Litter and filth

When I first saw this flat in November 1981, it had been unoccupied for several months

20th July 2008   « Nasty neighbour
Revised: 26-12-09.
[Published originally in January 2008]
Documents from Brent Council are quoted here either whole or in part to establish context.

Good neighbours depart

Save for junk mail at the front door, this flat was completely empty, with a layer of dust everywhere but, otherwise, in a clean state. This condition extended to the balcony, with just an A4-sized fragment of carpet placed outside the balcony door.
      Between the time of my arrival at this flat and the departure of the family in the flat above mine in the late 1980s, no rubbish fell from their balcony onto mine. They were decent, helpful neighbours, with no disruptive or nuisance behaviour of any kind. My balcony remained in this clean state and needed cleaning only occasionally of the normal air-borne dust and leaves from the nearby trees.

Rubbish-creating family

When the family of nfh moved in, almost immediately, I saw rubbish such as paper, sweet wrappers, crisp bags, take-away food containers, cigarette ash and food scraps on my balcony floor, with new rubbish landing weekly, sometimes daily. This rubbish often included items of clothing.
      On several occasions in the late 1980s, I found many used plastic pint drinking glasses at the base of my balcony on the outside. Some contained a tiny amount of a beer-like liquid, and they appeared to have been dropped from above. Idiotically, I picked them up and took them through my living room to put in the communal rubbish bin, without comment.
      One day, I saw a fist-sized clump of wet tissue on the railing and, to remove this disgusting object, I had to get a plastic bag and scoop it up as dog-owners do with their pet's excrement. On another occasion, I saw apple peelings fall to my floor, probably because one of them was leaning over their balcony peeling an apple.
      Plant pots have been placed on their balcony railing (it's about 8 centimetres wide) and haveHousehold furnishings, personal clothing and bed-clothing routinely have been shaken over the side of the balcony, causing debris from these items to fall onto my balcony fallen to the ground just outside my balcony. One day in the early 1990s, I saw a pot on the ground (I didn't see or hear it fall) and was concerned the plant might be damaged from the fall or affected adversely if left in the hot sun. I didn't know from which floor it had come and went upstairs to ask who had a plant missing. nfh opened the door to my knock and confirmed the plant was hers. Her 'man-friend' and their two children went down to retrieve it but none of them thanked me for my efforts. Because of this, I didn't do it the next time it happened.
      When the two children came down to retrieve a plant which had fallen from the balcony some time later, I said to them that it was dangerous to leave plants where they could fall and hit someone. They replied, 'That's not our problem'!
      Items of household furnishings, personal clothing and bed-clothing routinely have been shaken over the side of their balcony, allowing debris from these items to fall onto my balcony. This debris could include dead skin scales, body hair and other discarded bodily matter. This method of cleaning items which could contain unsavoury material is carried on without regard to the effect it might have on me as an occupant of the flat below, or even whether there is anyone present on my balcony.
      While seated on my balcony, it was a common occurrance for rubbish to land on the railing or floor and the sight of rubbish falling persistently onto my balcony created feelings of frustration and a sense of invasion. Some of the rubbish has been carried into my living room by a breeze because I hadn't removed it promptly.
      Since the arrival of this family at that address, I have lost any sense of control over my balcony; I haven't been able to lean on the railing to enjoy the view of the beautiful park or the magnificent sunsets in summer because of the fear of falling rubbish or danger from falling heavy objects.
      During the night of Sunday, the 5th of January 2003, they dumped a quantity of rubbish outside my balcony. This rubbish, which included carpet and broken furniture, lay there for more than a week before it was removed. Because the pile was closest to my balcony, passers-by assumed, naturally, it had come from my home. This was obvious because of the surreptitious looks directed towards my home, which was quite unsettling.

My fruitless complaints

Repeatedly since the mid-1990s, without success, I have asked nfh not to allow rubbish to fall on my balcony.
      My complaint to Brent Council's 'housing service' also achieved nothing and my concerns were dismissed by the Council employee Eulyn Bennett, describing herself as a 'customer services officer', who claimed to be investigating the complaint. The Council employee Bennett said the amounts of rubbish were small and I should ignore them!
      In summer 2002, having failed to get the Council to deal with the nuisance presentedWhat could have been compacted food or faeces fell from the shaken item and landed on my balcony railing by nfh, I complained to the Ombudsman. As a result of this complaint, I had a visit on 23-9-2002 from the Council employee Helen McKenzie who described herself as a 'housing officer' with the Council's 'neighbour relations team'. I told McKenzie about the various forms of nuisance posed by nfh including the shaking of items over their balcony.
      Several days later while on my balcony, on the afternoon of 26-9-2002, I saw clothing shaken from their balcony when a smaller item of clothing fell from it. What could have been compacted food or faeces also fell from the shaken item and landed on my balcony railing. Immediately, I took a photograph of this material. Shortly afterwards, one of their older children came down to retrieve the fallen item of clothing. Although she saw both me on my balcony and the material on the railing, she didn’t apologise for the incident. I told her I had taken a photograph of it and only then did she remove the food/faeces material from my balcony railing. When I said to her, ‘I thought the woman from the Council was told this would not happen again‘, she replied, ‘She told my mum, not me‘!

Grabbing the bully by the horns

Rubbish continued to fall from the balcony of nfh regardless of my complaint to the Council or regardless of my approaches to nfh herself about this problem. In summer 2002, I complained to the Ombudsman about the failure of the Council to deal with the nuisance presented by nfh. Even this achieved nothing but the resolution of just one issue and in sheer desperation, in July 2003, I presented a list of the various forms of nuisance perpetrated by this family to nfh herself with notice of my intention to create loud, intrusive noise should these forms of nuisance continue. Since receipt of this notice, rubbish in the forms as described above (see Rubbish-creating family) has not fallen from their balcony onto mine. Their practice of shaking items of household The balcony floor was swept and the gathered dust and debris thrown over the side, some of it falling on to my balconyfurnishings and clothing over their balcony continued, however, until their departure from this address in summer 2006.
      Since summer 2006, the address of nfh has been occupied by their tenant. I saw a new form of nuisance on the afternoon of 19-5-2007, when their balcony floor was swept and the gathered dust and debris thrown over the side, some of it falling on to my balcony. I have never actually seen this practice while nfh occupied the flat, and I must assume this is their tenant’s method of disposing of the material collected when sweeping the balcony. I have seen this happen several times since, and on many occasions there has been debris on my balcony which is not explained by the normal wind-borne drifting of material of this nature. This material on my balcony floor has consisted of excessive amounts of dust, unidentified material and the occasional cigarette end.
      I forwarded a letter to the Council's 'brent housing partnership' dated 30-11-2008 informing it of this nuisance, and also that cigarette ends are dropped from this neighbour's balcony and fall onto mine. I also included the complaint that the soiling of my kitchen window by this neighbour continues. I received a reply dated 23-12-2008 from a Council employee describing itself as 'Per Goodden' and a 'senior leasehold management officer'. I publish the body here unedited;

Re: complaint about rubbish from [the address of nfh]
Your complaint about rubbish being swept from the balcony of the [the address of nfh] has been forwarded to us.
      We have written to the leaseholder about your complaint and reminded them that they are not permitted to sweep rubbish from their balcony.

My complaint of the continued soiling of my kitchen window has not been mentioned (see Now the soiling is intentional Soiling my windows).

Feeding the pigeons

For over 18 years, a resident in the flat next to mine fed pigeons by throwing food on the ground outside their flat. When 20 or more of these creatures landed to feed, then took to the air en masse, matter falling from them was carried on the agitated air. But they were about 3-4 metres from my home and, while I disagreed with the practice, didn't raise the issue because of wishing to preserve harmony.
      In 1994, however, I wrote a short article in our resident's association newsletter, The Gladstone, asking residents not to feed the pigeons so close to homes. I did not identify residents who fed these creatures. I suggested, instead, feeding them in the park nearby, and discussed other ways of feeding birds close to homes without attracting pigeons. I gave information on the diseases these creatures are known to carry, and the damage they cause to buildings.

Vindictive response of nfh

This was when nfh started feeding the pigeons. Virtually on a daily basis, large amounts of food were thrown from their flat, usually from the balcony. Often, there was so much of it that the pigeons weren't able to keep it eaten and it lay there for hours at a time, often overnight. Sometimes it fell on my balcony where the pigeons landed to feed on it.
      On the 25th of August 2000, I saw the 'man-friend' of nfh climb over the low perimeter fence and carefully tip a saucepan-sized container unto the grassy area opposite my kitchen window. The contents were yellowSlowly, the ‘block’ disintegrated and disappeared during the next few days as the pigeons fed on it and square-shaped, the shape of the container itself. This shape remained until next day and I believed it to be a block of foam, resembling the filling found in cheap 1970s furniture. Slowly, however, this 'block' disintegrated and disappeared during the next few days as the pigeons fed on it.
      In April 2000, I reported to the Council the pigeon-feeding by these two neighbours. I had to chase the complaint on several occasions before the Council finally stopped the feeding in January 2001.
      Because I didn't want nfh to claim I was singling them out, I included the neighbour in the flat next to mine in this complaint. In retrospect, I should not have included this neighbour because, otherwise, this neighbour did not cause nuisance on the scale exhibited by nfh.
      The Council employee Bennett claims to have interviewed nfh about the nuisance, presumably in September 2000, but nfh deny they fed the pigeons and 'was surprised that the nuisance was emanating from her flat'! The existence of photographic and documentary evidence demonstrates their dishonesty in this denial.

Documentary evidence

I kept a diary of incidents of overt pigeon-feeding by these two neighbours, with the first entry dated 20-4-2000, and the final entry dated 5-1-2001. These entries covered a total of 99 days:

  • of these 99 days, large amounts of food was seen lying in front of my home, and which is believed to be have been thrown from the flat occupied by nfh, on a total of 78 days
  • of these 78 days, I have actually seen food thrown from their flat on a total of 30 days
  • again from these 78 days, different, newer food was seen in this area on two or more occasions per day on a total of 28 days
  • of these 28 days, I have actually seen food thrown from their flat on a total of 10 days on two or more occasions per day for each of these 10 days

      In this 99-day period, the other neighbour (in the flat beside mine) had food lying on the area in front of his balcony on a total of 39 days, with a total of 3 days on which he threw food out on more than one occasion per day.

Although feeding the pigeons was just the second of three of the major forms of the nuisance behaviour of nfh stopped by Brent Council out of the nine reported to it, food continued to fall on my balcony from their balcony until late in July 2003.

This thread is continued in A heavy-footed family.

Related posts

Loud music nuisance   Interfering with my telly   A heavy-footed family   Misusing their balcony   Washing machine noise   Soiling my windows   A neighbour from hell   A catalogue of nuisance   Hell twice over


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