Awful landlord next door

olly300

Sagaris wrote: »

Neither free nor enterprising if you are living next door to it!

Oh, I've had a go at him before - in front of a shopful of customers (he owns the local post office/newsagents/grocers) and he was quite horrified - he had to 'deal' with me then - but he doesn't deal with women in general, he told me it's his 'culture' to deal with men only!

That's !!!!!!!! to shut you up and make you go away.

Even if your OH is involved he will think of something else to get rid of him.

The only way to get a guy like this to behave properly is to get some kind of official involved. Even then it's not guaranteed until they take some action against him.

Hammyman

Sagaris wrote: »

he had to 'deal' with me then - but he doesn't deal with women in general, he told me it's his 'culture' to deal with men only!

Its a shame he's met your husband. You could have said "my husband is a member of the NF/BNP <choose racist faction>and its not in his culture to deal with people like you".

*Robin*

Sagaris wrote: »

we returned home from work tonight, to find he has had a new uPVC porch put on his property - it goes right up to the edge of the boundary line, and to accommodate it, the downpipe from our porch has been removed and dumped in our garden. There is now nothing to take the rainwater away, and there will be lots of it once the thaw starts.

So, if he had to remove the pipe to fit his porch to the edge of his property, does that mean your drainpipe was originally sited across the boundary line, ie. on his property?

Sagaris wrote: »

we will be getting our porch renewed at some point - it badly needs replacing ... With the new porch so close to our property it will make it difficult to put a downpipe on that side at all - there is a flower bed on that side that the water runs into - if we have it put on the other side the water will run across concrete and won't really have anywhere to go.

Can you not replace the pipe on the flower bed side, but at the front corner of your porch so definitely on your own land? (Sorry if I've misunderstood and this isn't possible).

Yorkie1

Has he caused any damage to either your pipe or your property in removing it?

There's always the small claims court or the police for criminal damage ... That should get his attention.

And, btw, one incident in the post office doesn't constitute harassment - you need a course of conduct for starters.

Sagaris

*Robin* wrote: »

So, if he had to remove the pipe to fit his porch to the edge of his property, does that mean your drainpipe was originally sited across the boundary line, ie. on his property?

No, it was always on our side of the boundary - it's just that the top of his porch juts out so looks like it was easier to remove our drainpipe to fit it.

*Robin* wrote: »

Can you not replace the pipe on the flower bed side, but at the front corner of your porch so definitely on your own land? (Sorry if I've misunderstood and this isn't possible).

No, at present the rainwater runs off into a flower bed, if we move it the water will run across concrete and will have no where to soak away - not very good at this time of year anyway!

savanajhones

This what happened with you and I have a list of disgraceful incidents happened with me. I am not at all happy to remember the incidents and the only solution I feel that time was better file the case in court.

princeofpounds

There are three separate issues here.

The first is the damage to the porch. This might even qualify as criminal damage (not sure if it is reckless enough though) and you could certainly sue him in court in a civil case for the cost of restoring it to be paid to you. So take photos for evidence, write the letter as stated above and state that you will seek legal advice if you do not get a satisfactory reponse on how to resolve the matter.

But... the second is that you intend to move. If you have any formal disputes with your neighbour you will 99% certainly be asked to disclose them, and that might put buyers off. You can't hide the issues as the buyers can sue you for damages if you do and they later find out about it.

I normally urge people to deal with problems for the sake of their quality of life, rather than preparing to escape at some unspecified time in the future and sucker a buyer into taking the problems on. But that's a personal choice. And at least if your drain does get restored you could legitimately claim it was resolved.

Finally there is the issue of the general bad tenants next door. There are things you can do to tackle problems, but relatively few you can make the LL liable for. Given there are no problems right now then you can't really progress anything here.

I know exactly what this sort of LL is like, very selfish. Often the best way to hit them is to find out if they are breaking any rules (tax, gas safety, HMO regulation etc) and report them. Sometimes this can only be done by tenants, but HMO is a particularly powerful piece of legislation. Doubt a terrace is big enough to come under that though.

mlz1413

I'd refit the down pipe to the level of the porch and ensure it drains into the porch as much as possible. The pipe was there first and he didn't have the sense to accomodate rain water then let him deal with the problem.

It will take a year or 2 to create a really good damp problem by which time you should have moved.

Mr_Thrifty

If there are drugs, prostitutes etc, just keep on reporting the issue to the police.

diable

Sagaris wrote: »

but he doesn't deal with women in general, he told me it's his 'culture' to deal with men only!

Well for that quote I would be on to the Police as that is a sexist comment and could even border on being racist, you need to play the game as I think I know where he is from and things like planning permission, buildings regs and any other laws are always disregarded.

Report him to the Police and claim its a race crime............