problems with neighbours please advice

[mumofjakub]

How do I start?
We live in a flat and share the corridor and the front door with one other flat. The other flat is rented. The couple who lives there now drinks a lot. I don't mean going out and beeing a bit drunk once in a while, but rather, they are drunk most of the day. They do dome grass too. They come home late (3am usally) and are really loud.
They don't pay their bills so when the guys from, for example, the gas company come they don't want to open the doors.They don't have a door bell, so people who come to see them use our door bell or bang on the door. The room our baby sleeps in is next to the corridor and this loud stuff usually wakes him up. We are really sick of it . So yesterday when there was a take away guy who started banging on the door and they did not open for 5 min (11pm), my husband went to open the door and then knocked on their door and said: "Could you please wait for your deliveries and open the door when they knock if you order something. Banging to the door wakes my baby up. Could you also be a bit quieter when you come home at night and not slam the door?" The guy said: "sorry man" and my husband replied: "No, you are not sorry, because you'll do it again" (which is stupid and I don't know why he said that . Then we were sitting in the living room and they banged on our door and the girl started shouting and saying that we are being totally unreasonable and they are good neighbours, then she went away and slammed the door as loudly as she could a few times .
I don't know what to do now. Frankly I am a little scared of them as you never know how drunk people might behave. I'm afraid now that they will be worse. I'm home alone for most of the day when my husband is at work . Any advice how to deal with them?

Well,the bloke did at least try to apologise.
I'd get them when they are (relatively) sober and perhaps without your dh.
Say 'Look sorry about the other night. We'd just really appreciate it if you'd bear the fact that we've got a little baby in mind'.
Then smile!!!

Do you know who the landlord is? If so, you could write complaining of their anti-social behaviour and he may be able to bring pressure to bear.

i live in a flat and sympathise with you. however my problems tend to be with the downstairs neighbours complaining that my ds 16m wakes them up in the morning and bothers tham when he is playing and drops things as he often does - they think something is coming through the ceiling. They have been quite rude about it but i don't know what they expect me to do!

with reference to your situation i would agree with moondog and freckle. If it really is as bad as it sounds make a formal complaint with your council or the police. but this may make things worse for you if the neighbours realise it was you who made the complaint.

We are planning on moving! not because of the neighbours but we want a house now we have ds. maybe its worth investigating your options there.