Neighbours from hell/ legal insurance difficulties

[Blinkin73]

I wrote the following about 4 hours ago.
I was then called away on a family matter, so haven't finished yet.
Please remember that posters here are all volunteers who have other lives, so sometimes responses on unusual or difficult matters may be delayed.


For a nuisance you need to show your neighbour's actions have caused an interference with your enjoyment of the land.

For harassment you need to show your neighbour's behaviour is intended to cause you distress or alarm, and it has occurred on more than one occasion

At least a discussion with Irwin Mitchell is a move forward for you.

I'll try and read those policy extracts over the next 24 hours and then get back to you

Thank you so much. I do understand that people are volunteers. Im very grateful for any advice.

I read up on both nuisance and harassment (revisiting my days as a law student) and the concept of malice in nuisance blurred the lines between nuisance and harassment to my mind because it seems clear that you can deliberately cause nuisance to cause distress.

I'm trying to brace myself for a disappointing outcome following my conversation with Irwin Mitchell. I imagine if I'm lucky funding for a strong cease and desist letter will be agreed. If my neighbours a quiet for a year after that I may have a chance to sell my property for what it's worth. I know that the Law isn't about fairness, but there should be some consequences for people like my neighbours.

[des8]

Don't forget your policy has an excess (£250?), so the policy is unlikely to fund a cease and desist letter on its own.
I suspect your negotiations with I&M will end with the insurers either accepting or rejecting your claim

I agree that the policy does not cover harassment.

Sec 4 damage to property only relates to physical damage to your property, so not any reduction in value, but does cover
legal action relating to a legal nuisance.
However it seems there is an ongoing trespass, but it might be considered minimal

See how it goes with I&M before deciding on your next move.
It is perfectly possible to seek an injunction without the assistance of a solicitor, but if it is disputed and you fail it could be expensive.
If you intend to go down that route might I suggest you start keeping a diary of events and obtain noise monitoring equipment to record the volume accurately

Have you checked if your neighbours actually own the property? They may just be terrible tenants (my son in law has just paid out over £6000 refurbishing a property trashed by a tenant... and my s-i-l is a builder)
check on land registry for £3 here https://www.gov.uk/get-information-a...h-the-register

If you are frustrated trying to contact the council online/by phone, then write to them. Their CEO will welcome a recorded delivery letter.

Regarding solicitors being the gateway to barristers .... there are direct access barristers you could approach.

[Blinkin73]

Thank you very much for your reply des8 and your opinion on the policy. Im aware of £250 excess. Along with the trespass, there's an ongoing risk of damage to my property due to neighbours allowing really tall Bamboo and fir trees to grow right beside my conservatory. And I mean Bamboo growing 2cms from a wall, and a series of fir trees growing over 2.5 metres high 20 cms from the same wall.

Yes I've checked that my owners own the property. I had to sent the land registry documents to my legal insurance company as part of the claims process.

I've began keeping a diary and recording events on my phone, tablet and CCTV from June 2021, when it became obvious that they were very anti social people who appear to want to dominate the area around them.

I think I do need to speak to someone impartial about the case. I hadnt thought about direct access barristers. Thank you. I will wait until the outcome of my chat with U/M.

Though I've not heard anything from the police, I think they may have had a strong word with my neighbours....again. The last two days my neighbours have been really quiet. Usually after ive reported them to the police theyve just upped the ante. I think the police didn't take kindly to my neighbours making false allegations to them recently which were easily disproved due to my CCTV. Ive a missed call from victim support too.

I would be surprised if my neighbours defended any claim. They know how they've behaved and that I've lots of recordings of them acting unreasonably. They know it costs a lot to go to Court and that most people can't afford this. I think that's what they've been banking on. The fact is whilst they can afford alcohol and drugs and a 10 year old SUV they can't afford to renovate the house they purchased next door and they can't afford any form of window dressing to allow their kids some privacy in their bedrooms in the evenings.

[Blinkin73]

So the quiet period didn't last long at all. When I say quiet period, I could still hear my neighbours but it was in the realms of normal noise and behaviour I see and hear from other neighbors. It was bliss

However my neighbours are back to their old tricks. The Arsenal game was a nightmare, I took myself off to a tiny polytunnel I constructed at the end of my garden for such purposes but could still hear the shouts loudly despite being over 120ft away. My neighbours had all their windows and doors open and even people on the street in front of their house were remarking about the noise. A neighbour a few doors down who was parking their car noted that if his kids were making that much noise he was tell them off.

After the match my male neighbour chose to sit right by my concervatory doors and have a telephone call about the match where he shouted and swore and referred to me as a "freak" for some reason".

My neighbours have been really loud, shouting on their phones really really loudly with their back doors open, swearing lots in the garden, making remarks about me playing with my puppy in the garden quietly (apparently using a babble ball with him once in the garden is just the same as shouting and swearing nearly every day for 2.5 years, and mocking me for reporting them to agencies.

I emailed the council about the noise. Ive be3n very clearmabout all the recordings I have but the want a completed diary of the next month.

I contacted victim support on Friday following another incident

The police phoned me yesterday, apologised about the delay and advised that they did consider the situation one of harassment and that they would be allocating the case. My neighbours didnt watch the England game. Instead, clearly under the influence of something, they shouted and swore by my patiomdoors, played a site radio inside the house loudly for over 2 hours,whilst mowing and strimming the lawn which took,over 2.5 hours for,some reason (they always do it at the weekend despite not working)( my other neighbour mowed her similar sized lawn today, took her 15 minutes) Then the male started threatening to throw apples from my tree that had fallen into their garden ( not their garden, but where they have placed a series of fence panels on my land) back into my garden and considered stealing some of the apples to make a crumble. Later in the evening he could be heard talking loudly to,himself in the lounge with the window wide open.

Today he was shouting on the phone from indoors withnthemback door open swearing at 12.00 ("f" words). At about 2 as I played with my puppy henstarted quietly singing "what a wicked piece of filth" through the hedge a number of times, then made a racket kicking a football about befor3 blasting out a site radio for a few minutes. I phoned the police to report what he had been singing. It's just about recorded on the CCTV if you turn up the volume to max.

I should hear from Urwin Mitchell some time this week. I'm so worried that they won't help.

[Blinkin73]

So, its all so very disheartening

After the police phoning me and advising that the situation was classed as harassment and the case would be allocated, I had to report a further incident when the male next door began quietly singing at me through the hedge that divides the garden "what a wicked piece of filth" several times, then as I was on the phone to the police he began kicking a football loudly around the garden and shouting and laughing at me. Having waited patiently for the police to make contact with me to see the videos i have of the numerous times my neighbours have undertaken behaviour that can be classed as harassment, today I received a letter from them which appears to state that they are now closing the case. I don't understand how they can open a case and close it having never contacted me to discuss whats been happening or see the evidence that I have.

I was contacted by a paralegal from Urwin Mitchell, they then provided me with a 43 page terms and conditions form to read through and sign and then have asked for copies of everything that I've already passed to the legal insurance company. What was the point of sending the information to the claims company in the first place? I'm not confident of them accepting my claim. Re thr trepass, not only was a fence placed on my land, my neighbours kept coming on to my land to retrieve footballs they kept kicking into my garden, but I was assaulted and left with bruising on my arm, but apparently this is insignificant? I also have their bamboo growing right up aside my property now as they are encouraging it to grow to block out light but I'm more worried about the damage it could do to the foundations etc.

Theres been a incident of domestic abuse where my neighbours were arguing and swearing loudly. He was locked out the house and asserting that she had hit him. Their children were present When the police arrived he denied anything had happened and started shouting about me and that I should be given a caution for calling the police about them. I had it all recorded on CCTV but the police never contacted me to enquire.

The shouting at football that he usually does has diminished, he's only shouted once at a recent Arsenal game, but when an England game was playing they played loud music on a radio inside their property whilst he sat in the garden whilst she mowed and strimmed the lawn for over two hours. She then mowed the lawn again 5 days later which suggests that the pair of them were just making as much noise as possible when the England game was on out of spite.

She keeps parking really really close to my car for no reason.

I feel so exhausted and tearful today.

[MIKE770]

The company is policy expert, I'm dealing with Trinity Claims

I'm just going to go and find what is not covered and copy it here

Policy Expert I quested right earlier on when reading. - say no more. Trinity are arrogant obnoxious company any employees