My mum lives on the first floor of a three storey building and is almost 80. The housing association she rents from have moved in a single mother with a child above her and she is going through hell with the noise and it's making her ill. The woman has had people coming in doing DIY at all hours - 7:45pm tonight - and her children are often up at 6am, and sometimes earlier, which wakes my mum (and sister, who lives with her) up and they are unable to get back to sleep due to the noise. They're often also running around late at night as well so mum has to wait until almost 10pm and later before she can go to bed. She's tried writing a very reasonable letter to the occupant upstairs about the noise but this has been ignored. I know that when children move in, everyone around them automatically loses their right to a reasonable quality of life because of this, but does my mum have any recourse ? Most nuisance neighbour policies i've looked in to, as well as the housing association's anti-social behaviour policy, all basically exempt children from any action being taken which I think is grossly unfair because at almost 80, my mum simply can't "just move". And she's lived there for nearly 20 years as well, so why should she give up her home because of some inconsiderate above her ? She'd be willing to go to mediation with the woman, but since the woman has ignored her letter, is there any other way to get this to happen ? Apologies if this is a bit of a mess of a post but i'm just getting quite concerned about my mum's health overall. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

New measures to beat plague of nuisance calls READ MORE HERE: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-to-beat-plague-of-nuisance-calls

Good evening Caggers, I am asking for some advice on behalf of my father, who has been dealing with a nuisance neighbour for a while but issues have been esculating in the last couple of weeks or so. My retired father has owned his end-of-terrace house since the mid 00s, though it is an ex-council property. However the neighbouring property (mid-terrace) is council-owned, although it is looked after by a local HA appointed by the council to look after all their homes. These particular tenants (a couple with a child) have been living next door to my dad for about a year. There have been issues with noise throughout - loud banging of doors and shouting at all hours (yes, we are often talking 2-3-4am, but can be any time of the day so goodness knows when they sleep!). The bloke can often be heard playing loud music in his car at midnight or 6am. All very annoying but now things have stepped up a notch. A couple of weeks ago, my dad was woken up by the neighbours burning rubbish in their back garden at midnight. It was only in the morning when my dad noticed that a old metal bin he kept in his back garden had gone missing. There is a gate between his back garden and the neighbours' - though there's no trace of the bin, it would be very difficult for anyone else to have known of its existence. On Weds this week, my dad had had his brown 'garden waste' bin stolen from the front of the house. We can't prove it is the dodgy neighbours, but they do now have a brown bin at the front of their house and one round the back. Now today, my dad has noticed some large items appear in his back garden, including a fridge unit and a buggy. They are now using my dad's garden as a dumping ground for their large waste! There is access to the back garden from the front of the property so in theory it could be anyone, but the property is a little bit off the road, with some large grass areas between the road and the houses - it would have taken some effort to identify my dad's back garden as a good place to dump their large waste, let alone take it down there! My father was only telling me yesterday that he is looking to go to the council's HA on Monday to discuss the neighbours' behaviours, this being before the discovery of the fridge and buggy in his garden. He hates confrontation and hates the idea that the neighbours will work out that it would be him who's reported them, so I know that looking to take steps on this is a big deal for him. He won't admit it out loud, but I know he is getting quite upset by all this and I hate seeing him like that. I am going to see him tomorrow with a notebook and help him write up a proper log of events for him to use and refer to when he sees HA. I do already have Monday booked off work for other reasons, so I will try and be at the HA with him if I can. Please can I have some advice about whether this is a good starting approach or whether we should be doing things differently? Also, how best to get rid of the waste if HA won't co-operate there? Many thanks in advance, GS.

Bristow and Sutor are calling our home regularly. It's a recorded message for my son who does not live at this address nor has he ever lived here. The problem is that my husband is poorly in bed and the phone ringing disturbs him. We normally get very few calls. When they ring they give the case number three times but unfortunately I suffer with Arthritis in my fingers and I am not quick enough to write it down. There is no regular time for these calls otherwise I would arrange for someone to be here to get the case number. I have tried to get a web chat with the company but keep being told to try later and I've tried completing their email form but it won't be accepted due to no case number. I just don't know what to do now. I see my son occasionally and have told him about the calls but he has said to ignore it. He was declared Bankrupt almost two years ago so I'm not sure what this debt is for. I'd be really grateful for any suggestions. Thank you

Company directors could be fined up to £500,000 if their business is behind nuisance phone calls, under government moves to clamp down on the problem. The law is to be changed in Spring 2017 to make directors personally liable for breaches of regulations. At the moment only firms can be fined for ignoring rules on cold calling, but many declare bankruptcy - only to open up again under a different name. The change will mean the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) would be able to impose combined penalties of up to £1m on company directors and their businesses for breaches of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37743001

Complaints from people bombarded with spam texts and nuisance calls have today helped the ICO fine two companies a total of £100,000. Separate investigations into Omega Marketing Services Ltd and Vincent Bond Ltd were both triggered by complaints about nuisance marketing. Now the firms have been fined £60,000 and £40,000 respectively. The ICO receives around 13,000 complaints about spam texts, emails and nuisance calls a month. It is currently investigating 167 cases. Report nuisance calls at ico.org.uk/calls.

I have involved my local environmental health and the housing ombudsman regarding an issue I have with a neighbour from hell who is severely mentally ill and lives directly above me in a flat. I am in a flat below him. The problem is that he lives in squalor etc and has also broken a few windows in his flat that are very dangerous .Also there is serious asb issues . Anyway to cut a long story short , both the ombudsman and the environmental health have written to my landlord telling them to repair these windows, but for 8 months now the landlord is still saying they cant gain access to repair these windows. By the way , I also am covered by the equalities act as I have been diagnosed with O.C.D.. and also physically disabled as well ,and these windows are causing me distress because of my O.C.D. disability. The environmental heath say as I live in a housing association property I have to make my own application for statutory nuisance under section 82 of the environmental heath act, regarding these windows that the association are not repairing ( or being unreasonably slow in doing so ) What I would like to know is , if I make my own application to the court giving the court the works order from the environmental heath and the recommendations from the housing ombudsman that both say the association should repair these windows, would that get the job done ? The tenant as I say has severe mental heath issues and refuses to allow anyone in his property, which is why the association have been refusing to deal with this in the first place. I intend to make the section 82 application against the association . Thanks for looking and any advice would be greatly received. David

There is this bunch of local kids around the ages of 6-7 years, definitely not more than 8 years playing very very noisy football right next to our house. All sorts of swearwords flying around between themselves as they play and they kicking the football into big metal garage doors (they use that as the goal). It is a huge bang at every 'goal' (every minute) and they do this for about 2 hours on most evenings from 7pm till 9pm and on weekends in good weather also on bank holidays and any other school holiday times when they go on for even 5 or 6 hours. It is insane! The position of our house is on a corner where 2 streets meet and these metal garage doors are located at the end of our garden. The houses of other residents located past these garage doors and I guess that is enough distance for them not having to 'enjoy' the racket these boys make. As far as I'm aware kids of that age are not even supposed to be let out from home without adult supervision. Been in touch with police on the 101 phone number. First time 3 months ago they were very helpful, they asked a lot of details and came out in 1 hour to deal with the kids. The boys obviously tried to do a runner but I think the police did manage to speak to 1 or 2 of them.... The kids started coming here again a few weeks ago and now their numbers are growing (last night 6 of them) and in line with that the number of loud bangs we have to suffer grows too as well as the general kids' shouting noise. They play on the road and there are garage doors on either side of the road so they just kicking the football around right on the road and kicking it into these metal doors on either side. This is a quiet residential area with not much traffic - moreover there is a park 5 minutes from here! The football obviously often lands in our garden (at least 3 times a week) and they just climb up our fence from the street, sometimes by pulling to the fence an object they find nearby as people do flytip on this particular street corner and the kids just come into our garden to look for their football. The football also goes into other people's sheds that is next to these garages and those only got wooden doors with a padlock locking it down but with large enough gaps under and above. These belong to residents in other streets nearby. The kids do climb in there too to retrieve the ball and been causing more than a little damage to the some of these shed doors. Last night I got home from work at 8pm only to find that 1 of these boys is ramaging around in our garden whilst the other boy is sitting on the top of our fence giving him directions which way to look for the football. I've obviously told them off as this is not the first time nor the second. I've then called the police on 101 again. I got an answer from the officer that 'what exactly do you expect from the police to do about little boys playing football?' So not so helpful this time.... Tried to explain the case of trespassing and how much of a nuisance they are but the officer just shrugged me off and hung up. Have contacted my local council 3 months ago with this issue but they said it's not in their authority to act (I asked if they could put up here a No Ball Play Area sign) because it is a normal residential area and not a council housing. I know that reading this might sound like I'm just some grumpy, old hag who just doesn't like kids but that is totally not the case at all. In fact for a few weeks after the police talked to them, the kids only came here 1-2 times a week and did not kick the ball into the metal doors and that was absolutely fine. Just wondering that if this is not the council's authority to deal with and neither does the police care then where shall we turn to change the current situation? Social services....? By the way we did talk to these boys a lot before on a friendly way to convince them that it's not safe to play football on the road like this and please don't kick the metal doors with the ball but obviously they don't give a flying monkeys....They claim but it might as well just be a lie that their parents don't allow them to play football in the park because they don't think it's safe.... Park only 5mins walk from here!!!

BT has said it will launch a new service later this year to divert nuisance calls within its network before they ring on customers' phones. It said it will use huge computing power to root out 25 million unwanted calls a week. Currently, BT customers can buy special phones that block nuisance calls, or pay to stop calls getting through. But the new service will identify some of the 5 billion unwanted calls made each year before they arrive. They will then be diverted automatically to a junk voicemail box. Customers will be able to add numbers they don't want to hear from, for free. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35545914 BT offers 'breakthrough' service to divert 'huge numbers' of nuisance calls Most people receive an unwanted telephone call every month, mainly about PPI or personal injury claims, automated marketing messages or sales. Now a BT team will monitor calls to our 10 million domestic customers and identify any patterns of callers. The "rogue" numbers will be diverted to a junk voicebox, which we estimate will affect up to 25 million unwanted calls a week. If you’re a BT customer, you’ll also be able to divert the calls yourself to the "Blacklist". The service will launch later this year, harnessing huge computer power to analyse data. http://home.bt.com/news/bt-life/bt-offers-breakthrough-service-to-divert-huge-numbers-of-nuisance-calls-11364039280071

The ICO is taking action against two more cold call blocking companies, continuing the crackdown on nuisance calls. Poole-based Nuisance Call Blocker Ltd has been fined £90,000 and Telecom Protection Service Ltd, based in Bournemouth, has received an £80,000 fine. Both companies were found to be making unsolicited marketing calls to people registered on the official Telephone Preference Service while trying to sell products and services to block the type of cold calls they were making. https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2015/11/ico-issues-fines-totalling-170-000-to-cold-call-blocking-companies/ Company fined £850,000 for millions of nuisance calls The National Advice Clinic, based in Lancashire, which also trades as the Industrial Hearing Clinic or the Central Compensation Office, made nearly 6 million calls between October 2014 and April 2015 about noise induced hearing loss claims has been fined £850,000 by the Claims Management Regulator https://www.gov.uk/government/news/company-fined-850000-for-millions-of-nuisance-calls ICO fines PPI claims firm £80,000 over 1.3m spam SMS deluge The Information Commissioner's Office has served up penalty of £80,000 to a PPI claims company that sent more than 1.3 million spam texts. Brum-based UKMS Money Solutions Limited (UKMS) had bought numbers in bulk from list brokers which it subsequently spammed to encourage people to make compensation claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/23/ico_fines_ppi_claims_firm/

Mobile phone users are increasingly being targeted by nuisance callers, new research from Which? can reveal. Seven in ten mobile phone users said they had received at least one unwanted call to their mobile in the past month. Despite the rise in such calls, many mobile phone users don't realise that they can register with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS). Only 3% of mobile phone users are registered with the TPS Which? has worked with the TPS to launch a brand new free text service which allows people to register their mobile phone numbers. You can register your mobile phone with the TPS for free by sending a text stating OPTOUT to 80057 and Which? will send you a link to some simple steps to help stop nuisance calls. http://www.which.co.uk/news/2015/10/mobile-phone-users-targeted-by-nuisance-callers--420112/

I am receiving nuisance sales calls from 02 on my mobile phone number. I have been rung up repeatedly every day sometimes twice a day and its getting a bit beyond the joke. Each time they ring I tell them where to go politely. I received yet another sales call from them again 5 minutes ago. Where can I go to stop nuisance calls on my mobile number?

A claims company has become the first to be fined under new powers after making millions of "nuisance calls", the government has announced. The Hearing Clinic, based in Derby, has been fined £220,000 following hundreds of complaints about speculative calls regarding hearing loss claims. It was the first fine issued by the Claims Management Regulator. Many of those called by the business had subscribed to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), indicating that they did not want to receive unsolicited calls. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33788527

hya all i am hoping some one will be able to give me some advice i bought my house 8 years ago behind a morrisons store everything was fine was told noise was kept to a minimum and that was fine about a year after moving in then the trouble started deliveries early hours from 10 at night untill 6 in the morning banging of trolleys wagons reversing even laughing and joking from the warehouse staff 7 years we have been complaining to morrisons and council eventually 3 week ago we had a noise monitor fitted off the council and are waiting on the results my daughter has just started secondary school and this is an important time for her but she is been woken at least 4 times a week and the situation is now that my daughter sleeps in the bedroom with the wife while i sleep in my daughters room well sleep is the wrong word i have had 2 strokes and the situation is realy putting me at my witts end i have looked on the internet for solicitors who are willing to take my case on a no win no fee basis but without any luck.hope anyone can help thanx in advance martin

Which? is urging Government, regulators and businesses to renew their efforts to call time on nuisance calls and texts as complaints continue to rack up in the tens of thousands. After finding that a quarter (24%) of people don’t know where to complain when they receive an unwanted call, Which? are making it easier by launching a new online complaints tool so offenders can be identified and punished. They are urging consumers to report nuisance calls and texts to give regulators the vital evidence they need to take action against companies breaking the rules. This tool is powered by Which?. It helps determine who you should report nuisance calls and texts to and automatically issues a complaint on your behalf, subject to your approval. To stamp out this everyday menace, we need to get more people reporting nuisance calls. Please use and share our free nuisance call reporting tool today. Report a nuisance call

Imposing fines of up to £500,000 on the companies behind cold calls and nuisance text messages is to become easier under changes to the law being made by the government. The move follows tens of thousands of complaints about cold calling. Currently, firms can only be punished if the Information Commissioner can prove a call caused "substantial damage or substantial distress". But from 6 April, that legal requirement is to be removed. More than 175,000 complaints were made to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) last year about nuisance calls and text messages. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31616523

The press are reporting a crackdown on nuisance calls with ever larger fines for the transgressors, such as PPI, onlime marketing etc. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2967040/Will-FINALLY-end-nightmare-nuisance-calls-New-law-make-easier-hit-firms-500-000-fines.html https://www.politicshome.com/home-affairs/articles/story/crackdown-nuisance-calls http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2865158/Britain-s-one-billion-nuisance-calls-face-crackdown-task-force-warns.html As DCAs engage in constant calls and texts even after being told in writing only, by letter I wonder if they can be snared in this trap, Arrow, Lowell, Muckhall Snotcall are you worried? No I thought not.

Hello, 20th January I received two phone calls from one number. 21st January, the same number called me. Upon answering, the vodafone rep asked me a few questions about my phone, what i use it for etc etc. After explaining to the vodafone rep that I work night shifts and her call woke me up, she persisted in asking me questions. I answered a few more questions and could feel myself waking up even more... In the end, I became annoyed and told the rep that I am going to have to end the call because I need to sleep in preparation for my night shift. The rep still persisted in asking me even more questions!!!!!! So, I become more annoyed and ask to speak to a manager or supervisor. The vodafone rep apologised and said all managers are busy, but someone will call me back. No call was received. My question: I have contacted vodafone for a PAC code so I can keep my number and move to a mobile supplier who does not contact its customers with sales calls etc. But now that Vodafone have my number, am I likely to receive calls from them in the future when I am with my new provider? I know this may not seem a huge problem to some people, but as I work nights and need as much sleep as I can in the day, I do not want vodafone to persist in calling me!

Not sure if I have posted in the right place! Just found a letter from this company that have charged my elderly mother £121 for nuisance call prevention (she bought a little box from a shop and couldn't get it to work-related so called the helpline) . It doesn't work!!! I have already added her to the free Service- is it TPS? Are they [problematic]? What rights do we have to get a refund? Funnily enough they aren't answering their phone!!!! Many thanks

I've had my work phone number for two years+ and I'm still getting nuisance calls every day trying to contact the previous owner of this phone number. It's a work phone so I can't just change it. I tell them every time that Tracey ****** no longer owns the number and please remove me from their lists, but still it goes on. She must be majorly defaulting judging by the amount of calls I get. What can I do???

article provided by funforus The Which campaign against unwanted calls (this includes harassment as well as spamming) moves onto its next stage today. I've been helping and have the release below: Last month we called on the Government to step in to strengthen the law on consent and the use of personal data, and to give regulators more powers to enforce the law. Over 76,000 people have so far signed up to pledge their support for our “Calling Time on Nuisance Calls and Texts” campaign. Consumers can pledge their support at: http://www.which.co.uk/callingtime Notes to Editors 1. Populus, on behalf of Which?, interviewed 2,070 UK adults online between 19th and 21st April 2013 and 2,101 UK adults online between 3rd and 6th May 2013. Data were weighted to be demographically representative of all UK adults. Populus is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules. 2. The new Which? complaints tool will direct complaints about live marketing calls and texts to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or the Telephone Preference Service. Complaints about silent or abandoned calls will be directed to Ofcom and complaints about premium rate services will go through to Phonepay Plus. 3. We are calling on the Government to strengthen the law on consent and the use of personal data, to give regulators more powers to enforce the law, and to work with industry to provide technical fixes to filter out unwanted calls and texts. 4. Which? is also supporting Mike Crockart MP's Private Members Bill on nuisance calls and texts which is due to have a second reading in the House of Commons in the Autumn.

Hi everyone and thank you for your help. A relative who uses our address as a postal address, and who we have not heard from in months, is starting to fall quite badly into debt judging from the large stack of letters arriving for him each day. Unfortunately we do not have so much as a telephone number for our relative as their phone has been disconnected. Dad runs a business from home and we have two phone lines because of this. However, one of the phone lines was unused until a few days ago when he connected it again to start using it. Since then we have received seven or eight calls a day from a debt collection agency asking for our relative. The people on the other end of the phone are usually very rude and will not say who they are or why they are calling. We only know it is a debt collection agency from googling their phone number. Although dad tries to explain each time they call that the person they are asking for is not at this address we are given a hostile response and told they will keep calling. We are told that they will not remove our number as it is the number our relative gave to them. On one occasion, when I asked for our number to be removed from their records I was told 'no problem' but the phone calls continued regardless. They are beginning to consume a lot of time and are becoming a real nuisance. I know that the OFT Debt Collection Guidance sets out certain rules and that if the DCA in question were getting through to our relative they would be breaking many of them. The problem is that the OFT guidance refers throughout to 'the debtor' and in this case we are not the debtor. Does this mean that things set out in the OFT guidance do not apply to us? For example, they do not have to respect our request not to be contacted by telephone as it is not 'the debtor' making the request? Does anyone know of any other regulations or guidance that apply to our situation and mean we can stop these nuisance calls? We are also fearful that, given the letters and phone calls, a visit from a bailiff will not be far behind. Should we have a statutory declaration prepared that states our relative neither lives nor has any possessions at the property in case this occurs? Once again thank you for your help.

Please help, am at my wits end over my neighbours increasingly worse issues against me, now making complaints about my dogs. Im worried sick that im now facing legal action and fines. 11.03.13 Received an Abatement notice from the council about my dogs barking. They stated 2 weeks ago, for 1 hour, my dogs barked constantly at about 3pm. I was not here (at an appointment so no way to prove/deny they were barking). Council have not issued any proof or evidence of this being true. A couple of weeks ago they sent a letter saying my neighbour had made a complaint about the dogs barking. This is following both man & woman neighbour banging hell out of my door at 11pm when I had been out for 2 hrs to complain the dogs were barking when I had been out - their brother actually caused the barking by placing things in my porch and disturbing them!!!) They had been drinking, were very threatening and abusive and made me feel very intimidated so since then I have stopped all communication with them! Ever since then we have been very prevalent to ensure that the barking is always stopped very quickly such as when they are due food, or out to loo, when I get up in morning - they are excited and yes, they bark, but are always stopped very quickly. I rarely now leave the house to ensure they are kept quiet most of the time, or arrange someone to sit with them. I don't even go out in the evenings or socialise now as I cant leave them unattended. The council who attended even said "Cant you get rid of the dog"!!!! would you get rid of a crying baby or child who is teething overnight for weeks??? However, one incident, 2 weeks ago I had no choice and left them in the afternoon for 2 hours. Typically, they barked for 1 hour, at about 3pm. This is the cause of the Abatement Notice. I have not been given any evidence or proof of this noise that was supposedly made. I do not know how long this Notice is in effect for - 1 month, 1 year or forever? I have 21 days to appeal, but HOW on earth do I appeal as its a load of gobbldegook technical jargon. Please help as I don't know what else to do, im doing my best already

These people are ringing my landline at all hours ,i have tried to bar them using Sky call barring service but it says i am unable to bar this particular number, it is really getting me down the constant calls, any advice on how to stop them. please

Hi I hope I am posting in the right place (First time) When my family moved in to our current house about a year ago we were getting calls for the previous tenants on an hourly basis. Talking to the neighbours it seems they left in a hurry and it sounds like they where in a lot of debt. The calls slowed down to about 2 a month so was not to bad until 4 weeks ago when we were getting calls every 3 hours from injury lawyers saying about our recent accident when I said that I don't have a car and have never had an accident they asked if I was Mr (last tenant), I said no and they had moved over a year ago. The person at the other end said that the number had been given to them in the last few days but would remove it from their system. More calls followed so I think that the last tenant was still giving out 'his' number... I asked my telephone provider to change the number which was done promptly and without fuss. I am now getting at least 1 call a day from the Halifax asking for someone I have never heard of. When after a few calls of "we will remove your number from our database" has had no joy I am at a loss as what to do. I have registered with TPS but this will not stop them as it is not direct marketing. When I rang Halifax I was told that with out the customer name and password etc they would not change records because of data protection Can anyone please tell me who I need to contact to stop these calls. Many thanks in advance Mark