Harassment from neighbour at my workplace

[freaknextdoor]

NC for this.
Over the past couple of months a neighbour has been causing problems at my place of work. I work for an elderly relative at their house and love my job. It works around my dc, health conditions and various other bits and bobs that mean it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.
The neighbour has taken a strong dislike to me doing anything outside the house. I have been verbally abused, sprayed with the hose pipe, watched, stared at, and told to stop working. I am essentially just gardening when outside, but washed garden furniture once and twice in the past year have jet washed the drive. After being sprayed with the hose I reported what had been going on to the police. They spoke with the neighbours who denied everything.

Since then their son has been phoning and visiting my relative complaining about me and demanding an apology for reporting his parent. The police have spoken to him and told him to stop contacting my relative.

Now things have ramped up and the neighbour has removed plants from my relatives side of the small fence that borders the properties. The plants were in their bin. They denied all knowledge. They live in the middle of nowhere with no through traffic and neither my relative nor the neighbours have visitors who would do this or have any reason to do this. They have complained that due to my relative's house being slightly uphill from theirs that water runs on their drive when it rains or the plants are watered. The plants were replaced by me and yesterday I noticed they were wet when nothing else was wet, there was water on the neighbour's drive but none on my relative's drive and the plants were looking crispy. I only planted them on Saturday evening and they were beautiful and lush plants. Now they are half dead. All of them. I suspect they have been poisoned. My relative is severely disabled and can't water them or do anything to them so it can only have been the neighbour. I watered them yesterday with a small amount of water and the neighbour came out freaking out that there was water on their drive and started taking photos of the small wet patches.
They have previously said they are recording every time I do anything like water the garden. Yesterday was a hot, sunny day and the small wet patches were gone in less than 10 minutes.

My relative is fearful of what they will do next.

The police have been told of all incidents and there are now 7 instances of the neighbour verbally abusing me, spraying me, watching me, removing plants and now poisoning them.
What can/will the police do? How can this be resolved? The police have reassured me that I am doing nothing wrong but it is causing such a lot of stress. My relative's house is adapted for their disability and is the family home plus at their advanced age they do not want to move.

See a solicitor and seek a protection from harassment order. If they breach it then an arrest clause can then be added which will lead to their arrest at that stage.

Thank you for replying. Would that be expensive?

The police are ringing me today. What are they likely to do?

You should invest in a Ring camera or similar, and fit it for your relative.

You need a camera.

They sound unhinged! Can you get cctv installed?

the neighbour came out freaking out that there was water on their drive

How on earth do they cope with rain?

I agree with camera and solicitor.

Your relative is also at risk of harm and harassment. You need security camera, inside and outside within the cctv rules, a ring doorbell, panic alarm if the neighbour comes round you or relative call the police and do not open the door. Ring the police every time, contact elder abuse UK and relatives social services safeguarding team. Ask the police about a harassment order. Do not engage with the neighbour at all. Does your relative own their property or is it rented or social housing.

How awful. This must constitute harassment surely?

Also ask the police if this can be classified as a hate crime due to your relative's condition. It might help to get action. Also email your relative's MP.

Do you have legal advice included in your home insurance? Or does your relative?

I'm having an issue, and didn't realise until well into it that there's a free legal advice line open to me through my insurance, and they've been amazing.

It's a criminal offence to engage in a course of conduct which amounts to harassment. You can also apply for a civil remedy to restrain the conduct- namely an injunction. Have a look at the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (sections 1 and 3 in particular) on the legislation website

I suspect the police won't prosecute (but I might be wrong) so good idea to seek a civil remedy. Either a solicitor or you could do it yourself. Gather as much evidence as you can before doing so.

Thank you. The ring doorbell has just been delivered and I'll be setting that up today. I fear it will be tampered with though. I think there is legal advice via the home insurance so I'll look into that. I am so anxious when I go up there.

You're looking at several thousand pounds to get a court order, which is beyond the means of most people.

I agree with the advice about CCTV. Keep the recordings. Keep a diary of events. Report every incident of criminal damage or harassment to the police.

I think you can ask the police to serve a harassment notice which puts the neighbours on notice that you consider their behaviour to be harassment. That means they cannot deny knowledge of the fact later.

A slightly different approach, most councils have a mediation service. You could find out about that before going down the legal route, it may even add weight to any legal proceedings if the neighbour doesn't engage.

As your relative is vulnerable you could contact social services for help.

Blink cameras are easy to set up and can be wireless, so you can put them up high where someone couldn't easily reach. And they are very small so if you choose the location carefully someone may not even notice them. I have one installed on a fence for example and shrubbery hides it from most angles, just not the angle I need it to cover. You should only cover your property with them though, you can't record your neighbours property, but in reality also long as the majority of the picture is your property it's fine to have slivers of your neighbours.
I really feel for you, it's a very stressful situation.
You can get a solicitor to write a cease and desist letter for a couple of hundred quid. It has no legal standing but it can be used later as evidence if needed and might be enough to get them to stop.
If the neighbours property is rented you can complain to the landlord.
I would seek legal advice in your shoes.

Can your relatives front garden be fenced off and made secure, or a porch installed. You can buy ring tamper proof covers but the blink camera sounds good. The police can advise you about cctv, cameras and the legalities.

Just to update (I'd forgotten all about this thread!) on what's gone on. There were a few more incidents and the police spoke with the neighbours three times to my knowledge and the neighbours have now stopped what they were doing.

The police wanted to know if I wanted to prosecute them but I didn't.
I'm sorry you experienced that

I really hope you change your mind about that if they do anything else. Why on earth would you want to keep letting them get away with assaulting and harassing you?

They have stopped what they were doing. That's what I wanted to happen so as long as it stays stopped it's fine.

Glad to hear they've stopped. If they start harassing you again you need to tell the police you want to take it further.

The sun is out and the neighbours are out checking up on me again. I need to jet wash the drive and am going to get a body cam for when i do it.
I now know why his fence paint is peeling off though-he’s using wall paint not fence paint so it’s not waterproof
we now have police in our town again, as in in a building who we can pop in and see so if there’s any nonsense I can go and speak to them. I’m hoping not but dreading it all the same.