I'm not sure if this is the right place to post (maybe someone could direct me to the best place if not).
My elderly mother is a council tenant in a ground floor flat. When she first moved in a few years ago there was a lovely lady above (only 2 floors), also on her own. Around a year ago this lady did a house swap with a man in his 30's. He spent a long time doing work on the flat before it appeared he moved in. But he was very rarely there. Around 2 months ago, my mother found out from the previous tenant that the new tenant had been reported for not living at the property, which explained why he'd blanked her several times over those couple of weeks. My mother did not report him. It's not something she would do if the situation had no effect on her, which it didn't.
I visited my mother today, not having seen her since Sunday. She told me that the upstairs tenant was doing something outside and that he'd blocked the shared path. I went out to look, and he has built a low wall between his main door and my mother's side door. My mother has a front door and a side door. Access to the side door is via the shared pathway. You pass the neighbour's only door on the way to my mother's side door (they're next to each other).
Were a fire to break out at the front of my mother's flat her escape route would be through the side door. Now that this wall has been built, it would mean that she'd have to step down around 6 inches onto uneven grass in order to get out to the road. My mother is elderly and has mobility problems and would struggle stepping off the path.
I think that what the neighbour has done is a health and safety hazard and probably breaches his tenancy agreement. I told my mother to get on to the council immediately, but she wanted to wait until she saw the neighbour next and have a polite word with him. I told her that he was being entirely unreasonable in not knocking on her door and explaining to her what he was planning on doing, and that I didn't think a quiet word would do anything. I rang the council myself at 4pm but there was no answer on several numbers I tried.
Does anyone know where my mother stands in this matter? It's a shared path so surely his is breaching something or other by building this wall?
I'm planning on ringing the housing officer and maintenance departments first thing tomorrow and making a nuisance of myself in order to speak to somebody.
Thank you in anticipation of any help or advice you can give me in this matter.
p.s. the reporting of him not living there may be a red herring in this matter, but I thought it may be important.