The trouble with neighbours

Would think neighbours might be concerned if mail was fond up there, if it is stuff taht was supposed to be getting to them. & at least make sure taht the mail area was better protected.

I just heard from my next door neighbour that she found neighborhood girls had been back hanging out outside her flat, sitting on the wall and stuff. I thankfully haven't seen the face looming over my wall recently which was presumably one of the same girls.

But finding it odd taht that same next door neighbour was perturbed taht kids in teh area took a tv box from under the stairs in a really unprotected area. I'd wondered why it had been dumped there as I saw it for several weeks. There's no weather protection so it must have been getting wet anyway. Odd place to use asa storage area for anything that they realy wanted.
The guy there has now taken to leaving his bike unlocked on the landing halfway up the stairs which also strikes me as odd. Not sure hwo safe anything is. Particularly since the traveller park up which we thought we got rid of returned. & things like taht were walking a lot at the start of the summer which had most of this block up in arms.

is it even legal of the management company to knowingly let people do drugs in the building? wonder if there's a way of pursuing that sort of line of attack xp

Our next door neighbour knows the woman who most of the stolen mail belonged to so he took what was left of it down to her. He said she is quite vulnerable so I doubt she would want to get involved.

The police gave us one possible line which was that they reckon the fire door should not be openable from outside and we may be able to get the fire dept to force building management to do something about that. But I doubt that will do a huge amount of good. They are getting in the building someway presumably because the dealer is letting them in, so all that would mean is if we chase them out (and the police have already told us off for doing that) they can't get back in through that door, but they can just come in through the front door like they'd have to in the first place!

Deems is correct in suggesting that you ask the managing agent whether you can contact the landlord to discuss. Whether or not you can legally break the lease is secondary - you can ask the landlord whether they are willing to let you out of it early and explain your reasons. If the managing agent isn't going to do anything about it, they will need to explain this to the landlord. The landlord may already know, idk, but it may focus the attention of the agent if they have to go back to explain the situation. Another option, alongside this, could be to suggest a solution. An agent can get a CCTV camera installed for about £500, which may act as a deterrent. Doing that vs the hassle of finding new tenants at the end of the six months might work out better for the landlord.

We had a similar situation at an apartment building I lived in: a dealer squatting in an empty apartment and weirdos shooting up in the hallways during winter. There were hookers propositioning me when we went out my door. Lots of tenants complained to management, who did nothing. Then the entire seven storey building burned to ground due to wiring, but management tried to say the junkies must have burned it down to get out of paying us.

Called Citizens Timewasting Bureau, which appears to consist of an elderly woman reading the website I just read that doesn't actually help back to me.

Building management sent someone round to secure the cupboard the junkies are stashing their needles in. The cunts are sticking their needles under the carpet with the sharp end sticking through, so someone could step on them. The cleaner nearly spiked himself on one this morning. They might be people with problems but there's no fucking excuse for that.

The only good news is apparently they know which flat the dealer's in and are trying to evict them, and the police are coming round tomorrow with the letting agents. Having watched enough Nightmare Tenants and Landlords programs though I know it can take 3 months to get people out.

Came home late last night to find junkie woman on the stairs, this time she had a dog (a staffie I think) with her and I think she'd just used because she was pretty out of it. They don't seem to be round as often now but not going away yet. I called the cops and they came round but she was gone by then. Then about half an hour later they were up on the roof again.

Surely the cops have a vested interest in busting a dealer!?

They need evidence. Presumably we are in a Catch 22 because they need evidence for a search warrant and can't get any evidence without searching the dealer's flat.

Even if they do catch a junkie, they told me if they've already shot up they can't arrest them for anything. I'd've thought they could at least do them for some kind of loitering/public order offence, but that doesn't really help them bust the dealer I suppose.

Statements from yourself and the landlord and/or the management company and the circumstantial evidence of all the junkies and repeated phonecalls are surely enough for a warrant??

furious race to get the gear into u before the cops arrive/get their notepads out

fantastic concept

The cops have been pretty useless tbh. On Saturday, my wife called them, told them she could give a description of the 2 that were there, they declined, then when they came upstairs she told them what they looked like anyway, and they said oh, we saw that guy hanging around outside the building, when he saw us he got spooked and left. FFS, maybe you could've tried searching him? I mentioned that to the police that came later on when I called them and they just gave me the spiel about not being able to arrest them unless they've got something on them, but how do they know he didn't have anything on him since they didn't even bother stopping him?

The cops have been pretty useless tbh

Get away.

It occurs to me that if you're having trouble with the Police taking your problems seriously (which sound awful btw, not trying to be glib), it might be worth popping along to your MP's surgery to ask for help? There might be some advantage to having the Home Secretary as yr MP? Just a thought.

Smackheads can be a pain in the arse but we can't go all Duterte on them, they still have civil rights. It probably doesn't help when services for addiction/homelessness have been almost wiped out in recent years. I mean there but for the grace of God go I etc..

I'm planning on doing that Tim, but her next surgery isn't for 3 weeks. Presumably that's the disadvantage of having the Home Secretary as my MP.

Our neighbour built a music space in his garden, which he claimed would be soundproofed, but wasn't, even in the slightest. He endlessly plays some kind of rock music practice programme where he gets to play the riffs alongside the original recording of Sultans of Swing, or some other rock-blues wankfest. Sometimes it's more funny than annoying. But if I want to garden or read outside, it's pretty annoying to hear someone riffcheese to Under the Bridge or whatever.

Anyway it's winter now so we don't go outside, and he's nearer to the other neighbours than us, so I'm sure one of them will murder him first, hopefully before next summer.

Probably more annoying are his kids who are always shouting MUMMY CAN YOU HELP ME at loud volumes and kicking footballs against the face. (Shouting is fine if you're like a six year old, but I think he's a young teen. I am also irrationally prejudiced against children who say "mummy" or "daddy" instead of mum/mom/dad.)

(Against the fence, I mean.)

Tonight's policeman had 2 incidents to attend in our building. As well as us calling because of junkies, someone got assaulted on the ground floor tonight. What fun. This policeman is a bit more conscientious than others, he's actually cleaning up the needles instead of leaving them there.

This is going into neighbourhood watch FB groups territory again and again when you post, you aren't even talking about your neighbours here tbf. I much preferred it when Chuck_Tatum or Mark S had the gavel tbh.

Go fuck yourself you fucking prick

Are people who live in the same building as you not your neighbours? You fucking snide cunt. Sorry this shit isn't entertaining enough for you.

take it to the law and order thread, mr shit.

sorry I understand your concerns and everything, but where I live you talk to people before you phone the police and there are lots of similar problems. But it sounds like you don't consider these people humans as a starting point and expect the police magically make them disappear. It is that shrill neighbourhood watch voice you have that grinds my gears a bit, you don't need to be so hypersensitive though.

where I live you talk to people before you phone the police

Fuck this attitude. There are vulnerable people living in this building who are having their shit stolen and are too afraid to complain about it. We aren't, at least not enough not to. But you expect us/them to ask a dealer who has had people assaulted nicely to please stop doing it? What fucking planet are you on.

I know first fucking hand how bad services are for mental health, addiction, etc. I am not devoid of compassion, some of the people I see in and out of here I do feel very sorry for, and I know if they get moved on from here they will have to go somewhere else, and that's no solution. That doesn't change the fact that it's directly impacting on me on my wife, who has cancer btw and is having to deal with this right outside her door, 7 days a week, and is afraid to go out on her own. But maybe we aren't humans.

There are vulnerable and dangerous people where I live. Last year a guy across the road from me wondered into the local Asda and slashed someone's throat and I'd had an argument with him a few months previously, so I could have ended up vulnerable myself. I am more moaning about your tone than your situation tbh (which I am not totally privy to all the facts of). It's just a thing that grinds my gears at the moment - where people who are pushed to the margins by austerity become sub-humans and lose all nuance. I probably shouldn't have made the comments without knowing more about your situation though, sorry for that.

Someone actively disrupting a thread to moan about the tone of entirely relevant posts is perhaps not in a position to call someone else 'hypersensitive' and is perhaps in a position to shove it up his arse

thank you for your very "kind" advice, but now you are disrupting the thread tbf.

No, YOU'RE the puppet

CP that sounds crap. I don't have any advice, did the last policeman give any indication about what you could do?

people who are pushed to the margins by austerity become sub-humans and lose all nuance.

You know I accept this and I know what you mean and I (perhaps mistakenly) thought I'd kept away from using words that could have that connotation (unless the word junkie itself means that, substitute it for heroin addict if you wish). I honestly don't know what you've picked up on in my tone in that sense, I don't want these people strung up, I wish they could get help, I wish we could all get help.

I guess I did call them cunts, but I called you a cunt too.

kinder, all the police say is they have to build intelligence to get a warrant to bust the dealer, and we just have to keep phoning them because it builds a case. So that's what we will have to do. Maybe now other people in the building are calling them as well it will get bumped up in priority.

I probably am a cunt! Where I live it's extremely crime ridden and as a consequence there is an almost continual police presence. When my kid went missing they found him in 20 mins because they were already all in the area! Anyway I wouldn't have posted what I did last night if I had known a bit More about CP's situation and I have apologised. Let's just leave it there eh?

I often see an old friend of mine in the area and he currently is in a very bad way. He isn't a bad person, he is a pisshead and a bit of a fantasist who often amusingly tries to talk himself up as a top dj. He is currently homeless and sofa surfing, he recently got the shit kicked out of him at one of the houses he was staying at. There are 5 strict criteria to get on the housing list and being free of rent arrears is one of them. Because obv people with rent arrears have deliberately made themselves homeless. Whereas this other nice person from the neighbourhood whose own parents have a restraining order against him (he held his dad hostage at knife-point for drug money), when he was released from his 2nd custodial sentence was put into sheltered accommodation for 12 weeks until he got a flat in quite a posh area. I was just thinking about how the system here is disenfranchising a decent but vulnerable person and assisting a repeat violent offender, and possibly how some of CP's nice neighbours got there.

The trouble with thread neighbors

This got worse before it got better but we are out of here on Monday, thank fuck. I actually feel sorry for our landlady which means it must be bad. She doesn't want to rent the flat out again until it's sorted and I don't see that happening anytime soon. We're lucky she felt pity for us due to my wife being ill and let us out of the contract.

A few weeks ago the police raided the dealers' flat and arrested 2 people on drugs and weapons charges. People have been threatened with guns and knives so in some ways we've not had it as bad as others in the building, I've only had verbal. Since then I assume they are out on bail because it's not been 7 days a week, mainly just weekends and the odd day in the week that they've been up here. Has been picking up a bit in the last week so maybe they think they've lain low long enough, so glad we're getting out. My wife's just got out of hospital last night so hope it's not too bad for the few days we've got left. Feel for the people in the building who maybe don't have an option. Spoke to next door neighbour last night, he's been away for a while on work and he told me he's moving to Eastbourne to get away from it. He told me there's an entry code for the front door (I don't even know it) and the local junkies all know it and the management company refuse to change it because last time they did someone kicked the front door in. Maybe they did change it because someone did break in the front door window a couple of weeks ago. That was a weird night. Someone set off the fire alarm that night as well. We thought maybe it was rival dealers trying to flush them out or something.

Anyway a few more days and this'll be over and I can stop whinging about it (will no doubt whinge about something else, sorry in advance).

with some buildings the fire alarm will override the entry system, so if you set the alarm off it releases the electronic locks. it's a safety thing so that emergency services can gain access iirc

glad you've got things sorted and good luck w/ the move!

Really glad to hear you're getting out of this, CP, and yes, good luck with the move, it sounds like you deserve some.

Really hope the move goes well and you and your wife are able to enjoy a peaceful xmas.

ffs I knew we wouldn't be able to make it to Monday without incident. Cunts've been back stealing mail, there's torn open envelopes littered around the building and looks like somebody pissed in the lift.

To add insult to injury the fucking cunt management scum are retiling our roof with no notice have moved all our stuff on the balcony and hammering away all fucking day long. They'll do up the outside of the building which doesn't even look that bad while the inside rots. They've not asked permission to do this can I call the cops and say they're trespassing?

I know it's off-subject for this thread, but it's impossible to read through this without thinking how destructive the criminalisation of drugs really is. Addicts are not inherently evil people, but it can seem that way after a century of futilely fighting "drug-related crime" that is really drug criminalization-related crime. Read the above, and then imagine how much safer the neighbourhood would be if heroin junkies could peacefully get their fix from a legal dispensary rather than from thuggish street dealers waging turf wars. And allow the medical community to address drug dependance, rather than pretending that throwing addicts into prison will ever make addiction go away. (/-rant)

Anyway, glad you're moving out & best wishes for your wife and for yourself.

so last night about a quarter to midnight i hear this major commotion from the flat below - like a man roaring at the loudest possible level, unintelligible roaring, and stuff being smashed, doors slamming, a woman's voice answering etc, only snippets of conversation like "you paki bitch". then there's like howling and crying, from the man, more smashing stuff, more roaring, and more answers. it got so violent-sounding that i called 999. the police arrived and i could hear them knocking on the door etc, then they came up the stairs and knocked on my door, and asked me if i called the police, with the neighbour in question within earshot up the stairs, where he'd been hiding, i think. i said yes, as quietly as i could and they said they wanted to come and talk to me about what i heard, and they would shortly.

so they never did that, which was annoying as i stayed awake for a bit. i heard them questioning him more, then eventually they went. this morning i made a complaint about the fact they'd taken no care to keep me anonymous. the duty officer rang me, and though he was very helpful and apologetic, i couldn't believe how much he played down the incident. like he was basically saying i don't have to worry too much based on their report, because they hadn't arrested him or they hadn't "got to the bottom of" any major incident happening. and he kind of said "people have different lives and what's acceptable in one house isn't acceptable in another" - i had to stop him a few times to explain the amount of times i've heard domestics in london and not called anyone, and the difference on this occasion in that i literally called 999 because it sounded so violent and unhinged that somebody could be killed. i also explained i heard his officers saying "we had reports of a woman matching your wife's description running down the street crying"

he actually said, as way of explanation: "it might seem shocking but from our point of view you come to consider these things as normal"

find it pretty awful on the police side. i guess i'm not too worried about my neighbour confronting me or making trouble for me, but i still would prefer he didn't know it was me who rang the police. if he does say anything to me i think i'll just deny it. i thought of a few other approaches but i don't want to respond in any other way that involves me having to be conciliatory or understanding about the fact he's a violent fucking cunt.

fuckthepolice.mp3

seriously, that is a shitty way for the police to handle just about everything - the last thing you should hear from authority when you bring something to their attention is 'you come to consider these things as normal'. acknowledging that the situation is abnormal but that you basically dgaf anymore should be grounds for disciplinary action

police can be such aliens in dealing with civilians. My brother-in-law, who lives down the street from me, has twice been rear ended at high speed when he slowed down to turn into his driveway. He mentioned to one of the responding officers at the second crash that since it was a residential street maybe the speed limit should be 25mph rather than 35, which might cut down on the speed demon-ing. The cop just replied, "No, you are wrong. The speed limit is too low here. It should be 45mph."

'then you'd be dead and another officer would hve to deal with this'

Getting home to some stupid note because the next door neighbour has gone out without her key and come back to find out that the street door was locked . & somehow it's my fault when I've kept the door on the lacth all the time I've been here.
Seems that this person has reached her late 20s and not come across the concept of a latch before. & is insisting that you need to lock the door from outside.
Had sod all to do with me but apparently if the door's locked when she gets home without a key I'm mad and she's out for the taxi fare to get her husband to get the key to her. Not her just being a bit dim.

two (2) sets of em squabbling: in both cases i have been invited in to support one side against the other, in both case the other has sent an extremely reasonable and sensible response which i suspect will not help

however my plan to bang everyone's heads together will possibly also not help