Nuisance Neighbour Rant!

amyloofoo

Hi,

DH and I moved to a ground floor maisonette last year (housing association) after he collapsed 3 vertebrae on our honeymoon. The maisonette's not in a very nice area, however it's set back from the (busy) road, and has a reasonably long drive, good security and high gates and hedges. When we came to look around we were told that the housing association was in dispute with our upstairs neighbours as the front garden should be ours and the back garden should be theirs. At some point the residents of the two flats agreed to swap so it was the other way round. I said, no problem, I'd rather have the back garden anyway and as they've made the front garden look lovely I'm not going to insist that they move. However the HA said they would need to continue the dispute as they'd taken over other land which should belong to our flat, and some which should belong to next door. I asked about the drive and the woman showing us round wrinkled her nose and said we've have to negotiate that ourselves as it had nothing to do with the HA.

Our upstairs neighbours are an older couple (late 60s) and we have a relatively good relationship, despite both of us having our eccentricities. When we moved in we asked if we could share use of the drive, and they said no - it's theirs and he claimed that it would collapse if more than one car was parked on it! Turns out, he built it illegally without any planning permission and he didn't put in the proper retaining wall so it's in danger of falling into next door's garden (from a height of about 7ft onto the garden of a family with small children :mad:). Despite this pushing up our insurance premiums and meaning that our car's parked on a busy road in a rough area, we said 'fair enough' as we didn't want to cause trouble. A month or so ago, one of the HA's contractors came out to fit a new door and he pulled his van onto the drive. The gent from upstairs went ballistic and started threatening to punch the contractor :eek:, yet a couple of days later, his son parked on the drive (so 2 cars at once) and now continues to do this on a regular basis, blocking our access to our garden and bins.

It turns out the HA has been in dispute with our neighbours for 20-odd years and that he's illegally built the drive, a garage (on our garden), moved the boundaries of the house next door and makes a habit of threatening anyone who calls him on it, occasionally getting his massive and thuggish looking sons involved. He's now had the audacity to report me to the HA, saying that my washing machine makes the drain overflow and I should be made to have it removed! Despite knowing his history and having complaints from him about the drain for years before we even moved in (it overflows because he sweeps leaves into it), the HA wrote to me and gave me 14 days to remove my washing machine!

Why do some people feel that they can get away with being bullies? I know the HA must look at us and think that we're a young couple who should be able to hold our own against 60-somethings, but we're both disabled and don't want to have fights with our neighbours. Why didn't they make the real situation clear to us before we moved in, rather than just making it seem like a garden swap? Since moving in we've discovered that he's been a nasty piece of work for at least 2 decades and has previously bullied and intimidated his neighbours, as well as showing a complete contempt for the HA property.

/ rant over

Caroline_a

Unbelievable! Why are the Housing Association being such wimps? Can you not talk to the people next door regarding this dangerous drive and get them to complain? Also put in your own complaint about them using the drain as a leaf dump? If you back down now you won't be able to run water at all soon!!

amyloofoo

Caroline_a wrote: »

Unbelievable! Why are the Housing Association being such wimps? Can you not talk to the people next door regarding this dangerous drive and get them to complain? Also put in your own complaint about them using the drain as a leaf dump? If you back down now you won't be able to run water at all soon!!

Thanks Caroline,

You're quite right, it's just something we'd wanted to avoid as neighbourly disputes can get so unnecessarily nasty and with my anxiety issues, the last thing I need is to feel uncomfortable in my own home. I've written a letter to the HA informing them that I won't be removing my washing machine and that I'm disappointed they chose to act on the word of people who have been proven to be liars rather than talking to me personally. So far, I haven't heard anything back but they're not exactly known for being prompt :rotfl:

I've not spoken to the neighbours who are in danger of having a drive fall onto their garden much as English isn't their first language and they struggle a bit, so communication between us is very basic. The HA did come round a few weeks ago with a surveyor, so maybe they're eventually planning to do something about it, but given their track record so far, I don't expect things to move quickly. I'm also a bit concerned that he's mentioned that he might be selling up later this year (they used 'right to buy' to purchase their house a few years ago) and feel sorry for whoever buys the property as I doubt he's going to be honest about the situation :eek: Imagine buying a flat on the basis of it having a drive, garage and large garden, then discovering that all you legally own is a small garden and the drive isn't even safe :mad:

dragonette

Sadly I think you going to have to fight this, as hard as poss. If the upstairs neighbours assume they can walk all over you and the HA then they will. Forever.

I would be asking the HA what the legal situation is, and doing as much as poss to curtail their activities and impact on your life. Keep a log of all the problems as that may help in future. I don't understand why the HA hasn't evicted them years ago!

Best of luck with this, it could be a long fight.

dragonette

Cross posted, sorry. I hope they move! Tho any buyer who gets a survey done might be wary

mrsrwallace

firstly you have my sympathy, a home should be your haven and nasty neighbours can make it feel like a prison. I would do as the above poster said and try and get the other neighbour (with the young family) to lodge a complaint. If the driveway is illegal then why has it not been removed? Can you contact the council's planning department and get them to investigate this?

i despise folk who can just get away with making other folk's lives a misery, it's not fair and if you can't get this nipped in the bud now then it will just get worse. How does he expect you to wash your laundry?? Do not be intimidated by his burly sons and their bully-boy tactics, if they threaten or harrass you again, call the cops, get the diary going and keep records of all that you do, who you contact and dates and times etc.

The thing is this fella has been getting away with it for 20 years and nobody has put him in his place so he will think he's invincible. you can prove he is NOT! Good luck!

Kiboko

Thing is that the unpleasant neighbour is storing up problems for himself, when selling disputes with neighbours etc if official (and poss if not - not sure) MUST be declared. He's going to have problems selling his flat.

amyloofoo

Thanks for reassuring me that I'm not just being Mrs Grumpalot! I have written to the HA about the washing machine situation (and I certainly won't be removing it, as I paid to have it fitted by a qualified plumber who reassured me that it would be fine draining). I'm going to try and be a little more proactive in talking to the neighbours on the other side and seeing what they think of the situation. They only moved in at around the same time as me, so the HA may not even have informed them of the dangers with the driveway... I'm having nightmares about it collapsing when their kids are outside so I MUST make sure they know, even if the language barrier is a bit difficult.

I honestly can't see how he's going to be able to sell his flat... so much of what he's built is illegal and apparently unsafe. If the council say that the driveway has to be removed then I don't even know how either of us will get access to the property so maybe that's why it's been rumbling on for so long. I don't think he'd ever have got away with what he's done if these properties weren't HA rather than private. He seems to have waited until the properties around him were empty, then has just moved boundaries and built on land where he saw fit - with the new tenants being none the wiser :eek: Really he's stealing from the taxpayer though and I have no idea how this is going to work itself out if / when he decides to sell.

BitterAndTwisted

Just get all the evidence you can about what he's up to and let the HA deal with him. The boundary dispute, unauthorised driveway and his garden-grab really is for the HA to deal with. If there has even been any formal correspondence about these disputes between him and the HA or the other neighbours it will have to be disclosed to any future purchasers. Unfortunately this could mean that you may not ever be rid of him.