I cannot live in peace in my own home. I have been the victim of my neighbour’s anti-social behaviour for years and my housing association has failed to help me tackle this or to make reasonable adjustments for me as a disabled person.

When I moved into the property, which was a maisonette split into two flats, I was on the top flat and we both had shared use of front and back communal garden areas. I had trouble with the neighbours after a few years as they were storing furniture and rubbish in the communal hallway. I did complain to my landlord, One Housing, several times but no action was taken against the neighbours.

In 2005 the parents in the flat below moved out of the property, leaving their teenage son and daughter on their own. The children and I got on fine even when they had parties and BBQs and left rubbish and raw food around the garden for days. There was no point complaining to my landlord because they never took any action.

I suffered badly from depression following the murder of my husband back in 1996 in Belfast, so my doctor recommended that I try and spend as much time in the garden as possible as it’s been proven that spending time in the garden can help with depression and mental health.

But the back communal garden space was like a jungle so around about 2008 my son Justin approached the neighbours’ son and asked would he help clean up the back garden space so both families could use it. The son said no, he had no time. So, in May 2009 Justin started work on it by himself. It took him 11 months working long weekends as he was at his job during the week.

When he was done, the garden looked beautiful, so my young daughter and I started to use it. We had absolute peace and quiet and it done wonders for my mental health.

Then my physical health started to suffer. I had problems with my hands and my back was in chronic pain all day and I was on heavy medication. Sitting in the garden helped with both mental and physical health issues.

In 2017 the neighbour returned to the property and when she seen that the garden had had all the work done on it, she told me that she was going to take away part of my communal garden pathway which would make my entrance to my part of the garden much narrower. I told her absolutely not as my mobility was getting worse and I would eventually need the pathway widened so I could negotiate it in a wheelchair or with a walking frame.

I contacted my landlord regarding the garden pathway and also about my toilet. By this time, I was struggling to get downstairs to use the toilet because my mobility had really gotten worse and I was having injections regularly for the pain. I needed an upstairs toilet installed in what used to be a cupboard.

The new toilet was completed in October 2022 but it’s still not finished. It has no lock and no heating and it’s damp. I was ringing my landlord every day for months but still the upstairs toilet has not been completed.

Meanwhile, the neighbour went and took part of my pathway by planting flowers and bushes along its border. Again, I complained to One Housing, my landlord, but no action was taken. One Housing actually put a fence up, making the pathway even narrower! They told me they’d widen the pathway when my medical condition deteriorated.

A few weeks after the neighbour had moved back, she installed a CCTV directly facing my bathroom window. Then, a few weeks later, up went another two CCTVs in the back communal garden. The police told me it was absolutely fine for me and my family to be filmed.

I told them my medical conditions had already deteriorated and that they’d received letters from my doctor and hospital stating this. My mobility problems were especially bad, with issues in both hips, both knees, my spine and, after surgery on my shoulder, both my arms and neck.

A few weeks after the neighbour had moved back, she installed a CCTV directly facing my bathroom window. I complained to the landlord as I had an 8-year-old daughter and a son living with me and the CCTV w

as invading our privacy. This form of antisocial behaviour this went on for months and still no action taken by the neighbour.

Then, a few weeks later, up went another two CCTVs in the back communal garden, making it impossible for any of my family or my daughter’s friends to use the garden because we would have been filmed. I complained to the landlord, social services and my local MP, who contacted the police. The police told me it was absolutely fine for me and my family to be filmed.

My daughter was a minor and our privacy was being invaded but still no action taken against this neighbour. One housing and the police told me that they had viewed the position of the three CCTVs and they were not pointing anywhere near my property. The community police officers attended my property many times and assured me no crime was being committed.

I did not believe the landlord or the police as both parties were not being impartial in this case and it made me us feel violated. We could not open any windows in the house to get fresh air as the three CCTVs were directly underneath my bathroom and kitchen windows and one was directly facing my bathroom window and I didn’t want the recording our conversations. this made my mental and physical health suffer worse still no action taken by the landlord or police.

Then in June last year I was asked by the same community police officer I’d already dealt with to go to the local police station and view some footage sent in by the neighbours ‘proving’ I’d caused criminal damage to her property. When I viewed the two separate videos with a solicitor and friend I could clearly see myself in my bathroom cleaning. In one video, I had blue pyjamas on and in the second I had red pyjamas on. I was so upset I told the police officer that this proves this woman had been invading our privacy and I wanted the CCTV cameras down ASAP.

The next day I contacted my landlord to complain once again about our privacy being invaded. I told them my daughter was refusing to use the toilet and shower until the cameras were removed. I also informed the school again and social services but still no action was taken against.  No one was willing to help us so I had to put a blind up in the bathroom.

The window was 15 foot high and I shouldn’t have had to but I had no choice if we wanted any privacy while going to the toilet and washing. I carried on complaining to One Housing and still they did nothing about. Eventually my daughter’s health started to decline as she developed migraine headaches and a skin disorder which she had to be medicated for. My own health was worse than ever as well so my doctor wrote to One Housing explaining my medical condition was getting worse and I needed the pathway in the back communal garden done ASAP. That was in September 2021.

So my doctor arranged for an occupational therapist (OT) to attend my property and assess me in my home for a DFG grant, which the OT did in October 2021. I was given assurances by my landlord that the pathway would be widened for wheelchair use because of my deteriorating mobility. In November 2022 the DFG grant was approved, which meant One Housing had the green light to do the works needed to make the back communal garden wheelchair accessible.

The judge ordered her to remove all CCTV’s and recording equipment and to stop the harassment of my family and the blocking of the garden work.

I received many dates from One Housing and the building company as to when the works would start latest date booked and cancelled 20 July 2023 all were cancelled due to ‘concerns expressed by the neighbour’, no other explanation given.

In July 2023 I went to court with this neighbour regarding the ongoing harassment of me and my family. The judge ordered her to remove all CCTV’s and recording equipment and to stop the harassment of my family and the blocking of the garden work and blamed the landlord for not taking action against this neighbour sooner. I thought after that I would have my pathway widened, get closure and be able to live peacefully in my home.

But just a few days later I got an email from my landlord stating that the pathway works were not going ahead on July 20th 2023 as planned. I was in shock. One Housing had acknowledged it was my right to have adaption done in line with the Equality Act 2010 and yet they were putting the job off endlessly and still haven’t done now as I write this story.

Furthermore, the approval of the DFG had happened way back in November 2022, nine months ago, and yet Foundations, the national body that oversees DFGs, says contractors should take no longer than four months (or 80 working days) to complete works once the DFG grant has been approved. Meanwhile, statutory guidance gives councils a generous maximum of 12 months to have works completed following grant approval so just three months remain before that deadline is missed as well.

I know I am not the only victim of anti-social behaviour who has been failed by landlords and councils. A report by the local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has said councils often fail to understand the powers they have to stop anti-social behaviour.

This will be the third year that I have had no access to my garden because of what my neighbour did to the path and onset of my mobility problems. I now need a crutch or walking stick as well as a back and knee support to cover short distances and cannot make it down the narrowed path safely. If I’m covering longer journeys or sitting in the garden for a long time I need my wheelchair, which was made-to-measure and helps my back.

So I just live everyday in chronic pain, stuck in my home depending on family and friends to take me from my prison so I can sit in peace in their garden. This will go on until my landlord or the neighbour decides to make the garden pathway wheelchair accessible. It’s like a recurring nightmare that is never going to end.

I keep hearing excuses from One Housing but they are the landlord so they and they alone are to blame for my waiting two years (since I first made contact about the need for an adaptation in October 2022) for this work to be carried out and their longstanding failure to intervene to stop the harassment. I feel as a disabled person my needs are being neglected and I’m being discriminated against because of my impairment.

In Camden, 70% of the complaints made to the Ombudsman about the council not taking enough action to combat anti-social behaviour were found to be valid (upheld).

I know I am not the only victim of anti-social behaviour who has been failed by landlords and councils. A report by the local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has said councils often fail to understand the powers they have to stop anti-social behaviour and they regularly let victims down.

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 is the basis for the councils’ power. You don’t have to be a council tenant to complain to the council about anti-social behaviour. Here is what they can do:

• issue a community protection notice (CPN);
• make a public spaces protection order (PSPO);
• close premises for a specified period of time;
• apply to the courts for a civil injunction.

They can also set up an anti-social behaviour case review, also known as a ‘community trigger’, if more than three complaints have been made in six months. This is where different organisations have to get together to meet up and talk about the case.

The report reveals the Ombudsman has upheld nearly three-quarters (74%) of the cases it has investigated in the past year. Cases range from low-level issues such as dog fouling and inconsiderate parking to more serious sustained harassment and intimidation.

In Camden, 70% of the complaints made to the Ombudsman about the council not taking enough action to combat anti-social behaviour were found to be valid (upheld).

So I know I am not alone.

I have contacted One Housing on two separate occasions asking for quotes for this story, but they declined to make any comment.

Extra information

The Housing Ombudsman deals with complaints about social housing.

You may also contact ASB help