We live in an apartment building of 12 flats, 4 on each floor. We live on the 1st floor, so just have one neighbour below us, an elderly couple (I would guess they are in their late 70's, maybe 80's.) We've lived here around a year now. In probably July or August, we started to have problems with said neighbours.
The first incident I can recall, we were watching TV, and we heard a loud banging on our door, which is unusual in itself as visitors have to call the entryphone to get into the building. We both jumped up and went to the door, it was the lady from downstairs (with a can of air freshener in her hand, she had used it to bang on the door - it left a mark) and she immediately started shouting about 'all this banging around, it's out of order, I'm sick of it.' We were very apologetic, and assumed the TV was on too loud. She carried on ranting, saying it wasnt the TV, it must be the washing machine or something, we told her it wasn't on, but she carried on, not even listening to what we were saying. She was saying things like 'we've had no end of problems since you moved in here last Christmas' even though this was only the second time either of us had even spoken to her. She then started saying something about a 'smell' from our flat, saying it was making her and her husband ill, which we were confused about as we weren't aware of a smell. We eventually closed the door on her and she went away, but came back again later and banged on the door again and continued in a similar vein, so we just ignored her and she went away.
Around this time we had a visit from Environmental Health, so we assumed it was down to her. They assured us they could find no source of the smell, nor could they detect anything when they went into the couple's flat. We then had a call from our letting agent, again saying they had had a report about a smell, but when I explained that Environmental Health had been and found no problem, they were fine, but I did manage to find out it was the lady from downstairs who had made the complaint. Due to the continued problems, we contacted EH and asked them to investigate again, but they said there was nothing more they could do, there was no grounds for them to investigate as they hadn't found any smells when they checked their flat.
We've had several similar encounters since then, complaining about the 'smell,' saying she can hardly breathe, it's making them ill etc. She's completely irrational, and will not listen to anything we say. I work in a hair salon, and she seems to think the smell is due to me 'mixing chemicals' in my flat - I assume she means hairdressing chemicals. At one point the flat opposite us was unoccupied, it's owned by the same landlady as ours, and she and her family were staying there for a few weeks before they moved abroad. One of these encounters occured whilst they were there, so once she had gone away, they came accross to check if we were ok. We explained everything that had happened previously and they went to speak to her, bu found the same as us - she just wouldn't listen at all.
I work about a 10 minute walk from home, and she has found out where I work - probably just from walking past, and on a few occasions she's threatened to 'go and see my boss.' Christ knows how she knows my name though!?
Yesterday, as I was checking the letterbox in the hallway on our way out, I heard her coming out of her flat so turned to leave. OH was already outside taking the rubbish to the bins. She called my name but I just walked away, I didn't have time to be getting into anything with her. She followed me outside and shouted across to me 'I know what you're up to up there, look at my face, it's all burnt (it wasn't) I'll tell R (my OH) what you've done to me' At this pint he came out of the bin 'shed' and she shouted across to him again abou her eyes being burnt, we're poisoning her etc etc. We got in the car and drove off without saying anything.
Then about an hour ago she came and banged on our door with her umbrella, spouting her usual complaints about us and said if we came out of the flat she'd 'whack us with this' (the big umbrella), we didn't respond or answer the door. Then again, 20 mins later she banged on the door again, said something about us knowing we're guilty which is why we're not answering the door, and 'if all the people who live in the flats knew about the poison we were sending down to her and her husband they wouldn't live there' and that she's 'going to put a notice up on the board so they all know about it, and if we take it down she'll come up and kill us both'
So, what do I do? She's obviously a bit unhinged, and if anything I feel sorry for her - but we are completely innocent in all of this. There are no 'chemicals' or 'smells' coming from our flat, we've had no complaints from other neighbours about noise, we are considerate neighbours. But I can't carry on like this, never knowing when she's going to come banging on our door again, giving us a reputuation we don't deserve!
WWYD?
