Problem upstairs tenant, shared entrance & harassment

gentlecleanser

Hi, I am looking for any advice regarding problems with the upstairs tenant, shared entrance & harassment.

My husband and I ( and our 2 year old) live in the ground floor flat of a converted house. We own our flat and garden. The upstairs flat is rented out. 
We have a shared pathway, shared external front door and small shared hallway leading to two internal front doors.
A new tenant moved in in Jan 2021. Since moving in he has accused on a regular basis (on average once a month)of various things including: 
- stealing his packages 
- stealing a lock off his internal front door and gluing onto ours (one of the two locks that we fitted on our door when moving in)
-breaking into his flat,
-breaking into his flat and stealing a piece of fish he left cooking in a pan whilst he went to the shop
-stealing his sofa and putting it in our lounge (says he saw on facebook, neither of us have used facebook for years)
- stealing a bike that he says he left in the garden when he was evicted from the downstairs flat, where he used to live (he has never lived downstairs in our flat)
-stealing every food shop has ever ordered to be delivered to the house (that happens to be at the exact day and time that we have actually booked our food shop to be delivered)

He comes downstairs and follows us in/out of the flat every time he heres the doors open 9when we are leaving, coming home, our doorbell rings and we answer etc)
Usually he follows out and then will start asking us kind of polite ways things like ' funny how you now have that bike, looks very much like my bike which was taken' 'its just SO strange that YOUR food shops come but MINE always going missing....'Now i am not accusing you, but its very strange that somebody came to the door to deliver a package to me, and you came out and take it and close your door' (a parcel was delivered addressed to me, they rang my doorbell, i nipped in and out to avoid seeing him' 

One time he did aggressively bang on our door and shouted and shouted at us about the fish. For this the police we called, however they went and spoke to him and came back and said he appears to not have a grasp on reality, really sorry but this is a social services thing and nothing we can do....

We have taken various steps ourselves, to try and ease the situation. We try to stay out of his way, avoid contact. We have spoken to his brother and have contacted him every time it has happened to ask him to try and talk to him.  We avoid whenever we can, getting any parcels/ post delivered to the property. We have contacted his landlord that we are on good terms with every-time, however he has stopped replying. 

We are now at the point of considering this harassment as it is just so often. It is causing me extreme anxiety living below him. I dread leaving the house or coming home to find him waiting outside in case he yet again, has a go at us about stealing something. I dread when the doorbell goes, because even if they have not rung the upstairs doorbell, Joe will come down, open the door and want to know who/ what it is. I dread this so much, that we just avoiding get any parcels sent to our home as much as possible.  We get a weekly shop delivered and I am fearful of him coming down again, to imply this is his shop, we have stolen it, why hasn't his turned up etc etc. I will avoid getting the food delivery when I am in alone. 

It is making our situation very difficult, especially when I am home alone or coming or going with my 2-year-old daughter. 

We are recording every incident now (he shouts at us to stop recording, he didn't give permission etc) 

Has anyone got any advice on what we can do now?? 
His landlord is just not responding now, and talking calmly to him or his brother hasn't done anyhting.......

just wondering if anyone else has been through anything like this and how it was resolved. We are not in the position to be able to sell up and move.

theartfullodger

Your dispute us with occupant, not landlord.  

Follow excellent guidance on neighbour disputes on CaB website.

Although if seriously bad council have powers to shut down property (Google Croydon, music, closure order)

gentlecleanser

thank you, I have read the citzen advice website but i am still unsure what we can do. Report him to the council for harassment? 

Is a landlord within their right to put who they wish in the property, even if the property is unsuitable (Shared entrance) or the tenant is mentally unstable and we have no social care worker details....
Is there any way we can repot this to a social worker? should we even be doing that or should the landlord? 
Feels like we are having to clean up/ manage the mess of an unsuitable tenant 

Ditzy_Mitzy

Very unfortunately there's not a great deal you can do in this situation, other than move.  It's not a great answer, admittedly, and in a more benign society there would be help available for the bloke.  But there isn't.  Clearly there is a mental wellbeing concern; current thinking is that such people should live independently in the community.  Such an approach is good for certain individuals and detrimental to others.  It's certainly not 'one size fits all', despite what the Government and certain PC types say.  Sadly, the neighbours often end up as victims of the anti-social and occasionally downright odd behaviour that results from individuals who require support being left to their own devices.  It's cheap, you see.

Bottom line for you is that he's an adult and has a right to live there as long as the landlord continues to accept him as a tenant.  You might continue to keep records of these interactions, should they develop into something that could constitute criminal harassment.  Social services or the council might be interested if there are any real safeguarding concerns, but that would tend to be things like the man not taking proper care of himself.  

You come across as a decent person, and seem to want to engage.  My only concern is that sometimes paying attention to the odd behaviour leads to more of it.  Have you tried stonewalling him?  It's not a nice thing to do, but it might work and you've got to live there too!  

Slithery

gentlecleanser said:

Is a landlord within their right to put who they wish in the property, even if the property is unsuitable (Shared entrance) or the tenant is mentally unstable and we have no social care worker details....
Is there any way we can repot this to a social worker? should we even be doing that or should the landlord? 
Feels like we are having to clean up/ manage the mess of an unsuitable tenant 

Your issue has absolutely nothing to do with the landlord. Would you be complaining to his mortgage lender if he owned the property?

Greymug

this is an anonymous forum so you can tell us....did you steal his fish or not?

AdrianC

Greymug said:

this is an anonymous forum so you can tell us....did you steal his fish or not?

Do you have a cat...?

AdrianC

gentlecleanser said:

...
For this the police we called, however they went and spoke to him and came back and said he appears to not have a grasp on reality, really sorry but this is a social services thing and nothing we can do...

And this is absolutely bang-on the money.

@Ditzy_Mitzy is also bang-on.

This chap clearly has some issues. He needs and deserves help and support, but is not going to get them from social services, because they're simply too stretched.

980233

Chandler Bing had a room mate like that.
Sorry no other advice apart from the council social care team.

gentlecleanser

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

Very unfortunately there's not a great deal you can do in this situation, other than move.  It's not a great answer, admittedly, and in a more benign society there would be help available for the bloke.  But there isn't.  Clearly there is a mental wellbeing concern; current thinking is that such people should live independently in the community.  Such an approach is good for certain individuals and detrimental to others.  It's certainly not 'one size fits all', despite what the Government and certain PC types say.  Sadly, the neighbours often end up as victims of the anti-social and occasionally downright odd behaviour that results from individuals who require support being left to their own devices.  It's cheap, you see.

Bottom line for you is that he's an adult and has a right to live there as long as the landlord continues to accept him as a tenant.  You might continue to keep records of these interactions, should they develop into something that could constitute criminal harassment.  Social services or the council might be interested if there are any real safeguarding concerns, but that would tend to be things like the man not taking proper care of himself.  

You come across as a decent person, and seem to want to engage.  My only concern is that sometimes paying attention to the odd behaviour leads to more of it.  Have you tried stonewalling him?  It's not a nice thing to do, but it might work and you've got to live there too!  

Thank you for your clear and honest answer! I go through phases, so will try to not engage with him especially after a confrontation but he is loiters outside the front of the property a lot. I think 'fair enough, he has no outdoor space and it a shared path' so I will just say morning or hello. Maybe the latest one was because i said morning yesterday as I was with my mum.... I just hate living in this situation and to be perfectly honest, i do want him to move now. tried being nice for 9 months now

gentlecleanser

Greymug said:

this is an anonymous forum so you can tell us....did you steal his fish or not?

Whhhha ha ha ha sorry to keep you all in suspense........we did not steal his fish! or his sofa.....