open windows. The dog barks aggressively whenever you walk past and it NEVER, EVER leaves the property for walks and has near to no garden (maybe 4mx2m). I have also never seen them take the baby out of the house. I went to drop a christmas card around and there was so much litter and dirty nappies all over the floor and such a strong smell of weed. I invited her to come to baby group with me and for a few weeks she said she'd come and then backed out and now I've stopped asking. I don't want to fall out with them and I really don't want an innocent Dog put down but I feel both the dog and baby might be somewhat neglected. What would you do?
I've really tried hard to be a kind and loving neighbour but I'm fed up of the smell of poo and the litter is so gross, and the smell of weed is so strong coming into our garden.

Ask MN..report your post with pic and ask for it to be removed.

@Tir3edAndTested Definitely report.

Social services are probably no strangers to this household, but the weed, chaos, XL Bully /[or other bully] shouting and violence and a young baby are absolute indicators of help needed to protect the child.

A chaotic shitty house fill of dogs and terrible torture done to a child has taken place in USA recently... if that had been reported sooner, the children would be better off.

This is what frightens me.
I feel bad for her, and the dog and the baby. But nothing about this household is right or normal. The poor baby needs to go out occasionally. I'd happily take it out!
But I'd never forgive myself if I didn't raise concerns and then the baby was harmed!
Also not a fan of the poo smell, potential for rats and my own child passively smoking weed.

@Tir3edAndTested Also...with XL Pit Bullies, when young, they are less aggressive...when they mature, they will be very dominant and much more likely to attack a child or someone else at the property -or heaven forfend, you or another neighbour if it escapes.
Any dog needs daily exercise to keep them even moderately sane, and it will be guarding that property like mad as that's all it gets to do to amuse itself.

ALSO. One thing that really annoyed me- two weeks ago it was general waste collection so I went to put out our bin and then attempted to take out hers too but the dustbin was empty! SURELY if you have this much rubbish outside your house you'd at least fill your dustbin and put it out!

I also once found their used nappies in our food waste bin 😭🤢

@Tir3edAndTested That poo smell will get infinitely worse in the summer with maggots in the nappies.
Please report for that poor baby's sake.

Yeah I agree. I mean I don't know much about dogs but I know they can be aggressive if not controlled/ trained well. So many elements of concern

Any chance of you moving?
It sounds hell.

Also smoking weed inside with baby can't be good for health

Have you ever been inside her house ? if the garden is so dirty and dog always inside plus weed smoking it must be hell inside her house

Probably dog mess and urine everywhere inside, It really sounds awful. Dogs, especially large dogs , poo/pee a LOT, and it isn't getting walked.

oh god , I'd definitely report to social as they can come in there and make sure it's safe for a child to live ...

But yes , last summer when i lived next to a neighbour with 9 dogs always inside - during heatwave it was hell . The smell of rotting dogs faeces and urine was unbearable.

I hope social services will help X

I've just stepped into the hall to pick up a parcel she'd taken in for me. It does smell bad and there's filth everywhere

Social Services and Environmental Health. I'm sure the dog will be included with one or the other.

id take it in steps and first report dog to the police if you think it's unregistered

I agree with others that you need to think about the kids and the dog and gett SS and the Police involved.

Is there any chance you could get a family member to put the complaint in so if they ask you about it you can better lie about not knowing? Maybe you're a better liar than me but it would be written all over my face!

God, imagine living in that stinking house, never mind the ticking time bomb of the un-walked XL! I take it they don't have older kids or surely the school would have noticed a smell about the kids or something? Their clothes must stink of weed and filth 😞

The older kids aren't in school. I'd guess 16 and 18 but not sure. And if they're of school age they definitely don't go! We are out and about so much and I take my daughter to nursery at 8am and see all the other kids on the street walking to school but honestly I never see them out of the house. Maybe 3 times in 14 months have I seen any of them outside of the property, once was in GP surgery, once was in local corner shop. But they deffo don't go out regularly.
I've seen posties/ delivery drivers have to run out of their front garden because the dog is running out barking

This is going to sound really bizarre {Can't give too much away for confidentiality reasons} but there was a heroin dealer couple last century {1990's} who had young DC and they were even reported by their addict customers.

Thankfully the DC are adults now and doing OK.

Report to social services and environmental health.

Take as many discrete pictures as you can and make a diary of incidents that worry you. The more info they have the more likely they are to act.

@ZEWatson are you the OP? Your posts aren't highlighted as it's a different name but you're answering as if you are.

Yea. I have no idea how to use this and don't know why it's coming up as 2 different usernames 🤣🤣🤣

I’d just do a referral via social care, or NSPCC. Then they can instigate a check if the family aren’t already working with someone.

Don't expect too much from SS.

My neighbours are exactly the same, more kids though. They don't care. SS have been involved and so long as the kids have a bed and get fed they don't give a fuck about the start of the house or the weed. The kids live the life of dogs, the way they are spoken to but nobody cares. I have made reports. I have raised concerns many times but nothing ever comes of it. SS, RSPCA, council re housing issues affecting my property, school re things I have seen. Nothing ever happens.

@ZEWatson

Report your thread and MN will be able to change your posts to match your thread username but you will also need to name change back to it for future posts

Report the garden to your council. I would think Environmental Health.

I had a very quick search online and I see that some councils do have a system for reporting filthy front gardens. Eg:

www.walthamforest.gov.uk/neighbourhoods/report-neighbourhood-problems/fly-tipping-and-keeping-streets-clean/report-dirty-front-gardens

Hopefully reporting the garden to Environmental Sevices will trigger social services and the REPCA.

I agree with pp, contact the one that could have been done by anyone- like environmental health for the front garden. That should set off a chain of other authorities without it necessarily pointing back to you.