Welcome to another get together at The Lounge! I hope you will settle in for a drink or too and stay around to share a tale! This week I want to know all about your neighbours. I’m nosy like that!
Sometimes I feel like I live next this lot!
I live in a housing commission house. Because they like to jam as many houses into one area as possible, I also have the *joy* of having 4 neighbours. When I first moved in, I couldn’t have asked for better neighbours. Sure we had our ups and downs, like the banjo playing mormons and the women who used to flog my catalogues but overall it was nothing to really complain about.
However about 9 months ago the guy who lives on the left back hand side passed away. He was an absolute character. To look at him he was a ‘big bad bikey’ but he was the nicest of all of my neighbours. Although I think I would have preferred it if he put pants on when he chatted over the fence! It was another 6 weeks before the new neighbours moved in. The neighbours who resemble the stereotypes that the Housos series portrays.
The first few weeks there were here, there was not a drama. I really felt like it was surely too good to be true. Turns out it was. First the music started. Now I am no party pooper but when you are playing music loud enough that I can hear it over my tv at full volume then it’s too loud. I can also excuse it when it’s on the weekend, and it’s not a regular thing. However when it is a couple of times a week and the music lasts all night and into the next day then something has to give.
Then the fighting started. There was smashing bottles and rubbish in yard. I had to call the police because they woke Mr 4 and he was petrified. It became so regular that Paul and I just roll our eyes and say here we go again when it starts. Their yard also began to fill with piles rubbish, which thankfully now seem to be getting smaller.
Before long there was palings ripped off my fence, I couldn’t let Mr 4 out in the yard by himself for fear that he would step on something they had decided to throw over my fence. We rarely go out there anymore, only for short periods of time while I am hanging the washing on the line. The children steal Mr 4’s toys and they are now safer in my open garage, which faces a busy main road.
Housing doesn’t want to hear about it, maintaining that it is a neighbour issue, despite it being their property that is being destroyed. The actions clearly break their newly introduced 3 strike rule but they don’t want to know. I get so angry about it all, and feel so helpless. I hate that there seems to be nothing we can do, and I can’t use my property properly for fear of my things being stolen or damaged.
Do get on well with your neighbours?
Not cool. It sucks when there’s no avenue for sorting these things out. Our neighbours are similarly noisy (although I’m not scared to go outside – that’s a horrible level of sucky) but complaints to the police and council haven’t really achieved much. We are about to speak to the homeowners about a new fence on that side though, so will subtly mention the noise and perhaps invite them over to view the ‘herb garden’ growing in their backyard!
Your neighbours wouldn’t read this blog, would they?
It is so annoying that people lucky enough to get public housing don’t respect their home, and then there are people sleeping in cars and tents that would treat the properties like castles. Something definately not right there! xx
I’m not sure what is more frustrating – the neighbours who are complete douche bags or the housing commission who obviously think these problems are beneath them in some kind of way. I’m so sorry you cant’ even enjoy your own property 🙁 We have mostly great neighbours. our complex is small and very quiet. But we did have a guy across the drive way that separates our building from another who insisted on using power tools until all hours of the night. It was so annoying. We (and others) complained several times and management was finally successful in getting rid of them. This guy was about 19, and he and his dad used to have knock-down-drag-out fights, too. Just an all-round bad situation. Now my biggest gripe is the damn birds that chirp outside my window at 4:30 am!!!
I’m glad we live in a country with places like housing commission – but I’ve also seen with family how bad they let things become before they even pretend to give a $hit.
What a shame and how horrible not to feel like your home is a safe place for you and your children – I hope you get this resolved!
At our previous place the violence next door was horrible. It was owned by the housing department and housed troubled youths. Their lease was 12 months, so each year we had new but worse youths next door.
We had to sell and now we’re renting. I don’t think I will be buying another any time soon. It totally threw me right off settling, I now think I’d rather the freedom to move when people p*ss me off.
I could write a novel on neighbours we had when i was younger. Hope ypurs get sorted soon.
Your Facebook status updates and this post don’t paint a very nice picture of these people. They sound terrible.
I live in a NICE estate which was designed for families and I was quite disappointed to hear that there are quite a few housing commissions home around here. The first person that lived in the house behind us was okay but he was kicked out because he never paid his (low) rent on time. The second lot are a piece of work. They have been here for nearly two years now and it is quite f**king annoying to hear the old bat (who probably caused her own illness – emphysema – and is on the disability support pension) who is talking on her mobile and smoking outside. We’ve copped a fair amount of the smoke and have complained to Housing Commission about her low consideration. She is always on the phone every day of the week and has to go outside for the whole world to hear. She also (not sure if it is allowed) has her daughter and grand child staying with her and her hubby or partner or whatever. I have not smelt cigarette smoke for a while but I sure as heck hope she considers her grand daughter’s health. They have also erected a very shitty garden shed (very poorly) from recycled materials and it looks like a dog’s breakfast. I hope to God that if I ever sell, that the intended buyer won’t be put up with the discusting sight of it. The woman who talks on the phone and is supposed to be on the disability support pension, was heard saying to her hubby “can I help you”? (with erecting the shed).
The woman always seems to come outside whenever I decide to have a nice quiet stroll in the comfort of MY OWN garden which I work very hard for. I work full time and so does my husband. I have never relied on the government support payments and I have contributed to this country – I deserve the right to enjoy my garden and home!
On the other side of my house has been a house trouble from the start. They got rid of the bogan wanker that “knocked up some girl” and refused to work. He left the house in a state, owned a loud dog that barked all the time, never cleaned up the faeces from the dog in the backyard so the smell went everywhere didn’t it. Every day (and especially days when I wanted to take that special day at home from work to enjoy my day) I would hear him and his shit box commodore come into the driveway. He used to work and seemed to put on so much weight with grog and takeaway. He even had music up loud at ridiculous times of the day. Luckily he was kicked out but the crap in there now. My god! A woman that I know sure as heck is claiming maintenance with 3 or 4 kids. She stays home all the day and the poor kids have to play out the front of the yard with the pebbles that came with the house because they are so bored. They don’t have new toys and they scream their lungs out. Last night, the mother was screaming at them.
You see her heading to the drive thru at Maccas all the time and it seems like she never buys groceries for her kids. The packages of food comes into our yard because her bins are overflowing.
She used to have foxtel (satellite tv) but that seems to have been cut.
Ferals!
I came across your site looking for help. We own our home and have lovely housing commission neighbours next door and across the road (not being sarcastic), however the thugs that live next to them are really making our life a living hell. We can’t afford to sell up and move somewhere else. The kids from one of the housing commission houses next to our lovely neighbours, for the past four years we have been here, kick in our colour bond fence sometimes on a nightly basis, they also graffiti it, break into our cars, steal anything that is out the front and we are at the point of each day when we go to and from work have to dash as fast as we can from the car to our house to avoid their wrath. When we want to mow our lawn we have to wait until they are sufficiently drunk or drugged so that they are not moving so we can get it done in peace. They throw stuff over the fence at our dog and at our 4 year old. They threaten us with violence when we call the police on them for the same and last night were at our door threatening, screaming, swearing and yelling at us for over an hour. I called the police during this and it took them over 3 hours to attend and then they sent a lone woman police officer. My 4 year old wouldn’t sleep for fear that the ‘bad man’ would come back.
We have complained to the Housing Commission about them, which is why they were aggressive last night, and will be complaining about them again today. The police have told us we need to get a personal violence order out against them which we are doing today.
We both work full time and are doing our best to get ahead, unfortunately both of us don’t have high paying jobs and just don’t understand why we are not protected from people like this, let alone our other lovely housing commission neighbours who are elderly and disabled from a stroke. The stress is taking its toll to the point we both cannot sleep for fear of what they will do.
If anyone has any suggestions about how we can protect ourselves legally and lobby the housing commission to have them removed I would be eternally grateful.
Contact your local mp. They will do a ministerial and enforce the complaints. Make sure you document everything as best you can. Times dates length of disruption. Type of disruption. Call the police when fighting starts or music is played too loud all night long.
Use the police time contacted in your complaints.
Keep doing it every single time.
They have to get three strikes in 12 months be evicted so do that.
The fact is they have the right to housing but they don’t have a right to disrupt or abuse the neighborhood.