As a landlord I know what I can do if I have a troublesome tenant but what can you do if you have problems with a neighbour and their landlord doesn't give a s**t

My friend lives next door to a rented property which has been occupied since January by a drug dealer basically. She and her children are kept awake a night and have all had to move into the living room in order to sleep. The guy and his mates have dog fights and there are comings and goings at all hours.

She has contacted the landlord who doesn't care and won't take any action. She has contacted her local council and the local councillor who are trying to help however they seem powerless to act because the flat is sub-let to another council who are using the property as a half-way house.

She has called the police and they did an early morning raid but the guys left via the back window and the tenant just laughs in the police's face.

She has also threatened to expose the landlord in the media (he also owns a letting agency!).

With nothing achieving any results she feels her only option now is to move.

Any advice much appreciated.

Tracy.

Sorry to hear about your friend's trouble. It is not a pleasant situation especially where children are involved. Couple of quick thoughts:

Pay the local MP a visit, call / email etc and get him/her involved. Mention media if they don’t pay attention right away

Keep calling them to report activity, keep a log of all 'incident's with date, time, who she see's. This may prove to be handy.

Go ahead and do it, why wait! Issue might be the media wanting evidence that there is in fact a drug house next door etc but you never know. Particularly as Children are involved and local papers are always short on good ‘stories’.


Funnily enough this happened to someone I know and they got someone to park a 'surveillance' van outside the property at random hours. In reality it was a plumber's nice looking van with a few magnetic stickers of cameras etc on the outside which made it look suspicious to the 'druggies'. Worked in the end as they thought the police was on to them so they left in a hurry once they realised.

I hope it works out for your friend

F.

Hi Tracy

Sadly some people do not give a dam about anyone but themselves and some property investors are no different. Resent events have shown this.

I am a member of my local Neighbourhood Watch also known as Home Watch. I have seen how getting the local community involved in local issues / problems get results.

I have attended our local PACK meetings and seen how they discuss local problems, hot spots or families and discuss what action they will take in the following month to rectify the issue. The PACK team are Police Manager (beat officer) and his team of PCSO's, Fire brigade, councillors, housings, local Housing Association, neighbourhood watch coordinator etc

I would contact your local councillor and ask them for the dates of the next PACK meeting.

Put a letter together, better still a email, and send it to the local Police Inspector, Police Manager and Councillors raising your concerns and asking them what they plan to do about it.

Find out which local council has this property as a halfway house and bring it to their attention. Inform them if they do not do anything about it you will inform the Local Government Ombudsman, Quoting their weblink: Local Government Ombudsman • Home - http://www.lgo.org.uk/making-a-complaint/ - and state you may consider reporting the council for “MALADMINISTRATION” if they do not do anything to resolve this situation. (Advise and link recently given to me by Paul Galbraith for a different issue)

As per AF
Record all events going forward and email Police Inspector, Police Manager and Councillors, local housing manager at the council on a weekly basis. They will soon get the message you will not be ignored.

Set up a local home watch group, which just includes people in the street in question. You can ask them to email you with events they have seen which can be added to your list of events.

Find out the Landlords address via the Land Registry and inform them you are reporting them to the local council for not taking any interest in the problem of their tenant. Be mindful they may pass on information to their tenant if they are spineless.

I will PM you the email address of our local Crime Reduction Advisor who should be able to give you some pointers.

I have also attached a post card we had put together with useful info on how a Home Watch group helps.

Hope this is useful

Steve

Attached Files

	post card side 1[1].pdf (77.6 KB, 7 views)
	post card side 2[1].pdf (57.0 KB, 2 views)

Thanks Steve and AF. Some really useful info there about the Environmental Protection Act and also the Local Government Ombudsman was something I'd not thought of.

It turns out the power really is in having good neighbours and continually communicating with the police.

Through her and her neighbours recording and reporting all incidents the property is under police surveillance and has been raided twice in the past 2 weeks. Due to what the police now have on the guy the council have made the landlord serve an eviction notice. If the landlord doesn't do this the police apparently have an eviction warrant. I wasn't aware the police had powers to do that apart from only with squatters in some circumstances.

So the Home Watch idea is something anyone else who is having problems should seriously consider.

Tracy.

Hi Tracy

Re: She has also threatened to expose the landlord in the media (he also owns a letting agency!).

The letting Agent does not sound helpful which would be a concern if this was a managed property. Have you considered naming them or the town that the business is in. This may give other investors the heads up if they were considering using them.

Steve

How old are your friends children and does she live in her own property or is it also rented? If its rented, who is her landlord ie private landlord or housing assoc/council?

__________________
Anything's possible if you've got enough nerve. - J. K. Rowling

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