Problem Neighbour - any advice?

joyknights

You should probably seek help and report the problem. This is pretty creepy since its not just you who's being affected but the rest of the homeowners.

BlackBird75

GDB2222 wrote: »

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.

You'll see that I advised contacting the landlord first, to discuss the problem politely.
Unfortunately not all landlords are as sympathetic to the neighbours of their tenants as you.

There is a slight irony here, in that if the landlord is a less professional, amateur type, he may be easier to convince than a large professional social landlord, who will have ticked all the right boxes and have nothing to fear from the OP.

My advice assumes the OP is a tenant. If the OP is a leaseholder, my advice would be to just quietly move with the minimum of fuss. Because there is often little that can be done about these nightmare residents and creating records of complaints will only lead to the risk of a new buyer claiming you failed to declare something relevant.

BlackBird75

joyknights wrote: »

You should probably seek help and report the problem. This is pretty creepy since its not just you who's being affected but the rest of the homeowners.

I'm not sure "creepy" is the right word to describe a flat full of junkies high on monkey dust.
They are certainly not quiet or spooky.

Alternatively, if everything did go suddenly quiet, it could be a sign that the tenant had overdosed and was dead in the flat above. I suppose that could be described as "creepy"...

FBaby

The LL might not be in a legal position to evict though so all the threats won't change a thing.

GDB2222

BlackBird75 wrote: »

You'll see that I advised contacting the landlord first, to discuss the problem politely.
Unfortunately not all landlords are as sympathetic to the neighbours of their tenants as you.

There is a slight irony here, in that if the landlord is a less professional, amateur type, he may be easier to convince than a large professional social landlord, who will have ticked all the right boxes and have nothing to fear from the OP.

My advice assumes the OP is a tenant. If the OP is a leaseholder, my advice would be to just quietly move with the minimum of fuss. Because there is often little that can be done about these nightmare residents and creating records of complaints will only lead to the risk of a new buyer claiming you failed to declare something relevant.

I think that most sensible landlords would be concerned about a tenant with those problems being in their property, whether or not they were concerned about issues with other occupants. In theory, the LL's own lease could be at risk if the occupier is breaching the conditions of the lease.

BlackBird75

FBaby wrote: »

The LL might not be in a legal position to evict though so all the threats won't change a thing.

True.
It is indeed a difficult problem and my advice is "clutching at straws". However, the OP may have little other options. They certainly have nothing to lose by building up pressure on the landlord.

There may be some kind of eviction clause that covers drugs, crime or ASB. I'm not sure.

Of course if the problem tenant ends up in prison for running a cannabis farm etc, that may enable "eviction".

BlackBird75

GDB2222 wrote: »

I think that most sensible landlords would be concerned about a tenant with those problems being in their property, whether or not they were concerned about issues with other occupants. In theory, the LL's own lease could be at risk if the occupier is breaching the conditions of the lease.

Indeed.
All the more reason for the OP to locate and contact the landlord (and freeholder) ASAP.

SmashedAvacado

Its a bit sad that no-one has suggested having a chat with her about whether she's ok, whether she would mind being a bit more considerate etc. She probably has serious issues and has had a rough life and ought not to be vilified for the way things have turned out for her. Empathy and tolerance can be useful in these situations. I am not saying that it will work, but perhaps before reporting her, it might do no harm to have a chat with her

BlackBird75

SmashedAvacado wrote: »

Its a bit sad that no-one has suggested having a chat with her about whether she's ok, whether she would mind being a bit more considerate etc. She probably has serious issues and has had a rough life and ought not to be vilified for the way things have turned out for her. Empathy and tolerance can be useful in these situations. I am not saying that it will work, but perhaps before reporting her, it might do no harm to have a chat with her

In my experience, this will not work.
The landlord can speak to her.

Unfortunately, with the increasing use of spice, monkey dust etc, this kind of problem is only going to become more common.