NOISY NEIGHBOUR

Update on 3rd August 2013

Since the problem with my downstairs neighbour started he has continued in his attempt to be nasty. Of course it is a cowardly way to be nasty by playing the bass sound repeatedly for hours so it makes it difficult to hear the television in your flat. For some unknown reason he wants to cause trouble for the neighbours. It's very strange to see so many young guys around 20 years of age knocking on his door all times of the day and night as he is in his 50s. It can't be down to his personality and as he is a convicted drug dealer and many people have mentioned that they smell drugs coming from his open windows when they walk by it is more than likely he is supplying those young guys with more than just a cup of tea. I remember him saying out loud one night to someone "I've got some of my boys on it" as if he ran a gang of young men who would do what he tells them to do. When I moved here 18 years ago quite a number of retired people lived in this street and it was a pleasant area to live. As these people gradually get too old to look after themselves or sadly died they have been replaced by people who are involved in drugs of some kind. I have sympathy with addicts as it must be difficult to recover from an addiction but I have no sympathy whatsoever for dealers who want to make money by destroying peoples lives and breaking up families. I personally would have a zero tolerance policy when it came to housing convicted drug dealers but then again as I am living above one and have had quite a number of people knocking my door over the years asking for him by name and it was clear what they wanted, you can understand why I have no sympathy especially as his playing just bass loudly is an attempt to probably get me out and one of his drug friends in. In the not so distant future, if Cardiff City Council continue this policy of putting more convicted drug pushers and dealers into the flats in this street the time will come when it will become a no go area for the police. At the moment it is still a fairly good street to live in but the difference from just five years ago is startling. Flats with lanes and it is also a one way street with a few exits for people on foot or on bikes could become a nightmare for the police if the council don't change policy. My neighbour the drug dealer is in his 50s and on benefits and I believe is on some kind of disability benefit too so extra money for him to enjoy, although he appears to do plenty of repairs in his flat and is able to walk and move with no problems and of course claiming a medical problem would put him at the top of the housing list and that is probably the reason he managed to get a council flat. In most cases a single guy would be at the bottom of the list when it came to being housed by the council. I saw an article about him that was on an online library regarding an incident in 2006. He was arrested in possession of heroin and pleaded guilty but said it was for personal use so he only got a fine. The fact that he had been given a five year sentence in the past for drug dealing was mentioned. These people will lie to obtain what they want and I guess being surrounded by young men more than 30 years younger than he is will make him feel that he is somebody when in reality we all know he is the lowest of the low. It is probably the case that when he puts the bass on loud and shows off in front of these young men they will find it funny and think he is great when in reality it shows what kind of coward he really is when he can't bring himself to confront anyone face to face if he has a problem with them. I'm sure a few of those young men or maybe all of them will in the next ten years end up serving time in prison as they get caught eventually but that won't be any consolation for the victims of drugs. They seem to want to hang around a guy over 50 who after years of lies and prison is living in a one bedroom flat kindly paid for by the taxpayer and living on state benefits and if that's what they want for themselves in thirty years time then they are on the way to achieving it. I have been told by the council that I can have a noise meter put in and now I am seriously considering it. When you let people live their lives and all they want to do is cause you trouble it's time to fight back and if he ends up losing his sound equipment and eventual eviction then he would have got what he deserved. ----------------------------------------------------

I live in a council owned maisonette and I have lived here for almost 18 years. In that time I have had three different people living in the flat below me. The building is made up of four flats, two maisonettes and two ground floor flats. I have a front door at ground level but of course behind the door is a staircase leading to my flat. For the last two years my neighbour below me has been playing loud music for many hours at a time but only during daylight hours. He is about fifty years old and I am told that he once spent five years in prison for drug dealing. As with most neighbours we appear to be total strangers as we have never spoken to each other and I have only seen him on the odd occasion. Quite a few people have told me that they can smell some kind of drug coming from one of his open windows but I have not concerned myself with that. I even ignored the loud music that half the street could hear but two weeks before christmas he started doing something with the sound equipment he has by sending vibrations through the ceiling. My landline phone was vibrating on a coffee table, the window frames were making what sounded like grunting noises as the bolts holding them to the structure were on the receiving end of the vibrations. It got to a level that I actually thought the window frames were going to fall out so I phoned the Cardiff Council Noise and Pollution team and told them what was happening and I even emailed them. A woman from that team knocked on his door a few days later and I was actually upstairs in my flat when she arrived. My neighbour was inside and at that time was playing his music at a lighter level but after she had been tapping on his door and window for a minute or so he put the music up to a much louder level and even though she was knocking on his door for another five minutes or so he never bothered to answer. She left a card and left and a minute or so later he turned off his music completely. For the next week he was quiet as a mouse so I guess he got a tap on the wrist from the council but since then he has been playing his music for several hours a day but he clearly is trying to be nasty. For over 18 months he played reggae music but now he was playing just a drum beat sound non stop. After a month or so of this he put a note through my letter box asking me to let him know if the sound is too loud. This in my opinion is just trying it on and a kind of power game. He wants me to knock on his door and ask him to keep his music down so he can feel that he has power over me by my acknowledgement that it is getting me down. His failure to answer the door to the Council shows that if that had been me standing at his door he would have put the old two fingers up at me and played his music louder. Since that note last week he has continued to mess with some kind of keyboard to cause the music to send vibrations through the building and it is clearly too loud so he must be keen on getting a response from me. On saturday afternoon he only had his music on for less than an hour but the vibrations were severe. I don't know what damage is being done to water and gas pipes and even my television and computer vibrating could result in my own equipment being damaged. It's very hard to understand why this guy is doing this. The neighbours and I include myself in this have ignored people knocking our doors after midnight who have asked for him and were clearly wanting more than just a cup of tea, allowed him to play his music excessively loud and not complained and he wants to thank us by potentially destroying the flats we live in. He should be thankful that he has neighbours who turn a blind eye to things he gets up to and the fact that he has a nice flat in a nice location. Even last summer I didn't bother phoning the police when I saw an incident. I heard a lot of shouting and as I looked down my stairs I saw the guy walk past my window at ground level with both his hands around a woman's throat and marched her to a nearby concrete post threatening to ram her face into it if she broke his windows. I just don't know why he is being so nasty apart from maybe he wants to feel that he is still somebody by people asking him to stop. If you have spent years in prison for drug dealing and all the other times in cells for various offences and still find that you are in your 50s and living in a one bedroom council flat it might make you feel that it really wasn't worth it.