Help / Advice needed on ongoing neighbour harassment

( I did ask advice before posting from admin whether too much info included please let me know if anything should be taken out ) It is hard to tell a story without telling a story ,

Hi guys ,
This will make interesting reading if nothing else ,
I will keep it brief ( how do you fit 15 years in to a brief sentence ?
I do not know if there is any advice really ,
But ,
I am at my whits end ,
My neighbour is just provoking a response near weekly trying to provoke a physical action if that makes sense ,
To name a few ,
He has cameras over our back garden which would be completely private (surrounded by fields ) I have asked repeatedly in the past for him to move it it is under the eves to our side of his house doesn't need to be , the police told him to move it a few years back but he,s moved it back , we have to have a marquee over our garden permanently and allow a private to grow huge blocking our sun to try block the camera to avoid been videoed ,
There is also one at the front covering our garden this was again facing ours Police told him to move that ,
He put a metal plate blocking it,s immediate side view which the camera was recently lowered below and eventually the plate has been removed ,
We now also have a camera on a newly built metal garage covering the whole cul-de-sac , and he has installed all round cameras in his car which is parked on the cul-de-sac ,
he has accused my other half of threatening to shoot his wife ,what he actually said was if his new dog which kept escaping and is vicious attacked our livestock he would have a legal right to shoot it, police in total have been called 7 times about ridiculous things such as me popping a leaflet over the fence about CCTV etc ( yes I am serious )
His son called them once I know this was because I saw lets say illegal substances been exchanged for cash to discredit me if I where to call the police ,
There has been a vast string of things to name a few ,
We have caught him on camera up ladders looking through our bedroom window when we we where out ,
Again caught on camera taking photos of our property on our property when we where out ,
Taking photos of our vehicles parked perfectly legally far from his drive "causing an obstruction " apparently ,
He has now (using a fabricated story of myself going round the back of his property and moving his water but and paying people from near by flats to taunt him ( I do not know anyone in any flats and did not move his water but and non of this or me entering his property caught on CCTV strangely ... So he's used this as an excuse to install a moving CCTV camera around 4ft away from our conservatory , This has a microphone on and can hear all we say in the conservatory and presumably in the rest of our home ,
And at times he has said things which we have discussed within our 4 walls before we knew this camera was installed ,
Apparently I have turned his solar panels off ,
Let his car tyres down ,
Both I would not Know how to do ,
There has been a string of these "things I have been accused of all as an excuse for him covering our garden with his CCTV we feel ,
So yesterday we had a visit from building control about a a boiler flue that had been in place 15 years and complies ,
The chap from building control said his heart sunk when he pulled up as he could tell exactly what was going on ,
Because that had not worked he accosted my other half today cornering him demanding we remove a climber that has been there longer than he has lived there because it grows over his fence , It actually grows up in to the privet and helps screen their cameras , the sun comes from their side so it grows that way ,
The fence he attached to the back of ours and the police told him to take down and put his own posts in ,
That reminds me I have been accused of barking to wind his dog up to several times ,
He will not address me infact he has actually ordered me off my own land !
Anyway I had to get between them as he would not back off and I seriously thought my other half was going to hit him , He would not of got up , My other half is very controlled but this idiot is doing this on purpose it is so apparent , He went through a spate of coming round with a bodycam on we think hoping for action ,
I managed to back him off told him to go back in his garden and stop trying to wind people up and other things such as if he was bored and nothing better to do get a job ,( there is a reason I said this )
Unfortunately I am not as controlled as my otherhalf ,
He told me to I should get a job ( I have one I work from home which is his issue ....I know where all this stems from ,
Why would someone claiming disability benefits and living quite a rich lifestyle want someone who worked 52 hours a week want them next door at home all day ? watching then do things they physically should not be able to ,,,,
I have put up with it for 15 plus years now , I just feel really uncomfortable at home , Life offers enough sh%t without him adding to it ,
The police advised keep a diary as he is keeping a diary of all our movements ,
I have had the police come to ask me to go down to the station to make a statement under caution which was then dropped when the watched a video of me watering my bamboo ! he said I was trying to damage his camera .
The stress that caused me is off the scale !
I was advised to call the police myself if it happened again and report him for harassment , I did , they did not even act on this at all not even speak to him even though I said I did not feel safe as he was clearly not right upstairs ,
I have just called them again today and was told they will ring me Sunday !! Even though I said I did not feel safe ,
We had discussed a solicitors letter and threat of an injunction yesterday but I want the cameras down I want him to leave us alone and I just t ink it may inflate things as he seems to copy what ever we do ,

I think or thought it was an attempt to get us to move house but my other half now thinks it is an attempt to provoke so he can take us to court and get either a payout or even our house now as planning has just been put forward for 8 houses backing on to theirs which would be a nightmare for them ( and us ) as their dog is reactive and noisy This is also something they say that they can not go outside because I wind their dog up , He said this once and I was in the front garden helping my other half he had not realised I was there when he lied ,
I could seriously go on and on and on ,,
I do not really know what advice I am asking for but any would be appreciated from real folk ,
Clearly the police couldn't give a t@ss and I'm not sure a solicitors letter would be too diluted .
I was going to pen a letter myself before todays happenings ,
I have previously contacted ISO re the cameras my cat is more helpful........

You said you contacted the ISO ,did you mean ICO ?
just noticed in the link i sent ,you can send him a DSAR for ALL the
recordings he has. I have found the only way to get action from the ICO
is to do it via mail ,emails tend to get ignored.
Maybe a good idea to take a photo of all his cameras ,this will show they
are set up to record your property and not hs own.

Yes typically me ICO ....

When the police told them to move them the wife actually stood there and said ..
How can we see what they are doing ?

You couldn't make it up ,
I will find the template for this I have seen it before on the ICO site I have not wanted to take it to official level as it was just more to deal with but he obviously has an agenda to be doing all this so blatantly....

do you still have the info regarding the police ? They should have a record of it.
Take a look at the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; sec 1

Thankyou daveiron , I have printed these off so I can at lease wave it in the polices face and state he is definitely harassing us under the law ..

Have a look at this case, the man was fined £100,000 for having cameras spying on his neighbour.

https://www.businessweekly.co.uk/blog/business-weekly-guest-blog/dangerous-kind-neighbourhood-watch

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10085561/A-victory-privacy-Woman-100k-damages-neighbours-doorbell-cameras.html

Thankyou arrons1950 ,
I read this a while back ,
I honestly think we would have a very good case ,
As previously stated the police told them to move their cameras they have reversed all of this gradually but definitely so is very good evidence that they are covering our private areas purposefully ,
Nobody minds being overlooked if they live in an attached house but we know it's hooked up to recording equipment and as stated we now have a microphone 4ft away from the conservatory ,
At the moment I have been told the police will be coming out twice , well a " community support officer " I have waited in 2 evenings for 2 no shows , so this idiot is going to be thinking he can just do more and more ,
I think I will start with a basic SAR and see what happens , As before They called the police when I gave them a leaflet on CCTV , The police where around immediately , I think they play the vunerable pensioner card Which could not be farther than the truth ,
I have video footage of myself telling him his cameras are harrassment and them pointing in my garden going back to 2018 when I caught him photographing my car that was parked outside an empty house , This was when he said I had turned his solar panels off and let his tyres down ,
I had not been on his property and would not know how to do either ,
I have footage of him up a ladder looking in my bedroom window , and next to my front door taking photos when we where out ,
We have multiple no trespassing signs on our gate yet he keeps coming in our garden , It just goes on and on ,

I also saw this one a while back

https://www.icaew.com/library/subject-gateways/law/legal-alert/2017-03/case-law-neighbour-s-cctv-and-audio-equipment-breached-data-protection-law ,
We where going to get legal advice when I saw the latest camera with microphone appear 4ft from our conservatory , we had not been told about this and do not know what we have discussed while this has been in place ,
We just do not feel comfortable even speaking within our home since seeing this camera and more importantly microphone ,

As plod have twice failed to show, maybe drop the word nonfeasance
into the next conversation.

Thankyou daveiron , I certainly will , I have just being looking back at the videos I have saved , He has been asked numerous times to send a letter if has true issue only in emergency should he talk to us ,
The last time I called the police on the advice of the police to try stop his antics they then did the exact same , Nothing , And so it goes on ,

First we need to look at the law and anything you can see from public can be filmed and audio recorded as there is no expectation of privacy and if you want privacy you have to create it; note this is from public and if your front garden can be seen from public it becomes fair game.

Where this differs is where there are private areas of your property which cannot be seen from the public such as the rear garden and while it is perfectly lawful to fly a drone over it you can get pictures, where this changes is where you have created reasonable privacy and how you have done it If for example you have a 6' fence between you this is creating privacy and if they put a camera up to see over this fence they are invading privacy and its a slam dunk case; if they back this up with microphones it is more than intrusive as it is now trespass into your private affairs which is a common law, indictible offence and it could be compensation time.
Your right to a private life is enshrined in ECHR legislation and guess what? we are still signed up to this so it applies.

Agree with assassin, however cameras / mics installed on their property
do fall under GDPR . For example (& i have done it ) although shops etc
are classed as a public place (open to the public) you can request all images
they have of you,and must provide them.

We have not only a 6ft fence between the houses we have had to let a privet tree grow to around 10ft and a pagoda 3mx3m over the part pf garden , they are the sunny side too so we don't get sun any more because we have had to block it out due to being so overlooked by his camera ,
We started with a bed sheet on the washing line to try get some privacy , then a ST George flag and now a full blown pagoda ,
We have a quarry the other side of our garden and field at the bottom boundary so no other neighbours , They also have field their side so just the 2 houses ,
The camera which covers this is up under the guttering ,
It has absolutely no need to be up there , It used to be again 4ft away from our bedroom window which was really unsettling and pointed directly in our garden , He moved it to 3ft the other way and pointing away from our garden but it is now pointing forward so covers our garden again,
We used to spend most of the free day in our garden but why would you now,
We will start with a DSAR there is a template on the ICO website I will use that ,

Just a few further points ,i'm sure you have everything covered anyway.

Take photos of his cameras & mics showing the direction they are pointing.
Keep a diary of all events . Try if possible to keep a recording device with you
at all times. ( I never ever leave the house without at least one)
It may well be that you may need to rely on evidence if it esclates.

daveiron wrote:Just a few further points ,i'm sure you have everything covered anyway.

Take photos of his cameras & mics showing the direction they are pointing.
Keep a diary of all events . Try if possible to keep a recording device with you
at all times. ( I never ever leave the house without at least one)
It may well be that you may need to rely on evidence if it esclates.

The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 provides protection from harassment in a wide variety of disputes. Stalking, bullying at work, protection from the media, libel disputes.
Under the act a person must not pursue a course of conduct (a) which amounts to harassment of another, and (b) which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other.
Only an individual can bring a claim under the act.

A notice of intended prosecution should make them think.

daveiron wrote:Just a few further points ,i'm sure you have everything covered anyway.

Take photos of his cameras & mics showing the direction they are pointing.
Keep a diary of all events . Try if possible to keep a recording device with you
at all times. ( I never ever leave the house without at least one)
It may well be that you may need to rely on evidence if it esclates.

I will add to this, if you can get the make and type of cameras then have you can access the specifications and these may prove important as every camera has a field of view and a viewing angle and these are important.
The field of view is basically how far it will see before it drops into something called infinity or the IR range at night (infra red) and the viewing angle is the angle the camera works at and many home systems have a viewing angle of 120-170 degrees and this is important as while the camera may not be pointing directly at you or your property it will catch your property and anything on it and if you are naturists and like the sun your images may be posted for financial reward.

Some better cameras have something called auto tracking and domestic systems have something called wobble lenses in which the housing stays in the same position but the lens moves around 5 degrees in any direction from the central position and if they catch a proportion of your property it will catch even more if it detects movement and swings the lens around in your direction.

Thanks guys ..
So to update..
The police eventually showed yesterday ..
I asked them to go straight round to the neighbours after giving them a quik rundown via the phone  ..
I can not beleive they actually pretended not to be in ..
They where definatly in we knew they where ,
The police rang their Ring door bell knocked and not even the dog barked which is unknown ...
The police walked away and rang me ..
I stated they where definatly in as once his car goes in the garage they don't go anywhere .
I listened ear to the wall and not a peep ..
Within a couple of minutes they started moving about and you could hear DIY noises banging  drilling etc ...
This to me bolsters the fact that they heard me in my home on my phone ..
I phoned the police man back as he had not witheld hos number and I could see they where still parked at the end of the culdesac but out of view behind the neighbours garage ..
They gave it a few minutes and walked wide so they could see movement in the kitchen ..
They couldn't hide this time ..
I couldn't believe it ..
After speaking to them they said they had had a word and that the cameras look right down the fenceline ..
I don't believe that at all I found the make assassin when they first went up they are 120o  which given they are our side of their house the houses are 14ft wide they are set our way ..could be on the middle or their end but no ..and our rear garden is 60ft of course it's covered .
He said they do pick up audio but only when there is an alert ..
Well our rubbish non recording non hub cameras pick up audio when ever we are watching them ..
Their cameras are hard wired and as before record to a cd  and he knows how to use the system as he gave the police a cd ..
I think it's pretty evident they can hear us in our home ..
These are 2 ups 2 downs there is no way they just did not hear the police and the dog never fails to bark ..
 
The camera at the rear below the guttering is 6ft away from our boundry,
The one with the obvious microphone which ( the microphone) is set our way is one of these swivel from the top ones and I realised yesterday has been raised above their patio door height which is above the 6ft fence height and could swivel to film in our conservatory ..
I did get a photograph of where it was previosly.

Did plod say they watched the cameras 'live' .I wonder if the cd they gave
plod was one he had prepared for such an event by adjusting the angle
and then returning them after recording to the cd.

It sounds as if they also have a mic to pick up in your house. If you get a
little inventive ,it may be possible to use to your advantage or at least
set a trap.

daveiron wrote:Did plod say they watched the cameras 'live' .I wonder if the cd they gave
plod was one he had prepared for such an event by adjusting the angle
and then returning them after recording to the cd.

It sounds as if they also have a mic to pick up in your house. If you get a
little inventive ,it may be possible to use to your advantage or at least
set a trap.

I concur, we set a trap for a friend who had similar problems with neighbours listening to them and we prepared the trap away from their home and as they had regular deliveries we used the stolen credit cards and buying mobile phones on the stolen credit cards and we used 5 as our test and we knew the delivery driver for the couriers and set up 5 boxes of about mobile phone size and put them into envelopes and they peeled delivery stickers from previous deliveries and stuck them onto the envelopes to make them look legitimate. 5 minutes after delivery the po-lice turned up and said they knew about 5 mobile phones being delivered on 5 stolen credit cards and they had been delivered to this address ad they gave them the 5 unopened envelopes and told them to open them and inside was written what had happened and why, fortunately the po-lice actually used their brains and wrote on a piece of paper "play along and remain silent" and they arested them and put them in handcuffs and into the po-lice car and took them away, once out of sight they uncuffed them and went to the po-lice station of pig sty, your choice. They spoke to someone senior and they opened the boxes to fing pieces of plastic and roofing lead sheet sandwiched together to give size and weight and checked their call log and found the anonymous complaint was from next door according to the phone number and this was all the proof they needed to show the house was bugged.

They gave them a plug in air freshener which contained a bug and SIM card and this recorded everything.

What a great plan ! Especially the air freshener to sweeten the filthy atmosphere...

So move forward to today only 5 days since the police came and told him to back off ,
I am sat here and say to my other half that the neighbours use a ramp to get the dog in to the car ,
Only one hour later when my other half has gone outside he comes up to him and says that their dog has "ripped all it's back end and needs an operation because it is being made to react to us teasing it ,
I saw him went and got my phone to record but he won't speak when I am there ,
I pulled him on the flue the creeper and the microphone ,
The wife came and dragged him back in ,
We are now sat here not daring to speak .
We did however when they where out with said dog put a camera in to the void between the lounge and upstairs and found nothing ,

Bare with me on this So roll back 3 weeks and out of the blue this neighbour has a shouting fit , my O/H was returning at 9pm at night from a meeting and the neighbour returned home also he parked his car and started going on about us costing him £3000 in vets bills , Basically his dog is an ex caged guard dog that would react to a grasshopper clicking , It has a stereotypical caged animal bound and spin and has knickered it's back doing this over the years it's a GSD so not good to start with ,
He basically blames our dog for breathing ,
The whole thing ended with

"If you don't sort it out I will , You'd better sort it out if you want a quiet life ,"
"My other half said is that a threat ?"

He did not reply and went inside ,
Nothing else has occurred until
This neighbour has now built a 6ft solid fence between our drives ,
No problem with that as we where going to do the same when funds and time allowed ,
He collared my o/h around a week ago and said he was going to put a gate where the shared electric meter cabinet is ,
( It is a large shared cupboard right down the front of the 2 houses with our meter and all their 3 solar panel meter and whatever else that they never asked us to put in it and takes up 3/4 of the cupboard ,
We had no problem with this ,
What he has put there is more of a hatch so a 2ft6 high gate 1/2 way up the hence the same height as the meter cupboard then it is fence again ,
Roll forward another week and he collared us as we where on the drive , due to his 6ft fence I don't think he knew I was there as he won't speak to me , I get rather hot headed at his antics , But it is my house in my name and I have lived her since 98 so really he should address me and I tell him this every time he annoys us and won't even acknowledge me .

He hands my o/h a large key to a lock which he has placed on his side of the gate so we can access the cupboard from our side ,

I immediately went absolutely ballistic (but that is just my general reaction to his whole "thing"

Why on earth am I having to unlock a lock placed there by him to access my own meter box ,

"It's all I could think" he said to my o/h , My o/h was gobsmacked and just said "It's all you could think ?

A simple toggle would of done it just a double toggle to stop it flapping in the wind ,that's all it took

Where do I stand on this ,
I can't find anything on the internet that has anything relating to this ,
I feel that if he was that way out he could literally lock it so we can not gain access or if we lose the key ,

But my whole instinct is that he can not claim that he's allowing me access to my property ,
And he's obviously done it intentionally to wind me up ,

I am absolutely livid the naughty side of me wants to put super glue in the lock with the key in and leave it open ,

But if I can take a legal route over this I will , I have had enough , this is the straw

After writing this it did occur to me I haven't even tried this lock ,
Hey presto won't even open ! so effectively locked me out of my own meter cupboard ,
I have a large amount stuck in my Octopus acc that I can not access without an up to date reading ,

not read all of this but my first thought is that octopus 'own' the meter(s) and can't access them ? perhaps a call to octopus to put this right ( that will p*ss off the neighbour ) he doesn't even have to know it was you that rang octopus if you explain to them.

just a thought.

Hi.
THEY are BLOCKING YOUR RIGHT OF WAY...
Google it.
regards.
pitano1

The only problem with that I can see Waylander is they could see it as a reason to put a smart meter in ,
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So I confronted the fool this morning,

The wife said get your own lock ( mmmm )
He was adamant it worked but then drilled a bigger hole ,

I did google the access issue but it is such a wide area I would not know where to start ,
I have repeatedly told this man not to even speak to us as he has nothing nice or good to say , Its always want moan want moan
If he has an issue send it in a solicitors letter , he keeps accosting us ,

I have told him this morning remove it or I will get a court order ,
I recorded the conversation for future ,

For now I have unlocked it and left it flapping in the wind just for my own entertainment really ,
Although I was just thinking I might play him at his own game and put the key in it locked and leave it in so he can't access it from his side ,
Unlike superglue I havn't damaged his property ,
And if anything is said I'll say "well I can't risk looking the key so that's where it stays ,
We are putting a locked gate on the front of our garden this weekend so I'll pop a trespassers charges sign up ,
I have googled access meters etc there's so much rubbish on the internet I can't find 2 things that agree with each other on this subject or apply to owned properties and meters ,