Depression

[mudnut]

I hear you, mate. Are they permanent tenants next door?

[Fruitloop]

My son is a 26 year old train driver ... has both his Metro and Diesel Freight ticket. He loves his job with a passion. From the day he could walk and talk, he knew what he wanted to do with his life. He has already been involved in two fatal crashes ... one when a driver drove straight in front in front of them while on his mobile phone (bells were ringing), and another when someone jumped from a bridge in front of the train. The family of the deceased takes years & years to get over this. The driver of the train is scarred for life. The mother of the driver is beside herself for what it is doing to her son. These suicides are not documented in the papers .. PLEASE, PLEASE ... if you EVER feel this way, seek help. I have been there, done that. I have taken a few steps backwards in the last few weeks due to circumstances, but am now back on track.
On another note, a body was found in a popular camping ground near where I live on Thursday. He had shot himself. I wish he had had someone to talk to like we do.
Thanks again for being there xx

[trekster]

I hear you, mate. Are they permanent tenants next door?

Unfortunately yes.

[mudnut]

Is there some sort of mediation available?

[trekster]

Is there some sort of mediation available?

Besides a tin of petrol a match or a few bullets, No.

Nobody wants to do anything about them, rang all appropriate people, police hands are tied won't do anything, the housing body wont do anything, Hell DOCS won't even step in over the welfare issues of the children there.....


Cheers.

[NP99]

Try the Human Rights Commission....trust me, they are a powerful body to lodge a complaint with.

[Cuppa]

Trekster I feel for you, stuck between a rock & a hard place. Part of what makes the situation so hard is the feeling like you have no choice in what you can do because the the choices are so limited & unpalatable.
I’m gonna make a some suggestions but I don’t expect you to be enthusiastic about them, particularly the third one.

First one might help, & is probably worth a try. Although you have made previous complaints & reports about your concerns over what is going on next door, I wonder if you could support future reports with video evidence whether this might be enough to get the authorities to act. Showing kids out of control & in risky situations. However filming would need to be done without the knowledge of the next door tenants or it would likely just make things worse. No guarantees that this course of action would get the authoties to act, but at least having a thought out strategy would help you & your wife to feel that thre is something you can do, which is really important ..... & it might help. Just document events & report when you have built up a body of evidence.

Secondly (& potentially in conjunction with the first), I wonder if there may be any value in a concerned but measured & respectful approach to the local aboriginal elders in your area in the hope that if they shared your concerns that they might be able to have some influence over your tenants. I don’t know how you would go about this in your area, & it may take time. My limited experience with aboriginal folk is that time is important in establishing a trusting relationship.

Thirdly, things may get to a point where you decide that it is better to cut your losses & leave rather than to continue living in a situation which constantly drives you down. Accepting such loss would be painful, but staying in the situation feeling helpless is likely to be more painful. Once out of the situation, you would likely feel angry about the loss you had to take, but it wouldn’t be long before you were once again feeling in control of your lives, albeit having to ‘start again’. It’s not fair, but it might be your best option. Continuing to live in this situation which affects all of you clearly isn’t doing you or your family any favours, so if other strategies don’t help, then an early rather than late decision for you & your wife to do what’s best for your kids may be the best thing.

Mate I’m just thinking aloud & feeling for you. I pretty much expect that if you come back to me on this post it will be with a ‘Yes but” response, most folk would, but if I’ve sown even just the smallest seed of hope for a pathway out of this shitty situation, it’ll have been worth it even if it’s hard to recognise right now.

regards
Cuppa.

[macca]

To me all of your post sounds like a well thought out response, thanks Cuppa, you have obviously though a lot about this.

Just document events & report when you have built up a body of evidence. Cuppa.

My wife works on the fringes with people like your neighbour's (all races and backgrounds). She has said the same, document every thing you can and as accurate as possible.
Best of luck there mate.

[Drewboyaus]

That's a great post Cuppa. I think particularly the idea about approaching local elders respectfully is a very good suggestion.

I've also been thinking about what Mudnut posted and I think the moving out and renting option would be better in the short term (if you decide to move) than selling up and buying again.
A few reasons:
1. You potentially put yourself in a better tax situation and then have the opportunity to negatively gear the property (you will have to pay tax on any capital gain though when you do finally sell).
2. At the moment in most situations by renting you can free up cash flow that would otherwise be disappearing into the mortgage but because you're negatively gearing your interest payments can become a tax deduction (you might get a start on making up the 75k the bastards at the bank are denying you or build up more equity in the house).
3. It also gives time for your neighbours to move out or for you to resolve the problem before selling your property.

I also reckon you should speak to a few different banks and particularly credit unions. We used the VTU credit union for a previous loan and they were excellent people to deal with. Very flexible, low rates and will treat you with respect......generally unlike a bank (a credit union may also take your sh!tty situation into account and assist with finding a financial solution for you)

[BigRAWesty]

Another option to help out on the loan front is interest only loan.. It's not ideal for paying a house Off for obvious reasons but could claw back some of that lost money due to the Family changes.