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The first thing that you need to do when you find yourself in a NFH situation is to start a Diary, Keep a Log, Enter it into a journal what ever your preferred method it is in you best interest to maintain a detailed written record of events, even relatively trivial things may become significant later down the track. Whenever your NFH says or does something to you, or at you, write it down and include all the details that you can, e.g. time of day, whether they were speaking or shouting directly to or at you or you family or whether it was just something said so loudly that you couldn?t help hearing; the name of any witnesses; how loud nuisance noise was, i.e. was it so loud you had to turn up the volume of you TV so you could hear, did you have to shut the windows to block it out what time did it start and what time did it finish, even the weather on the day if you think it is relevant.

Keeping an accurate record of events will serve you well in the long run as it means that if and when you have to deal with the authorities - council, police, lawyers and courts etc. - you will be able to recall without guess work the various details of events. One of the unfortunate aspects of the neighbour from hell situation is that it can drag on for years once it has begun, especially if you are both owners and not renting because the likelihood that one of you can or will move house is reduced & but it is highly probable that your NFH is, at least in part motivated by the thought that if they make your life miserable enough you will pack up and get out.

Good record keeping can be your most powerful tool when it comes to subduing the NFH so make sure to keep copies of all correspondence and file everything, fencing notices and quotes anything you send them and everything they send you. Make sure you can access it easily, don't throw anything away you will need it.

You can download a simple diary form here and print it out, however we recommend getting a Diary or Log book with adequate amount of space to write in.

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