Neighbours at war

An Englishman's home, they say, is his castle, and when the drawbridge is up the last thing he wants is for his private space to be invaded by his neighbour.

One of the most common complaints that triggers neighbour disputes is noise nuisance and it is one that can cause the most distress and bitterness.

The two-year battle between Mr Barry Luff and his girlfriend Miss Sheena Simes and their neighbour, Miss Andrea Reid, illustrates how a feud can escalate.

The couple, who have two children, Jordan, four, and Rebecca, three, started complaining about loud music coming from Miss Reid's home a few days after they moved into Stripling Way, Watford.

More than a year later, in April 1997, Miss Reid was served with a noise abatement notice by Watford Council.

Miss Reid breached the notice in August when she played loud music at a barbecue she hosted - that resulted in a court case last week at which she was found guilty and fined £250.

Mr Luff said: "It was a long hard struggle to get people to take our case seriously and get something done about the noise so we are happy with the result."

Although Miss Reid was found guilty she rejects claims by her neighbours that she plays music unreasonably loud and feels she is the victim.

A year before the Luff family moved to Stripling Way, they had been through a similar ordeal in another Sanctuary Housing Association house in Watford, which resulted in Mr Luff being assaulted.

However, the move to a terraced house in Stripling Way did not end the turmoil for the family.

Mr Luff, 28, said: "Miss Reid played her music so loud it would have been impossible to lead a normal life."

Miss Simes, 24, who is eight months pregnant, said: "The first incident we encountered with Miss Reid was when she had a party the day before New Year's Eve.

"It was so loud we had to go to my mother-in-law's for the night.

"We had asked her to turn it down but she told us we were being snooty and refused to do anything about it."

Mr Luff said: "We used to have a lot of arguments about the noise with Miss Reid and at one time she scratched me across the face. She also had five men with her at the time, which was quite intimidating.

"Every time we saw Miss Reid, she shouted abuse at us.

"She thinks we are racist because she is black but that is not true. We get on very well with other neighbours who are also black. We could regard the abuse we have got from Miss Reid as equally racist.

"The night she had the barbecue, we had to be escorted out by the police.

"People at the party were really abusive to us and a man sat on a chair right in the middle of our front path just staring at us."

Miss Reid, who has an 18-year-old son, Paul, who studies business management at a college in Harrow, said she felt harassed by Mr Luff.

She said: "On one occasion I had been drilling holes in the wall to put up a curtain rail. Mr Luff said that I had been drilling at midnight but I know for a fact it was at 9.30pm.

"On a Sunday afternoon I had some friends round and they were watching football on TV. A friend and I were sitting on the stairs in the hall listening to music.

"Mr Luff came round and started kicking the door and swearing at us to turn it down.

"I asked him what he was complaining about. He had clenched fists and he was right in my face so I slapped him twice round the face to make him go away.

"He called the police and they came round and cautioned me. I put the music back to the level it had been and asked the policeman whether he thought I was playing my music loud and he said 'no'.

"Although I am unemployed at the moment, for the past two years I have been working the majority of the time and was hardly ever in so I find it difficult to believe I could be making a lot of noise all the time.

"Before I had the barbecue in August, I went to the police station to tell them about it and ask them the best way to go about preparing for it because I had moaning neighbours.

"He told me to inform the neighbours about the barbecue in advance and as long as it didn't continue after midnight there would not be a problem.

"I didn't know at that time I should have checked with the environmental health officer, who had served a notice on me earlier in the year, to see if it would be alright.

"I didn't think the music was really loud and we turned it down when the environmental officer asked us to.

"Mr Luff seems to moan about every little thing and if I shout abuse at him, it is because he provokes me.

"Now I feel I can only relax when I am out of the house. If you asked me, they are the neighbours from hell, not me."

Mr Luff suffers from anxiety attacks and is now taking anti-depressants and Beatablockers to calm his heart.

Miss Simes said her son has sessions with a child psychologist and wets the bed.

She added that she felt the friction with her neighbour was making her sick during her pregnancy.

Disputes between neighbours are rarely settled in court because they are difficult to prove and this often deters many people from taking action against their neighbour.

Miss Simes said: "We only got this result by sheer perseverance and never letting up.

"My advice to people in a similar situation is to keep a diary of events, take pictures of incidents or record them on a camcorder.

"After we found Sanctuary Housing Association would do nothing about the problem, we approached the environmental health office at Watford Council, who came round to investigate.

"The more evidence you can collect, the more chance you will have of winning your case."

Senior housing officer for Sanctuary Housing Association Diane Ross said: "Sanctuary Housing Association is satisfied that it has followed all the procedures regarding the previous incident in Latimer Close and with Miss Reid.

"Other agencies, including the police, race relations officer and environmental health have been involved, and we are happy that any action taken by the association was appropriate.

"There have been counter allegations in the case of Miss Reid and our investigations are continuing. We will be talking to the environmental health officer."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.