Help and advice sought over neighbouring HMO

Hello Harringay,

Being woken up at 4:30am this morning by my neighbours has inspired me to do something about the House in Multiple Occupation next to our home, and if anyone can offer any advice regarding the following matter, I would be really grateful. The council have so far offered no useful advice and I'm not sure what steps to take next.

At the moment, the house next to ours is being occupied by 8/9 people, which, for a terraced property on the ladder (normally be a three-bed house), seems too many. The tenants (possibly foreign students; possibly holiday makers) usually stay for only a couple of weeks at a time, which means we never know what to expect with regards to noise and general disturbance. The landlady lives abroad. The property itself is in general disrepair. I don't know if the landlady has planning permission to run the property as she does, but there seems to be a kind of self-contained annex inside which perhaps allows her to lease the house to so many people.

The problem is that the over-crowding leads to noise and bins over-flowing with rubbish. Our complaints are in vain as the tenants soon move on. We work hard and are completely exhausted when woken at 4:30am etc by late-night drinking, music and socialising during the week. This is our permanent home; we don't have the choice to move.

Can anyone advise me over what steps I might take to ease the situation? I have written to the council but they have taken over a month to reply so far and as much as I pester them they keep passing the buck between themselves. Is there anything else I can do? I understand there is new licensing legislation concerning HMOs coming into action soon. Could this help us? Should I be gathering some sort of evidence?(!)

Thanks so much for any tips or advice you might have.

With all best wishes,

Alice