Help on Legal Issue, Possible Eviction!

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

Quite recently my friends, who have been living in the same community I have been living, recieved a new neighbor. Apparantley, the new Nreighbor has serious issues with my friends. Less than a week passed and she called the community center twice and had them reported for alleged noise violations.

The 1st noise complaint cosisted of her kocking on the door and claiming the music was too loud. After that, the noise was considerably reduced, but not enough so she filed a complaint to the community center. Keeping in mind that my friends are not saints, for they have also reciven noise warning in the past, they are also, in general, very respectful people who have been too lout a few times before.

The 2nd noise complaint was absurd. I don’t kow if its a personal Vendetta against my friends, but about 2 days after the 1st incident, my friends were coming back from a disco, and were simply saying good-bye to there friends in the community parking lot in a completely normal, conversational tone of vocie. She called in for a noise complaint again, without any warning or basis on the real events.

Anyway, one more strike and my friends are out (community rules). Yesterday a group of us were smoking pot outside the patio, not even speaking, and she smelled it. She called the cops and one of the cops also lives in this commnity, assuming that he was the one that came, we were very fortunate. He saw a pipe from the outside the patio, asked if we were rolling joints, and my friend, who is the owner of the apartment and also marine (and does not smoke, in facts rather dislikes it) said no one was rolling joints, and the cop said that if he got another complaint he would arrest everybody, but no tickets were given out, he just said have a good night and left.

Afterwards my friend went to talk to her, explained that he had not been smoking (his job does not allow it) and asked her why she called the cops. She bascially gave a lecture on how weed is bad, etc.

The problem is that when she called the cops, it was too late to call the community center to notify them of anything, so she must have called the polive first. Given that she gave a lecture to my friend and given that the cop did not do anything about the issue, could my friends still recieve a complaint? If the cop does live in the community, does he not jepordize himself if he admits to not taking people in for smoking pot?

The community center is closed today, so we won’t know how this will go until tommorow.

Any ideas of what could happen given the circumstances? Can she have my friends given a final complaint?

Any advice would be appreciated.

#2

Your friends should:

  1. Turn down the music and watch how late they play their music.
  2. Not say their good-byes out on the street late at night. Neighbours who are trying to sleep hate that shit. Drunks think they’re being nice and quiet; they aren’t.
  3. Stop smoking weed in public.
#3

Idon’t know what jurisdiction you’re in, but complaints aren’t enough to have you evicted anywhere I know of. All the complaints in the world don’t get you evicted; what gets you evicted is a failure to respond to appropriate written warnings from the landlord. Unless your friends have received warnings from the appropriate authority they aren’t about to be evicted.

That said, I also agree with CW; how hard is it to shut the hell up and not smother the place in weed-stink?

#4

Of course the smoking was dumb, we had done so before for years without any issues until this person came along. Fine, lesson learned.

However the previous 2 complaints were noise complaints (distrubing the peace), as far as I remember, the agreement is that if you are caught with subtstances or praphanelia, you get kicked out. However, the cop gave us a pass, so I don’t know.

What I am wondering is if she has any legitimate way of getting my friends kicked out on say, disturbing the peace?

#5

Is this in the lease? Not a community rule but in the actual lease agreement.

#6

Problem is, you are not talking about a criminal matter, its basically a matter of the policies of the community when you lease there. When you sign the lease, generally speaking, your permission to live there is contingent on following those rules.

Failure to do so can result in management terminating your lease and evicting you.

My .02 worth is hunker down and play nice for a while. You are dealing with someone who likes using the system against you and is doing so expertly.

IANAL nor do I play one on ther internet.

#7

Well, as far as the lease agreement goes, it says something to the extent that if you repedetley violate a policy, you can get evicted, so yes.

#8

Well, it sounds like your friends are being dicks, so I probably wouldn’t want to live around them either.

#9

When you sign up to live in some sort of community living arrangement (be it an apartment complex, managed condo development or et cetera) part of the benefit is you get a certain type of community. It is often the case that these communities will have, in their lease agreements, rules about noise and general behavior. This is because the people who move into these communities are wanting to live somewhere that is reasonably peaceful and quiet.

In a more lightly managed apartment complex, land lords will sometimes call residents who they receive complaints about, but usually leases in those sort of communities do not have specific punishments for noise violations and et cetera.

This cuts both ways, it means if you have a noisy, inconsiderate neighbor you could actually have the problem resolved. It also means if you’re a noisy, inconsiderate neighbor, you may end up getting evicted. It also means if you just have a busy body neighbor that wants to report you for every little infraction your life can be made miserable.

Your friends should essentially have known all this and understood it before moving into this planned community. Outside of planned communities about the worst that will typically happen to you over noise violations is a fine. In some neighborhoods and some municipalities it’s not even very easy to get the police to respond to noise complaints.

#10

How about your friends call the community center 3 straight nights on her for noise violations and see if they evict her?

I don’t really think your friends should do this of course, but it is a thought exercise to say anyone can make a complaint. I find it hard that without any evidence they can evict you.

#11

You could talk to the landlord about being moved to a different unit away from her.

#12

Or, you know, stop being loud and smoking pot?

#13

I had a neighbor a couple of years back who didn’t understand what my problem was. He just wanted to play video games, and why was I always harassing him? The facts that he had placed his TV up against my bedroom wall, that he had a kicking sound system with really high fidelity bass, that he liked to be able to feel the bass rumble under his feet while playing Halo, and that he preferred to play to wind down his day around 3am in the morning, all seemed irrelevant to him. All he was doing was enjoying his stuff in his apartment, how could I get on his case for that?

Of course no one here really knows the details of what is going on. But my guess is your friends are oblivious to how loud they are really being. What we do know is that, they have received multiple noise complaints from different neighbors in the past. They like to party and listen to loud music. They hold (drunken?) conversations in parking lots after having been deafened in clubs all night. No way that is being done at a normal conversational level. And they like to engage in illegal activities like smoking pot in places where it affects others.

Is it possible that they are “very respectful people who have been too loud a few times?” I guess. But I think it is more likely they are clueless assholes who are unaware of how their activities affect other.

My advice is, they should become aware that they are sharing housing with everyone around them. They should as Cat Whisperer said:

  1. Turn down the music and watch how late they play their music.
  2. Not say their good-byes out on the street late at night.
  3. Stop smoking weed in public.

and I would add:
4. Stop blaming their neighbor, when she calls them out on their asshattery.

#14

If they are too loud on a repeated basis, to more than one person, then they are not very respectful people. They are inconsiderate assholes, and they do not deserve to live in a quiet community. They should look for a place next to a bar or club.

#15

Two bits of wisdom I wish someone had imparted to a younger Turnip*:

  1. You’re louder than you think you are.
  2. The pot smell is a lot more noticeable than you think it is.
  • Not that I’d have listened.
#16

I live in an apartment complex where peace and quiet are the order of the day. That’s why people like living here. Prospective tenants are told in no uncertain terms that loud music/parties, etc. will not be tolerated. I’m sure that potential renters hear the spiel and say to themselves, “yeah yeah, blah blah blah…”. Then they move in and decide to have a housewarming party…guess what, they get complaints. Sometimes they wise up, but most of the time they’re gone within a couple of months. Good riddance.