Elderly neighbour in dilapidated/dangerous house

milkybars

MrsTine wrote: »

Anyone remember that TV program about the councils dealing with an elderly hoarder

Yes, that sprung to my mind when I read this thread too. Didn't his house have structural problems (clip of a 3 inch gap between bricks running from roof to ground level) as a result of all his hoarding? Rooms packed full from floor to ceiling with stuff and he could only just walk in his hallway and lived in a 1msquare patch of another room.

elsien

I remember Mr Trebus - old bloke who was seriously in need of help but didn't want to accept it, far too independent and clearly had OCD or something similar. The council went in and did several clear ups over a number of months (possibly years) and he kept reverting back again. He eventually agreed to go into residential care and said it was the best decision he ever made, but it took an awful lot of time and effort by the various agencies to get to that point. It's not a quick process and you can't force people to accept help unless you have very specific grounds eg environmental health.

Mr Trebus stayed a hoarder till he died - I can remember the documentary showing him walking down the corridor in the home, snaffling people's belongings as he went. He seemed a lovely old gent who just had lots of "issues" going way back.

milkybars

I always find it particularly sad that these people are miss understood as pests to society. Also often when a spouse passes away, thats when they really lose their grip. But truely, like others have said, slow progressive intervention does help and is the right thing to do.

MrsTinks

Trebus that was it!
Yes the council cleared out his garden several times as it was a health hazard - and they basically billed him for it. Sorry OP but the scenario just really reminded me of good old Mr Trebus
And yes his house was structually unsafe because of his hoarding - however if the gas is a danger to others and ditto the waste then the health department should be able to step in...

Agutka

Oh how I cried when Mr Trebus died. There was something so sad about his story.
I'm guessing your old gent will be extremely opposed to anyone meddling in his affairs. The more you do the more angry he'll become, but it has to be done. Wish you luck.

Amber_Sunshine

I can't add anything to the advice on how to help the neighbour, but here is my opinion on the cat situation. As a volunteer with a cat shelter, we keep groups of cats together but in clean conditions, checked daily, and ALL NEUTERED. This situation sounds far from ideal for them, they will be breeding and fighting, and 20 or 30 cats produce a LOT of waste. If that is not being removed then conditions for the cats will be pretty upleasant.

He may love his cats dearly, for all I know, but if he cannot look after them properly then he is not doing the best for them. I wouldn't trust the RSPCA with an animal, better they go to an independent shelter or Cats Protection. If they are feral, homes can be found eg farms, but I am guessing that they have not been socialised properly.

SailorSam

MaximumImpact wrote: »

You need to contact your local Police to express concerns for welfare. They can then inform all the appropriate agencies. It also helps the local officer to know that they have this issue on their patch, and before anyone jumps in and says that they wont be interested, they will...after all who has to deal with it when he doesnt answer his door for a few days and the milk is gathering on the doorstep.

Please don't assume that this will solve the problem as noone can force this man to leave his home due to human rights. It may be that the Mental Health teams and other agencies will have to do what is called an assessment and see what this mans MH state is....

All I can tell you is that it will take a lot of time as he doesnt have to let anyone in his house without a warrant and he does have an awful lot of rights thanks to the beanbag brigade who have caused as many problems as they have solved.

Hope this helps.

I agree about the police. Last year while working as a volunteer for Victim Support, i spoke to the police about an old person who was living in a run down house. Sounds similar to your old man in-so-much that they did'nt want any help, it wasthought that because the house was in such bad condition it was encourageing vandalism and possible break-ins. The officer i spoke to said she would try to get some of their trainee police to go and clean it up, apparently it's the sort of thing they do to build good community relations.
I don't know whether they managed togain entry or not.

Errata

Agutka wrote: »

Oh how I cried when Mr Trebus died. There was something so sad about his story.
I'm guessing your old gent will be extremely opposed to anyone meddling in his affairs. The more you do the more angry he'll become, but it has to be done. Wish you luck.

Mr Trebus was a very interesting and sparky bloke - but I'm incredibly glad he didn't live next to me !

OP Talk to the Older Peoples Team at your local Social Services. If you believe he is a danger to himself and to others - gas leak, electric faults, house falling down - tell them and ask them what they're going to do about it. If you don't get the response you feel is the right one, talk to your local ward councillor about it.

Savvy_Sue

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES


Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to the Silver Savers board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

arunadasi

Your local fire brigade would also be interested. There's obviously a fire hazard. Imagine if something happened and you hadn't alerted anyone - how wguilty you'd feel then!