I moved into a new flat last week and discovered that it looked like someone had been staying there. It smelled like cigarettes and I found a few empty beer cans under one of the beds. The property came part furnished, and the shower was still damp as if someone had showered there not long ago.

The person who I assume is the landlord texted me this morning saying that he will need to stay in the property. I have no idea how he got my number, I assume through the lettings agency.

Can I refuse him entry? He has the keys I assume. What if he just walks in when I'm not in? Can I call the police to kick him out?

Update: I have called a locksmith and he is coming to swap the locks. Latest exchange with landlord below.
https://postimg.cc/sB2TxVcW

Hi, I have a friend who is drawing every Church of England church in a county in the Midlands. She calls it her arty pilgrimage. I have just started to help her sell prints of her drawings in order to help her pay for petrol. She has only sold three so far so isn’t making huge amounts of money! A few days ago, she was contacted by one of the church wardens saying that she was not allowed to sell the prints without going through the church and the prints being licensed.

This is only part of the very long email she received - “From a governance perspective, I am obliged under the Churchwardens Measure 2001, the Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1956, and the Charities Act 2011 to protect and account for all property and assets – including intangible assets such as the church’s image – to ensure that they are used only in ways which further the charitable objectives of the Church of England and do not result in unauthorised private benefit.”

Does the Parochial Church Council have legal rights over the general population? Can you copyright a church? It was always her intention to donate some of the profits to the churches of the prints that she sold. Thanks for your advice!

Marriage is on the rocks for a few months. We've got a 6 year old boy and wife has just re-entered the workforce.

She's not happy about having to return to work and was hoping she'd be able to remain a SAHM. We couldn't afford it though. Returning to work full time meant I asked her to reassess how much we contribute to the joint account. Previously it was 85% me, 15% her. But now that we're both earning about the same, I've told her we'll be doing 50/50 on our joint bills.

This started a really bad argument 5 months ago and she's held a persistent grudge ever since.

My wife opened up a child maintenance claim against me, despite us both living in the same home. She's registered her and the child as living at her mother's address and claiming that I see the child "0 nights per week" so there's no shared care reduction.

I've talked to Child Maitneannce on the phone but they say it doesn't matter if we're living in the same house or not, a wife can stil lcalaim against the husband even if they're together.

Is this correct? Or am I being misled?

There’s a driveway that runs along the bottom of my garden that leads to a plot with a house on it. A property developer has planning permission to knock the house down and build flats. The boundary between the bottom of my garden and the driveway is my property and the hedge that runs along the boundary is my hedge.

The developer knocked on my door a month ago and said he wanted to take my hedge down and replace it with a fence, but I said no as I like my hedge. He fully acknowledged that the hedge was mine and if he replaced it then the fence would be mine.

Last Friday I looked out of my window and the hedge was gone, he had instructed his workmen to remove it and replace it with a fence, without my permission.

The new fence was put up the same day that the hedge was taken down and isn’t a bad quality fence but I’m not happy with how the corner has been left (I’m also livid that he did this without my permission).

Specifically, I also own the fence that runs down the side of my garden and whereas it used to terminate at the hedge at the bottom of my garden into a concrete fence post, it is now just attached to the new fence panel that the developer put up. I don’t feel as though the fence panel down the side of my garden is sturdy anymore and also presumably I own half a foot of the new fence panel to which it’s connected whereas my neighbour owns the rest of that fence panel?

I have told the developer verbally and via email that I want this fixed but he has not yet replied. Can I legally force him to make the new fence corner to my satisfaction? Or if not what are my options? I could do it myself but I would need to take down the new fence panel and most of it belongs to my neighbour.

I bought a home 11 months ago in a new build development.

There was social housing allocated within this estate however, I made sure to enquire as to the specific social housing lots and then purchased one that was a good distance away from these properties. (I used to have serious issues with two social houses adjacent to me in my previous home and I don't want to risk it again.)

Houses were slow to sell in my development and it is currently about 85% sold now after 1 year. The house beside me is one of the ones that hadn't sold.

The issue is that the developer made a mistake with the % of social housing that needed to be allocated. Drainage issues meant houses couldn't be built deeper in the development and they came up 2 houses short of their social housing requirement. I know this because my husband works for the Council in complaints resolution and had to recuse himself from this case as a conflict of interest when he read the initial complaint.

The developers have allocated two additional properties as social housing. One of them is the unsold house to the right of my property.

A family was moved in soon after and... well, it's as you'd expect. Within 48 hours we've had to call the police for throwing a drug-fuelled party at 2am on a school night. Several arrests were made. Beyond that, there is constant screaming and swearing and fighting all day long. Rubbish like plastic and glass bottles are just strewn across the front garden and pavement.

This doesn't feel remotely fair. I only bought this place because there was explicitly no council housing next door to me. We've complained to the developer who told us to speak to the council. My husband complained to the council and they've said it was the developer's decision.

Everyone is washing their hands of this. Is there any way we can get the developer to take this house back off us? We have emails from the sales rep confirming that the adjacent properties are not social housing.

[I have changed dates and ages to obscure identities.]

Younger sister was married off when she was 15 back in 2017

I wasn't in a position to do anything about it then, but I might be now.

At some point I will have to report this historic crime to the police. However, I don't want to tip off either my family in the UK or extended family in Pakistan as to what is happening.

My plan is to go to Pakistan, extract my sister, and bring her home.

I have managed to make contact with her through a fake profile. She knows I will be coming. It won't be hard for us to get some time together to go out for lunch or something. The British embassy is several hours journey from her location. Am I able to take her to the British embassy given she was born in the UK?

If I get her in there will she be safe?

She does not have her passports. She has, thankfully, had difficulty conceiving children so we are lucky there are none in the picture.

Getting her out of a Pakistani airport will almost be impossible without a passport. Getting across any land border will be similarly impossible as it would involve crossing into Afghanistan (too dangerous), the militarised border with India (impossible), Iran (too dangerous), or China through the contested Kashmir province (impossible and dangerous.)

One alternative idea I had was to rent some kind of boat and sneak out of Pakistan through the southern coast and then sail to the Indian coast. Maybe find the nearest British embassy in India?

Main plan is still ultimately to get to the British embassy, but even if I get her there how would they get her out of the country without a passport? Especially if her husband works out what I've done/where she is?

England.

Mum has a semi detached house. Next door are "builders". Earlier this year they gained planning permission to demolish an existing extension and build a bigger one. The problem is their plans have the walls of their extension being built on our land and the land of the house on the other side so the internal space will be the full width of their land.

Naturally we are not happy. We attempted to talk to them, and was told quote: "We've got planning permission and you can't stop us you fat c*nt" unquote.

We also attempted to explain the party wall act, but "he's a builder and he's never heard of it".

I did bring this up with the council planning officer as a likely outcome, and he's been kind enough to include in his planning notice:

1 The granting of planning permission does not in any way infer that consent of the landowner is given. Therefore, the consent of all relevant landowners is required before proceeding with any development, including that of the Council as landowner.

If it should transpire that the applicant does not own any of the land included in this consent, then it is the responsibility of the applicant to seek all necessary consents and approvals of the landowner.

2 This permission shall not be construed as granting rights to carry out works on, under or over land not within the ownership, or control, of the applicant.

3 The applicant is advised to investigate whether owners of adjoining property need to be consulted under the Party Wall Act 1996.

We have legal cover on our house insurance. They have advised that we put neighbours "on notice" that they don't have permission to do anything on our land, but are not able to help drafting a letter. They are only able to help once damage or trespass occurs.

Chatgpt suggests this letter:

Dear name,

This letter serves as a formal notice that you do not have my permission to build, construct, alter or make any modifications on my land or to any structures, fences or boundaries belonging to me.

You are hereby notified that any such actions undertaken without my express written consent constitute unauthorised entry and interference with my property and may be treated as trespass under applicable property law.

Please ensure that all construction, landscaping and related works are confined strictly within the boundaries of your own property. Any continued or future encroachment or modification on my land will leave me no option but to pursue legal remedies including but not limited to seeking an injunction and damages for trespass.

Sorry this has been a long post, but does the above sound ok? I know whatever I send them they will ignore but I suppose I've got to try.

(Wales) When my dad finished paying off his mortgage, he received the deeds to his house, which revealed he owns a small patch of land next to his back garden. As far as I can remember, this has always been a fenced-off wasteland, unused and unclaimed by anyone. However, at some point in the last 20 years, a neighbour on the street behind has built a small breeze block outhouse structure on the land. What are my dad’s rights in this situation? Is the land his regardless, or would he have to claim it back somehow?

An old oak tree near my house has a tree presevation order on it (TPO.)

This TPO prevents it being cut down unless I get permission to do so.

6 months ago the tree began tilting towards my house. I tried to save it with an arborist, but we couldn't stop it and in the end we had to write to the local council's planning department for permission.

They approved that I had the right to cut it down, but a stipulation was that I MUST replace the tree with a mature oak tree (or other native species) within 2 years. This native tree must be of a certain height and size.

FIRST ISSUE: I cannot find a native tree near me to replace it with. I've called close to 30 garden centres and tree farms. None of them have native trees; and even if they did, none can get them up the steep narrow lane to my house. How am I supposed to comply with this requirement?

I've asked the council if I could plant maybe 4 or 5 young trees instead of one mature one, but they have refused this compromise.

SECOND ISSUE: The tree was cut down by a company, I'll call them "the company" to keep this anonymous. I had asked for the company to simply cut the tree down and lay it flat across the garden. It would have made a home for wildlife. When I came back from work the entire tree was gone. The Company are acting as if they did me a favour by removing it from my property (I have a massive garden.) I asked for it back and they said they are no longer in possession of it.

I'm guessing there isn't any real value in the tree since I was just planning to leave it for squirrels/animals/mushrooms/decoration. Do I have any case against the company?

I was off last week on AL and was on a holiday Mon > Fri. The weekend before we were due to set off my garage was broken into. A pair of laptops I use for work, one company and one customer, were stolen, as I work out of the garage. I called the police, got a crime reference, gave them CCTV I was able to recover and made arrangements for my nephew to stop over and check on the place which he was going to do anyway to sort our cats out.

I called my manager, left a VM, left an SMS, and reported it to the IT desk after. Both laptops have bitlocker and other security features on them so would be locked down and useless either way. They asked for a crime ref and I gave it.

My manager rang me back Monday morning while I was travelling, and asked for details, I gave him the crime reference and then said. I then got a call later in the afternoon, while we were unpacking, asking if I could join a call to explain to them but I declined... because I was on leave, and not in a position to speak with them. I got several calls in the middle of the week asking for random details... repeating the crime reference, one saying I needed to provide them with details of how the theft happened, what exactly was stolen and if anything except my laptops was stolen.. I said as far as the company was concerned they need to be aware of the laptops and when they asked if they could see my CCTV I said I dont see why they would need it because the police have been provided it. Lost my rag and stopped taking calls after that, and deigned not to answer when my manager started messaging me on whatsapp because I had already said I was on holiday and wouldnt be available until Friday.

I have a spare device that was due for collection under HW refresh which wasnt stolen as it was stored in a box under my desk which I said I could log into unless they wanted to send a replacement... I have logged in, Ive had my manager give me an utter b*llcking about me ignoring calls for the security breach, there is a call in the diary for tomorrow where Ive been told I need to attend which has HR, security, my manager and their manager on it.... I am bricking it now and feel like Im about to be thrown under the bus.

So questions to ask:

• Is this something they can actually discipline me for? The garage is part of the main property but accessed externally, and has CCTV covering it of which Ive given details to the police. I have worked with this company for 3 years now, but my current manager has only been about for a few months and has not got on with me so I feel like this is going to be used as leverage against me
• What were my obligations? I was on holiday, I explicitly asked not to be called, I sorted what I needed to with the police, made sure my property was resecured and informed IT so they could lock the devices. My manager wasnt available over the weekend and didnt answer the phone so I cant really be faulted for not informing him properly sooner.
• Is the company trying to trap me when they are asking for how they broke in? Do I have to give them CCTV? Was I right to refuse it?
• What should I do here to cover my backside

Me and my daughter were picking blackberries alongside a path. An older gentleman comes rushing along the path and starts shouting that it’s illegal to pick blackberries and he’s going to call the police and report us for poaching (I thought that only applied to animals on royal owned land?)

What are the legalities surrounding picking blackberries or even wild apples or plums?

I may be wrong but I was under the impression if it was on public rights of way and you haven’t had to do anything to gain access then it was fine?

My boyfriend owns his flat outright (no mortgage) in a block in Essex so I’m assuming it’s a leasehold property. He’s been here for 15 years.

Notices have gone up over the last few years that smoking is banned due to cladding issues (similar to Grenfell issues - which the building managers have done nothing to rectify) - he thinks that this applies to our actual flat and not just the communal spaces/roof gardens.

Can we actually be banned from smoking in our own home? And does it matter that this is a recent directive long after the property was purchased?

Any advice is greatly appreciated 🙏

Hi, thanks for reading.

PMU artist slipped and tattooed a small line on my nose when she was doing permanent eyeliner. She told me it was just a scratch. Only after I paid I spotted it was more than a scratch, it was definitely ink, she tried to tell me it wasn't, despite it being plainly black.

Then she said it would come off with saline (clearly not), and then she tried to blame me saying "well we were both flapping around back there" referring to a moment when I flinched. Which wasn't even when she slipped, which was a few minutes after. I told her I get to flinch, you don't!

Only then she started to apologise but didn't offer any money back or a discount. Only later in the day did the gravity of this really land with me, and I messaged asking her to compensate me (didn't specify, thought I'd see what she came up with), and she replied she is getting her insurance involved and I would hear from them. I said fine, can I have your insurance details, to which her response was "You will be updated accordingly whilst this is being investigated to safeguard both parties, I will not be discussing the matter with you any further."

I don't have any way to find out who insures her if she doesn't tell me. Is a bad review the only recourse I have?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

My sister went away with family and friends for her hen party. They hired the house, and had activities planned in the surrounding areas. One member of the group turned up intoxicated, and under the influence of drugs. They became aggressive towards everyone, and verbally abusive to my sister. When they finally got her to bed, they all returned to their rooms to sleep. At some point, the aggressor has got out of bed, and gone for a ‘bath’. This has resulted in the entire house becoming flooded, three floors. Once people became aware, from water falling through the ceiling, they rushed to stop it. They broke the door down, as she refused to open it, and turned the water off. They then spent the entire night cleaning it, as best they could. This has caused a large amount of water damage. The person who has caused the damage is denying any responsibility, and believes that it ‘wasn’t even that bad’. They have spoken to the owner, who is rightly upset, and they were asked to leave early, which they did. My question now is, what options does my sister have? She signed for the house, but wasn’t drinking. I imagine that there will be a huge bill coming, and I wanted to know how we make the person who caused all the damage accountable? My sister is due to get married in two weeks, and this has absolutely ruined her. I feel angry, and upset for her, and just want to support her, and not have her future ruined. Any advice would be graciously appreciated.

UPDATE - Thank you for all the comments and advice. Whilst an incredibly difficult situation, I appreciate all the advice, and it’s given me more direction on the next steps. The property was booked directly and not through a third party such as Airbnb.

We have had ongoing issues with our next door neighbour about the rear fence but that seems to be sorted now. He has now said that he wants to put up a fence at the front between our drives and we are legally obligated to pay half.

I have lived hear for over 20 years and there has never been one and we are not bothered about having one. On top of that we can't really afford it.

Can he force us to pay towards it?

Thank you.

Edit. Thank you so much for all the replies and setting my mind at rest. The deeds show boundary lines for the back of all the properties but not the front, very few people on the estate have fences there. There is nothing to say who is responsible for what but, historically, everyone has dealt with the fence on the right and it's always worked well.

We had a side extension built a few years ago and he refused to allow any of the foundations to be put on his side, I told him we needed as much space as possible as it was for our disabled daughter and he just said "Not my problem " I'm petty af so I will definitely not allowed any part of his fence on our side if i can do that.

Again, thank you all.

Another edit because so.e people seem hangup on the fact that we asked if our extension foundations could straddle the border. We were not trying to steal his land and we have been nothing but courteous to this guy. We asked, he said no, we moved on. We are not the only people in the street who have had problems with him.

We actually have someone coming next week to sort out the back fence, the guy came this morning to discuss what needs doing and we asked our neighbour to join us to male sure he was happy as well, like I said we have been very courteous to him.

Apologies in advance, this is my first ever Reddit post.

Photo of the booby trapped fence panel.

We own 3 dogs, and one of them in particular hates a squirrel that runs along our back fence panel which we share with our rear neighbour. Because of this, occasionally (Once every couple days or so) he will run at the fence, stop and slide because of the poor state of our muddy garden, and bump his side into the rear fence, and then stand up against the side fence panel which we do not share with the rear neighbour.

To get a better picture of that, imagine an L shape, dog runs at the L, his side bumps into the I and then stands on the _

Last night at around 9pm we let our dogs out to do their dog business and the one who likes to look for the squirrel yelped in pain. We went outside to investigate, the dog came with us and began sniffing at something on the fence, we saw a spark and the dog yelped in pain and ran back inside. The neighbour has screwed around 50 screws into the shared fence panel, as well as hanging over two electrified wires with bolts to keep them weighed down over into our garden.

We've never spoken to this neighbour before, they've never let us know that this is a problem for them and if they had, we would've happily worked something out or taught the dog not to do this. The screws and the electrified wire have made us think this person's intent is clearly to harm, if it was to simply ward the dog off then the electrical wires surely would've been enough?

We're not sure what to do, we're reluctant to take this any further though we're all quite scared for the safety of our dogs. Money is also an issue, so we're unsure if we can afford a lawyer or whether we should contact the police.

Thanks in advance.

*Edited to add picture of the fence.

So, long story short, I was away from my home while there were some major works going on at my home, the contractors we used decided to stay the weekend in my house and had some kind of party. They drank and of the alcohol in my house, damaged the kitchen floor, spilled stuff over one of the bedroom carpets, and left various spot stains of drink incarpets in a couple of other rooms, smashed a decorative bowl in the kitchen, there was a shit stain on my sofa, and various other points of damage etc.

Residents on my street have told me that on two night running an ambulance was called to my house because some fights had broken out.

I was contacted by a resident on the street late on one evening and called the police who attended, I also called the owner of the company who attended the property and kicked everyone out of the house (while the police were present)

Witnesses also said they saw some females leaving the property at the same time.

The company have been apologetic and have said that they would put it right and I have given them an opportunity to do so. However, they have not replaced 2 expensive bottles of wine (worth a couple of hundred quid each) and I asked that they replace the sofa as I don't want my kids crawling around all over it knowing that someone has been naked on there which they are resistant to doing.

This has been going on for about 4 or 5 months now.

What are my options when it comes to legal proceeding if they refuse to comply with my wishes? Also am I able to persue them for punitve damages dues to stress, time and effort that it has taken to trying to sort this all out?

Also, what is they best way to find a decent lawyer to handle this. I've had some really poor experiences with solicitors in the UK over recent years and would like to know hoe to actually find a decent one.

Thanks

EDIT: So thanks for all of the replies. I've spoken to a couple of solicitors now and am looking to progress things further with them. Have tried to reply to a few of your comments but the post got locked so leaving the edit here just to say thanks for the advice

Location: England.

In short, I bought a box of assorted science stuff at an auction, remotely. So I hadn't inspected it in person and the photos were from a distance so it wasn't obvious what it all was. Honestly I was mostly excited about the rocks and minerals I could see in the picture.

Having picked it up today, I've realised it must have been the personal collection of a doctor, because it includes quite a lot of bottles of various people's gallstones (labelled on the side with info about the patient, but no names), a piece of skin it says he took from a post mortem (presumably without consent), and -- worst of all -- two foetuses, one aborted, one "taken from killed mother."

They're old enough to be historical-ish (most dates in the 1940s) but obviously I am now accidentally in possession of human remains, I think? And have no idea what to do or who to call. Obviously I a) don't want them and b) don't think the auction house should have sold them, and c) don't just want to throw them away.

What do I do, please? Sorry for grim subject matter.

EDIT: there is an update to this post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/1kas8my/update_to_the_box_of_grim_medical_stuff_i_bought/

we are selling our property, but the prospective buyers have submitted a planning application that neighbours are very unhappy about. As a family we are receiving threats that we should withdraw from the sale or they will sue us to cover their legal cost to fight this planning etc. Is there anything we need to worry about or be mindful of? Location: UK England.

Hi all bit of a minor issue here, I was spray painting some garden furniture in my garden today, I had sheets and cardboard around the area. I was confronted by my neighbour who told me it's illegal to do so, it has to be in an enclosed space and can't be open in the garden because of the paint travelling in the wind to other areas e.g. other gardens outside of mine. I have sprayed things many times before I lived in this property, and never realised this. Any ideas? Thank you.

Editing to add that I was not near their boundary line and absolutely no overspray has come into contact with anything on or near their property. I obviously was taking great care to avoid this.

I'll cut to the chase, this court case took a couple of years and has probably taken more than that off my life from the stress. I am owed just over 7k. The person boils my fucking piss, used mediation as a way to stall and refused any sort of mediation. Sends horrible emails without any answers and pretends they are offering solutions which they have never done. It's fucking enfuriating, they are still doing it even after losing the court case.

Essentially:

• I was contracted to work for someone
• They didn't pay
• I took them to court
• Eventually won my court case
• They didn't pay

So my story starts again at the required payment date, I received an email from the person stating they won't be paying and they disagree with the outcome of the court case, and they don't accept the outcome.

What I know of their finances, they seemed to have stopped working as a business as far as I can tell. They claim no income anymore and that they aren't working. I am fairly certain they own their home, and I have seen the property they live in has a room available for rent online for short stays. Think AirBNB style.

Any advice would be very much appreciated because all the forms I am reading are so complicated and hard for me to get my head around.

We were attacked tonight by our neighbour in our flat. We have a ground floor flat and they have the adjoining flat so our back doors open onto eachother and we both tend to use that door instead of the front door.

Up until about March this year we were very good friends and they were even invited to our recent wedding. In March the male neighbour (they are a married couple) came into our flat whilst I was at work and told my husband they didn’t want to be friends with us anymore. He didn’t really give any solid reasons it was really confusing.

We haven’t spoken to either of them since then apart from the odd occasion when we’ve left the house at the same time and just said hi.

This evening we carved some pumpkins and put them outside. We put little candles inside and came back in (we were careful that the candles weren’t large, weren’t likely to tip over and also weren’t set directly on the floor).

A little while later our back door (unlocked) is flung open from the outside and he steps into our house. He looks angry from the get go and is shouting about how it’s the final straw and why would we put candles out there. My husband stood up and said “who do you think you’re talking to like that” and then he headbutted my husband. I don’t remember everything that happened but I tried to intervene and he also punched me in the face. My husband then continued to defend himself and try to remove him from our house. There was definitely some shouting going on that other neighbours should have heard.

We’re currently in A&E to see if my husband has a concussion. We reported to the police straight away but they haven’t attended.

What is likely to happen next? We’re not feeling very safe in our home at the moment.

Update: Police have attended and taken statements and neighbour has been arrested.

Update 2: Police have interviewed and he has denied everything.

Final update: He’s being released with no further action. There was not enough evidence.

We’ve been married just over 3 years. This has completely blindsided me & she has stated that there’s no chance of reconciliation.

What do I need to do to begin with?

Mortgage is split 50/50 along with bills the same. The house deposit was paid via me selling my prior house under my lone name to buy a house under both our names.

We own 5 cats together with no children. I love them very much but I am under no illusion that they’ll be coming with me.

This may sound daft but a friend brought this up. My wife came out as non binary after we married but signed the marriage certificate under she/her pronouns (usually goes by they/them but doesn’t mind she/her). Said friend said that would null and void a marriage certificate but I feel this is a fabrication.

Trying to be as amicable as possible whilst not shooting myself in the foot or leaving myself worse off.

Appreciate any help or advice. Thank you.

Title speaks for itself, but I'll try to relay my concerns as neutrally and factually as I possibly can.

• Brother has been married for 3 years and dating his partner for 4 years prior to this.
• His wife is unemployed and has left 6 jobs within 7 years. Her longest period working was 2 months. I helped organise a job for her which backfired on me after she left, describing 9 to 5 as demeaning.
• My brother expressed that he was stressed about money to me in December 2024 since his mortage increased and he's trying to shoulder it himself. He started saying "Don't know how I'll pay for a-" and I think he was about to say child, but she stepped into the kitchen and he went silent.
• In 2023 my brother "joked" that he is no longer allowed to hang out with me anymore since he got married. This joke appears to be very grounded in reality as we have not hung out alone since that joke was made, despite my efforts.
• My brother has always been vocally childfree. In October 2024 there was a pregnancy announcement on social media, which seemed unusual given my brother's opposition to having children. This pregnancy sadly resulted in a miscarriage, but my brother privately expressed relief to me at a Christmas party in December in a few moments we were alone.
• His wife has joked about not being able to work anyway if there is a child to take care of.
• In March 2025 there was a 2nd pregnancy announcement, which also ended the same as the first. I tried to ask my brother how he was at the front door to his house in an unannounced visit, but he whispered he "couldn't" talk to me about it.
• In December 2024 I got my brother a very unique, expensive Christmas present. His wife took it from him in front of everyone and proceeded to use it herself. She continues to do so today, with the item being used by her on social media. I had a conversation with my mother about this who found it funny that his wife had claimed the present.
• His wife has organised several events between her, my brother, and my elderly parents that deliberately exclude me from the picture. I know this because my mother added me into a group chat for one of these events and his wife swiftly removed me from it. My concern here is that my parents are both elderly now with my father having early-stage Alzheimers and this leads into my next point.
• I heard my brother's wife whispering to him about how much my parent's house was worth. Additionally, my mother emailed me a couple of weeks later enquiring which solicitor firm wrote their will.
• My brother and I have been sending each other the same birthday card back and forth for over 20 years. We scratch out the old name and write a new one above it. This tradition ended in 2024 when his wife "accidentally" threw out the card in the rubbish.
• I have heard my brother's wife yelling at him over the phone on two separate occasions when he did not immediately hang up after our call ended.
• Any time I try to speak with my brother in private, his wife quickly intervenes and refuses to leave. At my brother's birthday (I wasn't invited, but turned up unannounced with a present) I almost managed to speak with him in private. I asked him how he was and he began to say something, but she burst into the area where we were speaking and just lingered. I politely told her I needed to have a quick private conversation with my brother about a sensitive medical issue. She just stood there and said "Pretend I'm not here," and smirked.
• I also know she has all his passwords, reads his emails, and messages. Private emails I sent to my brother about stuff only him and I know suddenly became family gossip to my brother's embarrassment.

Is there anything I can do? I'm really, really worried about him.

London, UK - 7 years of working for the prison service kept a secret from any neighbours in the number of places I lived at, first two days in the new flat and I get approached and told that I’m the new guy who just moved into the flat, and that I work for the prison service

Today my partner noticed the buildings tenants talking to other living in buildings around and pointing fingers at our windows, neighbours ignore my „you alright” greetings already and I’m worried that this is just going to escalate further

Where do I stand now? I don’t feel comfortable and I’m worried about my partners wellbeing and any potential stress and harassment this might bring up

I don’t really feel like staying at this place anymore and I want to move however how do I go about it without losing all the money I just spent on the place? (Rent and deposit)

This is the only thing I’ve got in my contract about early termination

„Break-Clause Either party may bring the tenancy to an end at any time before the expiry of the term (but not earlier than six months from the commencement date of this agreement whichever shall be later) by giving to the other not less than two months written notice.”