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What schemes are there to help victims

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Thunderchild | 07:59 Sat 02nd Jun 2012 | Law
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I won't go into too much detail as this could become a slightly long story. Basically my sister is being targeted by people in her street. After complaining about excessive noise from the neighbours, first her front wall was pushed over then mud was thrown at her windows and now her car has been damaged. She is 27 and lives on her own and now is rather scared about living there. Are there any schemes that councils or police run to help people in this situation move out. I think if she stays there she will go nuts, and this is getting very expensive and no insurance does not pay for it because when you can't afford over the top insurance there is an excess to pay and they never do enough damage to make it worthwhile in one claim. So she must move as soon as possible but cannot afford to do so and by the time she's able to maybe her house will be made worthless. The police are not exactly helpful granted by don't know who it is (or that's the official version) but this cannot go on. They have said they will now take it more seriously as her car has been damaged, personally I can't see what they can do as I know they don't have the resources. The easiest way is that she moved out as soon as possible but she cannot afford it and it would not happen quickly enough if she were to do it alone.
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Not my field of expertise, but surely she needs to pursue this more with the Police, and I'd suggest going to the citizens' advice bureau. CCTV might help if she can afford to install it.
Can't help with the support services - others will know more than me.

But I'd buy a cheap video/cctv camera, set it up very inconspicuously inside a window and try to get some evidence about who was doing these things. The police would then have to act. If they don't then a letter to your MP might get some action ...
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CCTV is useless, it won't help in the dark and people in hoodies are not exactly identifiable. As she has no drive she sometimes has to leave her car further up the road.

And no she does not have the money for it, that is the point. If this goes on any longer she will be bankrupt to put it bluntly. No car = no job = no income = no mortgage paid = loose house + a huge debt. She cannot afford to move and if this goes on she never will and if the house is further damaged it won't exactly hold any value.
as far as i know there are no schemes that you are suggesting, is her house even on the market?
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not yet. moving also costs money she does not have, she will have to pay fees on selling the house and solicitors fees on buying a house, which will cost £3000 she does not have assuming she finds a place for the same money.
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naturally I'm sure that as soon as a "for sale" sign goes up "people" will do yet more damage, because this is about being nasty just for the fun of it, because they can and have nothing to loose even if caught (Unless the government gets wise and starts stopping benefits of trouble makers)
if their aim is to make her move then damaging a for sale house is counter productive. if the damage is a wall and mud, it's not too disasterous - mud can be cleaned and the wall prob wasnt in a good state anyway if it coyld be pushed over
"the goverment" wont do anything unless she is proactive in reporting stuff.
moving fees can be paid out of the proceeds of the sale usually /(if there are any)
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God you must work for the police or something. No the wall was in very good condition, it was so sturdy that it all 10 feet of it went down in one lump when pushed from the two pillars and then shattered when it hit the pavement. No sooner had it been replaced with a fence they damaged the car.

Not wanting to be funny but throwing mud at windows is not something we should have to put up with. And no your missing the point. I'm sure they will love her to stay there, you don't get it do you? these people have nothing to loose and are having a great time making her life a misery.

These things have all been reported and well the police have actually just decided to "link" all of these incidents together as they were treating each as a separate incident.

When your house is one of the cheapest going there will be no "profits" to pay for the expense of moving. Owning ones own home does not mean one has or can "raise" the money to just up-sticks and move.
imho, if the only alternative is going bankrupt, then she might be better selling her house for a lower price and moving somewhere smaller, as she will lose the house anyway if she goes bankrupt (which ironically, you also need money to do!)
If she is scared of living there, could you put her up for a bit? or are you/the rest of the family in a position to help with some money?
ps i know she shouldn't HAVE to move, or accept a loss on her house, but she is in the situation she is in and it doesn't look like it's going to change
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the only thing she can get cheaper is a house on another ex council estate (and therefor full of "social housing") or a flat, A flat will be as bad if not worse as you have people below, above and either side so you have a higher risk of a troublesome neighbor, and again many flats are social housing (I went through the same reasoning myself and despite my dad wanting me to move out refused to buy a flat which initially is all I could afford until he helped me with a deposit)

She has nowhere to put her belongings (house full of furniture she would have to buy again if moving), I have offered some of my house for storage but she does not think it is enough for all of her gear that she does not want to loose and she would have to move back in with my dad which would mean rearranging it again as he was just setting it up how he wanted it after we both moved out.

I have no money I can lend my sister as I'm just managing at the moment and my dad can't help really as any of what he had spare he gave/lent to both of us for house deposits. So things are pretty tough. No she does not want to stay there, after buying the house we found out that it belonged to a drug dealer but while all of the neighbors try to blame his "friends" we know it is something to do with the benefit scrounger next door but no one will speak out. It is now clear that it is a free for all zone for young people on benefits and they having nothing to loose in causing trouble. We now know that TWO cars have recently been burnt out on the same road.

It is certain that a lot of this is due to jealousy. People don't like the fact that a young lady is able to buy a house and live independently while they cannot be bothered to get a job and pay their own way so putting them to shame. I know that when I moved into my ex-council house benefit scroungers a few doors down were not happy and didn't like it, fortunately it was just a few verbal comments that I ignored and looking like I was ready to plough straight over one of them whith a car battery I was carrying from my car to my house if he did not get out of my way seemed to sort it (we were coming from opposite directions and one of us had to give way I guess my battery was heavier than his fags).
You seem to be putting obstacles in the way of the help being offered
CCTV is a great idea, doesn't need to be hidden and in fact the more seeable it is the better IMO. Hoodies or not, it is perfectly possible one of them may not turn up with a hoody on. If you know they are wearing hoodies, then you must be seeing them do the damage, in which case, video them, dark or not. Get an outside light that turns on via movement, then it wont be dark
Did your sister continue with the noisy neighbour dispute? What happened if she did? If she didn't, why didn't she?
And more importantly, who told them it was your sister who made the complaint?
Of course she would not have to buy more furniture to move into a flat, just downsize what she has
Thats a pretty sweeping statement about social housing as well. Dont knock it, you are likely to end up with bad neighbours just as you are on a private housing estate, as she already knows but you are more likely to end up with good ones as they outweigh bad ones anywhere you live.
Why are you assuming that the 'benefit scroungers'have nothing to lose?
You've made a lot of assumptions, none of which you now to be true
*know
I live in a privately rented (non social housing) house and some of my neighbors are scum, there is a street not far away with 'social housing' and I would prefer the people who live there as my neighbours.
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Well unfortunately I don't know the benefit system inside out.

Listen, if you intended doing harm to someones car wouldn't you try to conceal your identity ? no we have not seen them. and the little that I have ever seen of CCTV is that it is damn useless at identifying anybody because the image quality is so poor they are not light in the area, and from the sounds of it they are going to pretty gimmicky cameras to. They have a memory card my sister will have to take out and view herself because the police cannot be bothered.

I'm not particularly knocking social housing, my direct neighbours rent from a housing association and I get on very well with them. But obviously you risk a higher turnover of occupiers in a rented place and that increases the risk of trouble.

yes my sister complained to the council about the noisy neighbour, who was sent a letter by the council, the evening she would have received that letter the wall was pushed down probably by her boyfriend and a friend. Somebody further down the road saw two blokes and the girl walking away after the bang, but of course being a coward like the rest he would not speak he would only say he saw them but would not describe them and tried to suggest it was friends of the old homeowner. That morning when the police came round after my sister called again to say she did not think enough was being done we later saw the neighbour animatedly talking on the phone at her front window. She then it came out and declared to have not heard anything which of course is a lie and impossible because somebody further down the road did. She then apologised for the noise they had made a week earlier. The boyfriend has never been seen again so I guess the phone call was to tell him not to come back because she had got the wind up and wanted to break it off with him as she realised she was getting deep into it to which his reaction is now to target my sister because she is the cause of the breakup in his mind. Lots of assumption yes but then I am not a coward like my sister's neighboursv and I do have a brain and I do know about bullies having been bullied all my life. The neighbour certainly knows it was my sister she only has two neighbours and the other one keeps to herself because she also is a coward and would never complain.
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well it seems the police or the council or whoever runs the damp social-service have chosen to drop all of the troublemakers in my sisters Road. For which the rest of the innocent residents have to pay the consequences. And if they complain life is made head.
It appears to be pot luck with neighbours. My wife and I live in an ex-council house on a former council estate with plenty of housing association tenants. We've been here for 12 years and it's alwasy very quiet and peaceful. There's never any vandalism or thefts and no one plays music loudenough for us to hear. Other than lawnmowers and the like it's even peaceful in the evenings and weekends. That's completely different to the other house I owned. Although the area was supposedly more respectable two neighbours always played music loud and the sons of another were continually stealing vehicles, breaking into sheds and houses and causing general damage.

I think a video camera of CCTV camera would be a good idea Thunderchild. At least it is proof of your sister's claims and it may well provide evidence good enough to use.
So, what happened to the complaint and how did they find out it was your sister?
Me again,

What has the benefit system got to do with it Thunderchild? Whether the perpetrators are in receipt of benefits or not is nothing to do with whatever is going on with your sister. They can't lose benefits if they play music loud or push over walls - only if they are working whilst claiming benefits and that's nothing to do with this matter. Antisocial or criminal behavious are matters for the police and the courts to deal with such as issueing ASBOs.

Perhaps that's the route to go. However, there has to be very good evidence for court orders to be issued - which comes back to the camera!

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