neighbour from hell

This is a continuing sage from my “flatmate issues” post in early February. Essentially what happened was a friend of mine found out she was preg and her ex didn’t want anything to do with her or the baby. According to her he is a violent, short tempered, heavy drinker with a drug problem. We decided to help out by finding a rental property with her on the condition that he was not allowed into our home. We found a home with a granny flat downstairs for her to live in. Then a few months later she had a party at our house and invited him (without even giving us prior warning that he would be there).

I decided to talk to her about the issue but it didn’t help, I tried to be quite casual about it and just said we were surprised that he was at our house after the promise that she’d made and she told me she assumed I knew he was coming. I said we didn’t know and weren’t real happy about it and I reminded her she’d made a promise not to have him in our house she said “yeah but I said that when he didn’t want anything to do with my baby so it was ok then”. I tried to explain that the promise was never about her but about Michaela and the type of people we want her around then she got b*tchy about it and said “what do you think he’s going to do to Michaela, sell her drugs?”.

So it's safe to say we're not friends any longer however when we do see her or talk to her we’re friendly and although she avoids us like the plague we now have a fairly civil relationship or so I though until last night…..

At 6:10pm after Michaela’s bath DH & Michaela were playing in the lounge, rough and tumbling etc with Michaela laughing raucously when suddenly there was a bang bang bang from the granny flat downstairs. I couldn’t believe it, they weren’t being excessively loud and it was early evening it’s not like we’re ever loud late at night. Plus this woman is about to have a baby in a couple of months, how would she feel if we start banging on the floor when her baby cries at all hours (not that we would but still – people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones).

Also she uses our deep freezer and last night (after the aforementioned event) she asked for the remote for the garage so she can access things (I think she was p!ssed off because we were away all weekend and she’d tried to get into our house to use the internal remote but we’ve chained the door so she no longer has access). Anyway, when I gave her the remote I mentioned that she hadn’t wrapped her meat properly and blood had dripped onto my frozen goods which were stored below. She denied it was her fault and assured me she’d wrapped her meat but I pointed out that we don’t keep meat in the deep freeze and there is blood below hers therefore it must be because she hadn’t wrapped hers properly and she slammed her door in my face.

I’m not entirely sure whether to be aghast that this woman was ever my friend and that I moved my family out of our nice cheap flat so that we could help her out or whether I should laugh at what a child she is being.

So why do you stay or why is she staying? Sounds like someone needs to leave....

It's shocking how unappreciative some people are, huh?!

I hope she isn't knocking on your door at 3am when her baby won't settle!!

I definitely think someone has to go.

If you are no longer acting friends then I think you can start treating her as a neighbour in that she shouldn't be using your freezer. Or having access to your garage.

In saying that, she may then default on your previous agreement about letting her ex/boyf come round.

Argh. Hard situation!!

kebakat wrote: If it was me, I'd be telling her she's got a month to find herself somewhere else to live. I'd only give her that long because she is that preggers. I wouldn't want that kind of person living below me if I had a choice about it.

Me too. Pregnant or not, she sounds like she is taking advantage.

Things have gone from bad to worse to worser (is that even a word?) and now I don’t care if she’s due to spawn soon we’re going to give her notice. There’s no way I can live with her for another 8 months especially if she’s going to be home all day and night.

Now we just have to decide which to do:

a) Borrow $1000 from someone/somewhere so that we can refund her bond and pay the rent for the weeks that she’ll stop (as rent is paid in advance).
b) Wait for 3 weeks until we have that amount saved then give her notice (she’ll be 34 weeks by then so that does seem a bit cruel)
c) Stop paying our rent so we get evicted thereby terminating the tenancy agreement which says we cannot leave before 15 November 08 (this means we wouldn't have to find another tenant for the flat below and the full bond would be refunded so we could pay her back hers out of that)


Edited by The_Stuarts

AliaDawn wrote: I think you have to give her ALOT of notice.

Contractually we only have to give her 2 weeks notice. However bearing in mind that she is pregnant we would give her 4 weeks notice.

Oh man, you did her a favour by getting her a place and yet she acts like this?? Bringing people into your home (your names are on the contract) that you don't approve of, and then acting all high and mighty when you try and reason with her.. Argh!!
I'm sorry, but in my opinion she is the weakest link, pregnant or not... she has to go!!!

Neeks wrote: I'm sorry, but in my opinion she is the weakest link, pregnant or not... she has to go!!!

"YOU ARE THE WEAKEST LINK. GOODBYE" he he he - I'd love to say that.

Good luck, I hope you can save that money really fast. And maybe give her notice when you are close to the amount rather than have the full amount. ANyway - have you been downt here? She might not get the full amount back anyway if she is awful - plus she might go a bit psycho once you give notice and damage stuff. Just something to be aware of, she isn't totally right in the head fromt eh things she does.