To think we are stuck with hideous neighbour.

[Neighboursfromhell]

We love in a purpose built flat, one neighbour above and then a substantial shared garden. Upstairs property is owned by a very wealthy Dutch man, turns out he bought the property to put his grown daughter in.

His daughter has significant mental health issues, we have 2-3 nights a week where she howls like a labouring cow all night, or she repeatedly slams the bedroom door over and over and over again. She will scream duck you you ducking cunts at us and she has a partner of about 18 months with whom there are domestics at least 2-3 times a week. Violent domestics. Police are here at least once a month. She grabs what sounds like hammers and whacks the floor screaming at us she can't do what she wants you fucking c.

Police won't do anything because the violence is tit for tat and if they want to attack each other they can.

Council won't do anything due to the violence and therefore it is a police matter. The domestic violence is only one element of the god awful behaviour.

We can't afford the tens of thousands to lodge our own court action.

We can't sell as it's an expensive (inherited) flat and no one is going to spend that much on a crazy, dangerous neighbour.

The property isn't rented, it's owned outright. The owner is technically breaching the lease by not acting on her behaviour but again, we can't afford to legally pursue it.

Aibu to think there's fuck all we can do?

Aibu to ask how long reasonably her mental health can give her allowances? She can 100% control herself when she wants to.

I don't know the solution but two things about your OP stick out for me:

1. I think it's highly unlikely that she "can 100% control herself when she wants to." She can 100% control herself when the illness is less severe.
2. I think by giving their nationality you're making the case fairly identifiable to anyone who knows them, and this could come back to bite you on the bum, especially given that you know she can be violent. I think I'd be asking the mods if it would be possible to take that detail out.

That said, and bearing in mind I have no experience of this sort of situation, I think the idea of making noise complaints sounds sensible. You can't really complain about someone being mentally ill, but the noise is an objective fact and a possible way in to solving the problem.

OP would still have to sell for enough to be able to buy another property though.

We do not know OPs situation and whether they are able to get a mortgage to top up at this point in their life, and nor should they have to, they have a home already which is being made uninhabitable by someone else.

Yea this person is unwell, but this doesn’t give her green light to abuse people and make their lives hell with her goings on.
it easy to blame the OP, but if you lived there you might think differently.
keep reporting to the police - they will get sick of her and act. You can contact adult social care but they won’t get involved most likely.

It sounds like you have reached the point where you can no longer live there.
So look to sell. If the other owner is interested, approach them first. If that doesn't work think about auction or a we buy any house type set up.

Put the flat on the market at 10-20% over asking price.

If her Dad offers to buy it, take the money and run

An excellent point - you may have legal cover. Do check your insurance.

I work in adult safeguarding and my only advice would be to log every single incident with the police. The police should be referring onto the local adult safeguarding board for follow up. Unfortunately, as you have rightly identified, there is little you can do as you're both owners. But making a nuisance of the situation by calling the police every time she's a nuisance will at least mean that agencies are more likely to look at support for her.

People with mental health issues in social housing often get evicted for antisocial behaviour associated with their mental illness, which is shocking and disgusting as they often then end up on the street despite other vulnerabilities they may have. It is a shame the old large institutions closed down as they provided space for people who couldn't easily live in society and despite their huge shortfalls as institutions, could have been converted into suitable housing for people like your upstairs neighbour.

However the point here is that they are held accountable for their behaviour even when placed in accommodation that they get allocated precisely because of their illness.

Your upstairs neighbour can also be held accountable. Record all of her threatening behaviour towards you....the hammering of the floor, the swearing at you, staring through your window etc.

Involve the police and the council environmental health (for noise).

If that doesn't work then have a solicitor send a cease and desist letter to both the tenant and father (and also record any threats you get from that). You are entitled to peaceful enjoyment of your property and the owner of the upstairs flat is responsible for ensuring that.

Offer to sell your flat to the father for market value plus 20% to cover your costs and the nuisance of moving. If he does not want to and does not take action, then hire a solicitor. Even if you have to take out a loan to pay the solicitor then it will be cheaper than selling at a massive loss.

Sell the flat at lower than market rate - somene will bite.

You inherited it, so it's not like you'll lose money and instead you get somehwre quiet to live...

You’ve had some good advice to diarise every incident and report to police.

Have you contacted the management company of the flats to report breach of the lease? If there isn’t one have you reported to the freeholder?

Repeated lease breaches can land people in county court - in serious cases they can forfeit the lease. So you need to make a fuss with the freeholder or management company - because they can take the flat owner to court.

Equally you can take the management/freeholder to court if they fail to tackle the breach to your lease - ie quiet enjoyment.

What!!! Easier to charge the victim with a hate crime? What hate crime would that be?

Not smiling sweetly and offering camomile tea while being called foul names?

Keep gathering evidence OP - make recordings, video, sound etc. Keep at the police.

Some of people posting here are aggressively faux naive in their efforts to virtue signal.

I forgot to say, the various agencies will also find this a difficult problem to solve.

Because of this, they will keep batting it away or passing it to another agency. Police will pass it to social services, social services will say they don't have enough resource and wait for it to get bad enough to become a police issue. Environmental health will say it's a social services issue.

Your job is to keep it on their radar and complain enough so finally it is easier for them to try and solve it than to deal with your reports.

Once you have raised it several times with a log and recording of behaviours, and nothing has been done, also involve your MP, council complaints team and so on.

@Neighboursfromhell THIS!!

I can't believe the people who are telling you to just put up with this because 'mental health innit'. Somebody else's emotional struggles do not mean that you have to feel threatened and harrassed in your own home. There's no excuse. Unfortunately these type of behavioural issues don't usually resolve as they are embedded into the person's personality and coping mechanisms which is much more difficult to treat than a true 'mental health' issue. The truth is she will probably never change OP. If she can't be moved out I would move yourself out. You don't deserve this.

Oh get off your high horse. A million percent you wouldn't want this person living above you!!

Get a notebook snd keep a diary of every single thing that happens with date, time etc.

Get a ring doorbell and back up all footage.

Get some sort of CCTV if you can and again, back up the footage.

Contact the police every time she harasses you.

Consider getting your MP/councillor involved.

We had similar, had fake shit and fake used sanipads put through letterboxes, screaming, running around naked, throwing furniture out of the window at people, banging on doors, parent wouldn't do anything. We called the police every time, in the end the police called an ambulance who gained entry and she was taken to mh unit and not allowed back, not on the lease, was putting residents at risk, she got treatment then offered supported housing.

Who on earth is going to want to buy it with that kind of neighbour?

Because she says she's stuck and it's an option. Why not say it? Some people could stick it out. Others wouldn't cope so well and be better cutting losses and moving on.

Yes, she absolutely can complain if that mental illness is causing so much disruption. Police in the first instance - and not just for noise. The girl is harassing the OP. Not to mention the safeguarding issues here.

Can’t imagine many takers once OP discloses what’s happening with the neighbour.

Thank god for sanity.

This woman would be in state care in the past. The collapse in inpatient care is to blame here. She is not fit to live in the community where she is a risk to herself and others.

But her riiiiiights! Her riiiiiights! No. Rights go hand in hand with responsibilities, the part forgotten in modern Britain, which is why we're in a death spiral.

I don’t think OP has done themselves any favours by disclosing that they inherited the flat. Seems to be very triggering to some. Hence the open hostility and willingness to blame OP for their situation.

I agree to some extent but in practical terms it will be very difficult to get anything done. I suspect a pp was right when they said the father has probably moved her into the flat as a last resort, having exhausted all the other avenues. This is how a lot of people with MH issues end up in prison instead of getting the help they need.