My Disgusting Neighbour

[BaldingMum]

Terrace house with a shared passageway between mine and my neighbours houses which lead to a gate into my garden (neighbour has never put a gate up for theirs meaning their garden is fully visible to anyone walking down the passageway).

Neighbour has always hoarded in the garden, and it’s an absolute shit hole full of rotting rubbish. This has led to rats over the years which are primarily resident in his garden, although I have seen the odd one venture onto my garden leading me to put bait traps down.

Just about manageable, not ideal. However my neighbour, who has a colonoscopy bag, has started the disgusting habit of emptying his bladder on the back door step. The smell is indescribable. The flies are relentless.

My six year old child has to walk by this to get access to his garden and house (both of which are well kept and tidy).

the stickler is, my house is down hill to his, so inevitably when it rains, guess where all his body waste gets washed to.

He is completely blasé about it, doesn’t see a problem, his property etc etc. I’ve raised an environmental hazard complaint with the local council to see if they can do anything.

It stinks. It’s ruining the enjoyment of our garden. The flies are getting into our house. The rats are increasing.

WIBU to pour bleach where it’s evidentially doing this disgusting act? What the hell can I do to get this stopped?

I work for my local council adult safeguarding team and I'd suggest giving yours a ring and making a referral not just for him but for his wife as well. Say you're concerned about self neglect with regards to hygiene etc.

I'm surprised that environmental health weren't interested, ours is pretty good on following up with stuff like this. Maybe keep at them? And if you get nowhere, then ask your local councilor to get involved.

What a horrendous situation for you and your family I am sorry. It honestly doesn't matter if he privately owns the house,
This is anti social behaviour and another person has provided advice re ASB order. You have a young child witnessing this potentially so the police will should be involved on this point alone if he is potentially exposing himself relieving himself. Social services should be contacted as he is clearly not coping and has medical needs the very least and likely mental health issues as well Environmental health and the council have a duty towards you and your family and must take action esp as you have have rats in your property as a direct result of him. The council will have to insist he removes the rubbish and if he refuses will do it and bill him for it so get them involved and don't take no for an answer. I'm afraid you are going to have to make a nuisance of yourself with all these agencies until they resolve this. Is it possible to gather evidence .. video and pics ideally and keep a contemporaneous log of events.
As this will be extremely useful for you and the agencies. Contact your local MP if the agencies are not supporting you and write directly to the police commissioner and the chairman of the council or even the mayor to raise the profile of the issue providing your evidence. They will pay attention. Is this man a danger or a worry to you or your child in terms of safety because if so add this into the mix as this is extremely abnormal and worrying behaviour. Unless you are fearful of repercussions I would also write to him send it recorded delivery so you have proof of delivery explaining your concerns and ask him to cease and desist. If you need help with this CAB will help you. . Then send a letter before action and tell him you are going to take legal action if this continues .. keep everything as proof and it will get sorted. Don't do anything threatening etc as this won't help your case. You cannot live like this and the stress and worry you must be feeling is horrendous. Good luck 👍

Call environmental health at the council. Also adult social care, I dread to imagine what’s inside the house if the outside is like this. Say you are concerned for him and his wife.

This.

If he just emptied it into the toilet then there wouldn’t be a problem. So he’s either not mentally well, or his toilet is blocked. Or he’s enjoying winding you up?

Urine attracts rats so you definitely need him to stop. Jeyes Fluid, suggested by a pp, is a good call. I agree with others that council environmental health and safeguarding teams need to be alerted.

Thank you some amazing advice so far!

I certainly wouldn’t say I consider him a threat, and he does have a good, close (albeit frustrated) family network around him. Although I do believe this is more so for his long suffering wife, who has previously aired her frustrations to me in person prior to her becoming more frail.

He is licensed to own firearms (I’m sure it won’t get renewed when next due), and has previously used an air rifle on the rats, although this hasn’t happened in a while and I don’t think he’s steady enough now.

But just to put into further context the complete environmental hazard of his garden, I have witnessed him shooting a rat. On recovering the dead rat with bare hands, he looks at it, and then throws it further into his shit hole of a garden. God only knows how many decomposing shot rats are hidden under the rotting who-knows-what…

He doesn't sound mentally well at all and I think a safeguarding call is needed

Everyone who has a catheter I know/knew (ie no longer with us) always emptied the contents in the toilet.

This man’s behaviour is worse than someone having a wee in the garden as more urine is being tipped than a standard toilet visit

"I’ve raised an environmental hazard complaint with the local council to see if they can do anything."

Right there in OP's first post!

Jesus actually fucking wept. Time to move.

what a horrible situation for you. Not sure I could cope with someone’s urine running into my garden on a daily basis. Surely environmental health should step in now?

please don’t use poison for the rats, if you don’t have any food sources and no where for them to sleep you won’t have them and they will just be passing through which most if not every household will have. Using poison causes immense pain for the rat and also risks poisoning birds of prey and household pets

The Gun Licence and use of an air gun in the back garden is another issue to raise with the Police - urgently

I would move! He sounds armed and potentially dangerous.
if you do raise it with the council, would this affect any future house sale ? Would it have to be declared..?

My dad had one of these but he had my mum to care for him and empty it , sounds like his mental health has deteriorated if he is emptying it in the garden, obviously that's not right. I don't see what you can do other than keep an open conversation and obviously point out that emptying piss in the garden is unacceptable. If he carries on I would contact adult social services as there is obviously something going wrong there.

I think I would have lead with the firearms.
Urine and waste, well that's disgusting.
But a firearm ! And he is just feet away from you and your ds.
I think it's time to involve the police.you saw him shoot a rat.air rifle or not. This would scare the hell out of me .

@BaldingMum what shame env health havent got to look at this yet, how awful for you. I personally would speak to the police.

I wish you good luck in resolving it - I would probably pour bleach on it so yiu can access your garden. Hopefully the authorities will get him to stop. 🤞

Could be a suprapubic catheter which is almost always strapped to the leg and doesn't need to be out side of clothing everything he would need for this is freely supplied by the NHS.

Sounds like he is emptying his bag into the yard to save himself going upstairs. If you're not very mobile, climbing the stairs with a full bag is quite the challenge.

But if he wants to empty it outside he should empty it down the bloody drain, not just across the yard... that said, my dogs piss all over the yard, and I would think it highly unreasonable for anyone to have an issue with that...

For your area or communal areas it runs into - Odorkill is your friend, it is for cleaning kennels and floors and specifically for killing the stench of piss. It's what I stick on the yard every other day in summer and comes in a variety of pleasant flavours (except the peardrops, thats an acquired taste!) and is very effective. Do not use ammonia based products to clean up urine, it doesn't really help!

Keep speaking to the council though, the filth and trash is attracting and providing shelter for the rats - the piss issue aside (as beyond cleaning up the piss and preventing the smell its likely you can't actually stop him doing that) - that IS something they can deal with!

I have no idea about the behaviour, but I think copious amounts of water from a hosepipe will wash it away better than bleach, and will not damage the garden.

Some people wee around the garden to keep foxes away.

I’m so sorry OP this sounds horrendous. I think posters telling you to move are overlooking quite a major issue- anyone viewing the property is going to be aware of the state of the neighbours garden & put off. Much better to try & resolve it like you’re doing. I know a friend that had an issue with neighbours throwing rubbish in the their garden & over the fence in to my friend’s garden. She did have to badger the council/ environmental health quite a lot but they did eventually take action. I hope it’s the same for you!

Oh foul! Call the council! There is no reason he is doing this instead of in the toilet (unless maybe he is a hoarder and can’t get to it.) This is truly vile.

The police/authorities should definitely take any safeguarding concerns you have seriously if your neighbour has a firearms license so this could be your golden ticket in getting a quick response & any action taken swiftly.

As another poster mentioned, please don’t poison the rats. They won’t hang around in your garden if you have no food sources. White vinegar should neutralise the smell - I buy 5 litre bottles from Amazon which aren’t too expensive. Also won’t harm the wildlife.

Take photos of his garden when he’s not there. Take advantage of the longer days. Or if you have CCTV down the alleyway to the gates (presumably they are at angles- as had friends living in terraced houses like yours)

Don’t apologize, you said clearly he is emptying his bladder, so it’s obvious it’s urine.

And why can so many people not read on this thread? Telling you to go to the council when you already have?

You could try keeping on at the council or contacting your councilor. Lots of councils are short staffed due to budget cutbacks.

It sounds like he is unwell.

Call the council and adult social care.