A GRANDMOTHER has spoken out after spending nearly a decade living in “absolute hell” with noisy neighbours all while experiencing personal tragedy and being diagnosed with cancer.

The Pollok woman – who asked not to be named – spent nine years being “terrorised” by her neighbours.  

At the same time, her grandson was tragically killed and she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

As the years went by and she was unable to resolve the issue with her neighbours she repeatedly asked Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) to move her but was unable to because she was in rent arrears.

After setting up Arrears Direct, where the arrears would be deducted from her benefits payments, a flaw in the system meant she was forced to stay in her current house until 2019.

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She said: “There was one incident when I came back from my work at 12 o'clock and spent three hours just listening to the doors slamming. They used to get up at half five or six in the morning and the screaming and banging could last all day and you had to wait until five o'clock for noise control.

“They'd be in the house for five minutes and if they didn’t hear anything they'd leave. It was absolute hell.

“I asked GHA to install recording equipment in the house but was fobbed off. The housing were fully aware that I lost my grandson and had cancer.

“I spoke to the neighbours several times. I said look we are going through hell right now can you rein it in.

“When I got cancer and was having treatment five days a week and still had to go to their door about the noise. Even now to this day if I hear my grandkids upstairs making noise, or I hear a door slam I jump, I panic.

“I remember one day when I came home from my cancer treatment and I thought ‘just let me sleep’”

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Her neighbours moved out in 2018 but the ones who moved in caused other issues.

They would bang the walls if her 16-month-old granddaughter would cry and once phoned the police when she had a friend in.

She said the police told her they sat outside the house for ten minutes and did not hear any loud music and the housing dismissed the complaint.

“I feel like I was walking on eggshells, scared to make a noise. It was horrendous,” she said.

In 2019 she was offered a new house in Pollok but the offer was later declined.

She said: “The woman gave me the letter and offered me the house then two minutes later told me I couldn’t accept it unless I cleared the rent arrears off which I thought was absolutely cruel because they knew the background of why I was so desperate to move.

“I was in rent arrears because before I was sick, I was working and got into a mess. We came to an agreement I would go on arrears direct where they would take money from my rent arrears straight off my benefits and when I did it for 12 weeks, I would be eligible for a transfer.

“I put a bid in for several houses, but it came about that my bidding account and been suspended because my arrears direct had stopped. It was a breakdown in communication that I knew absolutely nothing about.

“GHA did not even tell me it happened. I was at the stage I was looking to declare myself homeless. What is wrong in the system for people to live in fear and be terrorised like that? That tells me that there is something very wrong somewhere.”

Throughout the ordeal, she was dealing with chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety and PTSD.

A spokesperson for GHA said: “We work very closely with tenants to sort out any difficulties they may have paying rent.

“We supported this tenant over rent arrears, particularly during what was a very difficult time for the tenant and her family. We did all we could to help her and reduce any hardship.

“There were two complaints about noise from a neighbour which we investigated at the time and took appropriate action.”