How to Deal with Worst Neighbours Ever

Lstriker5950 on 17/01/2015 - 17:42
Last edited 21/01/2015 - 17:11

Hi
I live in the western suburbs of sydney, I have moved to my new home 7 years ago, in the past 2 years I have been having constant problems with the neighbour behind us, (we share a fence from the backyard). there houses to the south of us are all "housing homes".

first it was just rocks been thrown, than eggs, this happened during different days, this has happened to my left side neighbour as well and she is a very nice old lady who lives alone. they did other annoying stuff such as riding their loud noisy dirtbike/quadbike in the backyard with loud noises and exhaust backfire.

some times in the middle of the night we hear loud screaming noises and swearing and fights between them and whoever else lives there, its really annoying and frustrating.

last year one of the occupants of the (bad neighbours) started trespassing onto our backyard, he was hiding from the cops who visited his house to arrest him for auto theft, apparently they were running a chop-shop in the backyard. so there was a serious confrontation, long story short the police came and caught him, we went to court, got an AVO against him and one of his friends.

now last week he started riding his dirt bike in the backyard again, it is so annoying and noisy, me and my family cannot have any piece and quite when we come home from a hard day at work/uni. sometimes he rides it for 2 hours straight.

so I did what any reasonable person would do and went to the police station today to report them, only to see the police officer tell me they cannot do anything about it, I quote:(we have had numerous complaints from neighbours about "them" and we have told them to stop but they don't listen to us, the police knows them and have dealt with them before). :/

so then she goes on to tell me that the best option for us would be to report them to the housing commission in the from of a letter, and also get a petition to be signed by the surrounding neighbours and send that in as well to have them evicted. she gave an example of another family who was in the housing commission in another suburb and their were causing trouble in the neighbourhood and that they were evicted once everyone complained to the housing commission.

so if anyone could help me by linking me to the right page/email/contact number where I could make a complaint to the housing commission of NSW I would be really grateful. how would I go about writing a professional letter? and making a petition to be signed by all surrounding neighbours, i've never done this before and any help would be greatly appreciated.

if anyone has been in a similar situation, id love to hear about how it was dealt with.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

UPDATE:
I just spoke to some of the neighbours from their side of the street when I went to get the petition signed, and boy did they have stories to tell, they live even closer to them than I do so they definitely are suffering more from the nuisance and constant fights and problems, one of the neighbours told me that he sees them sell drugs on front of their house, he sees them bring new cars to the backyard every few days to part, once they even threatened to stab the person I spoke to, they have young children playing around and I really felt sorry for them, they have called the police too but nothing has been done..

I even spoke to some neighbours from a few houses further away and even they can hear the bike and had nothing but bad things to say about them.

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Comments

  • Gnostikos on 21/01/2015 - 16:14

    They ride dirt bikes in a backyard for 2 hours? What, on a mini-circuit made of traffic cones? How big is his backyard?

  • striker5950 on 21/01/2015 - 17:19

    up and down the backyard, its 700+sqm house mostly open grass.

    • Gnostikos on 21/01/2015 - 17:36

      Sounds like one of those Redneck Reality TV shows on 7Mate.

      • striker5950 on 21/01/2015 - 17:39
        +2

        well to make it clear we are dealing with bogans here.

  • pointless martyr on 21/01/2015 - 18:58

    I reckon that while many here have offered good suggestions involving the 'right' courses of action through govt agencies etc the only thing you can do is wait for the law to catch up with them. May be hours, may be years. Even after they are gone, theres every chance a similar mob will move in. Rather than spen countless hours hitting your head against the metaphorical wall with petitions and surveilance and writing a thousand letter id suggest you either move or rent out the house to pay for your rent elsewhere. This course of action is not fair or right but it is probably the least amount of hassle for you, and is a real world solution that is absolute. Youve had enough obviously so get out of there!

  • OzzyOzbourne on 21/01/2015 - 19:31
    +10

    Yeah, the police haven't got time to help decent people whose lives are ruined by scum, but make sure you don't go 1kph over the limit on that empty road, because they'll have yeh!

    • Michaelangelo on 23/01/2015 - 00:19

      Sounds about right!

      • altomic on 23/01/2015 - 12:37
        +1

        1kph over the limit on that empty road

        but the police are saving lives.

        every KM over limit can kill. don't you watch the infomercials?

        anyone who $ay$ that $peeding fine$ for low $peeding offence$ is ju$t revenue rai$ing is just too $ynical

  • [Deactivated] on 22/01/2015 - 09:55
    +1

    Document all the concerns and put them in writing along with the course of action that you want (eviction). Send to Housing NSW and to your local State Member of Parliament. Election time is coming up soon so ask your local MP what they are going to do about it before the election.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/01/2015 - 10:02

    When police claim that there is nothing they can do, see if there is a change of approach when you ask them for the Police Commissioner's office contact details and/or advise them that you will be taking up the matter (of non-action) with the Ombudsman.

  • [Deactivated] on 22/01/2015 - 20:01
    +1

    Scum like this seem to have a billion avenues of appeal and protection afforded to them. Even having hard evidence of their wrong doing isn't always enough to effect change.

    I really sympathise with you, striker5950. Having crappy workmates is one thing, at least you get to leave at the end of the day. Having crappy neighbours is almost inescapable.

  • altomic on 23/01/2015 - 12:34

    my mother in law has a group of housing commission townhouses across the street from her. built 2 years ago. occasionally new and rowdy tenants move in. and after a month (if they remain noisy) they disappear.

  • lysp on 30/01/2015 - 12:48

    Write down a log (times, dates and details) of everything they do. Report to the police any illegal activity (and log that too). Write down a log of everytime you see police attendance.

    Once you have a history (after a few weeks), call the housing commission - issue a complaint and provide them with evidence of antisocial behaviour and illegal activity.

    If there is illegal activity (drugs/stolen cars) being conducted on the site, the housing commission will probably try and evict them.

    Providing the housing commission with evidence will make the housing officers job easier when going to NCAT to process the eviction. Housing commission will need to follow standard tenancy law to get rid of them (they have no additional powers compared to standard agencies), so they need to go to court, argue breach of tenancy agreement and request an eviction. Anything you provide to speed up the process will help get it through quicker.

    • striker5950 on 03/02/2015 - 21:52

      I have sent in the petition, i received a letter 2 days ago saying that the matter has been given to the western sydney district for investigation and that an officer will contact me regarding the "progress of the matter" within 15 days. now its a waiting game.

      regarding the police reports and reference numbers against them, when i went to the police station the lady said that they do not give out any reference numbers, only for matters that i was involved in, but she said if they go through the process of investigation, housing calls the Intel department and request any legal cases on the tenants by the way of address and they will be able to see any criminal offences. at least that's what she said.

      • lysp on 04/02/2015 - 10:30

        The only problem is, if there is an ongoing criminal police investigation. Housing commission will usually need to wait for that to conclude before acting.

        Basically they aren't allowed to interfere with police investigation.

        Still though, providing them with a log of dates, times and issues will help their evidence if/when they take it to court.

      • [Deactivated] on 06/02/2015 - 23:52

        Did the Housing Commission get back to you?

  • lisss on 30/01/2015 - 18:41

    "so then she goes on to tell me that the best option for us would be to report them to the housing commission in the from of a letter, and also get a petition to be signed by the surrounding neighbours and send that in as well to have them evicted"

    This is good advice. If it's anything like WA, you're lucky that they're housing commission tenants and not private renters. In WA, the housing commission will actually kick them out, it can just take time and you'll need to jump through the relevant hoops. You should have started the process earlier, start ASAP. Good luck!

    As others have said, take detailed notes, get witnesses and signatures, put everything in writing.

  • Spun on 18/04/2015 - 18:17

    How did you go with this matter striker? I'm genuinely curious.

    I hope it all worked out for you, or is at least on its way to being resolved.

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