Neighbour harassment, can I refuse to reply to direct letters?

insomniac-uk

Hi everyone, I need some advice on what to do in this situation, sorry it's a bit long.

I don't have a good relationship with my neighbours due to their constant harassment, which included letters through the post, I had to contact the police to warn them to stop.

The neighbours wanted access to my property for maintenance, I told them to use a solicitor, which they did, I replied back myself to the solicitor agreeing, asking for the date, start and end times. (I did show the letter to a solicitor and they told me it was fine to reply myself)

The neighbours replied themselves with only a date and start time. I messaged the solicitors asking for the neighbours to stop direct contact and told them I would not answer direct letters but for the solicitor to please confirm the end time.

I now get a direct letter a few days before work is to start as a reminder, they used the excuse that they don't have my solicitors name and address.

I want to send a letter back to the solicitor reminding them I will not answer direct mail, and will only reply to letters from a solicitor, is this a bad idea?

For the future should I send a cease and desist letter to get them to stop contacting me or directly go to the police to try and get a formal warning (they did say to contact them again). They have been harassing me the past 3 years and I am sick of it.

Thank you.

Brie

Maybe if you could provide some detail of the harassment people would better understand what the situation is.  

But to the point....if you have asked for specifics that have not been provided and provided in a way that distresses you then I would suggest you should write again to the solicitor to say that access won't be provided as your questions haven't been answered.  Make it clear that you are providing a copy to the police as well.  Be prepared to be at home the day work is supposed to start to ensure that any trades people they have employed know that they have no right to access your property.  

Sounds like quite a nightmare frankly.

user1977

In general you cannot insist that another party uses a solicitor - though if you believe the solicitor is still instructed by them, it would make sense to only communicate via the solicitors rather than risk confusion.

pinkshoes

Personally I would just reply directly to them stating that again you are happy for the work to go ahead but the work cannot start until you are notified of both a start and completion date.

(And compensation of £XX per day if the deadline is not met??)

Unless you have a court order stating they cannot contact you directly then you cannot force them to communicate through a solicitor.

turnitround

Is this still the same unresolved issue about access for nieghbours workmen that you posted about a year ago?

insomniac-uk

Brie said:

Maybe if you could provide some detail of the harassment people would better understand what the situation is. 

Edited out some the harassment, but did involve letters through the post withe personal attacks and threats of court and police action, if we didn't agree with them. The police told them to move their cameras, stop filming us and not to contact us directly and to use a solicitor or mediator.

user1977 said:

In general you cannot insist that another party uses a solicitor - though if you believe the solicitor is still instructed by them, it would make sense to only communicate via the solicitors rather than risk confusion.

They told me to not contact them directly too, that's why I have been contacting their solicitor.

insomniac-uk

turnitround said:

Is this still the same unresolved issue about access for nieghbours workmen that you posted about a year ago?

No at that time they could get the work done from their own property and did so. This time they want access for gutter cleaning. I said they could have access if they agreed to pay for any damages, give me the date and approx start and end times, but they refused and threatened to take me to court, this is when I asked them to use a solicitor.

DullGreyGuy

Ahh, so we are in a tit for tat situation with them probably posting on another forum about their unreasonable neighbour. 

Sending a direct letter asking for access to your property is more than reasonable unless you have gotten an injunction against them and even that would have carveouts for certain things. You are under no obligation to respond to any letter that you receive, but there can be consequences if you don't. It's unreasonable to say you'll only reply to a solicitor but the world doesn't have to be reasonable, they can equally be unreasonable back to you. 

Hopefully you aren't intending to sell up any time soon as this sort of thing will escalate and certainly our legal pack had questions about neighbour disputes etc. 

insomniac-uk

DullGreyGuy said:

Ahh, so we are in a tit for tat situation with them probably posting on another forum about their unreasonable neighbour. 

Probably its just all turned into a ridiculous drama at this point.

From everyone's replies I see that asking them not to contact me is a separate issue than the access one and to deal with it at a later time.  As for the access issue and I will just send a letter to their solicitor asking for the times again.

Thank you everyone for your help

Schwarzwald

if you dont like them, why not refuse access to your property all together?
Or are you under any obligation to do so?
there must be a way to clean their gutters from their end, and if not, is it your problem?

markin

Gutter 'cleaning' should be a 2hr job, They likely cant be certain of any start/end times, The company could miss a time slot very easily, Unless you think they will set up scaffold and leave it for 6 months?