Need urgent help with violent ex-offender neighbour!

[Queenofheaven]

My upstairs neighbour is an ex offender who was jailed for a violent masked attack on a family- seemingly came straight from prison to here. From the start he’s played music that vibrates the whole house, he threatened to beat up my partner when asked to stop, he is constantly threatening to beat up and hurt people on the phone and is generally dangerous and scary. Someone showed up outside our house for him with a machete once. He steals my packages from time to time.

From the start we’ve been in contact with our landlord (housing association), we’ve made noise recordings and sent them to the council, everything he’s done we’ve recorded. The police have been here multiple times for different reasons and called by random people (domestic abuse etc).

But the most recent one was the most terrifying. A huge argument involving his child and child’s friend where he threatened to kill one of them right outside our flat, the whole street could hear and multiple people called the police- his child was taken and according to my local police team the “investigation is ongoing”.

When this happened I raised a complaint with the landlord was told it was top priority and I’d hear back in 1-2 days. It’s been over a week and I’ve heard nothing. I’ve made a complaint and an internal
complaint has also been made. Local police team is pretty useless too. Before this I had been in constant contact regarding his behaviour with nothing done about it.

I have PTSD and fear for my safety. We have been trying to move for years but no one wants to live here because of him. Our communal area has no cctv or monitoring, and I hesitate to always report because he seems like he has links to gangs.

I feel I’m being put in real danger by the landlord and lack of police action. What can I do? I’ve bought a security bar, extra locks etc but I’m constantly in a state of unbelievable stress and panic.

I would:

• check your landlord's complaints policy and see what the next step is for escalating the complaint
• contact your new local MP for help as soon as the election is finished
• see if Shelter can help
• keep ringing the police, every time something happens - and any time they promise to do something/get back to you and don't - irritate them into action.

Can you get a ring doorbell? That would give you some evidence maybe?

Thank you I will definitely do all that. I wasn’t able to contact Shelter unfortunately as it seems like their helpline is only for people about to be homeless.

I really want to but because it’s a shared flat and housing association I’m pretty sure we aren’t allowed to as it would violate the other tenants privacy or something. I want the landlord to put cctv in the communal areas but I doubt they will honestly.

I'd contact my MP. They should be eager to help right now. It's a really horrible situation for you all. I would have been tempted to signal the way for the men with machetes!

Whether or not someone wants to live in the property in future as his neighbour shouldn’t exclude you from applying for a house move and they should calculate your eligibility based on diagnosed PTSD and support you get for this. I’d speak to your local housing team and like a previous poster says about contacting police frequently, contact the relevant housing team after any incident and say you don’t feel safe (As well as police, attach any reports they make / have made previously to make sure the local authority housing team or whoever deals with housing moves have them too as they don’t usually share info)
Speak to your GP about the impact it’s having on your health and ask if there are local support services relevant to housing too. In some areas there is advocacy and advice available seperate to your local authority housing team / landlord.

@MILTOBE just to make you aware, MPs aren’t doing constituency work at the moment due to upcoming election. You’d think they’d be extra keen to impress but I think parliament are in recess now.
(I only know this as I contacted my slightly unbothered MP about something the day the election was called and she said oh dear, here’s someone else who can help but I’m not around now til after the election…hopefully…)

Are there any other ways for you to move?

Has he been released on probation? Maybe contact the probation service for advice.

I’m definitely going to ask to be moved, I’m not sure who I’d need to contact about it but my hope is running out tbh. The landlord said we could only do house swaps which we’d need to arrange ourselves. I’m not sure which housing team you mean! I’m definitely going to see my GP though. There’s records of the neighbour causing me severe stress from my previous therapist too

Not at the moment unfortunately we are in quite a dire financial situation with lots of rent arrears otherwise we’d have moved years ago. It will take us a few years to be able to privately rent

I don’t think so but not 100% sure. He’s been here for 6 long years

Trigger an asb review with the landlord

Contact www.asbhelp.co.uk

Do an sar - use the template on the IOC website

https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-council-housing
use the gov.Uk website to check who is responsible for housing in your local authority area and phone them to ask for advice about the situation. You would probably need to complete an application form for housing.
IME - a housing swap with someone could be tricky with the neighbours behaviour. And you may find you’re out of the frying pan into the fire if the person you’re swapping with had their own neighbour issues/damp&mould/flooding etc!

No need, these sorts of police reports are shared with probation and police will be aware of his licence conditions if he has any. The quick win for the police would have been a recall to prison if he was still subject to any term of imprisonment, so it's a good guess he's not subject to anything any longer.

Ask your HA about whether you can install a Ring doorbell as part of this.

If you're in significant arrears, moving you may be very problematic indeed.

Complain here too.

https://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/residents/when-to-get-help-from-the-housing-ombudsman/

How did this play out OP?

My relative ended up walking away from a housing association tenancy in very very similar circumstances

Landlord did absolutely nothing and have been useless. I complained to the ombudsman who made them respond properly and they did write off our rent arrears. We are house swapping with a family member who doesn’t seem to care about the neighbours. Still here but moving in January.

I would take the landlord to court for severe and ongoing emotional distress (I have more than enough evidence)- but I’m just too tired now. Counting down the days until we leave!

If your MP is unresponsive go to your local councillor who may be better for initial enquiry.The police are probably very aware of this individual but if a serious offender he is probably dealt with by a specific team. Ask them which team and get contact details. It may be limited what they are able to tell you.Set up a Neighbourhood Watch team or join an existing one. Police would advise you to get Ring or similar. Protect yourself first and don't worry about privacy laws. You need evidence.
Violence is everywhere. Protect yourself. Set up home security and then join with others through Neighbourhood Watch to feel less alone and frightened and to get some perspective.

We’re moving next month so luckily don’t have to deal with him anymore! Local councillors were totally useless unfortunately