Problematic neighbours

Living in a house with three flats, we have trouble with certain neighbours making noise, leaving rubbish lying around, refusing to put the bins out, and worst, leaving the front door open for their friends to come and go as they please. The landlord refuses to address this. We never actually see the neighbours, because if they catch a hint of any of us leaving our flat, they run straight back into their flat and slam the door.

If the landlord refuses to speak to them, and they are making it impossible for us to speak to them, is there anything at all we can do?

Yes, we are going to issue the landlord the ultimatum, it's us or them - pity, this place had a lot going for it before they moved in six months ago! I came home last night at 1am and found the front door propped open with a piece of brick; this is the final straw for me. I near enough took the door off it's hinges in fury!! I'm afraid to approach them any time soon because I'll lose the head with them.

spockety

Move out for your sanity.

Marcusm

If you have the landlird's telephone number, I would call each time these issues recur. He will get the message, especially at 1am. I would only follow this route if you want to keep living there and have notified him plenty if times. Otherwise move out. Long term, he should prefer you over them.

tara73

I don't know how it is not possible to speak to them.
ring on their door everytime there's an issue, don't stop, at some stage they have to react.
or are you never bumping into them? should happen at some stage sooner or later.
write letters to them...
sorry, but for me it seems you are equally afraid of the direct contact and conflict.sure it's not solvable then and you only seem to see the solution to move out before you ever spoke to them.
tackle the problems!! what if in the next property problems arises again? do you want to move and move and move?? you could be always on the run!

tara73

tara73 wrote: »

I don't know how it is not possible to speak to them.
ring on their door everytime there's an issue, don't stop, at some stage they have to react.
or are you never bumping into them? should happen at some stage sooner or later.
write letters to them...
sorry, but for me it seems you are equally afraid of the direct contact and conflict.sure it's not solvable then and you only seem to see the solution to move out before you ever spoke to them.
tackle the problems!! what if in the next property problems arises again? do you want to move and move and move?? you could be always on the run!

We never actually see the neighbours, because if they catch a hint of any of us leaving our flat, they run straight back into their flat and slam the door.

I guess I did not say in the OP that they have been deliberately antagonistic towards us; making it clear that attempting to approach them to discuss this issue wouldn't be worth the effort or the grief.

It's either get the landlord to sort this, or, like everyone said, move. Terrible pity because this was the perfect place to live before that pair downstairs moved in.

juice1304

Well then go knock on their door and tell them to grow up. or slip a note under their door.

Note under the door, perhaps. Knock on the door? That's not gonna work, they will know it's one of us (unless they've gone and left the front door open again), and I don't trust myself not to lose my cool in a face-to-face scenario, because they've been winding me up something chronic. Maybe send my flatmate when he gets back, he's more diplomatic than I am.

I'm glad to say this issue should hopefully be resolved now. We found another small brick in the doorway to keep the door open, my flatmate went a bit mental and marched down to the neighbours with it - they denied it completely and said they'd seen the two Polish guys doing it - the Polish guys moved out last week - but instead of backtracking, they said they'd seen the two guys in the house yesterday. So, my flatmate was going to call the police, but they talked him into calling the landlord instead. The landlord came around today and changed the front door locks. Speaking to him earlier, though, he doesn't believe them either, and he knows as well as we do who's been responsible for this. There are now more small pieces of brick on the shelves in our sitting room than outside the front door, because I pick them up every time I find them shoved in the doorway.

I think it was the threat of the police getting involved that got the landlord to move his ass, and hopefully, now there's been a scene made out of it, the habit of wedging the door open will stop.

It's just unfortunate that when renting in flats the landlord is the only port of call to resolving issues like this.

(Jokingly we did tell my other flatmate, who is rarely home and they wouldn't recognise, to dress up in other flatmate's army gear and "break in" to give them a good scare!! We wouldn't, but it would be youtube gold.)