The low down is, that i have complained to my local authorities and found the process so long winded it isn’t worth it. The police are also uninterested unless the guy gets violent heaven forbid! A neighbour also complained and was threatened by the women. I don’t need this kind of s~~~ in my life.
I used to practice as a lawyer and have some expertise in this area. You’re taking the wrong approach to this.
The situation is resolvable, but you do need to be patient and willing to exhaust the avenues of complaint. I’ll outline here what I would normally expect you to do in this situation. You may have taken some of these steps already, but it’s worth recapping.
I suggest you log all incidents in diary form. Also speak to neighbours who are also suffering and take statements from them, and furthermore encourage them to keep diaries too.
Once you’ve collected together some evidence, contact the noise abatement team at the local Council. Submit a written complaint to them, and also complain to your local neighbourhood policing team (the PCSOs are best for dealing with this, rather than police officers). Make it clear to both that you expect action. If they don’t co-operate and help you, then they are simply not doing their jobs, which is a serious matter as these incidents could escalate, so you should complain. I am particularly concerned at the response from the police, which looks very unprofessional and irresponsible (though I am not entirely surprised), but remember the police are busy and it may be that you will find you get a better response from the PCSOs, who are more used to dealing with these problems.
What should happen is that the PCSOs should visit them and inform them that they have received complaints (they won’t say from who) and tell them the noise, etc. has to stop. They should also receive a letter from the Council’s noise abatement team, telling them pretty much the same.
That should at least reduce the problem, if not stop it altogether, but if it doesn’t help, then it’s time to write to the landlord. The name and address of the landlord can be found very easily via the Land Registry. You may wish to speak with a solicitor about this, but the long and short of it is that you would be telling the landlord that they are under a duty to take reasonable steps to curb or eliminate the noise nuisance and anti-social behaviour, up to and including removing the tenants. If the landlord does not co-operate, then you can threaten to sue the landlord for the nuisance on the basis that they have not taken steps reasonably within their control to reduce or eliminate the nuisance. I can provide a draft letter and case law on this, should you wish to handle this yourself.
It’s true that these issues would need to be declared if you ever sell the house, but you can’t let that dictate your life. The practical reality of the situation is that if you want to continue living there, then you need to address the problem. Having to declare this to a future buyer is a small problem anyway – by the time you tell them about it, they will have already viewed your property, put in an offer, and agreed to buy it (subject-to-contract) and if the problem has been solved, it’s unlikely to put them off.
alchemist 3 years, 7 months ago.
