Selling House - Nightmare Neighbour/Drain Issue

Romano10

Hi Everyone

I'm not sure where to put this, but hoping this is as good a place as any.

I've lived in my house for 20 years. My next door neighbours were on my doorstep from the day I moved in, putting their foot in my door and threatening me, and it soon became apparent, from their own admission, and their actions, that they had driven the previous owner of my house, and all of his tenants, out of my property, unbeknownst to me of course, and intended to do the same to me.

However I mostly avoided their many attempts to start problems with and for me, and was working most of the time anyway, so for the most part was successful.

However, I became ill and disabled about a decade ago, at which point they became much worse, being predictably prejudiced, and they have attacked me twice, threatened me with their corrupt police relative, who also eventually came round and threatened me, and falsified police records, deleted body worn video evidence etc. I fought the police through the appropriate channels, and the police were corrupt to the core, and totally ignored even my video evidence of my neighbours actions. So I reported them to the ICO, and the ICO eventually forced the police to change their falsified records, but were unable to do anything about the video evidence.

At which point my neighbours retaliated and poisoned my pets, which of course I couldn't report to the police, because the police do nothing.

Anyway, as you can imagine this has all been tremendous fun, and I have been trying to sell my house, with little success for the past two years.

One of the things my neighbours have been doing, since long before I moved here, is this. We share a drain. There is a manhole cover in my garden and one in theirs, my drain flows into their part of the drain and then the drain flows into the main drain in the road. So whenever he gets angry about something and can no longer attack me, because I now have CCTV, my charming neanderthal neighbour, blows up a condom to fit the width of the drain and blocks my drain with it, pushing it into the pipe that leads to my drain, leaving theirs free flowing. The distance from their manhole cover to the manhole at the back of my house then takes approximately three weeks to become totally blocked. So I can tell the exact day he has blocked it.

I would know they were doing it anyway, because they have now blocked it at least TWENTY FIVE TIMES, but a neighbour who has since died, boasted to me that they were going to do this when I first moved here, finding it amusing, and they have told me themselves, when threatening me, and the engineers sent by the insurance company have actually seen the condoms used to block the drain, and blown up like balloons, to exactly the width of the drain, float past as they have emptied it.

The last time they did this was September, the same time as poisoning my pets, when their police relative found out about the letter from the ICO changing all of his falsified police reports, (which just for the record said I was 'very paranoid and had simply imagined 20 years of them bullying me') and they have now done it again.

I wrote to the water company in desperation last year, and informed them of what was happening and asking for help, and they first ignored me, then claimed they had not received my letter. Then when they did say they had received my letter, the only action they took was to reduce the number of claims of my drain insurance down from 4 to 3! I strongly suspect that even if they did speak to my neighbours, my neighbours would obviously only tell them the usual gaslighting routine that I am 'mentally ill' and 'imagining it all' anyway.

I am trying to sell my house and my neighbours are currently trying to bully me to death, preferring that I leave my house in a box, rather than actually escape them. This is fact, they have actually said this. They found out I had said that the only reason I hadn't killed myself after their bullying for years already was because I didn't want to leave my pets behind, and threatened to poison my pets, which I reported to the police, so they had to wait several months before poisoning them anyway. They spread Hate and Smear Campaigns about me and do the usual prejudiced gaslighting nonsense of telling people I am 'mentally ill' and 'imagining' it all if anyone does find out what they are doing, and got their police relative to do the same as far as the police records were concerned, hence their retaliation when I was able to finally get them changed.

But their constant blocking of my drains, aside from the incredible stress it is causing me, is obviously also going to affect the little interest I ever get in my house, and I know they are doing this deliberately, because when I previously tried to sell my house approximately a decade ago, they would approach people at viewings and tell them there was a 'problem with the drains' etc.

So I am just wondering if anyone has any knowledge of these things and any ideas. I am beyond sick and tired of having to get my drains emptied, totally depressed with not being able to sell my house, and the engineer who comes to empty my drains literally walks in now and says 'So has he done it again?' referring to my nightmare neighbour. When I asked his advice about whether there was anything that I could do to prevent him blocking my drain, his only advice was 'Cut his brake cables?' which tbh sounds like a fantastic idea, but not one I am able to run with, sadly.

I am literally stuck here with these people controlling my sanitation and being able to block my drains at will, every three weeks if they feel like it, and given they only did this a month ago and are now doing it again, and for literally no reason I might add, this puts me in the position of being at the mercy of utter lunatics. I understand as far as I know that the water company (Anglian Water) are now responsible for emptying the drain because it is a shared drain (I also have plumbing and drainage insurance and up to three claims a year via Homeserve), but that doesn't make any difference to the fact that I don't see why I should live with people deliberately blocking my drains like this, to bully, harass me and wear me down, and feel like there must be something that can be done about this, but I don't know what.

Obviously my ideal solution would be that we just would not have a shared drain, because with bullying neighbours like this, giving them that power over basically my entire property shouldn't really be allowed, it's basically like having a landlord tbh, and I didn't buy my own property to have a lunatic landlord.

So if anyone has any knowledge, experience, ideas, I would be most grateful.

Doozergirl

Just sell.

Price it right, book viewings for a time they're unlikely to be home and just move on.

It's not worth it. You can't change some people's behaviour, so just take yourself out of the toxic environment.

shortcrust

Crikey, what a situation! Is this the same neighbour you were having problems with back in 2009?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=27268613&postcount=7

baldelectrician

One thought

If this is a known issue then next time it happens they could pump out the water to the sewer by lifting a manhole in the road and then (once it is clear) seek and find the 'blockage'

This 'blockage' is VERY likely to have finger prints on it and you will have evidence of the deed

Things will look better if they have CCTV drain survey evidence of the offending article prior to removing it.

markin

Rods are £15, 5 min a week would keep it clear.

[Deleted User]

Some Nilfisk pressure washers come with rods.., my ex used to use them when our drains were blocked.

LadyDee

A note of caution - "just sell" might not be as easy as it seems. http://www.leonkaye.co.uk/declaring-problems-with-the-neighbours-when-selling-your-property/

gomer

You'll never sell anyway with a history of disputes this long because you'll have to declare it & nobody will touch the place now.

Your best hope is auction or a property rescue company who wont care about the dispute history.

RelievedSheff

If they are as bad as you say why have you put up with this for 20 years?

Any house will sell priced right. If your house has been on the market for 2 years that may be what is putting potential buyers off.

Take it off the market until spring. Give it a bit of a spruce up then come spring get some new agents on the job and price it to sell quickly and get yourself out of there.

As stated above you will have to let potential purchasers know about the problems with the neighbours if they ask. You have to be honest.

gomer

RelievedSheff wrote: »

As stated above you will have to let potential purchasers know about the problems with the neighbours if they ask. You have to be honest.

And that's where i see the biggest obstacle to selling. Nobody in their right mind will want neighbours like that when they find out what has happened the last 20 years.

One of the key factors in buying is researching the sort of neighbourhood it is & finding out what the immediate neighbours are like. Once potential buyers find out what these particular neighbours are like they will run a mile if they have any sense.

[Deleted User]

Wow that is some dilemma OP.

Could you perhaps rent your property out? Find the most chavvy/scummy tenants you can find who can give your neighbours a taste of their own!

Failing that you may just need to cut your losses and sell at auction or sell cheap to an investor.

Life is too short to be living like this.