Flatmate keeps threatening to 'sue' me. Help?

My flatmate is a 26 year old from Hong Kong and is extremely boring. She stays in her room all day and barely speaks to anybody. I had my friends over and we were being quite loud as most of us were drunk. This is the first time I have ever had friends over, to be honest so I thought she wouldn't mind. Apparently, one of my friends knocked on my flatmate's door by mistake and she's now left me a note saying that she will 'sue me if it happens again and will call the police.' I don't know how to approach her about this, please help.

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Please help

Find a new flatmate?

Original post by Anonymous

Find a new flatmate?

I can't, I'm in halls.

Reply 4

Manitude

Sue you for what, exactly? It's surely not a crime to knock on somebody's door, even if it is by accident late at night.

If she thinks leaving a note is an acceptable way to interact with humans then I suggest you follow suit.
Perhaps you should tell her there are other more proportionate ways she should deal with stuff like this, for example calling the porters on campus. The police/courts are an absolute last resort for when noise complaints cannot be resolved with more diplomatic means.

Reply 5

crozibear96

You're not in the wrong here. It's not like you purposefully did anything to annoy her or whatever. From what I've heard, drunk people in student halls is rather common. Not your fault she failed to know such things before moving in.

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

Original post by Manitude

Yeah, this is what I thought too. She studies law though so I am not sure if it is true.

Reply 7

Manitude

Original post by Anonymous

Yeah, this is what I thought too. She studies law though so I am not sure if it is true.

Thankfully it shouldn't really matter too much if they study law - the law doesn't only apply to people who study it. Plus if she's a first year she I wouldn't expect her to actually know that much about suing somebody. The government helpfully provides information on this kind of thing and it isn't in legalese:
https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/overview

Obviously this isn't written for people like you, but people like her. Perhaps you should send her this as well as a copy of your university's noise complain procedure. In particular note that the first point is to talk to them and the last point is taking action through the courts. I'm no expert but I would hope a case would get thrown out if no evidence of all the other suggestions can be provided.

At my university you were supposed to call the porter in your college who would then have a word with whoever was making noise and if it continued after that they could fine people. I would imagine a similar policy applies to other universities.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 8

Anonymous #1

She says it's against the law and harassment and I could go to court

Reply 9

crozibear96

Original post by Anonymous

She says it's against the law and harassment and I could go to court

I don't see how it's harassment because a) you did nothing at all directed at her before she sent the note and b) the knock on her door was an accident.

Reply 10

aleea03

Go to the porters or someone at university to see of they can help solve the situation before she takes it further

Reply 11

Blackacre

Original post by Anonymous

Yeah, this is what I thought too. She studies law though so I am not sure if it is true.

It's utter *******s. It isn't harassment unless there are two occasions, for starters, and whilst I'm not up to speed on the required conduct I'm fairly sure it has to involve causing alarm/distress (e.g. silent telephone calls).

Anyone can sue anyone for anything, which results in "going to court". It doesn't mean the case will go anywhere.

Source: Oxbridge law graduate.

Reply 12

Muttley79

Sounds as if she's going to fail her degree if she doesn't understand the definition of 'harassment' ....

Ignore her.

Reply 13

Profesh

Original post by Anonymous

She says it's against the law and harassment and I could go to court

Are you sure you're intelligent enough to be at university?

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

Original post by Profesh

Are you sure you're intelligent enough to be at university?

Yes, I am. I'm a languages student so I wasn't sure where I stood with the situation as she studies law.

Reply 15

Anonymous #1

I just confronted her about it guys and she said she will call the police next time. She said she couldn't sleep and was 'terrified.'

Reply 16

DorianGrayism

Original post by Anonymous

I just confronted her about it guys and she said she will call the police next time. She said she couldn't sleep and was 'terrified.'

Ok. She can call the police and they will come over and do nothing.

Reply 17

Muttley79

The Police won't even be interested - what happened sounds pretty trivial compared to some things that go on in halls.

Reply 18

Anonymous #1

She is 26 and I am 18. What does she expect?! I am FUMING

Reply 19

Chrisszzyy

Original post by Anonymous

Don't worry about it at all; the police would just laugh her off. If it wasn't you then you won't/can't be held responsible for it anyway.

The worst that will come of it is the Uni will just send you an email asking you to keep it down in the future, if they have a clause saying you're responsible for your guests actions (Which only goes so far).

If she thinks a simple knock on the door is bad, she should to wait until the end of term when everybody is out partying - She won't be able to do anything about the noise then.

Sounds quite pathetic - I had way worse in halls last year. I just locked my door when staying in and let everyone enjoy themselves. If she's staying in halls then she should kind of expect this kind of thing to be honest...