Aggressive neighbour

oneeveryminute

Hi there. Just looking for some advice on dealing with a bully neighbour. So here's a little background: I moved in with my sister last year, it was only going to be temporary but now I'm studying so I'm staying a while longer.
My sister is a single mum with a 10 year old daughter. She has been renting her house from her landlord for 8years and has never had any issues. She tends to keep herself to herself.

Her next door neighbours own their house, they moved in one month after my sister. My sister and they don't speak (as I said she keeps to herself) and they had a run in before when their son damaged my sisters property.

Anyway, recently these neighbours got a dog (a Doberman). In the beginning they let the dog run free in the estate until some neighbours who have kids called the dog warden and now they keep the dog tied up in their back garden.

Their back garden is not enclosed and is only separated from my sister's back garden by a small fence. The dog is chained to the garden shed or their trampoline from morning til night.

And the dog barks ALL the time so you can imagine how annoying that is! Anyway, I'm not blaming the dog (I love dogs) because I'd bark too if I was tied up all day!

So, two weeks ago the dog was, as usual chained to their garden shed at 10:30am. The neighbours went away. The dog spent the whole day barking and crying in the rain (very upsetting to see). At around 4pm I decided to call the council. They advised that they would inform the dog warden but as it was a bank holiday, they couldn't guarantee that he was available; he wasn't. At 7pm the neighbours were still not home and the dogs chain was so twisted that he had to stand up on the ditch behind the garden shed for comfort (as the chain had shortened). I called the ISPCA but they were closed for the weekend and on their website they advise that you should contact the Gardaí if you need to report an injured animal or cruelty.

I advised my sister to call the Gaurds at 10pm and just when the Guards called her back at 10:30pm, the neighbours arrived home. So the poor animal was out there for 12 hours!

So, fast forward to two days ago (almost two weeks after the incident): the next door neighbour (woman) knocks on our door, I answer and she asks to speak to my sister (aggressively). My sister comes out and she asks us both if either of us reported her to the dog warden, to which we both replied yes, we did.

She then shouts for her husband to come over and tells him that we reported them. Her husband comes over and is shouting and swearing abuse at my sister and I but mostly to my sister. My sister asked them to leave her property which they did whilst still shouting and calling us every obscenity under the sun.

They then stood behind their fence and continued shouting and said that we were just jealous of them and that we'd be sorry if we ever reported them again. I said to them that if I saw an animal tied up like that for that length of time, I would 100% report it again.

The husband (who is 6ft 2" and 19 stone roughly) continued shouting abuse and told my sister he was going to 'kill her', 'punch the head off her', 'eat her face off' and 'stomp her head into the ground'.
Now, as much as I'm not afraid of bullies and neither is my sister, the fact is, my sister is 5ft 4" and I'm 5ft 8" and neither of us would stand a chance if this guy acted out his threats. So, I advised my sister to call the Guards to report it as her daughter was inside and heard the whole thing and when we came back inside she was hiding in the kitchen crying her eyes out the poor thing.

My sister reported the incident to the Guards and they said they'd pass it on to our local station. She's still waiting to hear from them.

I'm really afraid now for my sister and my niece because, this guy is crazy and as far as I know has a violent past and criminal record.

Is there a such a thing as getting a restraining order against a neighbour? My sister is so scared now for her and her child's safety.

Sorry it's such a long story... Any help much appreciated.

Ken.

Get both yere arse's down to the local Garda station and don't leave until a report is taken and you get a 'pulse number'. If the Garda is uncooperative ask for his/her name and ask for the superintendents name and tell him/her you want to make an appointment.

jimmii

Wow that is horrible agree with the post above those are very serious threats and they should treat them as such go down and don't leave until they do so.

gordongekko

MOVE