GRAN TELLS OF ‘HOUSING HELL’ SHE’S FACED OVER PAST DECADE

AGRANDMOTHER has spoken out after spending nearly a decade living in “absolute hell” after dealing with noisy neighbours, the death of her grandson and a cancer diagnosis.

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

At the same time, her eight-yearold grandson was killed in an accident and she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

She claims 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.

The 54-year-old said: “There was one incident when I came back from my work at midnight and spent three hours just listening to the doors slamming.

“They used to get up at 5.30am or 6am and the screaming and banging could last all day. It was absolute hell.

“I asked GHA to install recording equipment in the house but was fobbed off. They were fully aware that I lost my grandson and had cancer. I spoke to the neighbours several times. I said, ‘look, we’re going through hell right now, can you rein it in’.

“When I got cancer and was having treatment five days a week I 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’”

Her neighbours moved out in 2018 but the new tenants caused other issues.

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

She said the police told her they sat outside the house for 10 minutes and did not hear any loud music and the housing association 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 retracted.