Neighbour blocking access to flat.

hannah2008

Would you be able to upload a picture to show us what kind of thing your dealing with pls?

Cheers

BehindTheBarricades

Just an update.

Here's what it looked like on Saturday, heading into the garden.

i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l509/BehindTheBarricades/Aaargh.jpg (http bit removed)

I managed to catch up with her last night. She really can be very irritating. She seems to think that explaining herself in a reasonable tone of voice in a reasonable manner makes her unreasonable actions automatically reasonable. She also attempts to control the situation by responding as though you are interrupting her and being uncivil whether you are or not, especially if you're, understandably, simmering.

Her problem, she wanted me to understand, was that she had come back from a bigger flat and had too much stuff (in addition to the wall of stuff she already has in storage) and had been sorting it all day, giving herself a backache. Obviously, I am an utter barstool to be making her suffer whilst she was trying to do me a favour by sorting her stuff. Apparently, they didn't finish moving the stuff in until the ungodly hour of 7pm which is obviously far too late either to knock on my door beforehand to check I didn't need to urgently get anything large through there, or afterwards with a reassurance the stuff wasn't going be moved as soon as practical. The removal men had to go as the clement and dry weather was closing in. Of course it was nothing at all to do with the fact I would have objected had I known at the time. So, what did I expect her to do?

Sarcasm aside, her excess of stuff really isn't my problem, but the fact I couldn't get in without risking injury, couldn't get through with my bike which is my main form of transport and the fact we'd all be screwed in a fire is. I'm fairly sure she wanted and expected me to just let her leave the stuff where it was, but I insisted it was cleared and forced my and my boyfriend's help on her to take some stuff upstairs and stack the rest more effectively. I can get through although now there's junk spilling over into the garden and even some stuff in boyfriend's car.

She really does appear to have a hoarding problem, which I think she is beginning to realise but isn't doing anything to address. She's going to have to address it if she can't confine the problem to her own flat, though. I'm going to take everyone's advice about the fire-service and writing to the council because, whilst the immediate problem is solved, I don't think this will be the last time this happens. I do fear, though, that if I get the fire-service's help on the entrance way, she'll just switch to leaving stuff in the garden instead and I'll have a pile of junk outside my window (not for the first time).

Thanks again for the support and advice.

jee

What a nightmare situation- she sounds like a selfish sh*t. I would contact the council ASAP she is almost certainly breaking the terms of her lease and actually putting the council into a sticky situation if there's a fire or if you or someone else has an accident because of storage in a communal area.
I also have a flat, albeit private, and we're constantly reminded not to keep anything in communal areas including the garden.
Call the council- get the person in charge of that block and email or send a letter with recorded delivery.

MaggieBaking

My word I've just had a look - for those who might struggle with the http - here's the pic.



Looking at it and hearing you talk of her clutter I know that these types of people are often a little blind to what is an acceptable level of clutter, and a little bit soon becomes a lot.

You have to be extremely clear and very firm that it is EMPTY. As soon as she starts to store 1 thing there, it'll be 30 things in a few days. Let her know that it has to be completely without any of her stuff and when there's some in the garden go and have a talk.

Rather than trying to be nice and understanding you'll do better to be very firm, not very explainatory about anything new. "I saw you'd left this in the hallway so I thought you might appreciate the help up the stairs with it" written on a note left outside her flat.

Talk about "the rules" of hallways and gardens in a vague term "the rules say that no one can leave shared items. I've got to put my bike in our spare room!" when she asks who makes these rules say you can't remember but you heard it when you moved in.

Don't encourage her with "these flats are so small, I understand why you need to leave something there but...". Just very clearly keep on top of reaffirming that things must be clutter-free whilst you smile

She might think you're a bit of a !!!!! but so what, hopefully it'll help her learn.

Valli

pops in for a nosey

my goodness OP were that outside MY front door it wouldn't stay there long. I would fling it outside sharpish.

mishkanorman

Geez OP i'd be fuming !

What do your deeds say about this right of way ? The OWNER of the passage way doesnt have any right to store stuff on one generally so I would find it surprising if all the block can !

head over to www.gardenlaw.co.uk the good people over there may be able to give you a formal sounding letter to serve her notice to remove stuff from your ROW within xx days or it will be removed and dumped and you will be sending her the bill for doing such. (if you feel like taking things that far) or even contacting the council as its their responsibilty to ensure you have access,

mishka

hannah2008

I would honestly make an appointment to see someone at the council or local MP, thats a disgrace how anyone can expect you to trample through that when you want to go out/in.

BehindTheBarricades

To be (overly) fair, only about 75% of the stuff is hers, but the fact that other people are using 25% of the space obviously doesn't justify dumping more stuff down there when there is clearly no more room. Some people who might otherwise have a clear out have said they can't because of the layers of her stuff on top.

What Maggie Baking says is only too true. She did say she was going to "have a clear out" but I know from past experience that "having a clear out" often results in more rather than less stuff ending up there following which she fills up her flat again and the cycle repeats. When she first came here, about 9 years or so ago, she was talking about putting racks on the walls for her bike. It's been a long time since I could see the walls. She keeps saying we should have a "junk amnesty", but what this really means is that everyone else should throw their stuff away so that she can fit more stuff in. She is not above deeming other peoples stuff to be junk and throwing it away for them.

I bumped into a nice neighbour this afternoon who lives in the block with the council freehold. She found the mess on Sunday, apparently, and has also made her feelings clear to my upstairs neighbour. It's not on at all, really. Nice neighbour is an old lady and shouldn't have to face that obstacle course. She has confirmed that her lease says nobody is allowed to store things there and that our block are only to be supplied with a key to the garden door and access. Neither she, nor anyone else in her block, are interested in enforcing this normally and have always quietly turned a blind eye until the junk has got to ridiculous levels. Understandably, she doesn't really want the hassle of enforcing it now (and why should she) and is quite happy to let me try to do something.

What I think I'm going to do is write to everyone in the 3 blocks that share that entrance to the garden and suggest we all spend a Saturday clearing the area out (with bribes of beer and punch). We could keep just one or two items if next door are still amenable to leaving a few items in the space. I will drop in the threat, as nicely as possible, that if people can't be bothered to cooperate I will involve the council and the fire service and get the lot removed.

Thanks for the mention of Garden Law, mishkanorman. Hopefully it won't come to legal sounding letters, but it will be useful to have in my back pocket.

dibuzz

That's ridiculous, apart from the fire hazard what would happen if you ended up on crutches for some reason?
I can't even tell from the pic where your front door is.

inkie

Clear fire risk - the whole lot needs moving. Get the community fire safety officer on the job.