Any other courses of action? [neighbour problems]

poppysarah

Get CCTV and evidence of them being horrid.
You will get nice neighbours eventually.

bristol_pilot

One of the benefits of renting is that in situations like this you can move. These neighbours have totally devalued your flat but that's your landlord's problem, not yours. You are never going to win against people like this the law is 100% on their side, they can get unlimited free legal aid etc. So I'd simply move.

Fire_Fox

BrunoM wrote: »

No letting agent, private landlord. Making him deal with it is an option to some extent, but they happen to be in the USA for a year just now so he may not contribute as much as he might want to.
We have been taking digital timestamped photos and sending them to the council as well as obviously keeping copies. We gave a witnessed statement to dog control about 6 weeks ago which covered the situation up til that time, so there's that in writing.

Although the council agreement says no pets without prior agreement, apparently now that they have a pet the council doesn't tell them to get rid of it (unless it breaks other conditions - which it is - but yeah).

Your landlord should have given you an address in the UK to use in case you have any problems or wish to hand in your notice. If they are not in the country and unable to take action then they need to appoint someone, family member or agent, to act on their behalf.

Put everything in writing and send it recorded delivery to both your landlord and the council, no phone calls unless you require immediate action. If you have a paper trail AND a new baby you should be able to bypass the two months notice.

Martha66

With regards your situation, I do think moving is your best option.
It can be stressful and is certainly a hassle moving - but on balance this will probably be better than continued stress of bad neighbours.

Can I just say that I would urge you to call the RSPCA. I do hate animal cruelty and it seems that this poor dog is being neglected (perhaps that is why it is so desperate to come into your flat!).
I wouldn't take the council's word for it, especially as their job is more about enforcing their human tenants' behaviour.

I hope you find a better place soon.

princeofpounds

On the one hand I would agree with the posters above that moving is probably the simplest option.

However, to give you some other lines to pursue should you not wish to do that, have you thought about any of the following? (I've re-summarised a couple of the suggestions above too)

- Sign up for the NFH forum (neighbours from hell). Lots of resources there for these problems.

- Contact environmental health team at council re flytipping on your property and general rubbish.

- Contact your local councillor, get them onside and see what they suggest.

- Re RSPCA and the dog, the dog unit are probably right. I've heard that actually they are less effective than you might be led to believe so often need following-up to get them out in person!

- Write to the landlord threatening to move unless they help resolve the situation.

- Write to their landlord (housing association or whatever) to complain about their behaviour. Landlords can be held responsible for certain actions of their tenants.

- Have you considered a private prosecution or lawsuit to recover costs of rubbish removal? You would need evidence it is theirs, so if any of the rubbish is identifiable and there is no other access to it except from their house all the better.

tbs624

Bruno - you mention having to give 2 months' notice? If you are within your original Fixed Term then you either have to see the tenancy through to the end (or meet the LLs advertising costs etc & pay rent until the LL can get someone new in ) or look to exercise any break clause in the contract. If you are merely leaving at the end of a Fixed Term you do not have to give any notice. If your fixed term has expired, however, & you have now gone onto a periodic tenancy running from month to month then you have to give 1 month and your LL has to give 2. (all assuming E/Wales, rather than Scotland)

Just following up Firefox's post (no 14): if your LL has *not* given you a UK address at which notices etc may be served then no rent is lawfully due from you until, and unless, he does. The behaviour of the neighbours is not your LLs problem as such but as it has the capacity to affect his property he (or someone acting on his behalf) should be assisting you with getting the issues resolved.

You do need to get the full info in writing to the LL, preferably with photos, so that there is no deduction made from your tenancy deposit for any damage caused by the neighbours and their dog. The LL *has* scheme-registered your deposit hasn't he?

tbs624

Fire_Fox wrote: »

.....If you have a paper trail AND a new baby you should be able to bypass the two months notice.

???? Could you clarify that one Fire Fox?

AliceBanned

I would recommend contacting Shelter. These neighbours' behaviour is affecting your home and if it is bad enough it could be technically making you homeless; that is the law. Just their interest and concern in your case would kick the council up the !!! and make them move. Believe me, I've done it and it turned my case on its head. The Housing Assoc were very red-faced in the end, although they tried to point the finger at me, a law-abiding reasonable tenant, just to get me out of the way so that they could continue to provide sub-standard accommodation to other innocent people.

Shelter are underresourced though and it will take a bit of chasing for you to get a response from them. I think the environmental health side is pretty important; you have a baby and they have dog on the loose at your property. No matter how safe and friendly that dog is, it is not fair on your family and they are breaking the law in many areas. Really it is up to your landlord to prosecute, but many andlords don't care, there will always be another tenant to fill the gap and live in a pit that they wouldn't expect to live in themselves. Good luck.

BrunoM

Thanks, all. Yesterday I emailed the council and my landlord with pictures and a written record of the current situation, then followed up today with a long call to the council housing estate manager for the area. On the call, she promised me she would be hand delivering a letter to the tenants today, in which

a) they would be given 24 hours to remove all rubbish from our garden and shared areas, or the council would be hiring a contractor to clean it and billing the tenants
b) they would be given a date for a 'tenancy interview' they would be required to attend to be told that the council would take action against their tenancy for breaching their agreement and ignoring the instructions given to them in early April (keeping shared areas clean, keeping dog accompanied and out of other properties, etc).

and that she'd be confirming this by email response to me today.

This sounds "as good as can be expected" and will see if garden is in fact immediately cleared up or not. We'll still be looking at moving this summer but if the garden actually became usable that would be a big plus in the interim.

Thanks for the various ideas and suggestions and we'll probably follow up on a couple of them if things don't immediately improve, independently of giving our notice soon anyway...

BrunoM

tbs624 wrote: »

Bruno - you mention having to give 2 months' notice? If you are within your original Fixed Term then you either have to see the tenancy through to the end (or meet the LLs advertising costs etc & pay rent until the LL can get someone new in ) or look to exercise any break clause in the contract. If you are merely leaving at the end of a Fixed Term you do not have to give any notice. If your fixed term has expired, however, & you have now gone onto a periodic tenancy running from month to month then you have to give 1 month and your LL has to give 2. (all assuming E/Wales, rather than Scotland)

Just to check, does the above mean that, regardless of what is written into the tenancy agreement, having gone past the fixed term (12 months) we are only required to give 1 month's notice? Will read it when I get home tonight but thought I remembered that the text says 2 months for us or LL.