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I have already posted a previous question on here regarding my neighbour. The situation has declined; I have had to put my bed in my living-room and have been forced to sleep there for the last year and seven months due to the noise my neighbour makes all night long, dragging furniture across the floor, emptying wardrobes, internal doors constantly being slammed, and running the water in the bathroom repeatedly, and going out into the garden and watering the plants at 3am regardless of the temperature or the weather. Her behaviour is manic and frantic, and then she sleeps all day. Her son moved in once I got in touch with the authority, but he is a prolific cannabis user and just goes along with the dementia, so he is up all night and sleeps all day to. They only use the bedroom which is on the adjoining wall, to both live and sleep in, meaning the noise is on the wall all night long, I gather she has hoarded herself out of the rest of the property. I was expecting social services to have attended, but then the lockdown came in, and since then my Landlord has had no luck getting social services to attend. They ended up shutting the case after talking to the family, and since then the family have brought more of the hoard back into the property. My partner and I have also been threatened by the family to stop going to the authorities or they will harm us, I reported it to the police. The family have also taken photos of our cars, which has also been reported to the police. Now we can't park our cars near our home for fear they will be vandalised. The elderly neighbour has also accused me of stealing from her garden and threatened to stab and kill me, for which I telephoned the police again. She has previously threatened to kill another neighbour, and she has chased her own family members with knives. She has also called me a Dumba** B*tch, a whore, a hoe, and a C word. The family appear to be hiding the extent of her dementia from social services and I don't know why? She has been making accusations of theft towards most of the neighbours and her own family for years, her husband left several years ago because he couldn't put up with her dementia and hoarding. Most of the family do not work and smoke cannabis, they also supply it to their elderly grandmother which cannot be helping her paranoia. This has become more than just a neglected neighbour with dementia and hoarding, as the family are obviously refusing help for their mother, and as such the situation is not changing. After over 2 and a half years of sleepless nights and stress I don't know if to just move? The Landlord is only forwarded so much power, and unless social services intervenes then they can only treat it as an antisocial/noise issue, and serve warnings for the state of the property. The courts are not evicting people during the coronavirus. My own grandmother had dementia as did my partners father, and neither affected their neighbours because we looked after them, it is a difficult disease to deal with, and without support could drive you mad. The only thing that is keeping me here is that I love my home, and I have spent a lot of money on it, but if you are afraid, exhausted and cannot live in it for purpose then what's the point?

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Assuming you’re renting as it sounds like, there’s zero peace there, and no help is coming, you’ve done all you can to make it better, time to move. It’ll be well worth the peace you gain. Think how much better you’ll feel with this behind you
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Rose21 Dec 2020
I hope so, thank you
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I had an apartment when I was younger that was next to someone similar. It wasn't much of a problem as I was young and a bit of a night owl. But the big problem came when other people complained and this person was forced to move. On the night after she moved I awoke to hoardes of roaches crawling all over me! I totally freaked out and did not go back to bed. I stayed up all night balling the bugs crawling in under the walls.
Noise is one thing but hoarding can be a disaster. With some help from my friends I moved the very next day. I suggest you do the same before you wake to the same problem.
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Kittybee Nov 2020
I was also thinking about fire danger.
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I would move. The son is likely to stay even if the elderly woman qualifies for a "self-limiting" problem. This won't be a good place to live forthwith. If you have a lease it is easily broken by the landlords inability to make the place habitable. You can claim allergy to all the pot smoke seeping through. I take it this is either an apartment or it is a condo with adjoining walls; in either case it is made not habitable by your neighbors.
Not everything can be fixed. And bad neighbors almost NEVER can be fixed. At worst these situations can end up being a bad true crime episode on channel 179. Sorry, but looks like this problem will be ongoing. I would speak first with your landlord and say that it is down now to your needing to move due to this. That will be his clue that he must pull out ALL THE STOPS in an attempt to take care of this. But as well all know, the law often protects those we should be protected FROM (and of course it can go the other way as well.)
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Rose21 Dec 2020
My Landlord is not classing the son as a tenant, but a lodger so he has no rights to the property if anything was to happen to his mother. Thank you for your response.
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Rose, I apologize for asking this w/o checking back into your earlier message, but this is quicker.   Are you in an apartment, with this undesirable person next to you?  Or are you leasing a house?   I assume this is not a house that you're buying.

If you're leasing, I would definitely consider moving, as it appears as though you've taken the necessary legal action but that hasn't helped.  And given the uptick in viral cases, I don't think that law enforcement and other authorities are going to have extra time to deal with a noncompliant, troublemaking family.

But don't let the undesirables know you're leaving.    If you can afford it, hire  a moving company and get everything accomplished at once, and get out of there for good.

I hope you can find safety in this environment until you can escape from it.  Best, and safe wishes to you.
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Rose21 Dec 2020
I'm in a bungalow, and yes if this ends in me having to move, then if I can, I will be moving my things out without them knowing, they sleep most of the day so it shouldn't be too difficult.  Thank you for your answer.
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If it isn't much of an issue for you to move, then why not? Or a better question is, why stay in a place that you aren't satisfied with? Would you stay in a job that you hated? Chances are if a better job was available you would not hesitate to take it and you would be a fool not to. Same thing with this. Look around. You may find a place that you like much better than where you are living and you will be away from your problem neighbor.

My friend had issues with her landlord.. She tried very hard to peacefully resolve the issue without any luck. She started looking around. The place she really liked was recently rented. She wasn't familiar with the neighborhood and made a wrong turn and she just so happened to find an even better place. Not only was the rent affordable but it had just been renovated! So go for it. It can't hurt to at least look to see what else is available to you.

Best wishes to you.
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jacobsonbob Nov 2020
If the current complex in which the OP is living is large enough, it's possible there is another unit nearby but not adjacent to the annoying neighbors. Perhaps a short-distance move is a possibility.
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Definitely move...regardless of you loving the home you've created, how can you comfortably live without a feeling of safety and community? Start looking for a new home and once you move you will wonder why you didn't do it months ago. Good luck.
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Sorry to hear about this. Sounds like you have no choice but to moveout. Check your rights to break a lease where the landlord fails to provide a safety and health environmnent. since living next to a hoarder presents a safety issue (fire hazard) and a health issu (rats, mice, roaches)
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Rose21 Dec 2020
Yes, it definitely is a health and safety issue.
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More than 2.5 years of your life have been eaten up by this drama. You already know the limits of the authorities and landowners to make the problems go away.

Look up "sunk cost fallacy" and then think honestly and realistically how you would feel if the problems continued another 3 or 6 months, or more. Think also about how it would feel to relocate and not have the chaos, drama, and threats.

It sounds horrible. Years ago I lived in a flat below a mentally ill woman and still remember it as one of the most stressful times of my life. I loved that apartment and yard, it was such a great place. But as sad as I was to leave it, I knew the situation had little likelihood of resolution, andI had no influence to make it change. And it was SUCH a blessing to no longer live with the anxiety, anger, and distraction that living there committed me to. I now live in an extraordinarily sane, quiet building and thank my lucky stars every day.
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Rose21 Dec 2020
I read the sunk costs fallacy, it was very good, and true, and thank you for sharing your experiences, it is a stressful way to live, and you clearly felt the same as I, I hope some day I have the same hindsight, a sane quiet building, sounds like heaven.
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Move. It’s not worth the headache. We lived in an apartment recently for a couple of years and had a horrible neighbor upstairs that made tons of noise night and day. The manager would take our complaints, express sympathy, and ultimately do NOTHING.
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Rose21 Dec 2020
You're right they are excellent at doing nothing, I've noticed that.
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There is a lot of good advice here, in the end you have to decide how much time you are willing to invest. You could use that same energy and set up a new place you like as much somewhere else and choose a more isolated location so not to end up in a similar situation.

I’ve had terrible neighbors before and I know it can take over your life and cause terrible stress. I worry the elderly lady will pass then you’ll be stuck with her son and the hoard is still there.
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Rose21 Dec 2020
Well, they are only considering the son as a lodger, but the elderly lady has a few years in her yet, unless of course something goes wrong elsewhere with her dementia or diabetes.
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