Neighbour from HELL

[NoggerUK]

Help and advice needed please.

My brother is a tenant with a housing association and when he moved in a number of years ago he found his homeowner neighbour to be really obnoxious who has caused trouble almost from day one.

This neighbour has caused a lot of problems for my brother and I advised him early on to keep a log of all events which he has done.

A couple of years ago I offered to assist him in getting an injunction/restraining order against the neighbour but he hoped it would all go away.

My brother is vulnerable and has attempted suicide in the past and the situation has now built to a point where he is having those thoughts again!! This has been brought on by the latest drama from his neighbour, a registered post package came to his house on 27th December and upon opening appeared to be a court summons for damage to the neighbours car caused by my niece/nephews trampoline being blown from the garden and getting tangled in the fence. I won't go into the details of the case but the neighbour had tried to sue the housing association and failed.

My brother was extremely worried about this and it caused him to collapse and be hospitalised over new year.

I have now discovered that the court case against the housing association was thrown out but the judge gave the neighbour until Jan 4th to submit a new claim against my brother and it would be heard on Jan 12th.

The paperwork received does not appear to be an official court summons but just photocopied hand written papers from the original case and it appears to be written in the neighbours hand.

I don't believe there was a case against my brother after making enquiries at the court who confirmed the defendants name had not been changed. We will wait and see in the next few days I suppose.

I would really like to help my brother put an end to all this hassle now and I think that if these court papers are actually falsified we now have evidence of the harassment.

Is this a police matter?
Should we employ a solicitor?
How do I go about getting a restraining order?

I have advised my brother to register on this forum himself but his head is not in the right place and I can't see him doing it.

I really would appreciate any help or advice.

Regards,
Chris.

[des8]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Help and advice needed please.

My brother is a tenant with a housing association and when he moved in a number of years ago he found his homeowner neighbour to be really obnoxious who has caused trouble almost from day one.

This neighbour has caused a lot of problems for my brother and I advised him early on to keep a log of all events which he has done.

A couple of years ago I offered to assist him in getting an injunction/restraining order against the neighbour but he hoped it would all go away.

My brother is vulnerable and has attempted suicide in the past and the situation has now built to a point where he is having those thoughts again!! This has been brought on by the latest drama from his neighbour, a registered post package came to his house on 27th December and upon opening appeared to be a court summons for damage to the neighbours car caused by my niece/nephews trampoline being blown from the garden and getting tangled in the fence. I won't go into the details of the case but the neighbour had tried to sue the housing association and failed.

My brother was extremely worried about this and it caused him to collapse and be hospitalised over new year.

I have now discovered that the court case against the housing association was thrown out but the judge gave the neighbour until Jan 4th to submit a new claim against my brother and it would be heard on Jan 12th.(Typo, or was there a hearing yesterday?)

The paperwork received does not appear to be an official court summons but just photocopied hand written papers from the original case and it appears to be written in the neighbours hand.

I don't believe there was a case against my brother after making enquiries at the court who confirmed the defendants name had not been changed. We will wait and see in the next few days I suppose.

I would really like to help my brother put an end to all this hassle now and I think that if these court papers are actually falsified we now have evidence of the harassment.

Is this a police matter?
Should we employ a solicitor?
How do I go about getting a restraining order?

I have advised my brother to register on this forum himself but his head is not in the right place and I can't see him doing it.

I really would appreciate any help or advice.

Regards,
Chris.

Hi and welcome.
Sorry to hear of your brother's problems.
I'm not quite sure where he is in this matter.. see comment in red.
Did the court order a new claim, or just a change of defendant? (The latter would be a bit odd as the defendant is totally different and would need time to produce a defence)
Any chance you could post up the correspondence your brother has received?
Courts don't normally use registered post.
He would be invited in the court notification to admit or deny liability.
If denying liability he would need to file and serve a defence.

[NoggerUK]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Thanks des8,

The court has said that there has been no change of defendant and reading between the lines after speaking with the housing association who "cannot give any details concerning a legal matter" the neighbour had to submit a new claim.

There was a hearing yesterday but I think that this was the original case adjourned giving the neighbour time to submit a new claim. Please understand that we are getting all of this info via 3rd parties as we knew nothing about the case until the registered mail arrived.

The paperwork my brother has is not a proper court summons, I believe the neighbour "doctored" (badly) the original paperwork for the claim and sent it registered post to my brother. I advised him not to attend court as he hasn't received a summons, been asked if he admitted or denied liability or given the opportunity to file a defence. I can get copies of the paperwork tomorrow.

To me the neighbour has done this to deliberately harass my brother further and I will not stand for it any more. I asked my brother to call the police and I would be with him when they attend but he is reluctant to involve them because he isn't well.

I'm afraid that if we wait to act on this we lose an opportunity to end the harassment once and for all.

I know it's hard to make a judgement call without seeing the evidence but am I right in thinking we should call the police in the first instance?

[des8]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Harassment is both a criminal act and actionable in the civil courts, so why not report it to the police?

Did the trampoline actually cause any damage to the neighbour's car?

Look forward to seeing the correspondence.

[ostell]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Court forms do not actually look very impressive anyway but recorded is not normal. If it's from your local court take the forms down there and ask if they issued them.

[enaid]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

I would class this as ASB myself info HERE on what action can be taken

[NoggerUK]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Harassment is both a criminal act and actionable in the civil courts, so why not report it to the police?

Did the trampoline actually cause any damage to the neighbour's car?

Look forward to seeing the correspondence.

There wasn't damage to the car at the time, the trampoline stopped about 3 feet away from it. The neighbour took some photographs at the time and used 2 at angles which show it wrapped up in fence but you can't see if it was touching the car. They then have photos of a dent in the car taken 2 months later. All photos have date stamps on them.

My brother is wary of calling the police because every time he has done so over the years nothing is done with the neighbour.

[NoggerUK]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Court forms do not actually look very impressive anyway but recorded is not normal. If it's from your local court take the forms down there and ask if they issued them.

We've called the court and asked if the papers were correct i.e. Defendant amended with same case number as before. Court has said the defendant in that case has not been changed.

[des8]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

So basically the neighbour has done nothing on the legal front.
He has been obnoxious and harassed your brother and steps need to be taken to stop it.
Again report to police, and this time take it further than the civilian desk jockey. Remind them of previous complaints.
Also look at theother options in @enaid's link

[NoggerUK]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Des8, I have photos of the documents, how do I get them to you?

[Kati]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

Des8, I have photos of the documents, how do I get them to you?

email them to me with a link to this thread (kati@legalbeagles.info) and I'll make sure they're redacted and posted up tomorrow xx

[Kati]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

got them [MENTION=96770]NoggerUK[/MENTION] ... tagging [MENTION=39710]des8[/MENTION]

[des8]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

It appears the neighbour has sent copies of a submission he has possibly made to he court.

There is nothing to be done about this until he receives proper court papers which will set out the various alternatives available to your brother.
When (and if) they are to hand come back for help to complete them.

[NoggerUK]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

It appears the neighbour has sent copies of a submission he has possibly made to he court.

There is nothing to be done about this until he receives proper court papers which will set out the various alternatives available to your brother.
When (and if) they are to hand come back for help to complete them.

So court papers arrived yesterday, I will get them posted here asap.

He now has 14 days to return them and inform the courts of his intentions. So my questions are:-

1) we can ask for additional 14 days to submit a "defence", should we return the form straight away asking for this?

2) should we be provided with a copy of all the evidence?

3) the neighbour has supplied none of the evidence mentioned in their claim so can we ask for an extension of 14 days after receipt of the "evidence"?

My brothers defence will be based on the following:-

Claimant says my brother was negligent in that the trampoline wasn't secured when in fact it was with the use of manufacturer supplied pins plus additional bungee cord attached to tent pegs. We will contact the previous defendant to get copies of the photos they used to prove it was secure.

All reasonable steps had been taken to secure the trampoline.

Prior to the incident the trampoline had remained secure and had not moved during the previous 8 storms that occurred between November 12th 2015 and Feb 2nd 2016. Winds during these stormy periods were recorded with gusts maxing at 55mph, on the day and time of the incident winds were recorded as gusting up to 32mph, this data has been taken from the website World Weather Online. This surely proves that the trampoline had been secure by virtue of the fact it hadn't previously blown away?

Claimant states that they had made my brother aware of their safety concerns via the landlord, this is untrue, they complained it was an eyesore, again we need to request copies of all correspondence between the claimant and landlord. At no point did the neighbour express any concerns directly to my brother be that in writing, email, verbally etc.

Can someone provide a template for defence of this or provide points of law etc that can be quoted?

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance.

[des8]

Re: Neighbour from HELL

He should acknowledge receipt of the form and indicate that the claim will be defended in full.
This will give 33 days from date of issue for lodging the defence.

Copy of Particulars of claim will help us draft the defence.

Does your brother have Tenants liability insurance, or contents insurance?
If he does it possibly covers his public liability, and his insurers should be informed as they will undertake his defence