Neighbours from hell.

[2026wife]

Hi all,

Just looking for some advice on our current situation or if anyone has experienced anything similar.

So long story short our neighbors are horrible, disgusting and lazy people. They have always been terrible neighbors right from when we moved in a few years ago, always arguing, having their windows smashed in, littering, creating drama and just being a nuisance. Lately though the situation has become a lot worse, whenever they have guests over, the guests park over our driveway, making it impossible for my husband to get his car on our own drive, He has to beep his horn every time just to get on the drive. And when they do come out to move it after about 10 minutes, they are abusive and call us names. I've outright had enough of their behavior and I'm struggling to know what I can do about this situation. We live in London and people around this area are all very lovely, apart from them. Even our other neighbors have received abuse off them and called the police but they don't seem to care. Is there anything we can do? I know that they rent the house so do you think its worth contacting the landlord or will they not give a shit either?
Btw, I have all the evidence on my phone.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

contact the landlord in the first instance.

Phone the police every time they are abusive. Record everything. Get outside cameras. Covering every inch of ur ground. Report to housing if they rent. Every single time. It will take time. Send a solicitors letter for harrassment too. Record all/take pics and videos. Get a noise recorder from the council to record noise levels. Everything counts. I understand ur despair btw, it can drive you to mental illness. Horrible horrible people.

It's worth a try. I'd start with that.

Absolutely contact the ll. Get as much evidence from neighbors too.
Id want problem tenants out before new rules on s21 come in. Id appreciate you letting me know.

Thank you for replying, we already have a ring doorbell but we are thinking of getting another cctv camera that covers the full driveway. It's so disheartening when I see my poor husband just trying to get on our driveway after he's done a 12 hour shift. All we want is for them to stop harassing us and coming on to our property. I struggle with severe anxiety as it is, so this whole situation is sending me crazy. I have looked up the landlords details online so I will be getting in touch with them if this doesn't stop. Thank you again for the reply.

As above landlords won't want to be saddled with problem tenants as of next year when section 21 evictions stop. I would get in touch now as it may take some time.

Landlords can't just get rid of problem tenants. That's one of the reasons so many are selling up. It is incredibly difficult to do anything about tenants like these. They can pretty much trash the property, refuse to pay rent, terrorise the neighbours and all the landlord can do is wait patiently for months and months on end for a court date.

You can of course contact the landlord and I'm sure they'd like them out as much as you would but the law isn't on their side.

Try

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/anti-social-behaviour-asb-case-review-also-known-as-the-community-trigger

If they have children, social services

You can though get rid of tenants for any reason and no reason AT THE MINUTE. Look at section 21 no fault evictions.

I agree with the others: do something now, today. Start with LL and I would also do everything recommended above, too. If you don't act now, you'll lose all hope of getting rid of them.

Failing this, can you move at all? I have been the victim of vile neighbours in the past, and I ended up moving.

Try the landlord if that doesn't work move house. I know you shouldn't have to but they wont change and if they are making your life miserable its not worth it.

I understand where you're coming from, we shouldn't have to move house as we have made our house beautiful, I spent all summer decorating it and my husband gave our garden a make-over so we've really put effort into it. We knew this wouldn't be our forever home as we are only young and we want children in the next couple of years but its so sad that they are ruining it for us. We work long hours and just want to be able to drive on to our own property in peace like we deserve. If its not clear from the offset, my neighbours don't work and are on benefits (I know because I've heard them gushing over it smh). What a world we live in hey😂

Landlord first, then council if it’s antisocial behaviour. Be mindful that if you own your property, once you go to the landlord or council, you might have to declare a dispute to potential buyers if you decide in future to sell.

I would contact the landlord, we had to for some antisocial behaviour. Turns out we were not the only ones who had made contact and they got rid of them. The landlord had to fix the property as of internal damage, new tenants lovely. So much better if they rent as if they own it’s straight to police and authorities and less hope of a quicker outcome.

I feel for you and your DH, your home is your castle and you just want to relax when you get home.

We have been through what you're going through.
Kept noise diary for council, had police out, their landlord came to visit. (We were both renting).
Absolutely nothing helped, in the end it gave us a push to look at our options and we bought our first house and moved.
I don't think they will change, as bad as it is, for your own sanity, move.

Landlord - if a decent one they'd probably be pleased to know what is going on. If they are that disrespectful to their neighbourhood, I bet the house is being trashed too.
And yeah, CCTV, police too if needed. But be prepared for the long haul to fight this. Councils are pretty bad now, they're rarely keen to help but who knows? You may have a member of staff who isn't a lazy git, which has been my experience with my bad neighbours and lack of council help (they are council tenants).
If you own your home, it may be worth getting one of those lockable parking posts for your hubby. The ones you can leave up when you're not at home so nobody can take your space.

Good luck, I know what you're going through. Currently fighting the council with my neighbours on the rubbish issue. Months of rotting food, nappies and spilled rubbish in a shared area and by their back door - which is just the other side of the fence by my back door. It stinks and we also now have a rat problem. Bad neighbours are the pits.

If its not clear from the offset, my neighbours don't work and are on benefits (I know because I've heard them gushing over it smh). What a world we live in hey😂

Sorry OP but what has being on benefits got to do with your neighbour dispute?

You had a point, you should have stuck to it.

If its not clear from the offset, my neighbours don't work and are on benefits (I know because I've heard them gushing over it smh). What a world we live in hey😂

Having suffered from abusive & disruptive neighbours I was with you until this point, whether or not they claim benefits is irrelevant.

All you can do is keep a record of everything and (sadly) start preparing to move. I wouldn’t advise contacting the police unless violence is threatened as there is not much they can actually do. Contact the council as a starting point.

Stop being slow "I'll contact the landlord if they don't stop". No contact them now. This is urgent. If you think it'll stop you're delusional.
If you don't persuade the landlord to evict now he's going to be stuck with them forever due to law changing.
Plus contacts to council or police go on record if you're trying to sell but phoning the landlord doesn't.
If they don't seem interested phone them every single time the neighbours do something, they'll get off their arses then.
Plus get that camera up this weekend.

The benefits thing is relevant if they’re also unemployed. They’ll have to find somewhere else in London that takes HB so any eviction will take longer. Plus it means they are always there. Don’t have to get up for work so can stay up late.
I feel for you OP.

I'd tell the landlords now to get the ball rolling. We got some security cameras that are solar and come with a WiFi hub so no electrics etc and they are great! Can add sd card for storage so no ongoing fee etc. But can use through your phone, record etc. Definitely worth putting up as a deterrent/gathering evidence. You can report to police anti social behaviour too. I think by the time they are parking on your drive, not apologising etc you should start reporting. These things can take time to get anywhere.

It takes a while to get people out with s21, and it's now urgent because of the changes so you must contact their LL today so they have enough time to act.

Sadly very true. But if they are going to try then they need to get the ball rolling now to still be able to use Section 21.

@TheCorrsDidDreamsBetter you are missing the point entirely, the benefits have nothing to do with the fact they are bad neighbors. I'm just mentioning that they gloat over it, saying how they're never going to work again and I've heard them bragging about how their benefit money pays for their 'wacky baccy'.

@DecoratingDiva again, whether they claim benefits has nothing to do with the fact they are bad neighbors. I just don't think it's a good look when they gloat and brag about how much 'free money' they're getting so they can buy their 'wacky baccy'. I didn't think that was the purpose of benefits? Maybe I'm wrong and you can use government funded money to buy drugs? I wouldn't know.