Abusive and threatening neighbour - what should we do? Any experience and positive outcomes?

[Nastyneighbour]

Just before Christmas we had a new neighbour who move in next door. We said hi / introduced ourselves as he / we were going into our properties a couple of days after he moved in. Since then, it’s turned out that he is a highly abusive individual and he’s making us feel scared to cross paths with him / leave the house in case of an altercation. He shouted abuse at my husband when he was putting the bins out, my husband said he appeared steaming drunk, was homophobic, racist, you name it. Truly unpleasant. He’s also threatened the postman with a block of wood which I have on a video on my phone recorded from my window. Both incidents were completely unprovoked. I’ve seen him shout at passers by in the street, also seemingly without reason.

We are really struggling to work out what to do. The ideal scenario would be that he has a personality transplant and is no longer violent / aggressive / abusive. Failing that, we don’t want him living next door to us. We have a young family and I can’t have my children scared and witnessing this sort of aggressive behaviour, or heaven forbid being put at risk in anyway. We’re not sure what our options really are and the best steps for us to take.

This is meant to be our 10+ year home that we bought just over a year ago. We’re in what’s supposed to be a very nice part of SW London. It’s a terraced house and cost us a lot of money, we would take a huge financial hit if we were to try and sell and we love everything else about the house, the area, our other neighbours.

We’ve subsequently found out the house next door which has been converted into flats is owned by the housing association. And it’s one of these housing association flats where the abusive neighbour has moved in.

We haven’t yet reported the incident to the police. The postman has reported the incident to the Royal Mail but not yet to the police either. We’re nervous if we report to the police it will be logged as a neighbourly dispute and unless he gets kicked out and we can say the matter is resolved, we won’t be able to sell in however many years time.

Has anyone successfully gone down the police / housing association route that resulted in a neighbour being removed? Any advice? How long did it take? What sort of evidence / how many incidents would need to take place before there was a realistic chance he would be evicted? What steps would we need to take to make sure it did actually come to a resolution?

Or would you advise that we didn’t do anything formally and just live with it and hope it improves? Or do we need to seriously consider upping for moving if we can sell and get out of here? I feel crushed to think that this last option is something we may actually need to consider...

Personally I'd think long and hard about what you want to do. Realistically there are two options: complain and complain to try and get him evicted or do not complain and just move.

If you are happy otherwise with your house I'd take him on, it won't be long before everyone's complaining, police involved and given he can be evicted it's not the same as if he owned the house.

That said, think about the toll this will take on your life and stress levels and think if it's worth it.

If he's that aggressive it will not improve.

How horrible, when you say its H A do you know what kind of housing, can you look it up, I wonder if its supported housing. Can you go down the concerned route with the HA, tell them you are worried about one of their tenants, you need to film all the incidents but dont get into any conversation with him,

The police probably already know about him. I would report him to the HA as if he's new he might be an introductory tenant which makes it easier for them to kick him out.

Complain to the HA , he is breaking the terms of his lease with anti social behaviour. Report all such behaviour, every single time.

An individual on our road with mental health issues committed very serious crimes against neighbours & property and was arrested. After a stint in a mental health hospital he is back living in the same housing association property (a nice house). The police couldn’t or wouldn’t prosecute as it was a mental health issue. They said every house on the street would have to lodge a complaint and lobby the housing association. It is very very hard to get these people moved on IME and this individual was seriously violent. Why don’t you call the police for advice ?

MP
Police
Council
HA.
Keep a diary and report every single incident.
Call the police every single time he is aggressive in any way at all. The definition of hate crime has a very low bar these days.
Ask your neighbours to do the same.

Thank you everyone for all the advice. We’ve kept a record of everything so far but haven’t logged it with any of the authorities yet.

I guess I’m scared of inflaming the situation, if he’s this angry and aggressive to people that haven’t given him any cause for reaction, what might he be like when he finds out someone has reported him.

It’s impossible to say but I’m trying to work out what the chances are of him actually getting evicted because if we start down the formal route it feels like the path of no return.

We have no way of knowing (and rightly so) if he has any mental health issues, but the story from @RaisinforBeing fills me with dread.

Has anyone successfully been through this process?

It is really difficult but it can be done, I live in HA housing,it's a block of ten flats. One neighbour whilst not violent himself had friends that were,drug taking in communal hallways,letting of the fire alarms several times. All this went on for approx 3 years until the HA had enough,the last straw was his flat being used for County line drug gang. You really do have to persevere with it and report absolutely everything, other neighbours need to be on board as well.

Imo you can't live in hell (for 10 years) to have a clean ndn record to sell up! Report. Report. Report..

Yes I went down the route of reporting our aggressive and antisocial behaviour-prone neighbours to the council as they were council tenants. They were horribly and deliberately noisy, aggressive and vindictive. I logged everything for months and called the council every time a serious incident occurred. Eventually I took advice from a firm of environmental health experts called Sanctum Consultants. Because council was dragging its feet they advised me to write to the chief exec of the council threatening to sue him for allowing a noise nuisance to persist on their property. I did so and the council moved the problem family on pretty sharpish and installed some lovely tenants in their place.
In my case I used anti noise nuisance law but the law you invoke will likely be different.
In your position I would start by complaining to the housing Assoc and if they don’t respond adequately take advice from Sanctum or a solicitor.
You have to commit to solving the problem if you love your house and neighbourhood in other respects. In my view we brits put up with too much BS from antisocial CFs and avoid rather than confront—eg by moving away. So the perps get away with it and we pass on the problem to some other poor family who moves into our blighted house.
I think we need to fight for our neighbourhoods.

@DogsSausages is right. You may be in luck and the HA may be using the flats as temporary accommodation and he may be moved on when something else comes up. Or he may be on an introductory tenancy.
Either way, I would definitely enquire with the HA and express my concerns.

If you want to stay there I would complain to the police and the HA and keep on complaining. The police would visit because of him being aggressive. However if he will not comply or if the HA will not move him it will be so stressful for you.

I'm so angry that people get away with stuff like this. However, having been through an awful time if you can I would move. My mental health still has not recovered

Speak to the housing association. If he is a new tenant he may be on a trial period and they will want to know before they offer him an assured or fixed tenancy agreement.

you must contact the housing association. It won't get better and it probably won't be that long before the drug dealing starts; either from him or because the local gang will spot an easy cuckoo. At that point the crime rate in your area will start rocketing and that will put off any buyers regardless.

this will be a long haul but the sooner you start, the better. Especially as his tenancy will currently be a starter, once he's been in 12 months it gets even harder to evict. At least a housing association has a duty to do something.

nothing will happen quickly - even in normal times it takes six months to evict a thug, at the moment there is a massive backlog.

I sympathise and wish you the best.

Those who advised complaining to the housing Assoc sooner rather than later are correct. I recall that when I complained to council about their horrible tenants it was about a year after they’d moved in as I had kept trying to sort things amicably with them face to face and only after I realised this wouldn’t work and they were actually getting worse did I complain to council. Council woman told me she wished I had complained sooner as they had been on 6 month probationary tenancy—which was standard practice—and now that was past, it would be more difficult to get them out. Anyway they managed it in the end but it took longer and I had to take a legal route to chivvy them along.

Hmm, this is so tricky. I’d worry about retaliation against my children. I think you’d be really putting them at risk with this kind of person if you go down the complain and report route. Such an awful situation for you OP, my worst nightmare

Much easier to do it early on in his HA tenancy.

You might need to stir them into action so it is easier for them to move him- a letter for a solicitor could be a good investment as is getting your local councillors or even MP to write to express their concern. Start with the local councillors - some MPs will want to know you have tried that route first and been rejected before getting involved.

If he is chasing the postman with a block of wood - ring the police immediately. You do not have to give your details - I've reported a mentally ill neighbour and said I didn't want to provide them and it was fine. They were here in under 5mins and took him away to be sectioned (he was very unwell).
However if they need to charge him with a criminal offence, you would likely be needed as a witness for it to be pursued in the courts.

I'd also suggest getting something like a nest outdoor camera so you have footage.

Complain to the housing association every single time there's a problem with his behaviour. It's antisocial behaviour and he shouldn't be doing it under the terms of his tenancy. They need to know.

The sooner that you report to the Housing Association, the better. Email them your log today, write down the facts and honestly how it made you feel, such as, l feel scared to go out my front door, I feel it is unsafe for my children.
Antisocial behaviour is a breach of his tenancy. For example: If he kicks of at 2pm today, write and send the email immediately, it gives a sense of urgency. There is no reasoning with an aggressive drunk, so you need to call in help. Ask the postman to report it to the housing association, also. His behaviour is outrageous and he is not entitled to terrorise the neighbourhood.
The legal route as outlined above is also there. It needs to be proved that he is consistently disturbing the peace over a period of time, so you need to gather the evidence. Record on video, from the safety of your home, his drunk and disorderly, disturbing the peace and threatening behaviour. That's 3 offences. How many offences has he committed? Call the police each time, also to create a paper trail. Try to get neighbours to complain. If you don't address this, it will get worse and he needs consequences to stop. Remember, it is him that is causing the problems, not you by reporting. He is making poor choices. There are lovely people, who would be very grateful to live there, not that it is your responsibility. Unfortunately, in life sometimes we have to fight for our basic rights.

Contact the HA most HA tenants will have very strict anti ASB terms in their contract and they will come down on them pretty hard. If he is violent I would call the police.

I would keep recording video an audio everdence that's vital prove of what this neighbor is doing build it up then go to police when you have enough evidence I have a problem with a neighbor now with music noise the housing have said you need recordings for them to take action without that they won't do anything just close the case down until there's prove of this happening that's it

You need concrete evidence these days for action to be taken an this tenant finally removed get recordings an audio an build it up any threats or music being played they won't act until you get vital evidence so the housing association can take it to a judge