Abusive neighbours

[Clevercat]

I wonder what the course of action would be for someone who is so petrified of their abusive neighbour that they are too scared to speak  up?

The family in question have young children (not the abusive ones I do not mean) and are too scared to speak out against their neighbours who have threatened to smash all of their faces in.

The lovely people in question have already been moved from one council estate as they were violent and aggressive towards their neighbours so we were thrown out, now my friend has the pleasure of living next to them. 

He, is built like a ten tonne truck and you sure would not confront the bloke.

What would be your advice Nick?

How would someone be protected in a case such as this?

[Town NPT]

This is not unfamiliar territory, so what I would suggest is the following:
(1) Create a log of incidents & keep this log running
(2) If there is a Social Housing Provider (either for you or them) let them know of the problems you are experiencing
(3) They will usually request that Police are notified & an investigation start
(4) Housing will arrange mediation between the two parties (if both parties are Private tenants/ owners, this cost will be borne by each party) with a view to opening constructive dialogue & trying to find common ground & eliminate areas of dispute
(5) Should mediation fail then the Landlord would be looking to find the tenant in breach of their tenancy & evict them

There will usually be a number of processes between (4) & (5), but these all involve evidencing antisocial behaviour/ criminal behaviour & attempting to support both parties in resolving their differences. In my experiences, these processes take a long time to resolve, but both Police & Housing will do their very best to support you & keep you safe during the process.

As a short term measure their is also the civil route (of which I am no expert) but you might look to place a Non-molestation order on the offending party, these usually last about 6 months, but you would need to speak with a solicitor about this (probably through a Housing Society)

If we can be of help, please feel free to email me about the incident & I will see what I can do,

All the best
Nick

[Clevercat]

The people I refer to are North Wilts based.  The whole street is frightened of this one couple.

The incident log is a good idea and I will suggest it, but the idea of mediation of any kind with this chap is a no go I would have thought, he clearly has no morals, no self control and no concience.

I will refer them to your points tho and thanks for your help.

[Yokel]

when all is said and done these people have got to live somewhere and your friends will find it a challenge - and very laborious - to get them moved because moving them only moves the problem elsewhere so from the point of view of social services there is no direct benefit from responsing to complaints at all.  So, what'll happen is these people will stay there until the pressure on social services is so great - so burdensome - its admininstratively easier to move them than keep them where they are.

[cuthbert-murray]

 
having come across this before the action to take is to contact their local council, who will send out an incident log book,
also at the same time they need also contact the social housing team responsible for those properties involved, if your friend is scared of these people perhaps she could ask other neighbours to do the same thing as more people fileing the same behaviour will help their cause.
by contacting both council and socail housing teams these will liase between them and, start the process of resolving this matter.

[Town NPT]

CC, the point of mediation is two fold, in the first instance it is to make every effort to resolve the problem & to give a professional mediator the opportunity to work their magic, which they do more often than not. The second reason is for the mediator to evidence either non-involvement or blatant disregard for any agreements drawn up, this will help the Housing provider (which for the sake of this type of incident will act on behalf of the Council)  to make a suitable decision on how to proceed, should they decide to find the offending party in breach of their tenancy then they will take the necessary action, but the party involved will be deemed intentionally homeless & go to the bottom of any Housing list (I guess the idea being is that perhaps they will value any future help a little more & give more effort to behaving in a more social manner).

This again is a simplified description of the process & usually there will be more organisations involved in helping both parties, but this in essence is correct,

All the best
Nick