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Who to Contact when in Rented Accommodation

By: Jeff Durham - Updated: 14 Feb 2024 | comments*Discuss
 
Rented Accommodation Shared

If you are living in rented accommodation and you are experiencing problems caused by neighbours, you still have the same rights of protection under the law as anybody else. Exactly who to contact about a problem if you were not able to resolve a dispute between you and a neighbour directly would very much depend on the type of issue and the kind of rented accommodation you live in.

Renting Privately

For the most part, if you are renting privately and living in a self-contained dwelling, you’d deal with matters in much the same way as anybody else, either by contacting your local authority or, if there’s an imminent danger to yourself or somebody else, you may need to Contact The Police.

Renting from Your Local Authority or Private Housing Association

When you rent a property from your local authority or housing association, you will be asked to sign a tenancy agreement, which you need to adhere to. As well as this form, you’re likely to be given a handbook which contains details of what’s expected of you as a tenant and what you can expect from the local authority or housing association in return.

There may be specific instances where the handbook suggests you contact the housing association directly. This can differ between housing associations and can include things like informing them if a neighbour is wilfully damaging their own or somebody else’s property or is causing a regular nuisance.

Obviously, you’ll still be able to call upon the local authority or even the police in serious instances, but for specific types of nuisance behaviour, it may well be that it’s worthwhile informing the housing association as well. They can then investigate matters and can issue warnings about the threat of Possible Eviction if the situation warrants it.

Shared Facilities

For those living in shared accommodation who experience issues such as keeping shared areas tidy, your landlord or housing organisation might be the first place to go to in order to settle minor disputes you’re having. Usually, it’ll be the person who owns the establishment who will be able to take action to resolve any complaints you might have along these lines.

This type of situation tends to manifest itself more in places like student halls of residence, staff accommodation in hospitals or hotels, or hostels for temporary workers or the homeless. However, where a resolution cannot be reached after intervention, or the matter is more serious and falls outside of your landlord’s obligations, then once again, you should take your complaint to your local authority or to the police, whichever is the most appropriate.

The bottom line is that, no matter what your living circumstances are, each and every one of us have rights and the backing of the law to fall back on. So even if there may be some kind of internal complaints procedure in place, you should not hesitate to involve either the local authority or the police if you need to take the matter further or if there’s a sense of urgency or emergency.

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I am a leaseholder and live in a flat, for a number of years we have had a problem with other residents in the block smoking weed. This has been reported by other residents past and present. It stinks the whole block out and seeps into my flat. I have respiratory problems, I end up having to use inhalers more. There have been phone calls to police, they give me a crime number and say it is the council's responsibility. It has been reported to health and environmental, who sent a letter to the two residents saying they would be fined.the council have done nothing about this. Residents have asked someone from council to witness the smell in the block but to no avail when you ask for the person you have spoken to, they are not in the office or they are in a meeting you ask for a callback,this never happens. We already have been down the road of form filling and got nowhere.
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Ryan K. - 16-Jul-22 @ 7:31 AM
Are area used to be a good place to live but now we have to deal with people throwing parties 3 to 4 times a week and a neighbour who is constantly banging on the walls and in random moments just screams we have made complaints, especially when she started to throw threats around because we asked her to keep the noise down, nothing was ever done about it we have just given up due tothe stress and are currently looking for a new home. It's sad considering we have lived in this house for over 30 years now but we can't cope anymore, We get no sleep on some nights and when the nightmare next door calms down another house on the street decides it's a great opportunity to have a rave ( I'm not exaggerating it sounds like a night club in the middle of the suburbs).
Sisterofsalem - 22-May-21 @ 10:17 PM
Neighbours in the flat above me party frequently, play loud music whenever home, but mostlyat night and this continues into theearly hours..they talk loudly, and and stomp around. Thos happens when the owner is not home. He goes out and the kids arrive, making our life miserable...I have left a message and they ignored it
JJ - 30-Apr-21 @ 9:57 PM
i have a ditch running down one side next to my garden and the neibour keeps digging the soil from the bank my side of the ditch and moving it onto the bank his side so my side erodes down and basically im losing garden now and the boundary line is both in and out of the ditch. i live in rented council property and my neibour lives in private owned property. What should i do ?
zedexsevenar - 27-Feb-21 @ 12:23 AM
I live in a maisonnette in a block of flats. 75 % is owned by a landlord who rents it out to some kind of council homeless charity. since I arrived there have been all kinds of problems.the landlord does not seem to bother when contacted.I had to try and solve a few problems but it takes a lot of time. lately theneighbours have dumped rubbish in front and bird etc open the bags ... the place is stinking. I have written to Salfordcouncil but besides getting a case number nothing has been done.. is more than a week. The neigbhours are not to be seen.. What should I do.
pat - 17-Feb-21 @ 9:20 AM
I have a neighbour next door who slams their front door at all times of the day so loud it wakes people up .. this is done late at night and early in morning .. seems to be on purpose don’t know what to do that also they smoke a lot of weed also and I suspect them of having drugs dropped off outside my front door ..please help
Sarabande - 20-Oct-20 @ 9:22 PM
Hi, I was just wondering whether anyone could give me some advice. My mum and I have lived in an Incommunities ground floor maisonette for the last 13 years, it has a little yard at the front (no fencing) and paving stones at the back of the property (also no fencing). We have experienced issues with neighbours not respecting our outdoor areas since we moved in (e.g. the neighbours who live next-door but upstairs regularly put their washing on our clothesline, they even once put a large heavy rug on there which broke the line, the same neighbour also put their bins out in front of my bedroom window, even though they live above the flat next door!). My main complaint is about another neighbour though, this neighbour let's her kids play right outside of my windows, I mean her boys favourite game is knocking on my living room window and playing with their toy cars on my windowsill. I have repeatedly asked her to move her children as my mum is medical vulnerable and currently shielding due to covid-19. I caught the neighbours boys climbing on my mum's bedroom window, posting toys and litter through the open window and tried to talk to the neighbour about it but she just took her kids inside and shut the door in my face. Then a few days later I could hear someone having an argument and it was the same neighbour screaming at someone on her phone- SAT ON MY LIVING ROOM WINDOWSILL! I walked into the kitchen to get the key for the door and when I came back she had gone, so I went back to what I had been doing. A few minutes later I heard her again, so I go to the living room window and that's when I notice her sat on the floor with her back leaning against the bricks underneath my living room window! I didn't bother getting the keys this time, I knocked on the window and told her to move. Her reply? 'You can't tell me what to do! You don't f***ing own outside! It belongs to the council! I'll sit wherever I f***ing want! Dumb b**ch!' I told her I would report her and she moved. I've contacted my housing officer to report it, but apparently they don't go back to work for another couple of weeks. I'm at my wits end and would really appreciate it if anyone could give me some advice on how to deal with this. Sorry for the long post. Thanks
Kez - 26-Jun-20 @ 3:41 PM
My neighbour as put a trampoline 10ft from my living room window for her 4 children to play on ... I have to close my windows and curtains for privacy , they can look straight in at me.... I don’t know the law on this - does anyone ???
Donna - 14-May-20 @ 3:00 AM
I need help with my noisy neighbors the antisocial behaviour is causing me a lot of distress and sleep deprivation because I can't sleep at night because of the neighbors constant bangs ànd running around at various hours at night been reporting it to my landlord for 3yrs now and nothing been done .
Frankoh - 19-Apr-20 @ 12:57 PM
We were moved out of private housing by the police due to nefarious acts by drug dealers & runners.Let's just say it was 4 years of hell.We are now with a Social landlord and the neighbor next door is noisy as hell.He would sublet his house to some friend who is the cause of the problems, noisy, confrontational, threatening, the housing says he is not allowed to sublet but he does to the most obnoxious guy on the planet.the hard thing about all this is that our neighbor is good deep down, a nice guy but he is insecure and surrounds himself with people who bring him trouble and drag him down, we can see it but he is oblivious to it.Many a time we have tried to talk with him friendly, openly and the neighbor next door comes and tells him to get in or his friend does the (the subtenant)does the same.If it was him just living there it would be nice and we would all get along, unfortunately, it's not to be.He has already been evicted from one house because of the same issues we are experiencing with him here!Now we are in lockdown because of the Coronavirus then our neighbour decided it would be a good thing to throw a yard party! All his mates where there, the noise was awful a lot of screaming and shouting, music and a fire pit, which even with our windows closed the smoke could be smelt in the upstairs back rooms that are facing onto ours and his yard. We decided at 8 pm to leave them to it and that it would eventually die a slow death.Unfortunately, by 12.04 they became a lot drunker and much louder, we had to draw the line we called the police. They read him the riot act which was good and unfortunately.It was hilarious when the police arrived then all the males at the party could not get through his back door quickly enough.I told the police they where all hiding inside the house which rattled my neighbour somewhat.But alas after the police left then they just continued the party inside the kitchen of the house until 4 am.We recorded everything we could for the Housing Association but I am not holding out any hope with them as they are sentimental and very slow.From previous experience with them when we complained about this guy before and they slashed all of the tyres on my car and my husbands car too! We are surrounded by people who are just horrendous and do not know what to do or whom to turn to. its like we are in a living hell and they are trying their very best to unsettle us.There are many more incidents that happened but I don't want to drag it out.
pinkprincesscat21 - 15-Apr-20 @ 9:43 AM
Hi,I've just moved into a converted town house and renting the lower flat, my neighbour has the top two flats. I've noticed theres water dripping from one of my neighbours pipes outside in my back garden and its dripping right next to my kitchen window and landing on my window ledge. Not sure what too do I've tried knocking on my neighbours front door but get no answer. Can any one please help?
Jaja - 8-Apr-20 @ 12:02 PM
Drug dealers living at 4 Dennistoun Avenue Christchurch, How do I get rid of them. Making a mess of my house, wish i had never rented it out. Help
tomg - 13-Feb-20 @ 4:41 PM
We have signed. 12 month tenancy can we leave if having problems with neighbours We were told building was four executive flats but it’s 11 bedsits My children have witnessed people under the influence of drugs smashing cars up and hallucinating, our house smells of skunk , they have over our wall smoking and in dressinggowns at 3pm, the litter is ridiculous all over the street and they fly tip beside the house they pay £320 bills all in We pay band E council tax and £1000 per month to live next to that Given we were misled is there any way we can get out of tenancy
RAT - 16-Oct-19 @ 10:02 PM
my neighbours garden is like a jungle and breaking the fences brambles everywhere and mice etc coming through the fence as well as spreading all the weeds theres a shed in there somewhere how do i report it , i know its a rented property but not who with any ideas ?
Daisy - 22-Sep-18 @ 8:20 PM
Hi i think your page is great but are member's able too comment on posts that have been put up as i can not see anywhere if i was to comment on someone's post. Thanks
kazzy67 - 3-Sep-16 @ 5:56 PM
Hi, I am at my wits end. I moved on my own to the seaside from London and rented a lovely 1 bedroom flat looking over the sea, there are 8 flats inside the block which is very quiet and well maintain. after a couple of months the woman that lives under me come up and said i was making too much noise which was me just walking about so i told her that i would try to be quiet but unless i hover there is not much i can do. Most of the other residents have lived here for many years, anyway i just get on with my life, i say hello to them all wen i see them but have not got involved. I ave been in this flat for 10months when i get a letter from my landlord asking for the flat back sending me a notice seeking possession, i was gobsmacked when calling the agency they have told me there has been 4 complaints from long term tenants and the landlord wants flat back!!! I asked what were the complaints 1- Leaving back door unlocked when going out ok hands up if in the day time i was running across to shop for 5min i have left it unlocked 2- One sunny afternoon i was playing music to loud, hands up once i did but it was 2 in the afternoon and apparently i left it playing whilst i went outNOW that is a lie as all my plugs are pulled out wen i leave the house 3- I had a friend up from London and he is a bit loud but we had no music on as we were chatting But it was reported that i had a party and people were in and out my door all night,he left at 11pm and from when he walked in my door my door was not opened again till he left. Now this seems like a witch hunt the other residents dont like me i dont know why i have always been polite to them but they want me out. I am not sure whether too confront them and ask what the hell have i done, honestly if these things i was meant to do why did they not knock on my door and talk to me, i am thinking haters the girl upstairs and downstairs have issues with the way they look which to me they look fine but i know they do have confidence problems dont we all but i think that as i am slim have long hair i am smug but if they got to know me they will see that what is on my outside does not mean i dont also suffer with problems that they can not see and i have a heart. Anyway defo getting evicted. Dont know if i should knock on all their doors and ask them strait what the f##k is going on. Please advice
kazzy67 - 3-Sep-16 @ 5:43 PM
There is an empty land behind my house with weeds that are hanging over our fence, damaging the fence and a shed I have. We tried cutting some from our side but it was a very hard job, we are afraid that the fence will fall, since the weeds are pushing through our fence, what can we do? I have the owner's information. Are neighbor is having the same issue. We also now have snakes on our yard, crawling from their land.
Jess - 7-Jul-16 @ 12:12 AM
Faz29 - Your Question:
Hi I live in a 2 bedroom house with 3 children, they are all in the room 2 boys 10 and 8 and a girl 4.i have done all I can do get a move but im not getting anywhere my.any advice what to do?

Our Response:
ProblemNeighbours - 4-Jul-16 @ 11:45 AM
Hi i live in a 2 bedroom house with 3 children, they are all in the room 2 boys 10 and 8 and a girl 4..i have done all i can do get a move but im not getting anywhere my ..any advice what to do?
Faz29 - 1-Jul-16 @ 12:23 PM
My daughter is renting a cottage but unfortunately it's very damp and mould is growing in and behind the wardrobe as well as on her furniture it's been reported to landlord bit all he says is open the window which is annoying as it's not goin and all I do is keep cleaning behind wardrobe and everything smells of damp.
Anita Sutton - 4-Jun-16 @ 8:21 PM
misty - Your Question:
I have a neighbour who has rubbish in her side path round the back behind the kitchen window its about 3 foot wide and about 6 foot long piled up she throws dirty nappies out of the bedroom window plus black bags of rubbish there is household waste, takeaway rubbish, old toys, I have just found out I have two rat runs under the fence and I have seen a rat two people have informed new charter a week ago with no response I don't know what to do next. thanks

Our Response:
Contact environmental health. Read these two guides for more information: Overgrown and Messy Gardens
Dealing with Infestation
ProblemNeighbours - 17-May-16 @ 12:12 PM
I have a neighbour who has rubbish in her side path round the back behind the kitchen window its about 3 foot wide and about 6 foot long piled up she throws dirty nappies out of the bedroom window plus black bags of rubbish there is household waste, takeaway rubbish, old toys, I have just found out I have two rat runs under the fence and I have seen a rat two people have informed new charter a week ago with no response I don't know what to do next . thanks
misty - 14-May-16 @ 8:12 PM
I'm having a problem trying to keep my cool over my inconsiderate neighbour. I've spoken to her 3 times now over the noise that she and her friends make but it's almost like the friends find it funny to make more noise because they don't live there. Over the last 2wks they have now taken to slamming the front door everytime they enter the house, she fails to put her trash out which means the excess is blown/thrown into my garden, which has included 2 dirty nappies that don't get picked up until they are kicked back into her garden. Her boyfriend has his dope delivered by moped, that the rider revs like mad at the door and the he smokes it outside so the stench filters in to my home.The cigarette butts are then flicked into the front garden which now looks like an ashtray. I'm up for work everyday at 4.30am and I try to be quiet leaving the house and starting the car but I'm in despair with the lack of sleep and frustration of how to resolve this.I'm sorely tempted to just throw my common courtesy away and treat them the same way.
Rogue - 21-Mar-16 @ 10:48 PM
bixy - Your Question:
I live in a ground floor private rented flat and a neighbour in the upstairs flat next door has throws his rubbish out of his window into my garden first it was a small cabinet which broke one of my garden chairs.i had my grandchildren here at the time so was grateful it did not hit one of them,then some litter and his ashtray ,now its some sort of floorcovering.what can I do about this please.

Our Response:
Complain to the landlord, they should be able to take the necessary action against the other tenant.
ProblemNeighbours - 1-Feb-16 @ 11:23 AM
i live in a ground floor private rented flat and a neighbour in the upstairs flat next door has throws his rubbish out of his window into my garden first it was a small cabinet which broke one of my garden chairs .i had my grandchildren here at the time so was grateful it did not hit one of them,then some litter and his ashtray ,now its some sort of floorcovering.what can i do about this please .
bixy - 29-Jan-16 @ 10:39 AM
Our neighbour allows their dog to foul their back garden right next to ours. The stench and sight is unsanitary, and with young children its really bothersome. We're fond of our neighbours, but this situation is unbearable and renders our garden unusable. How do we proceed? Many thanks
0070 - 9-Jan-16 @ 8:41 PM
Our neighbour allows their dog to foul their garden. The stench and sight is unsanitary, and with two young children, its really bothersome. We're fond of them, but the situation is unbearable. How do we proceed? Many thanks
0070 - 9-Jan-16 @ 8:38 PM
I live next door to a rural pub, the current owners bought it a few weeks before I purchased my house.They have 4 dogs cooped up in the upstairs accommodation and I often hear them barking (not as bad as it used to be) the landlords wife has been in my house and heard them for herself - she now denies that her dogs bark! They are let out late at night when the pub is being locked up and I am often woken by their barking. Recently they have seem to be running their folk music night finishing later and later, (close to midnight and i'm up for work at 5.30) who do I contact to find out about the music license restriction as this also echoes into my property? Thanks a very Shattered Hedge Witch
Hedge Witch - 31-Dec-15 @ 6:47 AM
My parent who are 70, recently bought a property to be close to the family. We thought this was a good idea so they would be near by as they get older. The neighbour (semi detached property) is a council tenant and is abusive and uses threatening behaviour to my parents. We have tried to ask what is wrong or what is the problem but we are met by foul language. I'm not sure where to turn. We haven't experienced anything like this before.
Nic - 21-Aug-15 @ 7:30 PM
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