Noisy neighbor on benefits- would council do anything?

PasturesNew

One word: scum.

missprint

I do so sympathise with you, we were in exactly the same position for some years. Our very nice detached house was in a cul de sac with other similar properties and the one next door to us was rented out to the council by the family after the death of the dear old lady who had lived there. There followed a nightmare stream of people who made our lives such a misery we sold up in the end. In this case the council is the landlord, not the owner. The council should definitely be your first call in case of complaints. Although I do hope you get more support than we did, our council was bloody useless.

PasturesNew

This is the trouble. You spend all your time working, hardly any time off, often working for !!!!!! bosses and giving free overtime just to keep your job, so that you can hand over taxes... so scum can spend their carefree days finding ways to p155 you off.

The precious few hours you get to relax are disrupted by all manner of anti-social behaviour and should you dare to mention it you get a mouthful, that invariably involves the phrase "live and let live". Only they're not letting YOU live are they. They're living their shabby, dysfunctional existencies while you're left to earn the money to run their household and live in fear of whether their feral brats will wreck your property or cause nuisance.

Anti social behaviour needs to be stamped out.

scousethife

kill them......

SingleSue

Robin C - It's not that bad as it's not a constant, it goes quiet for a while and then we have a couple of weeks of it, generally in the summer, yours sounds much worse than mine.

RobinC_2

Thanks missprint- that was what I wanted to know when I originally posted- who the landlord is in this case and if they'd do anything. So, it's the Council. I hope you found somewhere is to live that you enjoy. It's disgusting, isn't it, you get so frustrated you decide to move, while these people carry on as they like.

Pasturesnew-- your last post...SPOT ON!!!! You expressed EXACTLY how I feel!
We never dreamed we'd be living in this house this long- a few years ago, we thought by now we'd own our own house, if it weren't for the events in the housing market taking place now and the last couple years, we would have our own house. Sigh. Now, I desperately want a detached house, although as said, don't know how realistic that is.

In the meantime, I can't wait to get back to work, never thought I'd say that!

RobinC_2

missprint- just read your post again and realised you had this problem even in a detached house! That's the problem, even buying detached your neighbours can be a nightmare!
Well, they've just pumped the jam up in the last couple minutes and the boyfriend is leaning against our fence having a cig (why doesn't he lean against her fence?!)
ARRRGGG. I'm going to take a shower and get out of the house. Maybe go sit in the park somewhere and drink my sorrows away!
Most of the people up our street seem to be nice, decent people and I know most of them work. Why did we have to end up living next to Vicky Pollard?!

Anyways, thanks for the posts- it has made me feel better knowing I'm not the only one experiencing this.

Baz_2

We had the same problem for a while a few years ago. In fact it sounds so similar that you could almost be living in our old house.

We lived in a street of 6 terraced houses, the only one of which was privately owned was ours. The housing association just bought all the others and before we realised it we were living in a council estate.

I wont bore you with the story but in the end we realised we had 3 options.

1) Put up with it and hope she stops or moves out.
2) Complain to every one possible every single time she does something to annoy you. To the landlord, the council, the environmental health. Do everything you can to get her evicted. Involve other neighbours too if they are being effected. Diary everything and get as much evidence and witnesses as possible.
3) Move.

In the end we sold up and moved, after 3 or 4 months of doing 2 we realised it was going to take at least a year to get her evicted, and even then they would probably just move someone else just as bad in after her.

There is nothing worse than what is happening to you. We hated it, theres nothing you can do when the boom boom boom is all you can hear during the night. We are lucky we could afford to buy a detached house in a nice estate and we have vowed never to move into a detached house again, unless it has 3 foot thick walls.

I do feel sorry for you.

PS you could always see if the council or housing association could buy the house off you?

nomadicwesti

In Glasgow the local council has a noise control team who work from 6pm to 3am. Outside of these hours it's a police role.

They will come to your house and use a decibel reader to check whether it is over certain levels which vary by time of day.

if they are in breech they will go to their door and warn them to turn it down. if they have to return that night they will issue a fixed penalty of £100 and if they return again they will arrive with the police and seize the offending hifi or tv etc.

over diffrent days the proces is as follows:

On a first visit they issue a verbal warning
on a second visit they will issue a written warning
third visit a second written warning and if owned by a landlord they will contact the landlord
on a fourth visit they will issue an ASBO which prevents them using such eqwuipment and if this is breeched they are fined and the items seized.

We had a problem and the system has worked very well.
The council staff who turn up are very helpful and even if the offender is not breeching teh klevel they encourage you to call them again if it gets louder.

I've nothing but praise for Glasgow city council and they are doing a lot of good work in this area.

May be worth having a chat with your local council to see if they run a similar scheme.

penguine

Hi Robin, we had very similar problems a few years ago as we live in a block of flats and a neighbouring flat was let to a council tenant, who played loud music during the day and had screaming matches with her bf late at night. (I was on maternity leave at the time so I know how disruptive it can be when you're at home all the time). You want to be sure you go to the right department at the council, speak to the Head of Housing if you can (or in your LA social services and housing might be one department). We were told she'd signed an agreement in her lease and if she didn't comply (ie by being noisy and disruptive towards her neighbours) that she could lose her home.

If whoever you get hold of isn't responsive, ask them who their line manager is. Ask if they have a complaints procedure, and request that they send it to you. Speak to your councillor and ask to meet them in person to discuss your concerns. The larger issue here is of course the welfare of the child involved so whenever you suspect neglect you should phone the relevant department in the council (and ask for a direct phone number if possible so that you can speak to the same person each time). If this doesn't get anywhere you may need to remind them of the most recent high-profile cases of neglected children who have died because their local authority ignored the warning signs.