Neighbours From Hell.

[JennyMorgan]

Do any of you good folk have any experience of dealing with the problem of a neighbour from hell?

I can't be the only one! Other than threats of physical assault it doesn't appear to be a police matter, understandable, but has anyone on the forum had success in dealing with the problem via other agencies? 

[Vaughan]

I sense that there is a story, behind your post?

Do tell us more . . . .

[MauriceMynah]

What to do very much depends on what he/she is doing to qualify as TNFH

[annv]

Hi Peter there is a saying good fences make good neighbors you don't say what type of nuisance we have a neighbor whose son is learning the violin in the garden or was until weather stopped  this,  it can be intrusive especially when repeating the scales BUT we get on well with his parents so prepared to put up with it but if they were nasty neighbors noise people from the council might be called. John

[grendel]

it would depend upon the issues, we successfully dealt with noise issues at 4AM when the neighbour got home from clubbing, a noise monitor was fitted by the council, when they replayed it the neighbours stereo was coming through louder than our tv which was in the same room as the monitor, they got their stereo system confiscated.

a lot will depend whether you can convince the council that what you see as an issue is actually an issue, and not an overreaction on your part.

of course making spurious complaints to the council may just make you the neighbour from hell on his part.

[Smoggy]

Oh dear, has MM taken up your offer of a mooring?

[Sam]

We had a similar problem years ago. We moved.

[CambridgeCabby]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

Do any of you good folk have any experience of dealing with the problem of a neighbour from hell?

I can't be the only one! Other than threats of physical assault it doesn't appear to be a police matter, understandable, but has anyone on the forum had success in dealing with the problem via other agencies? 

A threat of physical assault is very much a police matter , if you log the threat with the police it becomes a matter of record and any subsequent threats should also be logged in case of any legal action in the future .

[JennyMorgan]

29 minutes ago, CambridgeCabby said:

A threat of physical assault is very much a police matter , if you log the threat with the police it becomes a matter of record and any subsequent threats should also be logged in case of any legal action in the future .

That has happened and has been reported and logged. I am not easily rattled but I was on this occasion.

Yes, Vaughan, there is a story, a long one,  but it's not for here, sorry! 

Grendall, wise words, indeed, I could become the neighbour from hell but that is not my wish. It's a long story but there we go. It could and should have been easy to sort but that has not happened. Like you I am generally a pretty easy going sort of fellow but there is a limit. It's not in my nature to throw the first punch so to speak.

Sam, I could indeed move but it's my little piece of heaven on earth! It boarders the Broads . . . . . . . . . . 

I had hoped for an easy answer but despite Googling etc I have yet to find it, I had rather hoped that one of you had some practical experience regarding this altogether unfortunate topic. Anyway, thanks for the responses. 

[Cal]

We had the neighbours from hell in our last house and endured them for 12 years. Loud noise, banging on walls, threats over the hedge. She even accused me of assaulting her and I had the police turn up where I work to question me. Now this is the mentality of the idiots, the alleged assault took place when we were not even in the same city, we were away on holiday and could prove that!

 

We went down the formal complaint route with the local council and that lead nowhere.

 

In the end we just moved house to get away from them and get away from the area. Best thing we have done.

[RS2021]

We used to have neighbours from hell. Never directed at us, but often had the feeling of getting caught in the crossfire. Drug dealing, macheties left convenienty for use, their cars vandalised and you would say it was a nice area. On one occasion there was a knife fight and the police came, but kept their distance until it was all over. Had the feeling the Police knew more about what was really going on than we did. Eventually when the police did come more regularly it was always an armed response unit! Did seriouly think about moving, fortunately they decided to first and we now have regular normal neighbours - a great relief.

[Ray]

If it is possible to de-escalate the situation then mediation can be a good way forward where there is a specific dispute, borders for example.

I believe many solicitor offices have a mediation partner these days and they don't deal solely with divorce cases.

Whatever the subject of the dispute may be the key as to which agency or business is best suited to help.

Our neighbours turned from bad to worse after we had decided to move and in the end I just stood up to what turned out to be a coward hiding behind a bully demeanour.

Anyone who knows me are quite shocked, I am very conflict averse 🙂

[grendel]

we have had similar, one of the neighbours kids friends mugged one of the local russian drug mafias couriers, and they called around mob handed and laid seige to the neighbours, this was just after the youth in question had kicked down our front door (having kicked his mothers down previously, i was looking at the door when this happened and he took off like a rabbit in headlights, meanwhile my other half rang the police - no word of a lie they were there within 30 seconds as they had been at his mothers investigating that incident, they caught him, and later his mother called round and begged us to press charges. he was still in police custody when the drug nmafia called on the neighbours. and all this in peaceful canterbury.

[SteveP]

This sort of stuff can ruin your life, we moved home twice, once from a drug dealer next door, the police and council wouldn't take any action  because " at least we know where the dealer is" , you couldn't make it up but it's true. Next time we unknowingly bought a house next door to a prostitute, never a decent nights sleep police raids etc. Bit of a catch 22 with this, if you report any anti social stuff to any official agency you are obliged to disclose this if ever you sell the property. In short when we moved I got a good nights sleep. Don't suppose this is much use to you  sorry but thats our experience.

Steve

[YnysMon]

Phew. Glad to say we have had the most delightful neighbours one could wish for since they moved next door to us around 1989 or so. We were gutted when Mrs Neighbour succumbed to Covid in March. She was a real gem.  When we kept chickens and had cats she used to look after them for us when we were on holiday.

I have always thought that having nuisance neighbours is a rarity.

[JennyMorgan]

I've had scores of neigbours over the years. Never a problem before so yes,  I agree, nuisance neighbours are a rarity. 

[Oddfellow]

We have a neighbour who is insistent that a chunk of land that has an Anderson Shelter on it is her's. She has provided no evidence to back this up but has insisted she had the evidence. Her Solicitor says they have evidence its her's but haven't provided it.

I, on the other hand, have provided undeniable evidence that she is wrong but she won't accept it and now she wants me to go halves on a Chartered Surveyor to provide the evidence she has insisted she already had...... 

Last Sunday I had to call the police as her contractors were taking stuff from my shelter and throwing it away and her mother was getting socially undistant yelling into my face. 

Neighbour from hell? Quite possibly. I don't even know what this woman looks like as I have never met her! Probably a good thing, to be honest. 

[MotorBoater]

JM

https://www.victimsupport.org.uk/crime-info/types-crime/antisocial-behaviour

You can contact them directly, you don't have to go through the police. Check out this site.

I also found that appealing to my MP did wonders in chasing our local authority into action.

You do usually have to help the local authority gain necessary information. This can appear time-consuming and you are the only one who knows if it's worth the trouble.

I can appreciate the frustration you are probably feeling, we had 12 years of it some time ago now, including the police turning up eight hours after a 999 call, not to investigate the incident but to try and tell me I shouldn't have rung 999 !!

[JennyMorgan]

Motor Boater, that is exactly the type of information that I was hoping for, a BIG thank you.

Will it be worth the effort, I won't know until I've done it, but if that's what it takes then so be it, annoying though.

 

[HEM]

Wow - sounds as if things have gone really bad in the UK!

[JennyMorgan]

3 minutes ago, HEM said:

Wow - sounds as if things have gone really bad in the UK!

Strangely enough I have made more friends and met more new acquaintances over the last few months than i have for a long time. Covid 19 hasn't been all bad but perhaps it hasn't brought everyone closer.

[Cheesey69]

Worse is the low level nuisance, fires at night, talking and laughing late at night while they are smoking in the garden, music at odd times and dodgy parking and bbqs right outside your window 

not enough to report but enough to get on your nerves 

[addicted]

When we first retired we moved from North London to Soham having bought a new bungalow which stood on the corner of a small cul-de-sac and the teenage boy who lived opposite thought that the paviored road that ran along side of us and directly outside our bedoom window would make an ideal skate board park for him and his 30 or so friends.  we tried talking to his parents but they thought it was perfectly permsisable. So after about 2 years of this we finally  sent for the police  who were wonderful.  Although they didn't catch them actually doing it when we showed them thre area they were using they were appalled. One of them  reminded  me very much of the Brian Blessed charcter from The Bill and said " so they think this is permissable do they?" " Let me at 'em I can't wait to disavow them of their misapprehension we .had no further problems after and we moved about a year later

 

 

Carole

[Poppy]

16 hours ago, Cheesey69 said:

Worse is the low level nuisance, fires at night, talking and laughing late at night while they are smoking in the garden, music at odd times and dodgy parking and bbqs right outside your window 

not enough to report but enough to get on your nerves 

The recent popularity of 'fire pits' has caused some irritation locally for us. Wood smoke can be pleasant, but the burning of old pallets is anything but !

Thank goodness the weather has curtailed such anti social activity for a few months !

[vanessan]

8 minutes ago, Poppy said:

The recent popularity of 'fire pits' has caused some irritation locally for us. Wood smoke can be pleasant, but the burning of old pallets is anything but !

Thank goodness the weather has curtailed such anti social activity for a few months !

Bonfire night soon, a wonderful excuse for more pallet burning perhaps?