Drunken neighbour harassing threatening and frightening off my tenants!

Hi Tony,

Have you spoken to the council about this yet?

Hi Neil
My local landlords association has given me a contact at the council however we are very doubtful this will help as they will only act if the 'victim' contacts them directly.

Is there not anything in the lease that could see him kicked out?

Hi Tony, your tenant must contact the police on every occasion that he/she is threatened. Also contact environmental health who will advise the tenant on how to record all events as they arise. You are correct in that the police and council may not engage with you on specifics, however, they should recognise and appreciate that you are trying to help resolve the situation. At the end of the day if your tenant will not make a formal complaint there is little the authorities will do. Have you been threatened? If so you would be able to report this yourself. A video recorder covering the front door (mounted inside and pointing towards the door entrance, not outside as this can be vandalised) would be a useful means of recording threats etc. you will need the tenants permission to do this though.

Hi and thank you for your comments
Lewis: Frustratingly he owns his own flat so there is no landlord that can be contacted. The freeholder is a London based PLC so they will not be interested.
Rob: The letting agent has advised him to contact the police but most tenants feel this can make things worse so although my tenants love the accommodation they just seem to bail out of the tenancy.

We have a similar problem with an owner occupier upstairs from our tenants. He has OCD, plays his tv very loud, swears at people in the hallway and bangs the door from inside his flat very loudly such that the vibrations have knocked the plaster from the communal wall on the other side. His behaviour( whilst unfortunate for him as I am sure his behavioural problems are not his fault) are intimidating to the others in the block as he will not communicate with others so no-one knows what he might do. He will not answer the door to the police or anyone else so what can we do?
Alcoholism/mental health/OCD/autism and any other behavioural issues all need help. We can't just get rid of people with problems but we need advice from authorities/charities/police anyone!! Police telling us to gather evidence is just the authorities way of delaying doing something as they don't know what to do...

Hi Tony

Sadly this is the part of the joy of flats. As said above by others, if the harassment and nuisance is against the tenants then there is little you can do as regards complaints police and environmental health, although you an report so they do at least have a record.

Your main recourse is against the freeholder as you are entitled to quiet enjoyment. You do say they will not be interested, but perhaps you should engage a good property solicitor to change their mind. Effectively you are not getting what you have paid for - a lease is a legal contract. If the freeholder starts incurring costs to deal with complaints, other leaseholders may well rally round in support of you as they will no doubt be sharing the cost.

Regards

Graham

I once had issues with owner occupier fellow leaseholders (who were also co-freeholders) in a block of flats. When speaking to them and writing to them formerly (several times) failed to resolve the issue, I took legal advice and was advised to begin legal proceedings against them as they were in violation of the lease, and were violating my right to quiet enjoyment. However, they moved out soon afterwards.

Nearly all leases contain a clause which prohibits the leaseholder from "doing or suffering others to do anything that is likely to cause nuisance or annoyance to the other leaseholders, residents or occupiers..." (or very similar wording).

With leasehold property, the ultimate sanction is forfeiture, which would mean the neighbour was evicted, so you do have a powerful legal weapon to fight this person, assuming you can't go down the environmental health and police route (as your tenant is reluctant) provided you're prepared to take legal action.

Plan A
Go down to the nearest gym and put your property up.for rent on their notice board.

Make sure that the tenant has at least a black belt in kick boxing or actual karate.
And offer a discount if he or she can cope with the Neighbour, if not tell them it's a condition of the lease that the new tenant and Neighbour have one sparring lesson with each other in the ring and supply the Neighbour with boxing gloves.

That will work, I promise you.

Plan B
Give the Neighbour a pair of boxing gloves and offer to train for 4 weeks, after which you both will beat the living sh*t out of each other in the ring

In the army, grudges are settled in the ring and not the barracks, both parties learn to respect each other.

Plan C.
If you are too old or a lover and not a fighter, tell your Neighbour a fight in the ring,,with a local boxing amateur has been organised and he has 2 weeks to train up.

See how he reacts, when he sobers up.

Thank you all for your advice and time. I will digest and take all your comments on board. Sadly there doesn't seem to be a 'silver bullet' to solve this problem which I suspected.