Dodgy neighbours... Please help, don\'t know what to do!

[jem_bob]

Boyfriend and I are part of part-rent/part-buy scheme. Own 40% of our flat in lovely new building, but share block with 4 housing association households. These people are less than desirable. One family continuously dump their car in the communal car park and don\'t give a damn who they block in and one other household owns a huge commercial van which they constantly block everyone else in with. Same man also appears to be a child/wife abuser given by the racket we could hear at 8:30am on Sunday morning. Screaming, banging, crying, shouting... very frightening. Lastly we have what appears to be a drug dealer... people coming and going at all hours of the day and night, picking up little parcels whilst they\'re in there (yes, we\'ve seen them). He also appears to be off his face on drugs or alcohol the whole time and continually slams his front door which shakes the whole building. We counted it slamming 9 times in 15 minutes on sunday night. I have voiced these concerns to the housing association at least 4 times in the past month and nothing has been done. We were told 3 weeks ago that a letter would be sent out (damn lot of good a letter will do!). Found out today the letter still hasn\'t been sent yet. This is making me truly miserable. I hate going home at night and wish to God we\'d never bought the place. What steps can I take next? The housing association just aren\'t taking us seriously.

[zzxxee]

tell your houseing officer you are going to contact the police and do so keep a diary of the noise and events that happen over the next few weeks and show them to your h/a also contact your local m.p about this also if no joy happens after i would contact your local paper then i bet your h/a will take action then good luck

[sara3]

sell up and go. it's not going to get 100% better. sorry, it must be horrible for you x

[jem_bob]

Thanks. I have cancelled our direct debit and told the h/a that we won't pay them another penny until they address these issues seriously. They just think sending out a damn letter will fix the problem. They haven't even done that yet, after promising to do so 3 weeks ago. We've sent photo's of evidence of neighbours blocking us in, as they requested... but they haven't done anything with the information. Wish we'd called the police on sunday when all that noise was going on down there, sounded very violent and frightening. It bothers me that if we did want to sell up and go, no one would buy the place when they see what the neighbours are like!

[redcrx]

i dont think that refusing to pay your rent will help you in the slightest, not a wise thing to do.

Call the police when domestic disturbances are going on, call the police when you feel the guy is dealing drugs, call the council every time something happens.

Enough complaints and things will start to be taken seriously. It took 2 years before our neighbour was evicted and that was following numerous letters fron the council, police raids, eviction and court appearances etc etcf.

Either you start fighting this by complaining and complaining but be prepared for the long haul OR you sell up and face the losses.

[Doolallygirl]

I wouldn't recommend stopping your direct debit, I'm pretty sure as you have a contract with the HA you are legally bound to pay them regardless of your complaints. You will get a mark against your credit rating if you fail to make payment and you could end up in court for breaking your contract. Get the direct debit back on track but just keep complaining, logging who you talk to, what your complaint is and when the complaint took place and against who. The more you log, the more you complain, the quicker a solution will be sought.

[Androcles]

The advice you have been given is very sound. In dealing with Anti-social behaviour you have to be more persistent that the offenders. If you are getting nowhere with the Housing officer go to their boss or even the Managing Director of the Association and be very firm. As the others have said, complain every time you have cause and keep a log of all incidents. The senior officers in the police tend to react to spikes in the numbers of complaints and if you also get your local council or councils on board , they will also add pressure. Find out if your council has a Community Safety Department and if so if there is an Anti-social behaviour officer and contact them. Also look up your local Neighbourhood Policing Team on your police authority Website and complain direct to them.

Most areas have a joint action group of partner agencies so if you can find out who the players are and these are often made up of Housing Associations, Police, Councils, Fire brigade, Social Services etc, so you will start to build up a net of agencies to involve. If they are all reporting complaints from a particular area, they will tend to try and do something about it as it looks as if they can't solve problems if the complaints continue.

You need to get as good at playing the system as the the nuisances!