Potentially violent neighbour and I am too frightened to go back

Potentially violent neighbour and I am too frightened to go back

10:53 AM, 12th June 2017, About 7 years ago 13

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I moved into a housing association property 6 months ago and have had problems with my neighbours since day one.

The property is a house converted into two flats. I live upstairs and the neighbour is below me. I have to enter the property via a door at the front, and then head up the stairs. My only entrance is overlooked by my neighbour’s window. I have a front garden that is also overlooked by the same window. They are loud at 3am and whenever I go into the garden they stare at me through the window and over the side gate.

I have reported these issues to the housing association, but they haven’t done much to prevent this behavior. Well yesterday I got a bit annoyed with the banging and crashing and I popped my head out of my door and said give it a rest and speak to your landlord.

I actually thought I said it so quietly that nobody would hear me. Unfortunately my neighbour did hear my comment and came storming up the stairs. I managed to slam my door and lock it. My neighbour then started to bang hell out of the door. I turned on my laptops webcam and called the housing association.

While on the phone discussing the banging, my neighbour started knocking on the door again. I told him to go away or I will call the police. With that he started to scream and shout f this f that…And he kicked the door while shouting open that f’ing door. He left a big hole in the door.

After ending the call to the housing association I rang the police on 101. They said they would attend within the hour, but that didn’t happen, so I left the property and have no intention of going back while this nutty neighbour is still living there.

The housing association have told me to go back and call the police if he tries to attack me. Considering my only entrance/exit is 2 foot from his door, I would have no time to call police should he decide to pop out and punch me. If I hadn’t shut the door yesterday I am sure he would have kicked me instead of the door.

What can I do to solve this issue. The whole thing was recorded on my laptop and the police still haven’t done anything about it. No arrests no nothing. The housing association and police seem to want another incident. I can’t see any other reason they would suggest I return and call them if he kicks off again. Which I’m sure he will.

After thinking and thinking and thinking, and not being able to get his hands on me, I’m confident he will get angry and set upon me the moment he sees me. The problem with where I live is there are no witnesses about. It is just me and him. unless I have the police on the phone while I enter the property or a camera recording me going in, anything could happen.

If anyone can advise me on what to do it would be very much appreciated. I’ve been forced to sleep on a friends sofa, but this isn’t a long term solution.

Many thanks

Mart


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Comments

Mart B

22:49 PM, 17th June 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by JanetStreetPorter at 10/06/2019 - 02:29
hi, sorry to hear about your son. i got lucky because my housing association were celebrating 20 years in business and the threat I made on twitter to take the tent i was technically paying them rent to stay in made them move me the same day I posted it. in fact i refused to go back to flat for 6 weeks and all that time my landlord had no properties available BUT within an hour of of tweet they were on phone asking me to view a new house. which i did and moved in later that evening. If you haven't tried making noise about your issue in public it might help your case too. The housing association may allow a tenancy transfer without the noise though. Basically if they have an empty property suitable for your son takes it under same terms as other tenancy. These are different to mutual exchanges where one tenant swaps with another. This is an internal thing and if they say they have no suitable properties then tell them my story and with any luck their list of empties magically grows over night. I would suggest that whatever happens your son does NOT go homeless because the council probably wont help him. good luck

JanetStreetPorter

23:36 PM, 17th June 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Mart B at 17/06/2019 - 22:49
Thanks for responding Mart
That is a great result, I am so happy for you. Your twitter thing seemed to work wonders

In terms of the housing, was the new house better? Did it end up working in your favour or did you end up in a worse house/ area?

Our concern (as well as the man who attacked him) is that my son was extreamly lucky to be allocated this flat, it is UNUSUALLY nice, as most HA flats in this city are in really awful areas and are very estatey (not that I have got anything against estates - I was brought up on one, so was my son) but my son has special needs which means it is really unsuitable if he is housed on the 12th floor of a tower block in a red light district now he is living independently , so a transfer is something that means he will probably end up in a rubbish area
I have been screaming from the rooftops though, contacted MPs and everyone who will listen - however never thought of doing anything through social media - that is a fantastic idea

Thanks so much for your response and once again, I am really glad that things worked out for you. x

JanetStreetPorter

23:38 PM, 17th June 2019, About 5 years ago

Oh and one more thing, about the tenancy transfer, they did in fact say that normally, a transfer under harrasement, they would move the victim out of the city
This made me furious as my son needs regular support (probably 30 hours of care per week) and moving him to an unfamiliar city, which would mean loss of family support - loss of healthcare support, is completely unsuitable, and they know this.

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