Problem neighbours

kevykat

We bought our first property in Nov 2009, and wish we never had. Its so soul destroying knowing the amount you spent and pride you have and some !!!!-hole has to spoil it.

Our building consists of 10 flats, 7 owned and 3 council tenants. 1 an nice old lady, but the other 2 suck. 1 family has a dog that they let crap everywhere and don't care about anyone but there self. The other family what made me write this

Since we moved in we regularly hear there awful music at various times day and night, at least once a week anyway. We started banging on the floor once thinking they would take the hint, instead they banged back then increased the volume for a while. I ended up making a hole in our flooring I was banging that hard with my foot.lol

Then we tried the civil approach by knocking on there door, No answer. I was banging like a bat out of hell and no reply we just got ignored.
Once I was offshore and my fiancee actually got them to answer the door and there teenage son just told her to "F" off, Once the mother answered and she was wasted, this was at tea time. Drugs and alcohol prob.

Since then all we have been able to do is call the ASBO line to complain about the music but everytime we do the music ends up stopping and then no inspector comes out to check. There is quite often a strong smell of cannabis coming from there flat to which quickly stinks up the communal hallway. Worst thing is there that her daughter is approx 6-8 yr old and she has to put up with this. I called the police once and they said they would look into it but nothing ever done. To this day I don't think any complaint has been forwarded to them as off yet

Then this week, myself being offshore and my dad starting to work again who usually takes our dog when we are at work, the dog was left on her own for an hour on Mon and tues and 3-4 hours on wed as when my fiancee leaves for work my mum then comes down to take the dog to hers.

Then on thurs my fiancee came home to notes from the Dog warden and SSPCA. we were both really upset and mortified at this. It turned out to that someone, Prob our horrible downstairs neighbour, had made allegations the the dog is being left all day barking and howling away. Well thats a lie for a start, but if she was barking it was an hour or 2.

Its amazing how animal cases are answered instantly but when the complaint is about a human nothing gets done.
What do I do now??? We can't move out, and refuse to let someone push us out.
I could go down hard on them, anytime i hear music call the asbo line straight away, any time i smell cannabis call the cops, i could even go to the lengths and call the social if they are doing drugs with a minor there.

But it could back fire and they become violent, wreck my car, flat, terrorize my fiancee when i'm offshore.
I do have a few folk in places, my dads an ex cop for a start, his mate was head of drug squad, my mums manager her hubby is part of the benefit fraud squad, cos this women does not work from what i see.

What do i do?
Surely the previous owners must have had some problems, this just didnt start when we moved in
Is there away of finding out if formal complaints have been made against them by the previous owners?

Chimpofdoom

Bit of a tough one, sounds like your in between a rock and a hard place!

As regarding the noise, keep calling the police's non emergency line, they are obliged to come. When I first moved into my flat in Dunfermline, one neighbour out of 3 would watch TV full blast until 1am and of course each and everytime I would call the police, same thing would happen, the volume would go down, but they did catch them once!

In relation to the SSPCA, you could explain the situation to them, if you wanted to, you could invite them to see your dog, they'll be able to tell if the dog's distressed or not.

Try and keep a log of when the noise is happening, when you smell the cannabis etc and when the police do come and everything stops, give them the log, they might pop round at a "regular" time to catch them out. Also report the noise to environmental health at your council office as they also have to investigate and as the calls to the police should be logged, it'll help them.

broonbear

you need to get the council involved here and they will send someone round to record the noise levels and get the police involved and log every visit even keep a voice recording on your mobile of every council and police visit just so theres no misunderstandings later, you've got to keep at the authorities to get things done .

Nosht

It took my daughter over 3 years to have her violent neighbours evicted & the neighbours on the other side were worse off than she was & had reported everything as well.
What you need to do is log & report every incident & have all the other 7 owners do this too.
Even so it takes time.
Involve your local councillor & invite the press to view the damage, dirt &c.

N.