Bent Council: Soiling my windows

Despite my best efforts, I failed to keep my windows as clean as I would have liked them to be

25th July 2008 « Nasty neighbour
Updated: 28-12-09
[Published originally in January 2008]
Documents from Brent Council are quoted here either whole or in part to establish context.

Window-dressing in Brent

As a householder, I have been one of those so-called 'house-proud' types and, until 2000, had been careful to ensure all my windows were kept in a clean, reasonably 'presentable' state. Normally it was sufficient to perform a cleaning operation on the outside just once each year, which I did usually in late March–early June.My windows remained in a reasonably clean state throughout the course of a twelve-month period until 2000
Because a neighbour in the flat beside mine had been feeding the pigeons when I arrived on this estate in 1982, sometimes there was a smear of bird-dropping on my kitchen or bedroom window. This happened because the pigeons sometimes sat on the roof of this low-rise block of flats and pigeon-bombed the building on their way to or from the 'feeding frenzy' on the ground outside this neighbour's flat.
Soon after the publication of a short article I wrote for the newsletter of our resident's association in September 1994 asking residents not to feed the pigeons so close to the flats, nfh started feeding the pigeons, too (see Feeding the pigeons Litter and filth. This increased the frequency with which these two windows were soiled by pigeon droppings. Apart from this attention by the pigeons, these two windows remained in a reasonably clean state throughout the course of a twelve-month period until 2000.
Unlike both the kitchen and bedroom windows, my balcony window does not sit flush with the wall face but is recessed by about 70 centimetres and, consequently, remains invulnerable to this pigeon activity. This window is not immune, however, to soiling through the misuse of their balcony rainwater run-off by nfh (see Water, water everywhere Misusing their balcony).

Now, the soiling is intentional

In a telephone conversation in January 2000 with a 'surveyor' at the local 'housing office', whom I'll identify as the Council employee b0, I told him about the persistent trickle of water from the balcony rainwater run-off of the flat above mine (see I tell another Council employee… Misusing their balcony). On the morning of the following day, nfh came to me asking why I had told the Council about water coming from their balcony. I invited her into my kitchen to see for herself the damage to my kitchen window, which was splashed heavily with a lime-scale-like deposit. In my kitchen, she showed absolutely no concern for the damage to the window, and insisted there was no water coming from her balcony. She told me she 'wouldn't be told what to do' and 'you are patronising', The intentional soiling of my windows by nfh didn't start until early in 2000 and immediately walked out of my home without closing the door behind her.
The intentional soiling of my windows by nfh didn't start until early in 2000, shortly after this visit to me complaining about my conversation of the previous day with the Council's 'surveyor'. Soon, I noticed splashes on my kitchen window which betrayed their direction of travel upon landing on the pane of glass, showing these splashes had come from the direction of the balcony of the flat of nfh.
Since then, on many occasions, I have seen larger splashes of a whitish substance about several centimetres in length on this window, all showing a similar diagonal travel upon landing on the pane of glass, which indicated they, too, had come from the direction of their balcony.
Despite this new form of nuisance from nfh, I continued cleaning this window on my normal pattern of cleaning all three windows at the same time annually but, after this nuisance behaviour had continued for a couple of years, I stopped cleaning the outside of the kitchen window because it was splashed again within several days afterwards.

A very uneasy proximity

Because I had been wary of opening the kitchen window since the late 1990s due to the water leaking from the faulty water heater in the second-floor flat, after the investigation of the problem by Council Surveyor Stephen Spittal in April 2000 I had been looking forward to being able to leave this window open once again when this particular source of nuisance and inconvenience had been removed.
How naive I was! Because nfh now was aware of the value I placed on the full, normal use of my windows, their anti-social behaviour manifested itself further in the deliberate soiling of this window and I was I was forced to abandon the practice of opening my kitchen windowforced to abandon the practice I had adopted since the early 1980s, when I was home, of leaving this window open when cooking or for extended periods during warm weather but closing it at night. This meant that cooking in my kitchen now had to be conducted without the benefit of the speedy evacuation of steam and heat through an open window.
Although the flat of nfh is directly above mine and on the first floor, the siting of balconies in relation to some windows (throughout the estate) means my kitchen window is less than 2 metres away from their balcony and, with quite a considerable reach available due to the fairly low railing on balconies, my kitchen window certainly is considerably easier to reach than this distance from their balcony would indicate. This is particularly so for someone with intent to cause nuisance, and this proximity allows nfh, or any member of their family, to direct whatever substance they choose onto my kitchen window with a considerable degree of accuracy and without too much expenditure of effort on their part.

A campaign of nuisance by nfh

I first reported the deliberate soiling of my kitchen window to the local 'housing office' in Dyne Road in Kilburn in a letter addressed to 'customer services officer' the Council employee Eulyn Bennett, dated 1-5-2001. I have no record of a reply to this letter and the soiling of this window continued unaltered. Subsequently, I reported the continued soiling of this window on a number of occasions to the local 'housing office' without a response or a changeAfter September 2001, I resolved to pursue this complaint until I had achieved a resolution in the nuisance behaviour of nfh.
It was this family's continuing practice of nuisance and harassment which induced the throwing of a quantity of builder's rubbish onto my bedroom window on 16-9-2001. As far as I am aware, this is the only time nfh attempted deliberately to soil my bedroom window in this fashion.
Because I had experienced such great difficulty in getting Brent Council to respond to my complaints about the various forms of nuisance perpetrated by nfh over the course of several years, I resolved to pursue this complaint until I had achieved a resolution and no longer was subject to the unwelcome attention of nfh. In pursuit of this solution, I created photographic evidence of the incident of 16-9-2001 and posted my letter of complaint dated 18-9-2001 immediately to the Council employee Barbara Rowe at the local 'housing office'.

The Council’s refusal to act

I received a reply dated 21-9-2001 from the Council employee Oladipo Koleoso who described himself as a 'housing officer'. This is the complete body of his letter, unedited except to hide the address of nfh

Re: [the address of nfh]
I acknowledge your letter dated the 18th of September 2001 regarding the alleged behaviour of the residents at [the address of nfh]. In order to discuss this matter thoroughly I am writing to arrange an appointment to see you in person within the next seven days.
Please call me on my direct line anytime between 9am and 1pm.
Looking forward to hearing from you shortly.

Without delay, I telephoned Koleoso from work and arranged an appointment for him to meet me at my home on 5-10-2001. I told him I was able to meet him only on Friday afternoons after about 2:00 p.m. because of employment obligations, which he accepted. Within days, I received a letter from him dated 1-10-2001 saying he could not keep the appointment because of

…circumstances beyond my control.
I have therefore arranged the appointment for the following Friday at the same time.
However, I am available to see you anytime between 3.00pm and 4.30pm on Wednesday the 3rd of October at our office.

While disappointed that the Council would not now see all of the evidence which still lay on my bedroom windowsill and on the grass nearby, naively, I accepted this as just something genuinely unavoidable and beyond his control.
When he failed to arrive at my home for the 'rearranged' appointment, I felt quite frustrated and wrote a letter dated 30-10-2001, giving him four weeks notice of my intention to see him at the 'housing office' in Kilburn. The body of this letter is published here in its entirety;

Re: Anti-Social Behaviour of Neighbour
I note your failure to attend at this address on the date specified by yourself in your letter dated 1-10-2001, and your negligence in informing me of any possible difficulties on your part in keeping this appointment, resulting in my wasting several hours in waiting for you to turn up.
Please be so kind as to set time aside at 1b Dyne Road on Friday, 30-11-2001, after 2:30 p.m. so that we may discuss the issues related to my complaint against the residents of [the address of nfh].

I received a reply dated 1-11-2001 from Koleoso and publish the body here unedited except to hide my building name

Re: Anti-Social Behaviour of Neighbour
Further to your letter received this afternoon I am writing to confirm that I will visit you on the 7th of November [Wednesday] 2001. As I will be in [the building in which I live] tomorrow [Friday, 2-11-02], I will call at your property by chance should you happen to be in at the time.
However if you are not in I will come round on the 7th of November [Wednesday] anytime after 3.00pm.
Please accept my sincere apologies for not attending the original appointment, this was because my computerised diary was wiped out containing all my pending visits for a number of weeks.
I was able to retrieve some, but unfortunately your address happens to be one of the very few which could not be retrieved.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused as a result.

This letter from Koleoso offering to visit on the day after his letter is posted ensured I failed to receive it in time to arrange to be at home when he called. I have no evidence he called at my address on the days on which he had said he would, either on Friday, 2-11-2001 or on Wednesday, 7-11-2001. The only evidence I have that the Council employee Koleoso called at my address at any time was the hand-written garbled note left on Thursday, 8-11-2001, published here unedited:—

4.22pm
Mr Leamy,
Ola the housing called to discuss complaint re your neighbour but you weren't him.
Ola

Koleoso was aware that

I was working during the week
my work prevented me from meeting randomly
household post rarely is delivered before 8:00 a.m.
the average working person is likely to have left home before the post is delivered
and he ignored, also, the possibility of delays to post

As notified to Koleoso in my letter dated 30-10-2001, I arrived at the 'housing office' by 2:30 p.m. on 30-11-2001, but he was not in. It was my intention to wait there for his return but I was told nobody knew where he was or when he was returning and nobody knew about my appointment. I never did get to meet this Council employee and the issues set out in my letter of complaint sent to the Council in September 2001 still had not been addressed.

The Council lie to the Ombudsman

Having had so much difficulty in getting the Council to deal with the various forms of nuisance presented by nfh since the late 1990s, I now experienced what is tantamount to an outright refusal by the Council to deal with these complaints. This fact was the catalyst of my complaint to the Ombudsman in summer 2002.
In the Council's response, the Council employee Catherine (Kate) Dack, describing herself as a 'complaints officer', told the Ombudsman that on;

1-11-2001, a letter is sent to Mr Leamy from Mr Koleoso, South Area Housing Office, in connection with Anti Social Behaviour of Mr Leamy’s neighbour. It states that further to a telephone call this afternoon he will call to see Mr Leamy tomorrow. But if Mr Leamy is not in he will visit again on the 7-11-2001 after 3pm [sic].

This is the section of the letter dated 1-11-2001 from Koleoso referred to above by Dack;

Re: Anti-Social Behaviour of Neighbour
Further to your letter received this afternoon I am writing to confirm that I will visit you on the 7th of November 2001. As I will be in [the building in which I live] tomorrow [Friday, 2-11-02], I will call at your property by chance should you happen to be in at the time.

Clearly, this letter does not refer to a telephone call. Precisely why Dack should say otherwise is unclear and Brent Council have yet to acknowledge this untruth. The inconsistency appears to be an attempt to disguise the failure of Koleoso to meet me to discuss my complaint of nuisance against this neighbour.

The soiling of my windows continues

Updated: 28-12-09
In a letter delivered to the Council on 1-12-2008, I complained to the Council that nfh continued to soil my kitchen window. This complaint was ignored, and I chased the complaint in a letter dated 8-4-2009. Again, this was ignored. I chased the complaint yet again in a letter dated 28-4-2009, asking for an inspection of the soiled window to be arranged. Finally, I received a letter dated 8-5-2009 from the Council employee Katherine Bond, describing herself as a 'leasehold management officer'. In the body of her letter, Bond states

Thank you for your letter dated 28th April. I have taken note of the information you have provided regarding the resident above you. I passed on your request for a visit to your property on to your housing officer.

I received no further communication from the Council regarding my complaint about the deliberate soiling of my kitchen window by this neighbour, and nobody contacted me about arranging the inspection visit I had requested.
I did, however, receive a visit from the Window-cleaning Fairy on a date known only to said Fairy. Strangely, on the morning of Saturday, 28-11-2009 at about 9:00 a.m., I saw a chap immediately outside my kitchen window adjusting a motorbike helmet. Beside him was a small-ish motorbike. Then I noticed that the kitchen window was noticeably cleaner than previously for the past several years. Obviously, the window had been cleaned surreptitiously on a date and time unseen by me. Why was this window cleaned like this? Brent Council doesn't clean people's windows, and there is no 'do-gooder' going round cleaning 'unsightly areas' on Council properties. The only way windows get cleaned in Brent (as in the rest of Blighty) is for householders to clean their windows themselves or to pay someone to do the work for them. I had not asked the Council to clean this window, and the only plausible explanation is that the Council's 'housing service' arranged for the window to be cleaned secretly to allow this corrupt organisation to deny it had any evidence of deliberate soiling of my kitchen window by my neighbour from hell. This is intentional destruction of evidence.

This thread is continued in The 'neighbour relations team'.

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

Soiling my windows