Neighbour issues

a1ex2001 · 25 Mar 2019 at 23:02

Knock on the door and ask him to keep it down smoke less weed. If that doesn’t work start keeping a log of all disturbances and contact the council.

Aberfala · 26 Mar 2019 at 09:14

Sell.

I had problem with a neighbour above me years back who made loads of noise that I just put up with but went off on one if I had my TV even at a barely audible level.

The one time I complained the following morning I found all 4 tyres of my car slashed.

The flat was ex council, I'd bought it but they were still under the housing association.

At the end of the day there's very little you can do when you have everything to lose but they have nothing.

Semple · 26 Mar 2019 at 09:27

Unfortunately aside from selling, there's not much you can do without either confronting the guy, or going the official route which is what you're wanting to avoid anyway.

How many flats in the building? Does he have a flat beneath him, or to the sides of him? You might find other neighbours are also starting to get a bit fed up of his behaviour.

Rannoch · 26 Mar 2019 at 09:41

Whatever you do keep the head. I would move although it’s not an ideal scenario.

a1ex2001 · 26 Mar 2019 at 10:28

Semple said:
Unfortunately aside from selling, there's not much you can do without either confronting the guy, or going the official route which is what you're wanting to avoid anyway.

How many flats in the building? Does he have a flat beneath him, or to the sides of him? You might find other neighbours are also starting to get a bit fed up of his behaviour.

This is good advice if you can get a group to join you in complaining it adds weight and makes any sort of revenge harder!

Psycho Sonny · 26 Mar 2019 at 12:18

Aberfala said:
Sell.

I had problem with a neighbour above me years back who made loads of noise that I just put up with but went off on one if I had my TV even at a barely audible level.

The one time I complained the following morning I found all 4 tyres of my car slashed.

The flat was ex council, I'd bought it but they were still under the housing association.

At the end of the day there's very little you can do when you have everything to lose but they have nothing.

What did you do after the tyre incident? Was justice ever served?

wolfie138 · 26 Mar 2019 at 12:57

i thought weed was supposed to chill you out, doesn't sound like it works on that guy.

Aberfala · 26 Mar 2019 at 13:08

Psycho Sonny said:
What did you do after the tyre incident? Was justice ever served?

Nope, just sold up and got the hell outta there.

I was too worried what they would do next to the car to retaliate.

As I said they had nothing I could retaliate against anyway and of course I could never prove it was them that did the tyres so couldn't go to the authorities. It was too much of a coincidence not to be them though. Before that night I'd had not any problems at all in over 7 years living there.

Psycho Sonny · 26 Mar 2019 at 13:46

wolfie138 said:
i thought weed was supposed to chill you out, doesn't sound like it works on that guy.

He likely uses other drugs too which you can't smell

hughtrimble · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:33

BongoHunter said:
Sound proofing can really help, you can get some awesome underfloor stuff these days - if you can't hear it going on, who cares if it's happening...

Floor was replaced very soon after moving in, but being solid concrete floors, I didn't think sound transfer would be that much of an issue compared to more modern blocks. I would be fine with lifting the flooring and replacing the insulation, but I don't know if that will help a great deal as it feels like the sound may be coming more through the walls? Honestly sounds like it's coming from the walls sometimes!

hughtrimble · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:36

flea.rider said:
tape it .. contact child services ,report weed to police contact council if after 10pm .. if all else fails .. go round with 3 or 4 m8's

clubb699 said:
Defiantly phone child protection services up it needs stopping ASAP, it sounds like it could be an abusive household on his part from what you have said, not good not good at all

~Divine~Wind~ said:
CPS

Weed with kids there

Nope

sovietspybob said:
Yeah CPS for sure and i'd probably phone 101 and report the smell of weed.

If he did end up hurting the partner or kids could you live with yourself if you never helped when you could?

Minstadave said:
The threshold for child protection to actually do anything is well above a bit of shouting and weed unfortunately.

Psycho Sonny said:
He likely uses other drugs too which you can't smell

It turns out the weed may be another, very, very quiet neighbour who I hardly ever see! I went and checked out the noisy neighbour's mini-atrium thing, and it was weed-free, whilst the main stairwell honestly stank like an Amsterdamian coffee shop at peak hours; it is some seriously smelly stuff. This means that whilst the noisy bloke could be a weed smoker, the smell that's actually coming in to ours is from another (very much more reasonable) neighbour, so this is a good step, albeit disappointing as the drug side of things could have worked in our favour.

hughtrimble · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:37

m4rmite said:
Knock on his door with a big axe in your hands, ask him if he's seen the aliens land last night whilst twitching, talk to yourself in between the conversation with him.

Go back home, pray the police don't turn up and your home and dry

Rannoch · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:39

hughtrimble said:
It turns out the weed may be another, very, very quiet neighbour who I hardly ever see! I went and checked out the noisy neighbour's mini-atrium thing, and it was weed-free, whilst the main stairwell honestly stank like an Amsterdamian coffee shop at peak hours; it is some seriously smelly stuff. This means that whilst the noisy bloke could be a weed smoker, the smell that's actually coming in to ours is from another (very much more reasonable) neighbour, so this is a good step, albeit disappointing as the drug side of things could have worked in our favour.

The other quiet neighbour is probably a grower lol

hughtrimble · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:41

Psycho Sonny said:
Anonymous tip to the police he is selling weed to kids.

If you do decide to move. make sure it's a detached home and buy the house to the left and right to it too so you never have to deal with neighbours again.

I have 1 decent neighbour and another who I wish would just go away. Her property is in a poor state and subsequently so is her garden, roof, etc. Which has knock on effects. She has pigeons living under her solar panels who take around 100 ***** a day the majority of on top of our cars. She doesn't own the panels either some company put them in for free to get the FIT.

She has never painted any of the fences or treated them or her wooden decking. So the fence now has 2 large holes from her dogs which she said would get repaired. 9 months later we still have holes. her leccy box door fell off 3 months ago was gaffer taped on and it's been lying open ever since. she never opens her blinds/curtains or answers her door.

It's likely when she dies whoever moves in will have to spend a lot of money on doing the place up. She doesn't look after anything. But they may not be spotted by a first time buyer. Things like untreated fences are hidden but the 2 holes now are obvious so they may ask us the question and then it's going to put them off buying if i tell the truth. She did try and sell her house once but wanted more than what it's worth and apparently doesn't have permission to sell. Her husband left and owns half she also doesn't own the panels which means the roof is leased to a third party which mortgage companies don't like.

Yup, detached house, with a moat, in the middle of a forest please. Oh, and within walking distance of a tube station please, kind Estate Agent

You're quite right that you can get problem neighbours wherever you are and of course if we were to move, we could well go somewhere with similar or even more irritating problem neighbours. At least here the condition of the places is supposed to be regularly monitored by the landlords, but whether they actually do that is another matter.

hughtrimble · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:42

a1ex2001 said:
Knock on the door and ask him to keep it down smoke less weed. If that doesn’t work start keeping a log of all disturbances and contact the council.

Thank you for this - I'm logging and recording when I'm around just in case things do need to get formal and go to the council.

hughtrimble · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:43

Vargas said:
The other quiet neighbour is probably a grower lol

They are an extremely secretive couple, and will only open the door a crack even when handing them a parcel that's been delivered to us for them. Instant locking upon closing, and I can hear four separate locks go! Not seeming so unlikely now you mention it...

Rannoch · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:44

hughtrimble said:
They are an extremely secretive couple, and will only open the door a crack even when handing them a parcel that's been delivered to us for them. Instant locking upon closing, and I can hear four separate locks go! Not seeming so unlikely now you mention it...

All too common

hughtrimble · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:45

Semple said:
Unfortunately aside from selling, there's not much you can do without either confronting the guy, or going the official route which is what you're wanting to avoid anyway.

How many flats in the building? Does he have a flat beneath him, or to the sides of him? You might find other neighbours are also starting to get a bit fed up of his behaviour.

a1ex2001 said:
This is good advice if you can get a group to join you in complaining it adds weight and makes any sort of revenge harder!

This is a good plan - I'm meeting with the (possibly cause of the weed stench) neighbour to discuss the noisy one, so thank you for the suggestion.

The noisy one does indeed have a flat below him, but they are an elderly couple and seem to keep themselves to themselves. I'll try them once I've got the other neighbour on board. We're above and the noise is ludicrous, so below must be appalling.

Psycho Sonny · 26 Mar 2019 at 16:47

if the smell is that bad then he may be growing it. the other neighbour so he wouldn't take kindly to police snooping around and it's in his interest for the other guy to calm down.

you could after he has had one of his major outbursts (get it on tape or record on mobile) call the police and say you reckon you could hear him beating the kids and wife. they will then have a duty of care to question them all and verbal abuse is now classified as mental abuse so if the partner fesses up he could be gone.

the police will say they are responding to a complaint from a neighbour but won't say it's you so you will be okay so long as he doesn't see them entering or leaving your flat otherwise it would be obvious so i would go to the local station and make the complaint there in person rather than call them and tell them you never want them coming to your door for a follow up.

Blackjack Davy · 26 Mar 2019 at 19:59

Aberfala said:
Sell.

I had problem with a neighbour above me years back who made loads of noise that I just put up with but went off on one if I had my TV even at a barely audible level.

The one time I complained the following morning I found all 4 tyres of my car slashed.

The flat was ex council, I'd bought it but they were still under the housing association.

At the end of the day there's very little you can do when you have everything to lose but they have nothing.

I've had exactly the same thing even down to the slashing of tyres. Don't go near council/housing association type places. Been to the police but other than saying park the car around the corner where theres a CCTV they're not interested. One appalling tenant was replaced by one who was even worse.

The one thing you don't want to do is "get back" or otherwise retaliate or they turn their aggression on you instead of their dearest and dearest. Been there, done that.

Moved out in the end.