Finally got a council house but im living next to a nightmare!! Advice

[Slowmo98]

So i finally got a council house, which was exciting at first, and me and my SO want to save up to get a deposit for our own place. The first instance started at 10am as i had someone come to put my carpets in, suddenly the neighbour (I'm attached too) screams out the window telling me to shut the 'f' up, while screaming some other insults. Obviously the carpet bloke continued and next minute she comes round onto the property screaming and shouting saying she will make my life a living hell, and that iv not even moved in yet and shes out for me.

This scared me so much!! I have anxiety and depression and this rocketed it to the roof. I also have a 22 month old.

The next time i hear is a man screaming at her door bashing on the windows and doors with her screaming the street down!!

Iv moved in and i hate it here already!!
Iv even spoke to other neighbours (Who are lovely) that have warned me to watch my back living next to this woman.

I have reported her to the council (only thing i knew to do) And they sent a letter to her house saying theres been a complaint and to stop before further action is taken. its made it worse!!! Shes been banging on our walls shouting at us. Im so worried for my daughter and my anxiety is worse then ever

I need advice!!! What do i do, am i overreacting? what would you do?

I would make a freedom of information request to ask how many previous reports of anti social behaviour etc have been made against the occupants of the property, I wouldn’t use her name specifically but say to occupant of xxxx address
Then I would build a case with these reports to back me up.
I also try to contact the previous tenants of your property and find out what happened with them and say the council failed in their duty of care

What a nightmare.

Anything you do she will be angry about, so I wouldn’t worry about keeping the noise down or anything like that.

Get a diary and log every single incident.
Keep complaining to the council.

If she becomes more aggressive or threatening then tell her you will ring the police and if she carries on then absolutely ring them.

It does sound like she had MH issues which is a pain as threats from the council and police may not have an effect but some people are just bullies and need putting in their place.
If someone thinks they can walk all over you then they will and by reporting her she may see that you’re not going to accept her bad behaviour.

Does your housing provider use a service like iWitness? Or an out of hours noise complaint service? If so, log it every single time. They'll be picking up the bill for this as the service usually comes out and monitors issues/intervenes if necessary.

Hi,

Not sure where you are located but the below linked scheme in Scotland may be worth considreation.

Low-cost Initiative for First Time Buyers (LIFT) - Homeowners - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Involve your district and county councillors- they are more useful at this level than MPs. As a PP said, you need to be of sterner stuff - don't let them intimidate you (easier said than done!)

This !!!!!!!! @Slowmo98 DO NOT sit their suffering - just do not. Report her on everything she does, and to everyone you can. She WILL be told off, she will be warned, and she will be evicted - (if she carries on.) Many councils and housing associations have low tolerance for this shit now.

If it makes you feel any better, when we lived in private let about seven or eight years ago, we had been there two or three years and we absolutely loved it - so much to the point we were actually thinking of buying it off the landlady.

About two and a half years after moving in, a young woman (27-ish) and her boyfriend (20!) moved in next door and they shouted and screamed and ranted and threw stuff at each other, and had screaming matches on the driveway at midnight after rolling home drunk from the pub, and made it an absolute nightmare living there.

I was actually trying to find somewhere else to live as I couldn't live there anymore, and was so upset as I loved it so much. Anyway, after about 4-5 months, someone else in the road (a 60 y.o man from 3-4 doors up from her,) went up to her, and said 'your behaviour is an absolute disgrace. You and your boyfriend shouting and getting drunk and falling over the drive at night. I'm going to report you to the police or the council if you don't stop NOW.' (She was a council tenant btw.)

Within a few days, she had dumped her boyfriend, sent letters of apology to the 5 or 6 closest neighbours to her - incl me. and was as good as gold thereafter. I was there another year and a half and she was a golden neighbour. We didn't buy in the end as the landlady decided not to sell, after saying she probably would when we moved in, but we found somewhere lovely later on!

I think some people just need a warning. But yeah, this is just to tell you that it might not last and it probably won't last. I'm praying for you. I'm so happy for you that you've got a council property. And I really, genuinely hope it turns out okay. But yeah, she does need telling and warning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's true some people only need a warning to stop.
Others unfortunately still don't care.

Sadly she has had warnings, she's had it given back to her, her and her neighbour are always at each others throats, i think reporting is the only way to stop this woman! She has 2 kids too and they're both as bad as she is, which is so sad to see.

That is the problem @Slowmo98 Kids grow up with this behaviour and often turn out the same.

@worjen has it right. A lot of people living in fantasy land on this thread, the council won't be evicting anyone in a hurry. Where do you think she would go? This is why social housing is often a great disappointment as tenants are often difficult characters by very definition

At least OP has a chance if they're living in council housing. Even if it won't happen in a hurry

I wasn't sure if I was being overly pessimistic. But definitely where I live, the question of 'where do you think she would go?' applies. There just aren't good options to move people to, so only EXTREME cases ever get evicted. It's a real challenge, but to me, the best way to deal with it (if you don't have the privilege of being able to move, obviously) is by being digging deep into curiosity and empathy about what drives the behaviour and responding from a place of recognising that, rather than responding to the behaviour itself. I get that on the surface it is unacceptable and rude and bad. But it's probably a testing of boundaries to see how you will respond.

I would seek to prove to her you are not a neighbour she should worry about, nor are you someone she can bully. You can do that by holding boundaries (eg. calmly saying to her, 'I am not willing to be shouted at, but if there is something you're concerned about, I'm happy for you to talk to me about it.') It will probably take time to get through. Good luck.

I thought that you could be evicted from social housing due to anti social behaviour, with no obligation on the council to rehouse you?
Anyway- where the nightmare neighbour goes should not be the OP's problem.

work on doing a mutual exchange when you can, id be swapping out of it as soon as i could

@Slowmo98

How old id the woman & her children?

Do you think the bloke banging on the doors & windows is her partner/kids Dad.

What does you SO think?

I'd pay someone to rough them up. I'd do it as quick as possible

"I would seek to prove to her you are not a neighbour she should worry about, nor are you someone she can bully. You can do that by holding boundaries (eg. calmly saying to her, 'I am not willing to be shouted at, but if there is something you're concerned about, I'm happy for you to talk to me about it.') It will probably take time to get through. Good luck."

Or you could just shout "fuck off you fat cunt or I will fucking kick your head in"?

That's the language these people understand.

I like your style.

How old are the children?

Are they at the receiving end of abuse too?

If so then report to nspcc and school. The more people who are involved re this behaviour the more they'll get help and it'll improve or evicted.

Unfortunately you run the risk of 2 more neighbours like this being around in future for people if her children are growing up to think this is normal.

The woman is around early 30s and i believe it may be her 16 year old shes always chucking him out and she has a 2 year old, i have already reported this, my SO believes shes troubled, shes on drugs (we know this).

I am sorry that you are having to deal with this. My only advice is to log every single thing (in a notebook) and also report every single thing to the council /101.
Stay strong x

This, 100%. My parents spent years living next door to a nightmare housing association tenant and during the final 18 months of their tenancy, my parents logged EVERY SINGLE instance of anti-social behaviour - the file was around two inches thick.

You have to be vigilant, proactive and prepared to spend more time talking to the housing officers than your own family, frankly.

I'm a ward councillor in London and I get a fair bit of this. The advice you've been given is good. Get cctv, front and back. Any eviction is a court process and there is a fairly high threshold for any mice to get it in front of a magistrate. Even if that happens, please bear in mind that there is a backlog and it could be months. I'm really sorry to say that but I think you need to have a clear idea of a timeline and process.

Don't engage with her and do not retaliate whatsoever. I'm assuming it's council, not HA. Keep records. Find out who the relevant council officer is and email them with every incident (with proof if you can) I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but stay polite! I've seen so many cases where the complainant has become really rude and personally abusive to the people who are trying to help. They have to operate within the parameters of their job.

Find your ward councillor and get in touch. They will be more useful than your MP. Ask for your local SNT to be involved. Talk to your neighbors. Do they have any evidence and would they be willing to make a statement? You could always look into home swap if shared ownership isn't an option.

I'm really sorry, it infuriates me how people can make others' lives a misery with almost no sanction.

Of course it's not the OP's concern where the neighbour goes, but it's worth bearing in mind in terms of the likelihood of the council evicting her. Since she has kids, even if they were to evict her for ASB, she will probably still be a priority for housing. So they will have to find her somewhere else, which probably disincentivizes them evicting her. I'm not saying it's right, just trying to be realistic about how hard it is to get troublesome neighbours evicted.

Report report report.

Once you've made at least 3 reports (the statutory minimum), ask the council for a "Community Trigger" which is an anti-social behaviour case review. This requires the council to work with the police, social housing etc to find a way to deal with it.

Be very clear on the language you use when requesting it, as it forces their hand.

Ask whether they are issuing Community Protection Warnings and if not, why not.

This is exactly the kind of thing it was designed for and they can up it to Notices, court, injunctions and all sorts if they have to.