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?

Call the police everytime. Tell her you are being harassed and you are being threatened Everytime

I meant to say, stress the point that there is a young child and there may be drug involvement. You may be protecting a child from harm and If children's services become involved it adds another ratchet of pressure to the housing office which, in my experience, tend to be extremely hit or miss in competence.

This. ^

Trying to reason with someone like this is not going to work. They don't respond to it, and will see you being nice and reasonable as a weakness.

Trust me, as someone who worked in housing for 15-16 years, some people being really anti-social in their property/the neighbourhood, are just absolute arseholes, and will laugh at anyone being 'nice' and trying to reason with them!

You have to talk to them in the language they understand, and never EVER show weakness, or that you are 'nice.' @worjen's suggestion will simply not work in most cases.

Also, the local authorities/housing associations DO evict, and WILL evict for extreme and constant anti social behaviour. Not always right away, but they will. And trust me when I say, they don't give a shit where the abusive/difficult tenant goes.

My friend works for a popular budget hotel chain, and she said every other week, they have people in there who have been evicted/thrown out by their social housing landlord, for non payment of rent, OR anti social behaviour. Sadly for her, they display the same behaviour as they did in their house/flat. Utter twats they are. So aggressive and entitled, and think the world owes them a living.

Just sharing my lived experience from a decade of living on a street with people who engage in domestic abuse/drug dealing/beating enemies up with baseball bats/pathological lying/arson/other. With respect, I think the power dynamic neighbour-to-neighbour is different to the one tenant-to-housing worker, so the approach needs to be different.

I'm happy to hear that others on this thread have more hope of decisive action being taken and I hope that works out well for the OP. In the meantime, she has to live with it day to day so I'm just offering what's worked for me. Subverting their expectations by treating them like a human (and in doing so, managing to break through the trauma that manifests as aggression and entitlement), while not standing for any crap, has been what has worked for us.

My friends going through something similar although she bought a house next door to a nightmare council tenant. You have to involve the police if she threatens you. Record everything. She can be even yes but it will take time and resilience on your behalf. Sorry you are going through this. Just try to compartmentalize it and ignore her.

It sounds hellish, OP.
There is a 6 year waiting list for council housing in my town. The local Travelodge and Ibis hotels and full of families living in one room - I'm not kidding - waiting for housing. For you to be given that house tells me nobody higher up the list wanted it and the council or HA knows what the neighbours are like and nobody told you. You could ask the council/HA to be moved, but there is no guarantee you won't end up near worse people. They should never have put you there.

I have to disagree with most posters on what to do.

I'm a lifetime renter (private sector). I would save up as fast as you can and move to somewhere liveable with a private landlord. Before you commit move in anywhere, you need to be spending time around the prospective house or flat to see what it's like in the vicinity at all different times of the day, including late at night. Just park up and watch. I've always done this and it saved me from moving into some nightmare situations I wouldn't have known about before. I would also not buy carpets and blinds for a rented place unless I had been there for several months and was settled and happy.
I wouldn't stay where you are - you won't change these people. Life is too short and it will shred your health - you have a little one to think off too. Good luck.

This is SO true!

At least OP you have option to try and move elsewhere/get your nightmare neighbour evicted

Hope she gets evicted op! I kind of feel for the council caseworker too - either way she'll be their problem again soon enough.

Do not try to arrange a mutual exchange as you could lose everything if you do not disclose this woman to them. Mutual exchanges are done on good faith.

So little update:

Had to call the police today due to the screaming and shouting from our neighbour, i was getting concerned especially with a year 2 old there screaming too.

When the police went round it went quiet and apparently she acted as if everything was fine okay and dandy, we then got audio on our phones and ring door bell of the screaming and threats being thrown all over the shop

the police left her place and just said any problems let us know...

and the council went round and she told them that were doing it on purpose!! and the council believed that were lying and being spiteful, i give up!!!!!

Don't give up! Dig your heels in and keep sending in the evidence.

In a similar situation here though another neighbour is the main victim. They live next door to the perpetrator and they are both Housing Association tenants. I am a homeowner.
It's been 3 years of this and only now are we getting close to having this tenant evicted.
A big problem is that the victim got so fed up with no help from the HA or police that they started retaliating and then the problem neighbour played clever and recorded all of this to claim he is the victim.
Ultimately between us we have had to put up extensive CCTV, not respond or react to any behaviour and log absolutely everything, both with Housing and the Police.
You need to be meticulious about evidencing and keeping a diary. You need to log everything. Get familiar with the Anti Social Behaviour Laws and the relevant policies of your Housing Association.

I am completely disgusted with the way our HA have dealt with this, and I am not a tenant who can be threatened with eviction myself to keep me quiet.

I'm sorry you are dealing with this, it is incredibly stressful and the Council will be fully aware they have housed you next to a problem tenant.

Another update, i had a meeting with our council due to a recent event which the neighbours son got into my house while i was out, police were called and a meeting with the council to air our concerns, they've mentioned to us that first they sent her a letter regarding her antisocial behaviour next was a verbal warning now she's had another letter in which they wont disclose the contents with me but said there should be a big difference in her behaviour, weve also asked for another housing application so either she will be out or we will at this point!! the council were lovely and understanding as they're going through a similar situation themselves, small steps

You state that she's on drugs and has a young child. Are social services involved?

The HA house opposite ours had a drug dealer living there with an assortment of women and other drug addicts. We had addicts climbing over our fence from the lane behind us and injecting in our front garden (not a HA property)
It took months and umpteen calls to the police and HA to get anything done.
The drug dealer had put up spot lights on the front of his house that shone directly into our bedroom and living room, a double front door and regular brawls in the road.
Fingers crossed something gets sorted quickly.

We lived next door to a woman who was constantly yelling at her kids. She used awful language including the c word. Then we heard about a shared housing scheme offered by a HA and bought a half share in a house. House prices were a lot lower then, and you could get 100% mortgages. But if you could afford a quarter share plus rent you may only need a 5% deposit on that quarter share and the rent on the other three quarters is usually lower than the market rent. Some people sell their shared ownership property as shared ownership - we did. Or there may be HA local to you who offer new builds as SO. I would Google ‘shared ownership my town’ and go from there. Look at local properties in your area as some will be for sale as SO with estate agents. Good luck.

FFS she's a massive cunt. I would be furious too, especially as there's kids involved on both sides.

@Slowmo98 How are things going?

Keep reporting it everywhere!

I had awful neighbors but because they were not social housing tenants nothing was done. But I think my city is particularly useless.

Contact your MP, the noise abatement team, the police, the council housing department and keep mentioning your right to quiet enjoyment of your property. If the council is aware of your complaints and it is and it does nothing it is liable.

I just don't understand people like your neighbors and my ex neighbors.

I hope it works out.

So she received another letter around 3 weeks ago, we were not allowed to know the contents of the letter but we were told it should make a difference, well last weekend it kicked off with my neighbour and her son, long story short he kicked in her fence and there was a lot of screaming and shouting, so we called the police and she refused to speak to them, when they asked why would they be called she pointed to our house and said we just have grievance against them 😑

But after that weekend the council enforcement team and our local council got over 10 audio recordings, and they have said she's been referred to the enforcement team now and itll be taken over by them, i have no idea what this means and what's happening i just hope it sorts it out!!! They did mention mediation but i have refused that as i dont trust this woman as far as i could throw her!1

the police are also getting social services involved if they're not already, they've also had our CCTV and recording for their records

we have also put a housing transfer in as my mental health has took a massive hit lets hope something gets sorted soon

i will continue to update you guys with what happens

Thank you all for the support and advice its nice to know were not alone and ways we can handle this

Hang in there OP x

You poor thing @Slowmo98 nobody should have to tolerate this

Do let us know how you get on. And all the best to you, nobody should have to put up with all that.

So sadly no update on the situation as of yet, its gone stagnant on the council end, but now our neighbour is putting noise complaint against us, and one being that a children's program was playing to loud, safe to say our council estate landlord found this quite funny, hoping that this gets sorted soon, but not holding my breath

Wow
Op you are amazing how you are dealing with this ,I'd be a quivering jelly.but you have shown you will not be bullied and I've got to say I'm really impressed with how you are handling this ...
And you have anxiety,and yet you still stand up for your family ..you must be very proud of yourself.