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Hi
I'm wondering if someone could provide some advice
In March 2021 neighbours from hell moved nextdoor ( i live in a terraced house). They are really really loud, inconsiderate and anti social (swearing, smoking weed, kids screaming from 7.00am until gone midnight in the school holidays, bang up and down uncarpeted stair case, shout really loudly at football matches, burning waste in the garden) but I was friendly towards them hoping I could just move away after redecorating my home. However they undertook DIY ( removed all carpets and smashed off all the plaster from the walls and took down ceilings etc) 7 days a week, often outside sociable hours. After 3.5 months of this I knocked on their door to ask them to stop hammering plaster off a party wall at 9.30am on a Sunday morning and since that time they've gone out of their way to make my life hell.
First they started to shout at me that my gutter was on their property and that I needed to remove it immediately. I advised that they would need to get a solicitor to write to me about it as I purchased the property with said guttering 8 years ago. They refused but kept shouting at me at about it whenever I was in the garden or in my conservatory. They threatened to have lots of loud parties and to grow a hedge which is a boundary feature on their property as high as possible to block my light or remove it completely and install 10ft high fencing. They shouted at me to go and die if I was in my garden or conservatory and would scream, shout, tap on the fence loudly or refer to me in derogatory terms and on one occassion shouted at me in the street which I recorded on my phone.
One evening in August 2021 they cut the hedge in half lengthways, threw the branches onto my property and then at me when I told them to stop. I was having a video call with a friend when this happened so have a witness. The following day I was shouted at and threatened with violence whilst in my garden and recorded my neighbours shouting insults and that they were going to let their fence, another boundary feature fall down, which it did in Feb 22. I reported them to the police who gave them words of advice.
I installed solar CCTV. This wasn't enough of a deterrent. They started kicking footballs on to my land and casually walking on to my property to retrieve them as well as making loads of noise if I went I to my garden or conservatory and placing a site radio right by my conservatory and playing really loudly even though they weren't even there. I erected chicken wire to stop my dog entering their garden which they then cut but was too far away for my CCTV to be triggered. I reported this to the police and purchased wildlife cameras for the end of the garden and build a barricade with compost bins. They still continued to enter my garden.
They parked over my lowered kerb to my drive or an inch from my car despite their being plenty of space in the road, all of which was captured on my CCTV. They eventually erected fence panels to replace the broken ones, but put them on my land by about 15cms and continued to refer to me in derogatory terms or make a lot of noise if they thought I was in the garden or my conservatory. They periodically removed fence panels so they could see into my house and when I was in the garden. They started shouting really loudly on the phone next to the boundary by my conservatory doors and got their kids to scream and shout when i returned from work. The noise and stress got so much that I couldn't work and resigned my position and didn't work for a number of months.
In November 22 I was assaulted by the male neighbour when I challenged him whilst he was trespassing in my garden after winds blew down a fence panel and some of their belongings were blown into my garden. I called the police who had words with them and took photos of the bruising on my arm where I was dragged about.
i had a topigraphical survey undertaken on advice of my legal insurance company which shows that their fence is on my land and that the remainder of the hedge is also on my land. I purchased proper CCTV which I have in my garden, out front and inside my home to record noise upstairs and downstairs as they shout and scream and undertake sparodic diy at unsociable hours though neither of them work.
Most recently, at the end of June 23 as I was trimming the top of my hedge as I have done since they cut the hedge in half, they began screaming and shouing and screaming at me trying to claim that the hedge was theirs and were calling me insulting names. The episode went on for hours and its all recorded as well as one of them telling their children thatvthey did it for fun. I called the police whomrevorded it as harassment. I have over two years worth of events recorded.
Having passed all the relevant information to my legal insurance company today they have advised that I'm not covered because based on the information they cannot say my chance of success is over 51% because
1. The incidents appear to be directed towards me, not the property. The matters are more akin to harassment than nuisance and is therefore not covered by the policy
2. It might be difficult to difficult to prove that my neighbours ought to know their behaviour amounted to harassment given that it's more their day to day behaviour (shouting, diy)
3. Trespass issues didn't seem Court worthy
Can nuisance can be intentional? If so how does one distinguish one from the other?
I'm at my wits end. I've called my insurance company to speak further about the matter and they advised that they are going tomrequest some funding so that I can obtain further advice. Meanwhile I'm absolutely devastated and can't help but feel my insurance company is just trying to find a way not to pay for any legal representation.
I'm wondering if someone could provide some advice
In March 2021 neighbours from hell moved nextdoor ( i live in a terraced house). They are really really loud, inconsiderate and anti social (swearing, smoking weed, kids screaming from 7.00am until gone midnight in the school holidays, bang up and down uncarpeted stair case, shout really loudly at football matches, burning waste in the garden) but I was friendly towards them hoping I could just move away after redecorating my home. However they undertook DIY ( removed all carpets and smashed off all the plaster from the walls and took down ceilings etc) 7 days a week, often outside sociable hours. After 3.5 months of this I knocked on their door to ask them to stop hammering plaster off a party wall at 9.30am on a Sunday morning and since that time they've gone out of their way to make my life hell.
First they started to shout at me that my gutter was on their property and that I needed to remove it immediately. I advised that they would need to get a solicitor to write to me about it as I purchased the property with said guttering 8 years ago. They refused but kept shouting at me at about it whenever I was in the garden or in my conservatory. They threatened to have lots of loud parties and to grow a hedge which is a boundary feature on their property as high as possible to block my light or remove it completely and install 10ft high fencing. They shouted at me to go and die if I was in my garden or conservatory and would scream, shout, tap on the fence loudly or refer to me in derogatory terms and on one occassion shouted at me in the street which I recorded on my phone.
One evening in August 2021 they cut the hedge in half lengthways, threw the branches onto my property and then at me when I told them to stop. I was having a video call with a friend when this happened so have a witness. The following day I was shouted at and threatened with violence whilst in my garden and recorded my neighbours shouting insults and that they were going to let their fence, another boundary feature fall down, which it did in Feb 22. I reported them to the police who gave them words of advice.
I installed solar CCTV. This wasn't enough of a deterrent. They started kicking footballs on to my land and casually walking on to my property to retrieve them as well as making loads of noise if I went I to my garden or conservatory and placing a site radio right by my conservatory and playing really loudly even though they weren't even there. I erected chicken wire to stop my dog entering their garden which they then cut but was too far away for my CCTV to be triggered. I reported this to the police and purchased wildlife cameras for the end of the garden and build a barricade with compost bins. They still continued to enter my garden.
They parked over my lowered kerb to my drive or an inch from my car despite their being plenty of space in the road, all of which was captured on my CCTV. They eventually erected fence panels to replace the broken ones, but put them on my land by about 15cms and continued to refer to me in derogatory terms or make a lot of noise if they thought I was in the garden or my conservatory. They periodically removed fence panels so they could see into my house and when I was in the garden. They started shouting really loudly on the phone next to the boundary by my conservatory doors and got their kids to scream and shout when i returned from work. The noise and stress got so much that I couldn't work and resigned my position and didn't work for a number of months.
In November 22 I was assaulted by the male neighbour when I challenged him whilst he was trespassing in my garden after winds blew down a fence panel and some of their belongings were blown into my garden. I called the police who had words with them and took photos of the bruising on my arm where I was dragged about.
i had a topigraphical survey undertaken on advice of my legal insurance company which shows that their fence is on my land and that the remainder of the hedge is also on my land. I purchased proper CCTV which I have in my garden, out front and inside my home to record noise upstairs and downstairs as they shout and scream and undertake sparodic diy at unsociable hours though neither of them work.
Most recently, at the end of June 23 as I was trimming the top of my hedge as I have done since they cut the hedge in half, they began screaming and shouing and screaming at me trying to claim that the hedge was theirs and were calling me insulting names. The episode went on for hours and its all recorded as well as one of them telling their children thatvthey did it for fun. I called the police whomrevorded it as harassment. I have over two years worth of events recorded.
Having passed all the relevant information to my legal insurance company today they have advised that I'm not covered because based on the information they cannot say my chance of success is over 51% because
1. The incidents appear to be directed towards me, not the property. The matters are more akin to harassment than nuisance and is therefore not covered by the policy
2. It might be difficult to difficult to prove that my neighbours ought to know their behaviour amounted to harassment given that it's more their day to day behaviour (shouting, diy)
3. Trespass issues didn't seem Court worthy
Can nuisance can be intentional? If so how does one distinguish one from the other?
I'm at my wits end. I've called my insurance company to speak further about the matter and they advised that they are going tomrequest some funding so that I can obtain further advice. Meanwhile I'm absolutely devastated and can't help but feel my insurance company is just trying to find a way not to pay for any legal representation.
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