Problem Neighbours

[onlyhereonce]

Hi,

We pri ate rent and have lived next to our neighbous for 3 years now and have complained so many times to the housing group that own the house (dane housing) and we feel we are getting nowhere.

The thing is , there house smells and i mean really smells of smoke, sweat, grease , they are well known to social services and the council to be a horrible family. When in bed we can smell their house through the walls its that bad. They have 6 kids who seem to love F ing and blinding every single night and whenever they are out in the garden, throwing bricks, potatos, onions, clothing etc etc into our garden. Ive spoken to the parents with no way forward as they refuse to accept they are doing anything wrong. Next door but one (who are linked to us as its a 4 house terraced) are 2 elderly people who have had YEARS of this with them before we moved in and have come to the conclusion they arent going to get anywhere with dane housing, who just use the same line when they call "well write out to them but to be honest there isnt much we can do"

What rights do we have? Is there a governing body who regulates housing assosciations?

Matt

Have you tried speaking to the local community support officer??

Tried that , in fact came off the phone to her earlier (i called last tuesday asking to speak with her and was assured she would call me back the same day. I had to call again today asking for her as we are getting nowhere).

She says she is going to get the social services involved also but she cant see how she can do anything about the smell. I dont accept this as its ruining our quality of life at home as the smell is horrendous.

The odd time i have gone round to complain about the noise (most of the time i dont bother as they dont answer usually) the moment the door opens your hit with a big waft of smell. I dont know how people can live like that.

Matt

It sounds dire. Are you keeping a log of the noise? Environmental health are good people to speak to about the stench, you shouldn't have to live like this. Social services do need to be involved as they will benefit from their support. I have known cases where social services have cleaned up houses also.

Social services were involved and bought them cleaning stuff around and decorated their house for them but 2-3 month on and the smell is back even worse and they dont seem to care. There little lad (their youngest) is in and out of hospital with lung problems. They blame it on asthma , its no wonder when they both smoke like chimneys in the house and the smell that comes through my walls , i dread to think what the smell is like to live in daily.

Fed up

Matt

bumping for you as i haven't clue but feel very sorry for you

ok,so what is the main smell?? you say sweat...how?grease...cooking smells?smoke? well its not illegal

how old are the children?

and the housing association should take it to next step if they arent responding to letters

The thing is , i dont think any amount of social servies help will actually HELP them as they are well known in the town as being riff raff. When we first moved here we got talking to some of the other parents in the school we took the kids and the moment we mentioned where we had moved to they all laughed and said "do you know what youve let yourself in for". We brushed it off as unfair judging people but god can i see why now.

Matt

I'm not surprised you're fed up. A fair few parents don't realise that their smoking makes their children unwell, they seem to live in ignorance. Is there a problem with your walls?? If they are too thin then this will allow the particles to flow into your house so perhapse wall insulation may help? Environmental health should be able to help.

In response to Tillytulip,

The smell is a mixture of stale smoke, perspiration (BO), food that is rotting. Up until a few months ago there back garden contained dirty nappies with poo in, food that had gone mowly, crap, mattresses, bits of paper, just general rubbish and the smell was horrific. I called environmental health who came out and warned them to clean up or they would have there tenancy in jeopardy. they cleaned it up and its slowly but surely getting as bad again. Its a vicious circle and basically will never get sorted as they seem to enjoy living like pigs.

Matt

Hi,

Our walls are concrete, in fact the whole house is concrete, the walls, ceilings, stairs etc (a pain in winter as its cold but in summer its like cyprus in our house lol)

I dont know how its doing it but if you stand by my window in my bedroom it stinks and if you put your nose onto my wall its even worse.

Matt

It's down to the size of the molecules, if it's a concrete structure then they are probably absorbing the smell. I'm fairly sure you can get a sealant which should help, you need to check with environmental health about this though as I'm not 100% sure. Keep a diary of the noise and behaviour and ask environmental health to come out again regarding the stench and the garden. Take pictures, just make sure they are dated and timed.

put everything in writing to dane housing and keep a regular log of any anti social activity - the housing associaiton should be able to provide you with their forms for this. Photograph the mess. Find out who the neighbour's housing officer is and send them, the local PCSO and Environmental Health copies of your log regularly... depending on the number of incidents, I'd suggest weekly or monthly. And phone that Housing Officer (log all calls and activity there too)

Keep up the pressure - talk to other neighbours - get a petition to get things changed with the neighbours, or get a group together to clean up the neighbourhood and invite the problem neighbours to join... and keeping inviting them. Second option only works if you are good at being chirpy and persistent and they are not violent or dangerous.

find a good media angle and go to the local papers... it's the housing association and council's responsibility to apply the law to these tenants, so make sure the press know how little they've done so far.

good luck

tbh I would move

Do you have or can you assemble a log of all the times you contacted Dane Housing about them and a log of the problems?

Make one up as best you can, of the problems and the times you contacted Dane HA and even SS, attach a cover letter (if your log is approximate, say so there) and send it to your MP and city councillor.

You have my most abject empathy, Matt, we, too, just had a neighbour from hell (violent, young alcoholic, who's also pregnant) move in.

If we could move, we would.

The regulatory authority for registered providers is Tenants Services Authority ( 0845 230 7000 9-5 m-f). I am not sure that they will be in a position to act as their statutory obligation is to tenants of RPs.

It may be worthwhile reqesting a meeting with one of Dane Plus' neighbourhood officers to see if there is a way forward. If they don't act then contact your local MP to see if they can progress your complaint.