h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've mentioned them on and off here for sometime..they got a bit of a mention recently.

I got back today to find the compost bin unemptied by the dustmen because yet again the new sub subletters have put a load of stinking stuff in it that should get put in the normal bin, (that happens to be mine as they can't be ar*ed to get their own..but I've accepted they are too stupid to get their own).

Last time it was a mass of filthy nappies. This time stinking amounts of tins and takeaways, (it's been warm here of late).

The problem is that the actual HA tenant doesn't live there. He has a guy in who acts as his 'manager' this person is a compulsive liar and slime ball. He lives there ocassionally but sub sub lets to people who come and go. When I speak to them about polite behaviour when two lots of people share facilities ie a common front door and front yard, because it's an old building converted into two flats and it belongs to 'X' HA, they don't have a clue what I'm talking about. They think the official tenant is the landlord.

They are a succession of bornagain Christian Africans ie from various African countries..though they mostly say they are from Sierra Leone.

I won't go into all the incredibly annoying behaviour I've had to put up with from a succession of these people for several years; the HA's refusal to deal with the situation because they say it can't be proved in Law; the occasional visits from the police when certain incidents occur...but I can sense I can't deal with this much longer...though I've thought that many times before.

I once took the Law into my own hands years ago with previous tenants because the HA wouldn't deal with the situation. It worked in the sense that within a month they had moved out and I had spent a week in the psychiatric hospital, pretty good as the first time was 2 months.

Earlier I took out the smelly stuff they had put in the compost bin, full of hedge cuttings which I had put in it. (They never bother cutting the hedge) and put it against their door with a big notice to the official tenant that I had asked a 100X before for people not to do this. I had repeatedly banged on their door, they shouted down to me but wouldn't open.

This probably sounds all very childish to the objective observer. My objectivity about all this long ago disappeared into the dustbin.

It helps to write this here. And *NO* there are no easy answers..I've tried everything as its gone on for several years. And *NO* I'm not looking for any 'poor me' sympathy. That's why eventually I sort out these things *my way*.

It took me about 5 years of anger to sort it out last time..but I did sort it.

I've been there, Effers.

I was the 'upstairs' neighbour, with a new baby. Downstairs tenant used to shout at us when I left the baby on the floor, because he banged his feet. He used to shout at me at silly o'clock in the morning because I had the audacity to walk across my lounge floor. He used to shout at me when I hoovered the place (during the late afternoon/early evening). He used to turn off my electric when he felt like it.

I had to put up with him coming home from the pub late at night and sticking his stereo on (always the same frackin crepe), shouting 'Hello Bobby' at his caged bird and sanding his door frames in the wee small hours.

This was a council place and the housing office was three doors down. I used to complain regularly but was told that I shouldn't really take it any further as the downstairs bloke's family were (shall we say) known to the police as trouble causers?

Aside from that I had three children and this was a one bedroomed flat. It took me three years to get rehoused.

I'm afraid I can offer no advice other than that which you have already done. And no, it's not childish. You need to feel comfortable in your own home. Is there not an official channel that you can use to complain about the HA?

Hi Magwitch

Yeah the fundamental problem is proving the official tenant doesn't live there. How do you prove a negative? All the bills and official stuff come in his name.

The main problem is that a succession of different people come to live there. Just as one lot get to know how to behave in a joint building..another lot move in..and it all starts again. And the guy who acts as 'manager' is about as slimey as they come. He's an accountant with a nice car and a big wig at one of the local evangelical churches. I found him on the internet and he was quite important in Sierra Leonne. The whole situation stinks. I once tried to take a photo of him entering the flat; he smashed my camera to the ground.

The one thing I thank my lucky stars about is that they don't play load thumpy music for hours on end..like I had in the past. one thing good about these strong Christians I often say to myself, 'better the devil you know' until a new incident occurs.

I was informed tonight that my sticking the rubbish outside their door was *me* starting things up again..

The police told me when they came here a few months ago that this problem is happening all over the borough. There simply isn't enough housing for the numbers of people. Overcrowding and subletting is endemic.

But the guy who is meant to be living there must be incredibly rich by now. The laugh is that the HA prioritise single people that are in some way vulnerable..I got this place after being in hospital and homeless.

How that guy weedled his way in I don't know. But then again the HA is full of total idiots with a mass of stupid theories.

shop him as a benefit cheat, he is sub letting a HA property and probably raking it in £££, some official snooping around might flush out something???