Issues With Neighbours

JoannaRR

Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place, but it seemed the most appropriate!

We moved into our new home 3 weeks ago. We used to live in a terrace, where we had nightmare neighbours on either side, so we wanted somewhere much quieter. In our area, we couldn't afford detatched, so we went for semi-detatched. When we put in our offer back in July, we knew the woman who lived in the house attached to ours lived alone and she seemed very quiet, which we were obviously pleased about!

Fast forward to now - the day after we moved in, a parcel had arrived for us at her house, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce ourselves properly. Turned out that a new family had moved in literally the week before us. A man, woman and their young daughter.

We've had issues from as soon as we moved in. Stomping and banging around constantly, screaming and shouting, a TV on extremely loud most evenings until gone midnight (right next to our bedroom), fireworks at gone 10pm the other night, and the man comes and goes at all hours. We suspect drugs may be involved due to the constant coming and going and endless people going round there who seem to only stay a few minutes... The final straw, tonight, they've had a blazing, screaming row and the man stormed out whilst the woman screamed at him to 'f*** off'. Excellent.

This is exactly the type of thing we wanted to avoid, we're devastated that we've ended up next to neighbours who seem even worse than the ones we've tried to get away from

We're unsure what to do. We own our house, but we're guessing they're tenants (although we're not 100% sure, we're pretty certain we would've noticed their house up for sale as we've been looking in this area for months). Got the owner's details from the land registry, and it lists another woman as the owner, but gives her address as being at that house.

Anyone have any advice? We'd have a word but they seem like the type of people to cause major issues for us if we were to say something directly. We're really unsure what to do, but it's already making us feel tense and miserable and we've only been here 3 weeks!

ACG

Call crimestoppers and tell them you think they are dealing.

I_have_spoken

How awful for you to end up in this predicament.

Do you for certain the previous occupant was owner/occupier?

You could certainly alert child services about that behaviour, the family may already be on the 'at risk' register.

I'd say your tactic should be to make it too much hassle for the LL to have these people as tenants and serves a Section 8 Ground 14 eviction (Used when the tenant has caused problems with neighbours, visitors or anyone else, has used the property for illegal or immoral purposes)

G_M

get a friend/relative who lives elsewhere to knock on their door and ask for Mr X (the owner). When they say she does not live there, he asks how he can get in contact - do they have a phone number or address for her.

Have an incoccuous back-story ready in case they ask who/why is asking.

Hedgehog99

Oh you poor things! I feel your pain! ACG's suggestion sounds good - you have the advantage that they've only just moved in too, so have not established solid friendships with the other neighbours yet - hopefully that reduces the chance of them guessing who called CrimeStoppers (maybe the others have already anyway!!).

I don't get how people can grow up to be so noisy. Unless they all lived in detached houses in the middle of nowhere, surely they would be used to being considerate, but nope...

Hopefully, sine they're tenants, you should have more luck that with an owner-occupier? I had a tenant next door who "went nocturnal" & it only took one email to the letting agency to get him sorted. His successor (owner-occupier) was also nocturnal (but stomped around all day too), but I couldn't do anything. He's "moved out" for now, whatever that means. Hopefully to somewhere a long way away.

Stick it out if you can - you love the house itself, and hopefully something will get done about your nightmare neighbours. Maybe a noise machine or a natural sounds mp3 track might help you relax? Lying in bed stewing about it just makes it worse. The perpetrators don't give a bleep (or are even enjoying it). My mp3 track I found online, and which I've edited in the usual accompanying "tuneful" software so that it has a soft fade, plays on a continuous loop all night and helps my brain ignore irregular noises (like stomping on stairs). I do get woken, but I can relax and get back to sleep sooner than before.

If you don't want your parcels left with that neighbour any more, use white chalk to mark a neat double-ended arrow on the wall (one arrow pointing at your door, the other in the direction of the neighbour) and an X through the middle of the stem of the arrow, sort of like <-x-> which will tell the PO not to leave parcels there.

moneyistooshorttomention

I would complain to the Post Office in your position about parcels being left with the neighbour, ie make it plain you will hold them responsible if anything happens to your parcels.

I've got an idea that the Post Office may be trying to change/have recently changed their procedures to allow them to get away with leaving parcels with neighbours (to save themselves repeat trips with them obviously), but my main postie has asked me before now whether it's okay to leave my parcels with next door and vice-versa and duly been told it isn't (as I've got a neighbour I wouldn't trust myself - see current signature).

Hope you manage to get this sorted out.

JoannaRR

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

We're unsure about calling Crimestoppers at the moment as we're not completely sure about the drug thing, but we'll see how it goes over the next few weeks. If it becomes more obvious, we'll definitely consider it.

We have no idea whether the woman who lived there before was renting or whether she is the owner. Either way, the land registry details show a sole owner, a woman, who bought the house as a new build in 2008. Our guess is that the previous woman who lived there owned it outright and is now renting it out, although obviously we're not 100% sure. Seen as her details are still registered to that house, we're also wondering whether it's being rented out 'under the radar'.

The main predicament is just having no contact details for the LL whatsoever and having no idea who it is. We're almost 100% sure that this current family don't own the property, and if we had the LL's details we'd have no problem contacting them to let them know how their tenants are acting!

The idea about getting someone to knock and ask about the owner is a good idea to be fair, I just have no idea what the back story could be!

It's such a shame as we LOVE this house, it's perfect for us. We just can't believe our luck at having horrendous neighbours move in the week before us!

Upsidedown_Bear

You can report anonymously online to Crimestoppers:
https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/give-information-online/

If you don't want parcels delivering to your neighbours Royal Mail let you opt out:
http://www.royalmail.com/personal/receiving-mail/delivery-to-neighbour

45002

JoannaRR wrote:

Sorry if I'm posting this in the wrong place, but it seemed the most appropriate!

We moved into our new home 3 weeks ago. We used to live in a terrace, where we had nightmare neighbours on either side, so we wanted somewhere much quieter. In our area, we couldn't afford detatched, so we went for semi-detatched. When we put in our offer back in July, we knew the woman who lived in the house attached to ours lived alone and she seemed very quiet, which we were obviously pleased about!

Fast forward to now - the day after we moved in, a parcel had arrived for us at her house, so we thought it was the perfect opportunity to introduce ourselves properly. Turned out that a new family had moved in literally the week before us. A man, woman and their young daughter.

We've had issues from as soon as we moved in. Stomping and banging around constantly, screaming and shouting, a TV on extremely loud most evenings until gone midnight (right next to our bedroom), fireworks at gone 10pm the other night, and the man comes and goes at all hours. We suspect drugs may be involved due to the constant coming and going and endless people going round there who seem to only stay a few minutes... The final straw, tonight, they've had a blazing, screaming row and the man stormed out whilst the woman screamed at him to 'f*** off'. Excellent.

This is exactly the type of thing we wanted to avoid, we're devastated that we've ended up next to neighbours who seem even worse than the ones we've tried to get away from

We're unsure what to do. We own our house, but we're guessing they're tenants (although we're not 100% sure, we're pretty certain we would've noticed their house up for sale as we've been looking in this area for months). Got the owner's details from the land registry, and it lists another woman as the owner, but gives her address as being at that house.

Anyone have any advice? We'd have a word but they seem like the type of people to cause major issues for us if we were to say something directly. We're really unsure what to do, but it's already making us feel tense and miserable and we've only been here 3 weeks!

Can I ask you this

"but they seem like the type of people to cause major issues for"

What are there type exactly ?

.....

JoannaRR

Can I ask you this

"but they seem like the type of people to cause major issues for"

What are there type exactly ?

.....

*their

Considering we've heard them screaming and shouting, and what sounds like things being thrown around, and them calling each other all kinds of names, I don't particularly want to go round and ask them to 'keep it down'

45002

JoannaRR wrote:

Thanks for all the helpful comments.

We're unsure about calling Crimestoppers at the moment as we're not completely sure about the drug thing, but we'll see how it goes over the next few weeks. If it becomes more obvious, we'll definitely consider it.

We have no idea whether the woman who lived there before was renting or whether she is the owner. Either way, the land registry details show a sole owner, a woman, who bought the house as a new build in 2008. Our guess is that the previous woman who lived there owned it outright and is now renting it out, although obviously we're not 100% sure. Seen as her details are still registered to that house, we're also wondering whether it's being rented out 'under the radar'.

The main predicament is just having no contact details for the LL whatsoever and having no idea who it is. We're almost 100% sure that this current family don't own the property, and if we had the LL's details we'd have no problem contacting them to let them know how their tenants are acting!

The idea about getting someone to knock and ask about the owner is a good idea to be fair, I just have no idea what the back story could be!

It's such a shame as we LOVE this house, it's perfect for us. We just can't believe our luck at having horrendous neighbours move in the week before us!

May I ask what is horrendous about them ?

JoannaRR wrote:

*their

Considering we've heard them screaming and shouting, and what sounds like things being thrown around, and them calling each other all kinds of names, I don't particularly want to go round and ask them to 'keep it down'

They been there 4 weeks and you only been there 3 weeks.

Even if you do contact the LL there's not much they can do unless things have been or become serious !

LL may not want to get involved at All.........