Episode 3: I've ran out of options with noisy neighbours, what can I do now?!

Cakeguts

To sell the house and move put it into a property auction. Alternatively offer it to the local housing association as a rental property and if you are lucky they will find another anti social tenant.



I personally think that the actions of the housing association are really bad because by leaving this family in this property making life hell for the neighbours they are rewarding them for bad behaviour. If they want the behaviour of the family from hell to change they need to get them to realise that actions have consequences and you don't get a nice big new house if you don't behave nicely to your neighbours.



What they also don't seem to have realised is that bad parenting is not good for the children and depending on what they are not doing they could be setting the children up for a lifetime of mental illness and stress.

So it is quite possible that what the children need is to be not with those parents. There are several types of child abuse not just sexual abuse. The end result is often the same regarding the mental health of the child. So child abuse in the form of smoking cannabis and anything else they are doing or not doing like neglect or not feeding them properly is just as bad as any other form of abuse and should be taken seriously by all parties. It isn't good enough to say that they don't split up families if the children are at risk. They would happily split up a family where there was sexual abuse happening.

tom9980

Part exchange and pray the neighbours are better, if they aren't make no complaints at all and sell it a year or two later.

Norman_Castle

lhg91 wrote: »

The children have behavioural problems,

Thick parent syndrome?


Its likely the HA will only move them if its possible and they agree. Only a court can evict them which they will be very reluctant to do.


Local to me there is a company who supply privately owned properties to tenants on the council waiting list. Rent is guaranteed. This may be an option for you.

lookstraightahead

Not sure the idea of turning it into a rental is a good idea. Tenants are humans too and will be equally upset by the noise and you will get complaints from them

lhg91

pmlindyloo wrote: »

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Anti social behaviour from any neighbours is not acceptable.

I presume you are keeping a log of any of the behaviour that has occurred and reported it to the appropriate authorities?

What did the police say about the use of cannabis and the threats?

What did social services say about the use of cannabis where children are present?

I mention these things in particular because noise from children is a difficult one to complain about.

Has the local authority housing officer been to speak with the family?

Did the police investigate? Did social services?

There are still complaint procedures that you can use. Have a read of this:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/housing/problems-where-you-live/complaining-about-your-neighbour/

Have you tried mediation with a third person?

Concentrate on the ones I have highlighted as these are the ones which are likely to be viewed as anti social.

Housing associations are notorious for not dealing with anti social behaviour and the person who said that courts do not like splitting up families is a typical response.

At the very least the local housing association should be sending letters/speaking to them about their behaviour.

Are the children's behavioural issues being addressed?

I would not be put off by the HA's response to your visiting a solicitor. I would be, at the very least, sending a solicitor's letter advising that legal action would be taken if they did not stop this anti social behaviour.

I am appalled that people have to try to sell their house (taking a huge financial loss) to get away from anti social behaviour.

I am also appalled that housing associations and councils do not live up to their promises to stop such behaviour. There is no doubt that the tenants are in breach of their tenancy agreement and the HA and council should be making some efforts to put things right.

Also social services should be protecting the children from their cannabis smoking parents, lack of parenting skills etc etc

It is not good enough for the council to say it is difficult to rehouse them - where's there a will there's a way. Make a formal complaint to the HA and the council, social services and the police (if they have done nothing)

And get that letter written from the solicitor - money worth spent.

I know I would rather explore absolutely all avenues before I suffered the loss of thousands of pounds through no fault of my own.

End of rant!

Yes we have been keeping a log since August 2017 and we have reported problems to the housing association, the child protection services, environmental health and the local police.

Unfortunately the police have said as it's on private property there's not much they can do. And they would have to gather evidence over a period of time anyway to get a warrant to search the house.

The child protection services got back to me following my complaint with a voicemail saying "we recommend you contact the local council R.E. antisocial behaviour, thanks, bye."

The local authority has, but we have now taken it up with the manager of the housing association, who himself admits that more should have been done sooner. He has now been around to other neighbours homes to gather evidence, and is planning on giving the tenants an ABC (acceptable behaviour contract). However he said that if they stick to this for example 3 weeks, this will then be reverted and we will be back to square one in terms of complaining. It is only when they break the ABC that an injunction would get taken out.

With regards to the childrens behaviour, they have said that they are dealing with the local healthcare services to try to get their medication sorted out, but it has not made any difference at all over the past few months.

The manager of the HA this morning got back to me and has said that many of the voice recordings I had given couldn't be used as evidence because they're not severe enough (even though it is recorded in our living room and you can clearly hear everything being said by the tenants next door), however some of them could. We are having another meeting with him next week.

Even if the noise does decrease, I still don't feel remotely comfortable living in my home due to the previous verbal abuse I have received, and the fact I will be forever on the edge of my seat waiting for the noise to start again.

xylophone

Even if the noise does decrease, I still don't feel remotely comfortable living in my home due to the previous verbal abuse I have received, and the fact I will be forever on the edge of my seat waiting for the noise to start again.

Then you'll have to sell up and move on?

wesleyad

Sounds like hell, hope things get sorted.

I'd look into selling. The thing is the noise needs declared and will reduced selling price but.. have you looked into how much this is likely to be?

Peace and quite has a different value to different people. For me it's priceless. But for a family of 5-6 with 3 young kids, 2 dogs and a love of heavy rock music they might ironically feel better living next to noisy neighbours as they wont feel they themselves are being a pain. If you get lucky you might find the reduction isn't as much as you fear.

loveka

Can you afford to rent it out and rent elsewhere?

The HA may rent it from you?

You can also rent properties out as half way houses for when people leave prison/ care. Could you look into that?

Very good soundproofing is expensive but would you consider that?

You don't sound at all judgemental in your posts. Most people get that you are just explaining the situation. It sounds awful.

quantumlobster

What you do now, OP, is work out whether you can afford to move (given the likely reduction in the value of the property) and if you can move, you move.

Your mental health and wellbeing is more important than working through this process which will, even if successful (and there's no guarantee of that), be very protracted.

Cakeguts

Why does the ABC only have to be for 3 weeks? Can't they make it for at least a year? They won't last a year without making a lot of noise.