Ways to stay sane until my neighbours get evicted...?

[Gizmo]

So my neighbor is a party person. The kind that run a 24/7 adhoc nightclub that is loud enough that it sounds like the stereo is in the room with me, have lots of fights resulting in police calls at all hours (and then claim all innocence when the police turn up and blame others), a stream of undesirables in and out, and having "lost" her keys rings everyone's doorbells at all hours of day and night to be let in the communal area (she leaves her flat unlocked when she goes out but the communal door is secured).

Lately incidents include
- Police coming to take her child off her with social services. Child normally lives with the father and there was 2 hours of her screaming she'll beat the police to a pulp if they try. The police left with the child in the end...
- Having a lark about fight with friends and breaking the fire alarm sensor at 4.30am resulting in me calling the fire department to reset it and clear that there isn't an actual fire in the building. For a bonus this was the same night/early morning that the police took her child so she was obviously so broken up by it... not.
- Police call the other night (strangely one of them called them - unusual for them) between her and her friends and a group who were suddenly NOT her friends at 11.30pm at night.
- Door slams so loud and hard that my flat actually shakes as if its a minor earthquake.
-Guys who look like they are very hopped up on drugs scanning the corridors either looking for flats left unsecured or for something that is hidden in the corridors themselves.

Today its been 8.30am nightclub start up, murderous screams in the corridors and door slams so hard I'm surprised they are still in one piece or on their frames...

The building management company is being nice to the rest of the residents about it and did force the rental agency to chuck them out but their hands are tied by the tenant protection laws.

We still have at least 6 weeks before the court will "assist" them out of the flat due to the UK's eviction laws. They had two months notice that their lease would end and then get 2 months eviction by court notice. And that's if the court is running on the strict timescales and don't grant any extensions...

People will still let her into the building as they don't want a fight with her. She actually called someone a very rude phrase for shouting down asking her NOT to ring other peoples doorbells and has actually approached a resident of a specific nationality saying "are you the (race) (rude phrase) that reported me?"

After 5 months of this and another 2 to go... help me to last this out without ending up abandoning my home that I bought* and either going to a hotel until they are out or sofa surfing**?

*If I was renting I would have moved out already.
**I actually have very little real way of doing this anyway- no one local enough has the space.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Giz-whereabouts in the South are you? I have friends through Cornwall and Devon that may be able to help out...

[Gizmo]

Dorset. I really don't want to leave my home though.

I keep getting told that legally there is nothing else to be done but wait for the court. Which quite frankly sucks.

[MoonCat]

Dorset. I really don't want to leave my home though.

I keep getting told that legally there is nothing else to be done but wait for the court. Which quite frankly sucks.

There's no emergency intervention or something? What if one of these assholes decides to set the place on fire?

[Gizmo]

There's no emergency intervention or something? What if one of these assholes decides to set the place on fire?

None at all. The police do come out to the various fights but even the one time that someone got arrested he was out and back again the next day....

The only emergency intervention would be if they decide to do something bad enough the police would keep them in rather than releasing them. In the mean time me and my other neighbours that share this part of the building and has to use the front door right by the party persons flat have to hope that they don't kick off when we need to actually leave or enter the building. Or that we won't open our doors and find a strung out person right outside our flats...

I actually have a "emergency" kit by my front door... trousers, decent t shirt and boots.... in case of another incident from them in the middle of the night. And I never leave my phone anywhere but in my pocket. I've woken up during the night and realized by instinct my hand is already reaching for my phone and my glasses - I've gone on "night watch alert" that bloody much.

The night of the fire alarm the fire service actually couldn't get the sensor open to reset it. One of the lads in her flat obviously wasn't happy about the fire fighters being around (my guess was he was scared to be ID'd) and was trying to convince them to leave the fire alarm off until the morning and the service company could reset it as "well there won't be a fire...". Think he got a little scared when I snarled "you wanna take that risk? up to you... there are other residents her who *don't* want to take that risk as the one time we don't have an alarm could be the time we DO have a fire...." He went back into the flat rather quickly..

[mjr]

Well, here's a thought. I assume by a previous post you made, that you actually own your flat. Do the Crazy Neighbors from Hell (henceforth: CNH) own theirs?

If CNH are renting, could you get together with the other tenants (because I assume this isn't just bothering you) and stage some sort of protest at the "main office" or something? Maybe go to local news or media?

I wonder if you could somehow get police to patrol the campus, or be stationed in such a way that any disturbances are quickly tamped down.

[Gizmo]

CNH don't own and have had loads of complaints from a lot of the flat owners and other residents but the building managers have down what they can - forced the letting agent to evict. Now we have to wait out the 2 month court process and very little can be done thanks to tenant protection laws that mean we can't just chuck them out on the street without due process.

Police are a little... meh... about this area of town due to workload and reputation. They will come out to a specific instance but really have no interest unless its "someones gonna get killed" level which they don't class it as. Noise complaints are the councils domain and they basically can force eviction and write nice "please be more respectful of your neighbor letters (the latter already been done and the former has been put in progress by the letting agent already).

Media love dragging down this area of town and would probably love to write a "council and court abandons home owners in (area)" but getting them involved would do nothing to speed up the court process. And quite frankly would get the residents here a lot of unwanted attention of the wrong kind from the peanut gallery (who love to think we are all druggies and other undesirables), and potentially highlight the area to the worse denizens of the town as a "lets go see what fun we can have" opportunity too. The road I live on is a little hidden away despite being quite central and usually avoids the trouble the area is known for.

About the only other thing we could do would be to force a meeting of all the owners of the flats and request that the owner of that flat be told to get them out or she'll be asked to vacate her ownership (leasehold property rules mean we signed up to a clause that basically says the freeholder CAN ask for that if something is seriously detrimental to the other flats or we refuse to pay our management fees for 3 years - basically equivalent of a American HOA or Condo Board). However that would need to go through court as well and would be hellish to do even if we *could* get all the other owners to agree to it*. And even if that did go through quicker than the eviction then it would probably restart the eviction timer for the tenants anyway...

*A few would refuse since they don't have direct contact with CNH and some rent out their properties themselves so would be loathe to open the door to that happening to their own properties in the future. As would many of the owner occupiers to be honest - not a nice thing to admit could happen to them!

[wolfie]

Any possibility of the sane residents getting together to apply for an ASBO against the creeps - with one of its terms being that they stay a minimum of 500 metres from the sane residents' homes?

[mjr]

CNH don't own and have had loads of complaints from a lot of the flat owners and other residents but the building managers have down what they can - forced the letting agent to evict. Now we have to wait out the 2 month court process and very little can be done thanks to tenant protection laws that mean we can't just chuck them out on the street without due process.

I wonder, though, if you could maybe force CNH's hand a little...

Maybe get the other flat owners/renters to "fight fire with fire", as it were...

And I would have a serious discussion with management about the "broken windows" theory. CNH should have been given notice of eviction a LONG time ago...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory

[taxguykarl]

That sucks....the most it seems you can do is keep reminding yourself that this will end soon.

[Gizmo]

wolfie - ASBO would take as long to get without council/police back up as the eviction *should* take. Edit: I'm hoping that once she is evicted she will stay away from here or that the eviction will stop her coming back here legally - I did ask the building management to consider that aspect as she does have "friends" in another flat the building but I don't know how close they are. If it doesn't and she still comes here causing issues I will pursue this option.

mjr - the only way that CNH will be removed bar by court baliffs is if we scare them enough they flee... which considering they've stepped up their behaviour since the police calls, arrests, and council "behave" letter... would take ALOT. That doesn't mean we haven't sat here trying to work out what might just work....

taxguycarl - yep... The mantra "6 more weeks" is becoming all too familiar...

[mjr]

mjr - the only way that CNH will be removed bar by court baliffs is if we scare them enough they flee... which considering they've stepped up their behaviour since the police calls, arrests, and council "behave" letter... would take ALOT. That doesn't mean we haven't sat here trying to work out what might just work....

Get everyone except them to take bags of poo and put it on their doorstep -- all at once.

On second thought, that's probably illegal for health reasons...so don't do that...

[Gizmo]

Get everyone except them to take bags of poo and put it on their doorstep -- all at once.

On second thought, that's probably illegal for health reasons...so don't do that...

That would be in the communal hallway which would affect us just as much as them.

[mjr]

That would be in the communal hallway which would affect us just as much as them.

Eh, yeah, that's true.

[Mikkel]

I guess there isn't much to do legally since you have been told that by people who presumably know UK laws better than I.
Earplugs isn't an option if you may need to evacuate some night. I would probably get a hotel room a couple of nights a week, just to get some sleep.
White noise can cover some outside noise, not the noise level you describe, though. My experience is that reggae music will cover most other music when played loud enough, so if you like reggae, some Bob Marley may fight fire with fire .
Yep, I live a place where there often is parties and open air rock concerts in summer.
I wish you luck to survive the last weeks.