Neighbour troubles advice

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Chris
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Advice please
My Mother in Law is a really wonderful Woman aged 77 and has got Parkinsons disease... she has been Living in her current Flat (private flats) for 12 years with no trouble and no problems and gets on well with all the other tenants

then at beginning of December the family from hell has moved in upstairs with Late now rows and stuff being smashed and raging arguments of the four letter word variety going on

3 of the tenants including my M-In-Law have complained about 4 times about the excessive noise
and supposedly they got a letter warning them about a month ago

3 weeks of quiet
then 2 nights ago the all night raging and mega bust ups have been happening
one of the tenants (57 yr old woman who lives alone) knocked on the door and asked if they would please try to keep the noise down

she got a mouthful of abuse about her being the bitch who is trying to get them evicted etc etc
she left the scene
apparently little is being done to have these morons sorted out

none of them work and the 2 adults are alleged Alcoholics and a 15 year old girl who screams and shouts endlessly

I have told my mother in Law to call the police but is terrified of the reprisals if she does - and is a complete wreck... bordering on hysterical this morning

the poor woman is truly terrified and the Parkinsons she has just compounds everything

I would appreciate any advice as to what we can do to help her ASAP the housing group who own the flats seem to be doing very little
a quick update is that 5 other tenants have also complained (5 in total)

thanks
Chris
 
Contact your council environmental health officer. They should investigate but be warned it could be a protracted affair as your MIL may be asked to maintain a diary of occurences.
 
God I feel so sorry for her. We moved because of similar issues almost 7 years ago, but at this point in her life I really don't know what her options are.

I really hope it gets sorted for her, because bad neighbours can just drain the life out of you.
 
Chris, it possibly won't initially help the harassment, but is your mum in law part of the local Parkinson's Society?, the society is pretty good at putting pressure on local organizations, and are a wealth of advice on who to see/where to go?

I know the local secretary of the Society, I could pas any info on.

On a lighter note, when are you popping round for a cuppa?
 
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Any serious rows and each tenant should phone police but without talking to the protagonists first. This way they'll have no idea who contacted them.

Council should be phoned frequently until they throw them out. Mention the lecturer in Nottingham that recently topped herself because the police and council wouldn't pull their fingers out and deal with her threatening neighbours.

There's some new legislation around that's supposed to trigger problem families being dealt with.
 
Get some audio evidence, record the goings on and then take a copy to the police and council and threaten them with the press or neighbours from hell program if they don't act.
 
Might be worth getting all of the tenants together to put on big complaint in with the landlord . Strength in numbers is sometimes better than one .
 
Thanks for the input everyone... I feel very sorry for her - a hard working woman who is now to frail to defend herself and Life has dealt her a raw deal with her husband dying from cancer a number of years ago and now she has got Parkinsons
and to top that off living in fear of these morons

my 21 yr old daughter has decided she is going to stay at her flat with her and record on her phone if round 3 starts tonight
hoping her phone will pick up the noise should it happen for a 3rd night in a row

another point is that apparently these flats have some kind of tenant agreement where you pay for the actuall indiduals pay who live in the flats
and as far as I understand the woman and daughter are the only one's supposed to be living in this flat and the main 'male' culprit is the boy friend should not be living there at all
having said that the daughter seems to have a party with hordes of teenagers coming in when they adults are out at the pub

so this is another avenue I would like to know more about...
anyway thanks for the input

Les
I am off to York in the morning - remember if you fancy a ride out PM ASAP
I only have one outlet to visit so should not take more than 40 minutes on the job then home again leaving Home at 8.10am in the morning
 
I do feel for you when it comes to rubbish neighbours. I actually live in a respectable street where the 36 council houses are now privately owned (including mines) where people took advantage of the "Right To Buy" scheme . . . apart from the one house that still remains as a council house . . . the one that happens to be next door to me.
In that house lives a drunk mother and two teenage boys, one who I nickname Lucifer (the Devil) and every night I hear bangings, crashing and shouting. Oh, and they have two Jack Russells where they are constantly barking and whining.
It did come to a head last month when I went around here and had a go at them because I couldn't take it any more. It was when a load of teenage boys and girls all converged onto next door and into my garden one evening which caused me to have had enough of it . . . and since then things seemed to have calmed down.
But I'm sure it'll be a temporary thing as it all becomes noisy with the lengthening daylight and the warmer weather.

A shame there are those type of inconsiderate people and its something no one should have to put up with.
 
Try contacting your local Environmental Health Dept - by law, the local authorities have a duty to deal with any noise that they consider to be what's known as a 'statutory nuisance'.

If they kick off at night tell her not to go round just phone the police - she is concerned at hearing a girl screaming etc etc.

I realise that the girl is part of the problem, but any copper sent round to investigate, which they will if its a report of a young girl screaming - will no doubt tell them to quieten down.
 
weealien said:
Try contacting your local Environmental Health Dept - by law, the local authorities have a duty to deal with any noise that they consider to be what's known as a 'statutory nuisance'.

If they kick off at night tell her not to go round just phone the police - she is concerned at hearing a girl screaming etc etc.

I realise that the girl is part of the problem, but any copper sent round to investigate, which they will if its a report of a young girl screaming - will no doubt tell them to quieten down.
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I've tried that, the section that deals with noise is reluctant to come and sit outside a house at 2am for a few nights just to catch them out, they just send out pathetic warning letters that they rarely follow up on.

neil_g said:
I think you can "dob" them in to the benefits office about the boyfriend living there?
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Ooooooo. Now that's a cheap shot. And unlikely to solve any problems, just cause more. At least wait until you've got them moved to another location first :)
 
neil_g said:
I think you can "dob" them in to the benefits office about the boyfriend living there?
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in what way can I 'dob' him in - I really dont know anything about them apart from the fact that in these flats they should be paying more rent as the woman gets assistance with paying for it and he by all accounts should not be living there
so I am not sure what benefits he might be claiming all I know for fact is that he is pretty much drunk 24/7 and very belligerent and looks like he will fall over at any moment

will certainly be looking into the options about enviromental health and contacting the Parkinsons people

another suggest made to me is contacting the Ombudsman but not sure how to go about that
 
I would imagine the best think to do is buy a decibel meter the video record the readings and make a log of the tines and dates, then hand this to the environmental health. If they don't do anything quick enough go to a local paper.
 
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If your mum is on benefits then go see a solicitor for free to act on her behalf
Carries more weight
 
Awful situation for your poor MIL.
You mentioned that 5 others have also complained?
How about all 5 or 6 tenants arranging some sort of system (A quick text-round or such like) so that when the neighbours kick off they can all text each other, and all 5 other tenants call the police at the same time, or at least within minutes of each other.
This way the police are far more likely to show up quickly.
I would have thought that the police won't tolerate too many call-outs to the same address for the same thing before they start putting pressure on the tenants from hell.
For her sake I hope it gets sorted soon.
Good luck.
 
You also need to start making a diary with times of events etc. Also if possible make recordings of the noise. Keep phoning the noise people as eventually they will take it to another level.

Noisy antisocial neighbours should not be tolerated. It will be having an effect on your mother in law mentally and physically.
 
Feel so sorry for your mother-in-law. My parents went through this nonsense several years ago.

One bit of advice I will give you, try not to confront them personally, as you will end up with nothing but grieve for it. Did this myself, had hassle for a while, but it did sort it out so I was happy enough to "take it on the chin" to sort the parent's situation out.

Hopefully you'll get this sorted quickly.
 
Slightly different scenario but still a noise issue....

About 300-400 yards from where I live is a park car park. There was a growing trend of anywhere up to 5 cars turning up, wheel spinning, handbrake turns, etc.

During the day it's annoying, when they turn up at 10pm, middnight and 02:30 it's a complete nightmare.

I called the police a few times but these morons were long gone by the time they turned up. The local community officer advised me to log a call EVERYTIME they caused a problem with the logic being if you keep reporting it something will have to happen.

As it happens they sent regular patrols around the park/car car park and one even caught some little scrote :D He was in his Mum's car but properly licensed. The copper spoke to me afterwards and said the kid had 3 girls in the car with him and he said "OK, this is your Mum's car, how do you think she'd feel if you got a section 52 for driving like an idiot and her car was crushed?"

At that point he went white and promised not to do it again :lol:

It's a sad reflection of budget cuts but the police haven't got the resources to pursue a lot of the stuff they probably used to but they will try and focus their efforts on a recurring problem as long as it keeps getting reported.

I hope things get better for this poor woman soon!
 
First thing is write to the local authority environmental health department, copy in your MP.
In the meantime, first sign of shouting and screaming call Police. Don't say it's noisy, just that there are sounds of violence. Well, screaming is just that so completely honest motives....ish.
A couple of visits might well solve the issue, and in any event it wont do any harm, police wont tell them who called. Of course it helps if a number of residents call.
If it's a private rental the problem family are in, contact the letting agents or landlords, their lease will have restrictions on anti social behavior.
 
I'm pleased to hear she's had a little peace and quiet the last couople of nights. I hope it conitnues for her.
 
this site has lots of experience help and support as well as advice

http://www.nfh.org.uk/

(neighbours from hell forum)
 
GHP said:
Awful situation for your poor MIL.
You mentioned that 5 others have also complained?
How about all 5 or 6 tenants arranging some sort of system (A quick text-round or such like) so that when the neighbours kick off they can all text each other, and all 5 other tenants call the police at the same time, or at least within minutes of each other.
This way the police are far more likely to show up quickly.
I would have thought that the police won't tolerate too many call-outs to the same address for the same thing before they start putting pressure on the tenants from hell.
For her sake I hope it gets sorted soon.
Good luck.
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:plusone: I am not sure about your area, but the environmental health for ours operate 24/7. As above a few calls around the same time to them will hopefully have some impact on the situation.
 
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