Neighbours making life a misery - help!

[Cosmogirl]

Hi,

I'm posting this for two people very close to me. Their lives are being made a living hell by their evil next door neighbours. They have been verbally abused - been called perverts, wife-beater - every pathetic insult under the sun.
They are moving house because they can't stand it anymore....I'm really concerned about it - the police don't seem to care. Anyone else been in a similar situation? Any advice??

[Tanee58]

This is horrible - I hear of a lot of similar cases at work and there's no easy solution. They need to contact their council's ASBAT team - even if the neighbours aren't council tenants they should be able to do something. If the council won't respond, they should contact their local councillors or even their MP.

[Cosmogirl]

Thanks for the advice. It is depressing how little victims of this type of abuse can do. The police have had to be called several times but each time they send a community officer who is absolutely useless and says something like 'can't you just stay out of each other's way?'....Easier said than done unfortunately.

[movingmumma]

Hello Cosmogirl, we had a nasty situation with a former neighbour and things went from bad to worse... I'd like to agree with Tanee58 that the council should help but in the end if your friends have the possibility of moving that might be the best thing. We didn't have any name calling but had a very unpleasant person living in the flat below us. It really got us down... now living elsewhere and life is so much better - in fact life is wonderful and it seems like a lifetime ago we were in that situation.

We did think about doing pathetic things like going back and putting silly notes through their door, bananas up exhausts etc but moving made us realize that wasn't a positive thing (satisfying though it certainly would have been). It was hugely frustrating that we were the ones who had to budge but in the end we presevered our own sanity and that is ultimately the most important thing. HOpe your friends are doing okay... unfortunately for people up and down the country you really don't know your neighbours until you move in!

[sparklygothkat]

WE were in a similar situation 2 years ago, we were verbal abused, had things stolen, cars damaged, and threatened on a daily basis. It made me and DH very ill. We did move last year because of it, and we are a lot happier and can walk out the door without having to check to see if someone is outside waiting to abuse us.

The police were called when they threatened my Dh's life, but they put it down as a civil dispute (WTF??) and didn't take it any further.. The council were useless too.

If your friends are moving then they will just have to bear it until they are in the moving van and then they can stick up two fingers to the pratts that are making their lives hell (we did, very childish, but it was like a new chapter)

[CCMcGarry]

The way forward in this is to log and record everything keep a diary of everything, you should be able to get some from your local council. never speak to the person directly except for hello or goodbye but make sure if you do have any conversations then record them with an voice app on the phone or with video in the pocket so the voices are heard. Always have a friendly conversation with them first so you can say you have tried not matter how unreasonable they are keep the conversation on the level and never be abusive or let them know they are getting to you.

[CCMcGarry]

BTW, any emails to the council quote Section 17 of the Crime and disorder act, as the council have a binding commitment to protect people. Do look that up.

[maras2]

14 year old ZOMBIE THREAD.