If you have a story that you think is worth telling about your Neighbour From Hell situation contact us and we will consider publishing it on this page.

The following are some stories from readers. Some of the posts below have had minor editing by us for various reasons (potential defamation, incitement etc.) but the substance of the stories has not been altered.

C & M: As of a few days ago we 'won' a 10 month battle with a NFH. We thoroughly relate to you and all others faced with this scenario. Our issue started over a new boundary fence which we had wanted and requested for 5 years, but then the NFH got a large German Shepherd which made the NFH a two pronged attack. After much of the usual grief, intimidation, and general nastiness, we put up CCTV cameras which were astoundingly effective; it 'boiled' the NFH as they like to do their nonsense sneakily. Of course we did all the right things, and no NFH practices ourselves, logged complaints to the council and the police on a routine basis where it was required, and in the end got an insurance claim for the damage to the new fence by the NFH dog, so that the insurance company will teach the NFH a lesson by extracting payment that she was never going to pay (the security cameras caught a number of episodes of her dog damaging the fence, with the NFH present) so she can't lie her way out of the situation. The main way to beat a NFH is to understand the psychology of their behaviour, use it against them by not EVER responding how they want you to respond. I recommend looking up the definition of psychopath, as I found it appropriate for our situation, and I strongly believe for most other NFH.
Work out what the NFH enjoys doing, then you can work out what to do that they won't enjoy, do it all within the bounds of moral uprightness, the law, and council regulations, and you will attain a crushing psychological victory, but, it truly takes a long time of stress and self-control. Regards

 

Anonymous: I have a neighbour from hell. We [and other neighbours of ours] have continually complained about these people, I have been to the real estate that they rent through many times. We have had the police there on many occasions and one particularly violent night where her and her husband had one of their regular domestic events the police were called by 6 different people that we know of and after listening to her being slammed against the inside of the garage door and listening to her 2 girls scream at them both and yell for help and him tell her that he is going to kill her the police eventually turn up [ literally minutes after she put the kids in the car and left] the police spoke to the husband SHOOK HIS HAND and left. We rang the police back to complain that no action was taken and we were told ''what do you want us to do about it''. We were speechless. The real estate are obviously too gutless to do anything about them and did tell us that they had issued a 3 month eviction notice. Not good enough. Now we have been told by the same estate agent that they can't make them move if they don't want to and now the neighbourhood waits for the deadline to see if it actually happens. There are all sorts of things going on there that you don't have to be a detective to work out what is happening and yet nothing is done.

This is a little off topic for this site but it illustrates the point that keeping good records gets a result.
In 1983 my wife disappeared with our children for a period of 13 months. After the money she had stolen from our joint bank account ($63,000) she decided she wanted to move back into the family home and I was evicted (on 18 hours? notice) as she "feared violence" . Over the next 4 years a bitter family court battle ensured and I won custody of the children and she access each second weekend, half of all school holidays, alternate Christmas , Easter and birthdays. I bought her out of her share of the house. Over 5 years of abuse and failure to return children from access a "directed order of access" was obtained. After another three years of abuse an intervention order was obtained whereby she could not approach within 100 metres of myself or the children. So I was amazed when she rented the house next to me. The NSW police failed to enforce their own orders "It is a domestic matter and belongs in the Family Court" For a period of 3 years myself and the children were subjected to abuse, destruction of property, and general disruption of our lives. I sold the home, moved to another suburb to find that 6 months later she had rented a property two doors away.
I then moved to a country property in NSW and found she had moved into a rental property in the country city and began the harassment again.
Finally after many years I was able to obtain an order that saw he committed to psychiatric care.
I achieved this through keeping diaries; having witnesses to any encounters I had with this person, resorting to buying a VHS camera to record these encounters.
So for all you poor people who have the neighbours from hell, KEEP A DIARY!, HAVE WITNESSES! And pressure your local Police to enforce INTERVENTION ORDERS

 

T: We have a problem that started close to 15 years ago - we had poisoning, stealing, assaults at first for the first 5 years. The next 5 years were quiet. The last 5 years have been hell - drug manufacturing - we have gas coming onto our property for up to 10 hours a day, sewer smells, burning smells. I did the survey and I ticked nearly all the boxes (drugs/alcohol/low education, etc).
I don't know what to do because we got a AVO as we had threats of damage but it does not cover harassment of smell (24x7). it continues.
Nobody can help us.

A Cat Problem:

The following story is from a reader in the central west area of NSW who is having a particularly difficult time of it getting council to take action over a problem with cats coming in from the neighbors? property. The letter they have written to council is a good illustration of how to set out a complaint in detail.

M: The following is a letter I sent a year ago to Council. I also wrote to the Local Member, but when they contacted Council, the Ranger told them I was not co-operating with Council, which is not true. I just asked for a break from working the Council's trap, because it was not effective when 1 cat was inside and 4 or 5 were milling about outside it. I have done a lot of work with their trap, but there are just too many cats. The solicitor told me to get a dog. But I don't WANT a dog! I just want my home to be free of the huge amounts of cat poo, tomcat spray, urine, hair and fleas. It is all over my outdoor furniture, doormats, garden,vegies. The pest control man said the tiny brown ants all over everything only live where there are huge amounts of cat urine. My back yard is under siege, covered with wire and nylon netting everywhere. I can send photos. When can I have my property back?

Click Here to read the letter from M to the local council and see the lenghts that they have gone to to try to stop the cats entering the yard.

 

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