Problem Neighbour - any advice?

BlackBird75

Just to add:
Any mortgage company should be listed on the land registry, as having a charge over the flat.

You probably won't know which insurance company / utility provider the landlord is using. So just send out an email with the details to each insurance company you can think of. Costs you nothing.

Tell the landlord your plans and he may just decide it's easier for him to deal with the situation, rather than hope that you don't find the right company to cause him repercussions.

BlackBird75

You can keep records of noise etc in a diary if you want.
It won't do any harm, but it will only be of use if anyone actually cares about your diary.

I just can't see the council, support worker, etc being interested in your complaints, because they will need to find somewhere else for this tenant. So it's not in the council's interest to help you.

On the other hand, if you can convince the landlord that you will cause him more hassle than the tenant, he's more likely to act. And hopefully more likely to avoid a future problem tenant. He may be getting good money for taking temporary accommodation residents from the council and sees it as easy money. You need to convince him it's not going to be easy money....

Smodlet

She sounds like a carbon copy of the Chav from Hell; at least you don't seem to be getting the deafening parties and every lowlife within a 10 mile radius letting themselves in and out from 2 a.m. onwards. It only took the council and her utterly useless LL a little more than a year and a half to get her out... And our log is only 29 pages long. We did not bother recording every, single incident as no-one took any notice of us. The police were utterly useless. Maybe they are less so in your location.

Now we are dreading the next one as that is all that ever seems to rent that place.

BlackBird75

Smodlet wrote: »

She sounds like a carbon copy of the Chav from Hell; at least you don't seem to be getting the deafening parties and every lowlife within a 10 mile radius letting themselves in and out from 2 a.m. onwards. It only took the council and her utterly useless LL a little more than a year and a half to get her out... And our log is only 29 pages long. We did not bother recording every, single incident as no-one took any notice of us. The police were utterly useless. Maybe they are less so in your location.

Now we are dreading the next one as that is all that ever seems to rent that place.

Did you have (or try) any "leverage" over the landlord? ie did you mention reporting them to their insurance company, mortgage lender, HMRC etc?

One problem with "vulnerable" tenants (aka junkies), is that they may be targeted by "cuckoos".
In other words, the local drug dealers (or County Lines) move in...

That's why the OP really needs to get to grips with the landlord on this. Not the council, because the council are part of the problem, not the solution.

Smodlet

BlackBird75 wrote: »

Did you have (or try) any "leverage" over the landlord? ie did you mention reporting them to their insurance company, mortgage lender, HMRC etc?

One problem with "vulnerable" tenants (aka junkies), is that they may be targeted by "cuckoos".
In other words, the local drug dealers (or County Lines) move in...

That's why the OP really needs to get to grips with the landlord on this. Not the council, because the council are part of the problem, not the solution.

Are you for real? Just how is anyone supposed to make a LL who does not give a damn he has had no rent for nearly 2 years do anything? All he cared about was getting out of paying for bailiffs.
Add to that the utterly fantastical level of incompetence of the court system in general and the local one in particular and guess what? Nothing happens.

There was nothing "vulnerable" about this unspeakable scum, believe me.

BlackBird75

Smodlet wrote: »

Are you for real? Just how is anyone supposed to make a LL who does not give a damn he has had no rent for nearly 2 years do anything? All he cared about was getting out of paying for bailiffs.
Add to that the utterly fantastical level of incompetence of the court system in general and the local one in particular and guess what? Nothing happens.

There was nothing "vulnerable" about this unspeakable scum, believe me.

That's quite a strange attitude from the landlord, because bailiffs would charge less than two years rent. Why couldn't the landlord claim LHA directly from the council?

I mentioned the POSSIBLE ways someone could try to motivate the landlord. They are not the "textbook" fill in a diary type answers you typically receive, but when my relative had an unwanted neighbour, they worked for us.

The key was finding out exactly who the landlord was (via a neighbour in our case) and also encouraging others in the block to contact the landlord with their concerns.

It turned out that this landlord had a work connection with someone we knew. So that combined with the mention of a call to HMRC seemed to work in our case.

BlackBird75

It's best to act sooner, rather than later.
Because the "cuckoos" can be quite adept at "sniffing out" these kind of "nesting" opportunities...

kboss2010

Thank you all for the suggestions! Very helpful :-)

BlackBird75

kboss2010 wrote: »

Thank you all for the suggestions! Very helpful :-)

It sounds like your problem neighbour may be on Spice.
If she is, you want to act quickly, before the place is full of junkies slumped on the floor etc.
Before you know it, they'll be getting high on monkey dust or meow meow and then all sorts of nonsense could start.

Trust me, I've seen this develop into a nightmare.
Blood on the floor, plus more. Don't delay, act today.

Start off politely with the landlord.
But only give him 14 days, before escalating your actions.
Then after another 14 days, escalate again.

Be lawful, but proactive and use all the methods I described.
Find out as much as you can about the landlord. He or she is the only person who can evict this tenant.

Good luck.

GDB2222

BlackBird75 wrote: »

I would check the land registry to find out the name of owner of the flat, who would presumably be the landlord.
I would then contact them directly and explain the problems with the tenant.

If the landlord is unwilling to help, I would advise the landlord that you will be contacting their insurance company (to inform them the tenant is a fire hazard, probably has a criminal record etc). I would also tell the landlord you plan to contact their mortgage company, to check they have consent to let (or a BTL) mortgage.

I would also tell the landlord you plan to inform HMRC the flat is being let, just in case the landlord has "forgotten" to declare their rental income. I'm sure HMRC wouldn't mind checking their records, just in case.

You are being unfair to the LL. He has let to a perfectly respectable tenant, namely the local authority.

If you contacted me in these circumstances, I would certainly be interested. I would contact the council and try my best to get the tenant moved on.

I'd think twice about threatening someone you want help from, though. My insurance covers letting, and you can certainly report me to HMRC. I declare every penny.