Neighbour problems
Discussion
Trying to make a long story short. I’ve managed to buy a terraced property in London which has a private right of way at the rear and each property had/has a garage at the rear. The street has a great community and a public group/forum, and all the people on the street have been fantastic, supportive and welcoming. They did however warn me about a neighbour at the rear that has apparently been a problem at some point in time to everyone. Through the rather extensive renovation works all has been fine.
When we moved it, it wasn’t long before posts appeared about me “revving up my motorbike” etc on the public forum. No problem, the people on the street messaged me saying its rubbish, ignore her etc. My bike is road legal, MOT’ed, even has the baffles in the exhaust and I’d welcome any inspection by the police. It moved onto accusations that the bike aggravates her COPD (seems fine to smoke dope all day). All of this is easy to ignore, and I did.
However in June I opened the garage door to find cooking grease and chicken bones and leftovers smeared all over the garage door and landing. Initially I thought it must be some kids from the council until I saw a post on the google group accusing my builders (who has left 4 months earlier) of cutting branches down on a tree that overhangs her property (not her tree, not from my property, but for whatever reason it was them). I began thinking the chicken smear was her. I cleaned it up only to find the next few days every time I opened the garage tree branches (from the tree she claims was cut) and all sorts was piled up against the garage door. Its lightly scratched and dented my nice new Securoglide door, but I’ve not proof even though it’s very probably her. It eventually stopped when I said I was going to put a security camera up and it got a lot of support on the forum (I haven’t yet). I luckily started taking photos of the branches, but stupidly not the chicken stuff.
We bumped into each other on the street with other neighbours and she had a go at me about the bike again, telling (read screaming at) me I must push the bike to the end of the street before starting it etc.
Anyways, all this has been easy to ignore, except we have now been served a notice from the council that it’s been alleged that our building works have breached planning control at our property. This would only happen if someone complained, and our terrace neighbours and no one on the street has. Its obviously her trying to stick it to us, and we are fairly confident that its all to spec and approved plans. Its been signed off by building control too, and we even had council approve the plans even though they were within permitted development.
The issue now is this is getting serious. I can only imagine what has been alleged before getting here, as surely the first port of call would have been the police and council for the motorbike. Her “reasoning” on the forum is very obviously flawed, and frankly it seems like she has some mental issues. She lies about a few things. The result is she is now wasting people’s time. We have to take the day off to deal with this, and the council has to throw resources at it.
The question is what next? Is there any way to protect yourself against the constant accusations? Obviously, the council needs to take the accusation of the development breach seriously, fine, but if it turns out she wasted their time I would like it noted as such too. It does not even affect her property.
I’m sure she is doing all the legwork making formal complaints about me and my motorcycle to the authorities etc, and I’m worried we get slapped with some other note just to make her happy.
When we moved it, it wasn’t long before posts appeared about me “revving up my motorbike” etc on the public forum. No problem, the people on the street messaged me saying its rubbish, ignore her etc. My bike is road legal, MOT’ed, even has the baffles in the exhaust and I’d welcome any inspection by the police. It moved onto accusations that the bike aggravates her COPD (seems fine to smoke dope all day). All of this is easy to ignore, and I did.
However in June I opened the garage door to find cooking grease and chicken bones and leftovers smeared all over the garage door and landing. Initially I thought it must be some kids from the council until I saw a post on the google group accusing my builders (who has left 4 months earlier) of cutting branches down on a tree that overhangs her property (not her tree, not from my property, but for whatever reason it was them). I began thinking the chicken smear was her. I cleaned it up only to find the next few days every time I opened the garage tree branches (from the tree she claims was cut) and all sorts was piled up against the garage door. Its lightly scratched and dented my nice new Securoglide door, but I’ve not proof even though it’s very probably her. It eventually stopped when I said I was going to put a security camera up and it got a lot of support on the forum (I haven’t yet). I luckily started taking photos of the branches, but stupidly not the chicken stuff.
We bumped into each other on the street with other neighbours and she had a go at me about the bike again, telling (read screaming at) me I must push the bike to the end of the street before starting it etc.
Anyways, all this has been easy to ignore, except we have now been served a notice from the council that it’s been alleged that our building works have breached planning control at our property. This would only happen if someone complained, and our terrace neighbours and no one on the street has. Its obviously her trying to stick it to us, and we are fairly confident that its all to spec and approved plans. Its been signed off by building control too, and we even had council approve the plans even though they were within permitted development.
The issue now is this is getting serious. I can only imagine what has been alleged before getting here, as surely the first port of call would have been the police and council for the motorbike. Her “reasoning” on the forum is very obviously flawed, and frankly it seems like she has some mental issues. She lies about a few things. The result is she is now wasting people’s time. We have to take the day off to deal with this, and the council has to throw resources at it.
The question is what next? Is there any way to protect yourself against the constant accusations? Obviously, the council needs to take the accusation of the development breach seriously, fine, but if it turns out she wasted their time I would like it noted as such too. It does not even affect her property.
I’m sure she is doing all the legwork making formal complaints about me and my motorcycle to the authorities etc, and I’m worried we get slapped with some other note just to make her happy.
borcy said:
Why are the council 'serving notice' if they approved your plans under permitted development? What did they say they are doing?
Does she do this with anyone else?
Is there anything else apart from the bike issue and the tree cutting?
During the building works the skip truck bumped 2 tiles off her roof, and they repaired it immediately (she even acknowledges). Other than that nothing.Does she do this with anyone else?
Is there anything else apart from the bike issue and the tree cutting?
It is a notice that there has been an "alleged" breach in planning control, and are giving notice the site will be inspected on Friday to measure the works built.
The irony is we built less than we were allowed to (2m instead of 3m extension), and cover less than the allowed ground too. The only potential issue is the garage is roughly 17mm higher than the 2.5m specified (2517mm). We'll see of that is a material issue
She has had problems with other neighbours - for instance she sprayed a hose over a wall at everyone during a party etc, has cursed at kids playing etc.
I wonder if she is related to a neighbour of mine.
I got reported for breach of planning when talking about putting in a new shed, council come round and say there has to be a building there to in fact be a breech.
I then got reported for the same thing when digging the hole for foundations, again council came round and said the same thing (we know this as the council are rather disorganised and sent us the neighbours response!)
Finally, after finishing said 'shed', I got reported again, this time the council had something to inspect, which they measured up and declared all is OK.
There is more to this particular neighbour with literally everyone else in sight, who has apparently been at it for decades. I put it down to the council needing to be much smarter than they are, and consequences are needed for false accusations. The liberal approach is wide open for abuse, which is ironic as the said neighbour is now standing as a local councillor ....
I got reported for breach of planning when talking about putting in a new shed, council come round and say there has to be a building there to in fact be a breech.
I then got reported for the same thing when digging the hole for foundations, again council came round and said the same thing (we know this as the council are rather disorganised and sent us the neighbours response!)
Finally, after finishing said 'shed', I got reported again, this time the council had something to inspect, which they measured up and declared all is OK.
There is more to this particular neighbour with literally everyone else in sight, who has apparently been at it for decades. I put it down to the council needing to be much smarter than they are, and consequences are needed for false accusations. The liberal approach is wide open for abuse, which is ironic as the said neighbour is now standing as a local councillor ....
steveo3002 said:
might be an idea to have a word with admin on the forum if shes posting un truths about you /trouble making , get her banned
Its a public google group. No admins.I'm not worried about the forum - everyone that lives there knows the deal, I'm more concerned that she has the time and fortitude to nag to the council/police all day long. It would just be great to get this clear, grab an affidavit from the other neighbours and present it to them to save us all some time
Providing you built to agreed spec you don't have a problem
I live in Cheshire East and whilst in general they can't organise a piss up in a brewery planning enforcement turn up like The Sweeney at the drop of a hat.
We have a neighbour next to a car park that has reported us twice, once when all we were doing was strimming. On both occassions the officer turned up and left within a few minutes.
If the chicken stuff conitnues get some CCTV, but in the end if she's a nutcase there isn't much you can do. Best just taking a deep breath and ignoring her and hope she moves on.
I live in Cheshire East and whilst in general they can't organise a piss up in a brewery planning enforcement turn up like The Sweeney at the drop of a hat.
We have a neighbour next to a car park that has reported us twice, once when all we were doing was strimming. On both occassions the officer turned up and left within a few minutes.
If the chicken stuff conitnues get some CCTV, but in the end if she's a nutcase there isn't much you can do. Best just taking a deep breath and ignoring her and hope she moves on.
Firstly I'd trying killing her (another option) with kindness. Go round and see her, maybe with flowers/bottle of something (not poision) and apologise for getting off on wrong foot and would she like to talk things through. Sure, you shouldn't have to...but it is in your interest to put this to bed as easily as possible as you'll already need to declare this if selling.
If that doesn't work, get the cameras up. Quite why you posted you were doing it on a forum instead of just doing it is a little odd - she will now be more careful. If she is abusive, report it to police. If she is making vexatious claims send a letter before action. She needs to know you aren't a pushover so hopefully she'll move onto someone else. Or it will escalate and you can get on TV (Neighbours from hell!).
And I'd agree with others...leave the forum.
If that doesn't work, get the cameras up. Quite why you posted you were doing it on a forum instead of just doing it is a little odd - she will now be more careful. If she is abusive, report it to police. If she is making vexatious claims send a letter before action. She needs to know you aren't a pushover so hopefully she'll move onto someone else. Or it will escalate and you can get on TV (Neighbours from hell!).
And I'd agree with others...leave the forum.
The forum is not the problem. I'm not leaving an otherwise fruitful and beneficial forum because this woman mouths off on it - she can go on all day, no one reads/responds to her.
We've gone around to introduce ourselves when moving in and when the problems started - she wont open the door. She even screams over the fence without opening her side door.
We have no way of aiming a CCTV camera that will not record beyond our property (or otherwise be useless), so you need agreement with the others. Everyone is in agreement, so sorted.
We've gone around to introduce ourselves when moving in and when the problems started - she wont open the door. She even screams over the fence without opening her side door.
We have no way of aiming a CCTV camera that will not record beyond our property (or otherwise be useless), so you need agreement with the others. Everyone is in agreement, so sorted.
Some people are just looneys who either have unrealistic expectations or want to control others.
I used to live in a block of 6 maisonettes, and we had one there. One guy was having a few works done on his place, she complained that the builders were making noise at what she thought was an unreasonable time. He was a reasonable chap so asked her what times would be better, her response was "my comings and goings are none of your business! Just don't make any noise at all!". She told me she was hoping to get him to pay for new windows to keep the noise out of her place.
Many similar events over a few years, then she took offence when none of us wanted to come to her garden party.
I used to live in a block of 6 maisonettes, and we had one there. One guy was having a few works done on his place, she complained that the builders were making noise at what she thought was an unreasonable time. He was a reasonable chap so asked her what times would be better, her response was "my comings and goings are none of your business! Just don't make any noise at all!". She told me she was hoping to get him to pay for new windows to keep the noise out of her place.
Many similar events over a few years, then she took offence when none of us wanted to come to her garden party.
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