As I’ve mentioned before, the tenants upstairs in my apartment block are people with mental health problems. There are sometimes difficulties with them: the man in the upper flat who turns both his TVs on at full blast at night is one (he seems to have turned the volume down lately though); the daughter of the woman above me who left the tap on and flooded out our bedroom, spare room, and electrical wiring (she is now gone); another woman who was in the habit of ringing the police screaming that she was being raped and, when they arrived, she wouldn’t answer the doorbell so they would ring mine at 2 am (she’s now gone too).
Well, there is a new tenant upstairs. My first encounter with him was outside in front of the bus stop on New Kent Road. He is a stocky man of colour, not remarkable in any way. However, he was walking up and down in front of the bus stop, talking to himself and shadow-boxing (that’s the only way I can describe it). He was there when I passed by on the way to Tesco’s, and he was there when I walked back. At this time I didn’t know he was living in this block. I was mildly alarmed.
A few days later I saw him again—he was walking towards my block’s front door! He let himself in with a key. I then knew we were in for a spot of bother.
The last few nights he has blared his stereo out his open window (during the days as well, but nights are most bothersome). In addition, there has been banging that shakes the walls, and I am pretty certain that it’s this gentleman.
Tonight (actually, this morning) the music woke me up at 3:15am, and I could not get back to sleep. Some miscellaneous banging convinced me I needed to get up until I was too tired to stay up—thus this blog post.
While I was reading tweets, I heard an enormous BANG from the corridor outside my front door. I looked through the peephole and there he was again, talking to himself and banging the door. He then walked to the foot of the stairs and jumped up and down a few times before starting to trudge up the stairs to his flat.
Now, it’s likely that he’s harmless—most people with mental health issues are. However, there is also a small chance he’s dangerous. At the very least, he’s dangerous enough to murder our sleep. I shall talk to the housing association as soon as possible this morning and see whether they can get hold of this guy’s social worker. I suppose he might not be taking his medications. If the nighttime serenades and banging don’t abate soon, though, I may have to get the borough involved.
The doors just banged again. Watch this space.
Have him checked and/or removed. Don’t put up with that.
Don’t worry; I’m just waiting for the office to open at 9:30 before calling at 9:31. They have been relatively good at curbing anti-social behaviour in the past.
x2. It will drive you to murder within a week.
Incidentally, if you’re going to threaten him, use a bat or a crowbar. It gets much more effective results than a knife.
As the people who live upstairs all have mental health issues, and this gentleman’s issues seem to be more severe than many, I would be very loth to confront him, with or without any weapon. The management of the housing association has usually been pretty responsive when I’ve reported issues with other residents so I will go to them first. If the acting out continues, I will take it further and contact the borough and/or the police.
Good grief! Wow, you must be incredibly patient. I would have killed my first annoying tenant and landed in jail.