Neighbour is making my life miserable

RobDavies

I've found that in the past that Kreator's Pleasure To Kill album is very good at making noisy neighbours realise the errors of their ways.  

When I lived in a semi, there was a lad next door who'd come in from a club in the early hours and play drum n bass.

One Sunday morning, at about 4am, I returned the compliment with the aforementioned LP (on a loud/decent hifi) and never had an issue again.  He never spoke to me again but that was no loss.

BRISTOL86

I sympathise having dealt with a very inconsiderate neighbour previously. 

I'd be tempted to start your phone recording some audio then stick it in your pocket before you go round to have a polite conversation about it. 

If there's any threat of violence or intimidation then at least you have it recorded. 

You could try the 'no more mister nice guy approach' and be totally upfront and say that you've been asked to keep a noise log by the council as a precursor to more formal steps being taken.

You've tried being nice and it didn't work so why should you have to pussy foot around inconsiderate asswipes?

William Williamson

@bristol86 that's basically where I'm at - on one hand, this scrote doesn't have anything to lose, being a jobless wastrel living in his girlfriend's council house - but I'm tired of turning the other cheek for this guy

Thanks to the advice here, I spoke to council and they have registered the issue and were going to send a letter (asked them to hold off for a few days in order that there's some space), I've started logging 'disturbances' which we give to them as evidence, and called the police non-emergency line to report the threat of violence last night

Chalky

What is your objective? Peace of mind or teaching your neighbour to be quieter?  If it is peace of mind then move. Life really is far too short to put up with paingivers.

earwighoney

I've had a pretty testing time with some neighbours and what I did was to report every single incident to my council, and I recommend you do the same thing.  When I contacted the appropriate people in my council I was as polite as possible and eventually my council contacted the neighbours in question and provided them with a warning to cease their actions.  

fretmeister

I went to uni with a mature student chap who was in the Foreign Legion.

He had a similar problem with a neighbour. He lived in an old terraced house where the attic spaces had never been separated. (All manner of fire reg breaches there!)

After many attempts at being nice and many responses of "fuck off" he decided to take a bit of direct action. 

He got out his old kit, suited up and went up in the loft. When the neighbour was asleep he dropped right through the ceiling plaster board onto the bed and scared the shit out of him.

There was a police interview of course, but the funny thing about Legionnaires is that they really know what they are doing. No further action.

No more noise either!

skunkwerx

Film everything. Ask your neighbours to put in words to back you up. 

If its council tenants keep trying man, I've found the idiot ones in my street don't last long!

gubble

I sympathise with your problems here. Doesn't sound pleasant at all.

Might I ask if the boyfriend living there is doing so legally? He's been living there long enough for it not to be a casual stay/holiday. Is he therefore on the tenancy and are they paying the correct rate of council tax?

Won't resolve her as an issue but may resolve him.......

thomasross20

boogieman said:

thomasross20 said:

I've had this twice.

I think you'll find there's next to no help.
I'm one case we had to wait years for them to move out. In the other the landlord only shifted them after they damaged his property.

Were your cases a private landlord @thomasross20? This involves a council tenant, so there's more likely to be help available.

First case was council and it went on for nearly a decade.

AvalonAndy

*

earwighoney

AvalonAndy said:

Interesting that you felt the need to point out that the boyfriend was Jamaican.

It's unlikely a Norwegian neighbour would be able to speak Patois. 

Bygone_Tones

kill him

Iamnobody

I agree with a lot said above and - if your medium term goal was to move anyway just bring that forward if it's financially viable.

I wouldn't like to be in your position. I am the the sort of person that tries to sort things myself rather than rely on authorities - which as Mr Ross and others have said can be a protracted process at best.

Get some decent ear plugs and plan for the future! 

thomasross20

+1 on earplugs.
Laserlites are industrial grade and can be bought bulk on eBay.

William Williamson

I mentioned the boyfriend was jamaican because culturally raised voices don't have the same meaning as they do in other cultures. i.e. I was making a point of saying that I don't think he's being loud maliciously, but his behaviour subsequent certainly was.

I do wear earplugs to bed every night (prompted by the commencement of this behaviour about a year ago) but have ordered some of those laserlites in bulk as suggestd as to-date I've been using the cheap boots ones.

Medium term goal was to move away into a bought/built home rather than renting again so that has expedited the search, etc. but may still be months (instead of years).

Honestly,  I'm a little worried about all the little things he can do to make his intrusions into my life even more unpleasant when it starts kicking off with the council/care-in-community teams/etc.  

Strangefan

As an ex housing officer, the key to this is evidence and complaints.

Every single time you have to call the council housing team, they will log each and every complaint, and it will trigger action, If your diary matches up with the complaints we used to put recording equipment in whihc , was solid evidence and a basis  to give an NSP to the offending neighbour, after that if it does not stop then court and so on, but in order for you to make any traction at all, its about writing down every incident and involving the council and police . 

William Williamson

Thank you!!

The council housing team? I believe this is a social housing association (Hyde, London and Quadrant, etc.) rather than the council housing directly - so thus far haven't engaged them, do I need to call them too? The reason I ask is that the council no longer runs an out-of-hours noise disturbance investigation group, which is why I've got to note things down. If I need to call someone to flag it in their system too, I haven't been told so far?

Gulliver

William Williamson said:

I'm at my wits end, any thoughts would be gladly appreciated.

Lots of great advice already here - mainly it's all about giving consistent evidence.

If you feel the council are not taking your grievance seriously, or not taking action effectively - then write a letter directly to the chief executive of the council (3 minutes on google will find you their name) and hand deliver it - make sure you ask for a receipt to show that it has definitely been received (no lost-in-the-post lies)  

I've hand-delivered letters to my council offices on two occasions and both times my issues have been resolved within 3 business days - one of which was about council tax benefits which usually takes weeks.

TheBlueWolf

Complain to your council. I can't remember the exact times but there *are* antisocial times for noise. Keep a log too. The police can't do a lot beyond telling them to shut up but you'll get reference numbers to give the council.

octatonic

I had a problem with a Jamaican neighbour who I eventually got on fine with.

He was very loud and seemed to want to be the alpha male all the time, used to catcall women in the street and be a bit of a dick.
I got sick of it when he tried to get my builder to do a job for him when the builder was working for me so I called him on it.
I got the full show- squaring up to me, making death threats, telling me he'd kill my entire family (well, they are in Australia so good luck with that) and all sort of craziness.

When I put a note through the door that said 'Why don't we start again? Neither of us is going anywhere and I'd prefer to get on with my neighbours and not be at war with them'.
We had a chat, the argument was finished and he ended up being a really nice guy, would knock on my door to let me know when a closer parking spot opened up on the busy street we lived on.
Once he saw I was ill and brought me a rum and lemon drink, which I thought was very kind.

I never fully trusted him after his outburst but I had a vested interest in keeping things calm and they were.
I still see him when we are in the old neighbourhood and he is very warm and friendly.
I don't know if it is a cultural difference, or maybe it just his personality, I don't know really.