Hi, my name is Roberto I have a very complicated situation that goes back a number of years which relates to my old landlords and a problem neighbour. Since the 90s I was being harassed by my neighbour from the property below me, a converted terrace house in London. Everything from pulling a gun on me, to swiping knives at me in the street outside my home (witnessed by my fiancé), obtaining credit in my name, stealing my letters and even preventing me from gaining free access to my property amongst other things. In late December 2004, I along with my fiancé (at the time), and the housing association (the landlord in question) had managed to get this neighbour into court for harassment, intimidation and threatening behaviour. We also had an injunction against him which he broke. This behaviour wasn't just directed just towards me but also my fiancé, and indeed the staff and contractors of the housing association. However, although the case in court was listed as ‘The Housing Association V’s The Neighbour’ it was all centred around the problems I and my fiancé was having with him. Whilst at court, myself and my fiancé, along with the housing officer and another member of staff from the housing association were called into a room, and their (the housings) solicitor/barrister had asked me whether I would allow them to ask for an undertaking for the neighbour to behave himself so that they could then bring a separate case against the neighbour based on his threatening and intimidation of their own staff. They assured me in that room, that this way they would be sure to get an eviction against him rather than just rely on what was happening to me and my fiancé. Despite my fiancés concerns I agreed to it thinking that they have far greater powers to make this situation a better success in the long run. So, he then did get the undertaking and the injunction continued for a further six months whilst the housing association was supposed to be putting together their case against him. I was going to be a witness on their behalf as I had seen this neighbour kick a contractor up the bum, threaten them, bully them and chuck them out of the communal area of the house along seeing him smash up a part of his property and then tried to blame the contractors for it. Anyway, the strain and stress of living above my neighbour had taken its toll on our relationship, and I and my fiancé had subsequently split up and she moved back to Poland. I waited and waited to be called in by the housing to give a statement regarding what I had seen my neighbour do, but never got the call. I didn't even get any letters or visits from them. I used to sneak around my flat bare foot, never have music on and TV down to an absolute minimum in order to not give my neighbour any excuse to harass me again (i.e. if he didn’t know I was in, then he can't harass me). I thought that these large organisations always drag their feet in these situations, so I just put up with the waiting. Then, all of a sudden my neighbour, after the injunction had finished, started to harass me again. I tried everything from not coming home till very late at night to sneaking in and out of my home in order to not be seen or heard by this neighbour thus preventing him from continuing to harass me; after all he is 6'3" to my 5'7". I called the housing association to find out what was happening with the case and was completely shocked to discover that they had shelved the case as they weren't being harassed by him anymore. Around May 2006 I received a letter from a Housing Manager stating that I was not cleaning the communal hallway and that I had been removing my light bulbs from light fitting outside my flat. My first thought was this seemed a bit odd as normally it would have been the job of the Housing Officer to write the letter. My next thought was how cheeky my neighbour was in counter claiming against me in a petty way when in fact, I was the only person that cleaned the communal hallway, so I ignored it. A few weeks later I received another letter from the same Housing Manager stating this time that there was a leak coming from my flat which was affecting the flat below (Yep the same neighbour) and that he had seen the leak himself. This letter stated that if I wasn’t at home the next day to let the plumber in they would have no choice but to force entry to stem the flow (sounds serious). Now, being as there was not a single drop over my kitchen floor, I thought to myself, here we go again, my neighbour is now using the housing association to harass me by getting them to cut up my 'New Solid Wood Flooring' which once cut through with their skill saw, would never look the same again. So I waited in and saw the plumber and Housing Manager turn up and go into my neighbours property. I then heard the plumber say "awww, it don't look like a leak, but if it was a leak it looks like it was a very old one". I was in my property when I heard this and safely assumed the plumber was looking at my neighbours ceiling. Anyway, the plumber didn't even call at my door in the end and he then left. At that point I thought to myself 'I knew it'. I knew there was never a leak. Then a further few weeks later, I received another letter from the same Housing Manger who again stated that my flat will be forced into if I was not home due to this supposed leak. Twice in the end a plumber came into my home, they had all the plinths off but they still could not find a leak (as in, there was no leak) and it was as dry as a bone. During these months my neighbour was getting all sorts of works done on his property even works which did not fall under the realms of the Landlords Responsibility. Then on a Friday evening around 8.45pm I was parking up my van diagonally across from my home and saw this Housing Manager walking right up to the gate of my property and I initially thought what on earth is he doing here this late on a Friday evening. At exactly the same time as I saw him, he saw me. THEN IT HIT ME. He isn't just a Housing Manager, he is my neighbour’s friend, and I couldn't believe my eyes, when I saw him enter my neighbours flat. I knew then, this was not normal. And that all those letters where just another way to get at me by neighbour and now the Housing Manager. First thing the following Monday morning I called the Housing Association to make a complaint that I had been receiving these letters and have been harassed by my neighbour and what now seems like joint harassment by the Housing Manager too. But the Housing Managers, Manager Ms J. Fowler, said to me with conviction I am wrong. I told her I wasn't wrong but she insisted I was. I could not believe my ears. I also complained that works were being done on my neighbours’ property that didn't need to be done and that some of the work was very expensive stuff. What on earth was going on? Firstly they shelved the case against my neighbour, then I continued to be harassed by my neighbour and now by the Housing Manager who happens to be a friend of my neighbour and for months I kept seeing this Housing Manager coming around during lunch breaks (as the offices were 4 - 5 minutes away) and the evenings. These two guys were definitely best buddies. I continued to complain by telephone, by email (I have copies of bills / emails etc) that I was worried that the Housing Manager has the authority to change computer records and remove stuff which related to my neighbours past behaviour, and even went around to the offices myself to only be placed in front of staff who kept looking at the floor and said “they can't do anything about this as he is their manager". They made it perfectly clear, to me that it's not worth their job. One even said "Patrick is using Godfrey" i.e. my neighbour is using the Housing Manager. I then went round all the local solicitors to see whether anyone would help me but they all said it would be a conflict of interest as they do work for the Housing Association. At this point it was now coming up to Christmas 2006 where I then made an appointment to see the MP Diane Abbot to finally deal with this crazy situation I have found myself in. The appointment was set for just after the New Year, the end of the first week in January 2007. I explained to her everything and she agreed to write to the housing association to get them to explain why they had stopped pursuing the court case. What was about to come was like a bomb going off in your face. In the Middle of the second week in January 2007, I received a copy of the letter sent to the housing association by MP Diane Abbot. Then on the 12th January 2007, a Friday, I was trying to get work, so had spent the whole day on paperwork in order to meet a deadline of 6pm for a customer. I didn't get much to eat or drink throughout the day but decided after dropping off the letter, to go to a couple of different local bars on the way home to see people I know from the area. Having such a good time, I lost track of time and found it to be around 2am Saturday morning where I was extremely tipsy and very tired, and decided it was home time. So I walked home the 8 - 10 minute journey, did my best to sneak into the house main entrance door and stumbled slightly up the stairs to my flat door. I managed to open my flat door but then had another set of steps to climb to get to the first level inside my property. Being quite drunk and extremely exhausted, I fell asleep on my landing floor. At 6am I was then wakened by lots of shouting and people in my flat around me. I quickly realised they were Armed Police and was so shocked by what was going on I couldn't understand what was happening and how they got into my home. They were asking my name and where I had been and I was asking what has happened. It was all very confusing. I still had my jacket on. The Police put handcuffs on me and took me away from my flat to the police station where they said they are arresting me for Threats to Kill and Affray against my neighbour. I couldn't understand what was going on and kept saying "I haven't done anything, I haven't done anything wrong". I was then processed and later allowed to see a duty solicitor where it was established that my neighbour had made the allegations and that I (and allegedly others) had threatened to kill him during the night of the 12th. I told the solicitor this is wrong as I got home at around 2 ish and that they could check the local CCTV to show I was alone going home and that fact of the matter was I could never bring anyone back to my place due to my neighbours’ behaviour. It was also established that the police managed to get into my flat as I had apparently left my keys in the door. Not in the outside of the door lock, but the inside. I knew straight away something was wrong there too, as I have never in 19 years of living in that flat ever put the keys into the lock on the inside of my door. I have however on only a few occasions in the past noticed that my flat door had not quite shut itself, but usually when my neighbours flat door or the street door creates a vacuum when being opened then my door slightly goes ajar, so on this occasion I couldn't of shut it properly. Whilst I was with the solicitor had also noticed a clean sharp 25mm cut (which he saw too), right in the middle of my chest of the shirt I was wearing. I knew then what has happened. My neighbour had in the past threatened to get me out of here (my home) as he absolutely hated me and called me a white piece of **** in the past that many times. That he must of (as he is a night bird) heard me come home very drunk. That he knew of my attempts to re-instate the original court case and the fact that I was complaining of the works being authorised by the Housing Manager on his property. That he also must have been aware that I had gone to MP Diane Abbot to try to get the original court case back on track (only the Housing Manager could have told him that). And that he just wanted to muck up all chances of me succeeding in my quest. I was then advised by the solicitor to say No Comment when being interviewed by the police. I took his advice and thought this to be an advantage to allow it to get to court where all will be revealed so that I could then use the court transcripts to sue the housing association for leaving me in such a vulnerable situation, being harassed by my neighbour and their staff member. However, things didn’t quite go that way. I was bailed, not to be allowed to return to my home until the court case against me had finished and was not even allowed to walk down my road. My life had come to a halt as I didn't really have anywhere else to go but was allowed to stay at an address in north London. It took a further 19 destroying months before the crown court case came up but in the mean time rent arrears on the property were accruing as I wasn't earning anything. I also had to ask a couple of friends whether they could go into my flat for me to collect some bits, which they would have been allowed to do, but they were so scarred what my neighbour would do they refused. I used to wait at the top of my road hoping I could see someone I know passing and try to convince them to get some of my belongings. And whilst there, I would see the housing manager and my neighbour laughing and joking around like they were really close. Within days of being released on bail, someone had gone into my local bank branch and had stopped my debit account claiming my card had gone missing or something like that and that a new card had been ordered along with a new pin to be sent to the address I was not allowed to go back to. I tried to explain that it was not me and finally got through to them and they sent it to the address where I was staying. I even had to contact their fraud section to try to convince them of this. My flat had also been broken into during this time and I knew this could have only been done by my neighbour as there are only the two properties behind the street entrance door. But the police didn’t even interview my neighbour about it although I got an incident number (for what it’s worth). In the end the court case was a farce. I had to do everything to prove my innocents rather than them proving my guilt. I was found not guilty on one charge and the other finally got dropped. But just as soon as that court case was finished the housing association had prepared another case against me for rent arrears. So I had to find nearly £8000 to sort out the rent account to bring it back to zero in order to not be evicted from my home. It was about that same time I had a meeting with the housing people in a different office only to be told that they had to employ 2 security guards to prevent my neighbour from going into their Arcola St office as he was now harassing their staff again, and ironically the Housing Manager. (How nice it is to have the money to pay for securing their staff). I was told by the housing association staff member that the Housing Manager had also been suspended pending investigation on something but refuse to admit it had anything to do with what I had brought to light. I then discovered he got the sack in the end. In the mean time, my neighbour was sitting pretty. With an upgraded property, which even made the outside look like a private house and yet still no case against him to evict him (this man is made of steel). What on earth is going on? Anyway, after making this payment for rent arrears, I and another person went back to my flat (the first time in nearly two years) in order to get a few items to try to get my life back on track. I had to sign on again, but could not live in the property for fear of another incident happening, so decided to stay away until I could figure out ‘What Now’. Even on that occasion, my neighbour had spat at me and my friend but it landed on the floor. I then went to stay at their place and within a few weeks decided, enough is enough and that I would move out of the London flat. He and the housing association had torn my life apart from limb to limb. After all, I had been made to look like the trouble maker now. I couldn’t even get a solicitor to help me fight my corner. I was so drained of energy that even last year during the freeze I had spent weeks contemplating killing myself. I had lost my dignity, my home, my fiance, my life of 19 years in the home I wanted to buy. I had ended up living in night shelters and now live in a temporary home managed by a supported housing association. I have gone from being a happy go lucky cheeky chappy with colour to my skin and hair and a great life to lead to a grey haired, big bags under my eyes, grey skinned person with no life. And yet my only crime was to make a complaint, and trying to stand my ground on it. You’d think it stops there, think again. The housing association in London, although they had admitted that they knew I had left the property to Derby Council, had kept the rent account going, accruing a whole new set of arrears which I believe amounts to some £3500 or so. How can they get away with this? I have been told that they should have produced a Notice to Quit on the property and then taken back the property. If any arrears would have accrued, it should have been only a few weeks worth. And to think, I even walked away from all the problems I was having not only with my neighbour for nearly 20 yrs but the Housing Mangers harassment, and the fact that the Housing Association were supposed to have taken my neighbour to court back in 2005 to evict him which never ever came to fruition. Which actually kick started this whole situation. I now have bailiffs banging on my door for these new rent arrears for a property I haven’t lived in since 13th January 2007, less than a week after going to MP Diane Abbot. I have only now, after all this time managed to pick myself up and dust myself down to end up with another kick. Is there anyone out there who can help? I still have nearly all my old paperwork going back to the late 1990s, which includes some evidence of harassment and letters written by the Housing Association admitting I was being harassed. I also have telephone bills with the frequency of the calls I had made to them whilst making these complaints, and notes sent by them showing complete contempt towards me as one of their tenants who has never ever caused any problems for them. Thank you