A woman living in South London says she can no longer invite friends or family over, after her neighbours have been dumping their rubbish under her flat for nearly three years.
The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, lives on Eltham High Street, Greenwich, and has lived at the property since 2018.
She said: “Every time you pass here, there’s fruit flies. I see rats there sometimes. It’s ugly and horrible. Even foxes go and rip up the bags.”
Rubbish started to pile up soon after the neighbouring tenants moved in during 2019.
Initially, the woman spoke directly to the neighbours responsible for the rubbish.
After years of complaining, the resident gave up last September when the men refused to stop intimidating her family on her daughter’s birthday.
She said: “He came next to the stairs and said ‘Do you want to face me? Do you want to come down and talk to me?’ in a very aggressive way. He was saying with his body language that he was going to hit me”.
The neighbour left the complainant alone after seeing her father come out of his car, but the threats made the resident scared to ever approach the individuals again.
She said: “Every time I see them, I pass very fast to get inside. My daughter has mentioned to me many times that she is afraid to look around when she’s passing because they’re staring at her very intensely.”
The Eltham High Street resident says the mountain of rubbish has impacted her family’s life, especially during the summer heatwave: “The whole summer has been very hot, and we couldn’t open any windows because the smell was so bad. I feel like I’m living in a dumpster basically”, she said.
As well as this, the woman has felt too ashamed to have people over to her flat, whether socially or for her business: “I cannot explain it. I feel like I’m dirty as if it’s my fault”, she added.
“I get the feeling people passing by think that this is my rubbish. It’s so horrible. I used to do eyelashes and have friends come over.
"I haven’t used my beauty bed in two years because I don’t want any friends or family over.”
Since cutting contact with her neighbours, the resident says she has asked her agency, London Cribs, for security camera footage to prove the men are behind the huge rubbish pile, but they told her to go directly to the council.
She said: “Since 2019 I haven’t stopped sending emails and making complaints to the council. I send emails with pictures, I ask them to come and to show pictures to the landlord. Something has to be done.”
The woman said the council added more bins to the complex to encourage residents to properly discard their waste, but rubbish still remains beneath her flat.
She said: “I’ve been receiving letters the past few months because I’ve been late to pay my council tax, but in my last complaint I told them that I’m not paying it until someone does something about this.”
Mahei Nosarti Sahlan, who also lives in the complex, started to notice the problem six months ago.
He recalls the council being unable to collect rubbish because of the room containing the bins being inaccessible.
Mr Sahlan said: “There was some sewer work going on around six months ago. It was at the entrance of the alleyway, so they basically couldn’t remove any trash from that room.”
As a result, Mr Sahlan noticed rubbish starting to accumulate in front of the flats because of the missed bin collections: “Practically everyone living here was putting it there, because it’s either there or inside your flat.”
Despite this Mr Sahlan has noticed an improvement in recent months after the council added additional bins: “There was nowhere else to put it.
"After these bins, the situation has improved quite a lot. Recently, I have no idea if someone has been contributing a lot to it, but the bins definitely helped.”
Regarding the extra bins, the unnamed resident feels the situation has not been resolved: “They’re throwing in everything. I saw a broken old couch there this week. They have some mattresses that are thrown away. There’s some other boxes, and the black bags”, they said.
One of the neighbours who is allegedly responsible for the rubbish beside the complainants flat was approached for comment.
Remaining anonymous, he said he started noticing the rubbish piling up five months ago, due to the bins not being collected.
He said: “This has all been here for maybe one year. The council has since brought bins.”
A spokesperson from Greenwich Council said: "We are aware of a complaint from an Eltham resident regarding their neighbours' waste.
"The properties involved are privately owned.
"Any dispute between tenants would be a civil matter and should be referred to the managing agent.
"There have been recent access issues due to works in the surrounding area which can explain a missed bin collection.
"A waste advisor will speak to both tenants to answer any questions they have around using the bins."
The agency for the woman’s flat, London Cribs, has been approached for comment.
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