Neighbors

We live underneath 5 teenage boys (19 yrs old) who all go to University of Northumbria. Since we moved in 3 weeks ago we've dealt with excessive noise levels EVERY day. Three days after we moved in we were awoken at 3AM by some girl running up and down the stairs, screaming, and standing outside (right next to our bedroom window) screaming about how she was going to commit suicide. We called the police that time, and they came, and took someone away.
The following weeks we called the noise complaint dept. of the council and talked to our neighborhood council lady who called their letting agent and the university to complain. So last night, DH gets woken up at 4AM by these little bastards, and calls the police for the 2nd time because he can hear them beating the crap out of someone upstairs. Police come, knock on door. Noise is way too loud upstairs for them to hear the cops... it's 4:30Am at this point. Police bang on door again and yell "Open the f*cking door, its the police!!!" and end up taking someone away again.
So tonight... see our neighbors coming in the door with a big group of people and DH tells them to STFU not very nicely to which they respond as 19 year old are wont to do... they laughed it off and then ran upstairs to taunt him from the windows. So, fast-forward to 9pm. I called the neighborhood council hotline to report the noise again, made a formal complaint, talked to one of the guys who works there and he assures me if they witness the noise they can issue citations and a host of other stuff.
DH and I go outside again because we hear everyone upstairs leaving. Count how many bodies exit the flat; 14 total. This is after 3 hours of stomping, jumping, loud music, screaming, yelling, etc. Guy who lives there comes out with 3 other people and tries to 'apologize' to DH about earlier. One of the young women *cough*skank*cough* pipes up and says, "I didn't realize how old you were! It's a bit silly fighting with 19 years olds then, isn't it?" To which I step in and say, "No, what's silly is my husband and I can't get a full night's sleep without being awoken by you lot." They of course just giggle and get in the taxi.
We're fairly certain they're dealing/doing drugs in their home as well. DH and I are ready to effing kill these kids. Gah. Thank god our lease is up in 5 months.

Have you called their letting agent ( presuming you know who it is ) and informed them of the noise and tell them you have notified the police constantly for their behaviour?  They must be breaking part of their letting contract.  Also I would send a letter to the University with the reference numbers from your police complaints and demand in the letter that you want a acknowledgement that somethin will be done..

Little bastards...what a nightmare..

Dump the lease.  Move now.  Or, bear in mind that they are going to be doing finals from March on, and repay....


Vicky

We've contacted the University as well as their letting agent before. Tonight is the last straw though. We were woken up by them at 1:45AM, contacted the council, and they sent two men out form the noise dept., who stood in our living room and heard everything, wrote a report/legal notice and we listened as they issued it to the neighbors.
Now it's nearly 4AM and they've just woken us again with their antics, and we've called them back like they told us too. Everyone in the house will be fined 110 pounds this time. I'm calling their letting agent and the university again tomorrow and I'm going to let them know that as of last night we've begun to pursue legal action (via the notices) and if it continues the noise control department does intend to take them to court. It's my hope that they'll be evicted at the very least.
I don't think we can move from here; we paid 6 months rent in advance and I can see our letting agent giving us a problem about refunding our money.

I'm so angry... I wish we could take care of this ourselves and just beat the stuffing out of these kids. They just don't care about anything. Everything is a joke to them. We can hear their conversations through the floors, and when the first notice was issued they sat in their lounge and laughed about it, and speculated that my husband was Northern Irish because "his hair is too dark, he can't be English"..... these kids are effing stupid.

*sigh* It's 4AM and I'm exhausted. It's a damn good thing I haven't started my job yet. This has to be taken care of before then.

This sounds like a nightmare . I'm so sorry for all you're going through, as I remember how excited and happy you were about moving to Britain. Hopefully by pursuing it as forcefully as you have, they'll be evicted soon.

I had a similar, but far more disturbing, situation at our last flat. When we moved in, there was a lovely couple above us. Then the drug dealers moved in. One of them also regularly beat his girlfriend to within an inch of her life. The walls were thick, but it would still wake up the entire building.

Fast forward to last Easter Monday. After months of complaints to the police, council, and anyone who would listen, they took it to a new level. Somebody had graffiti'd their outside doorbell, and they decided to kick in every door in the building. We had a ground floor flat, and they knew we knew what was going on (mostly because over half the customers would knock on our window to ask for access to the building). As a result, they also smashed in the glass double doors that were between our back garden and our bedroom. Had we not planned ahead and fled (in my case, barefoot) down the back alley and to a local hotel where we called 999, we're guessing we might be dead or as good as right now.

Hopefully you'll have better luck pursuing legal action, and it seems like you're just dealing with semi-normal university student cockiness (as opposed to career criminals, dealers, and thugs).

Anyway... is the building all owned or managed by the same person/company? Is their lease specifically dependant on their status as students? Do you have a direct number for the Community Support Officer that works your area? Do you have a decibel meter? Are you keeping detailed records of everything they're doing?

The dB meter is good for keeping track/records, and they only cost about £15.

Keep in mind, though, that these kids are at the age where they think they're invincible. They'll keep harassing you, perhaps even after (and if) they get evicted. It might not be worth the fight in the long run. It might be worth talking to your agent and demanding that they move you. (If the kids were there when they showed you the flat, and they knew it was a noisy place, and they didn't say anything, they'll likely find you a new place instead of facing a court case involving false advertising and not providing appropriate housing, etc.).

Good luck!

Wow, Jen. What you went through sounds absolutely awful. Thankfully it's not all that, at least not yet. Thanks for your advice; some we've already been doing and some suggestions were new to us so we'll be looking into them!

The nighttime noise guys did a decibel reading at 4:30. They said to issue fines etc. the noise would have to be 35 or above, and the little brats had seen the men come in, I'm sure, and quieted down a bit but the reading was still 34.3...the same constable who came the previous night was called again by coincidence and he was *not* happy. The nighttime noise guys and the two police officers went over to the kids' flat. At first they wouldn't answer the door (this is a regular thing-- they purposefully wait before answering so they can hide/flush drugs and paraphernalia.). It was funny listening by our door. Some kid answered the door eventually and was like "I don't live here, and everyone else is asleep." [which everyone knew was a lie because we'd all sat in my lounge and listened to them for the last 10 minutes] and the police officer shouted "Well wake them up because we're coming up!!" lol

So anyhow, after all that we FINALLY got to sleep at just past 5AM. Today I rec'd a call from the university asking me what had happened (because I'd left them a msg earlier yesterday), I called the letting agent (which was no help at all), and the constable in charge of domestic disturbances called us today to let us know she'd be issuing an Unacceptable Behaviour Agreement which they either comply with or get evicted. She came round a short while ago and luckily our neighbor on the other side of us was out talking to my husband and he told the police officers that he'd been woken up as well, and was quite sick of this lot as well. They took down his name/number as well.

All 14 people in the flat upstairs had left just before the police arrived, so the one kid who never leaves the flat answered the door and talked to the officers. Later before they left they talked to DH again and told him they were coming back tonight at random times to monitor the brats upstairs and they were going to surprise them with a visit. She told us that she had seen what she believed to be drug paraphernalia after we told her we smelled marijuana coming from upstairs. So my guess is that these kids are in for a lot of trouble in the coming days, from the private landlord [who was contacted by the university], the university itself [who has received no fewer than 3 calls about them today from various sources], and especially the police who are concerned about the level of violence occurring in the house, and about the potential drug-taking going on.

We'll see what happens but we're really relieved at this point because it's being taken care of. We've been keeping records and there are several records made about this because we've been calling the university, nighttime noise control, and police.

As for retaliation, these kids still look at this as a joke. They really do think they are invincible. Last night DH and I listened as the police & nighttime noise guys were upstairs. One of the kids said something along the lines of 'do you know who I am' and the constable shouted 'I don't care who you are or who you know!!' None of them appear to work, there sure as heck isn't any studying going on through that racket, so I'm thinking mommy & daddy pay their living expenses.

They think they're really tough, wearing their hats sideways and listening to R&B, smoking pot, and playing video games for hours on end. We'll see how tough they are when the cops surprise them tonight. DH and I are unimpressed... these kids are a dime a dozen in Detroit.

What a !#%&(* MESS! That's completely unacceptable, and I'm so sorry this is happening to you. I hope they're evicted or you can be moved, sooner rather than later.  :\\\'(

What a !#%&(* MESS! That's completely unacceptable, and I'm so sorry this is happening to you. I hope they're evicted or you can be moved, sooner rather than later.  :\\\'(

Thanks Elly Ever since the cops showed up twice in one day and had a nice, long chat with the boys everything has been wonderfully quiet.

That is completely frightening.  I hope things are still quiet --and safe-- for you both.

How would the authorities/police deal with this in the US? I'll bet the pot heads would show more respect for a US police officer than they do for the touchy feely Brit cops?

How would the authorities/police deal with this in the US?

About the same way, I imagine. Eventually, the kids would get a talking-to from the cops.

How would the authorities/police deal with this in the US? I'll bet the pot heads would show more respect for a US police officer than they do for the touchy feely Brit cops?

I don't know much about the differences in the laws of the US and UK in regards to these disturbances, but I know that when I lived in an apartment complex years ago and had wild neighbors, the cops came right away and the noise stopped. The same people had another wild party where the cops were called again and they got evicted. I lived in apartments for about 10 years and there were very few problems that I recall.

I don't know much about the differences in the laws of the US and UK in regards to these disturbances, but I know that when I lived in an apartment complex years ago and had wild neighbors, the cops came right away and the noise stopped. The same people had another wild party where the cops were called again and they got evicted. I lived in apartments for about 10 years and there were very few problems that I recall.

I am an avid viewer of COPS and I'm sure the LAPD would go in there,mace them,cuff them and drag thm out and they'd end up doing 10 to 20 in sing-sing.

I am an avid viewer of COPS and I'm sure the LAPD would go in there,mace them,cuff them and drag thm out and they'd end up doing 10 to 20 in sing-sing.

Sing Sing is in NY.