Neighbour trouble

1 week ago

I live in Faridabad, Haryana. I am suffering ongoing harassment at the hands of my first-floor neighbor. Each floor belongs to a different owner. I live on the topmost 2nd floor of the building. The rooftop is mine.

My roof was heavily damaged for years because the first-floor neighbor purposely kept their water tank overflowing for hours. I have dozens of CCTV footage dating back to the year 2021 where their water tank is clearly overflowing.

My neighbor—and his father before him, while alive—consider us their enemies. They have quarreled with us, time and again, and with others in the neighborhood. Two-three years ago his late father accused us of causing damp to their ceiling. He threatened us with the words, ‘Police kei dande parvaunga!’

We had complained to the police. Before the police, the man claimed that he never threatened us. He claimed he had cordial relations with us. We installed CCTV cameras back then, so that any objectionable behavior from this unpredictable family could be captured and shown as evidence.

Two weeks back, as soon as we started repair works for our rooftop, my neighbor went out of his way to harass us and stop our work. We were not on talking terms with him, so he asked the ground floor neighbor to come talk to us and have it stopped. That did not work. Then he lodged a false complaint with the police saying that-

1st-My father abused his wife. He has no proof.

2nd-Unauthorized construction by us. A lie.

3rd-We block his access to the rooftop by locking the iron gate, which we had constructed a decade ago on the common staircase to protect us from monkeys, with the approval of his late parents. Another lie which can be refuted by the CCTV which sits above my door and captures this gate.

The first-floor neighbor also lodged a complaint with the MCF (Municipal Corporation of Faridabad), claiming that we were doing unauthorized construction.

The MCF people came in a frightening group of heavy-set men on the 27th of April. Their bias was evident right from the start. They behaved like they were first floor neighbor’s lawyers. It looked like he had either friends or close relatives in the MCF, or he had paid them off.

The man in charge came inside my house, to check the dampness of our ceiling, only after we had requested him more than nine times. In the end they forced us to remove the iron gate.

Question: Can we reinstate our gate back? We were not blocking anyone’s passage. The neighbor made false and unprovable allegations only out of spite. It was there since a decade. The neighbor has started objecting since both his parents died and he came in to occupy the flat.

Their car blocks half the gate. Is there any law against that?

My first-floor neighbor's problem with us has become a purely personal one. He is using every opportunity to hinder and harass us. He has a bit more money than us.

My father is a sixty year plus Indian air force ex-serviceman and has lost eyesight in one eye. He is a heart patient who has suffered two attacks already. We belong to the Other Backward Classes of Bihar.

If there is a forum for aiding Indian airforce ex-serviceman and Other Backward Classes, then please tell me the procedure and website. Online, if possible. How do we make complaints about water wastage with the MCF or other appropriate body?

Can CCTV cameras be installed on other sections of the common staircase, without compromising anyone’s privacy, so that we can refute his future false allegations.

I don’t have the kind of money to be involved in court cases. We had to take loans to get our rooftop repaired. I just wish to take steps, out of court, if possible, so this man leaves me and my family alone.