I Can't Stand My Neighbors!!!

The BBQ Pit
1

So this is the definition of neighbor **

  1. One who lives near or next to another. **
    Yes, unfortunately right outside my front door and everytime I leave, go out on my patio, or return home I have to see, hear, and smell them.

**2. A person, place, or thing adjacent to or located near another.
**
Hmm…that’s more difficult.

3. A fellow human
nope

OK…they’re human ;).

Two white/Female “Toddlers” live next door to my husband and I. The reason I call them “Toddlers” is because they call us “the parents”, so if we’re “The Parents” then obviously they have named themselves.

We live in an apartment with patio’s that face each other and they ***live ***on theirs.

Every day, night, morning, anytime and every time is a party. They live to party and party to live. In case you are curious of their age they are both approaching 30.

We’ve had some “incidents” and I have one on videotape. A particular evening they were having their usual get drunk bash and one of the “boyfriends” threatened to hit my husband because he went out there in the middle of the night to ask them to keep it down. Fortunately I had the video camera ready and filmed it all. So ever since then when an incident is about to happen, or just to get some documentation of the all-night parties, I video them. (which, of course, they don’t like)

Just for an example of their usual practices - on Halloween they left their apartment with 20 or so candles burning in the living room and their stereo at full blast for 3-4 hours. We called security, they came but said they could not do anything but make a record. Thank God they came home before the building burnt down. For the sake of all the families here at least.

So last night I was out videotaping them again and they got pissed. They called the cops and security and both came. They tried to somehow get us in trouble for videotaping them when of course I already knew it was legal and suggested in situations like this. They tried to say we are the ones who annoy them! That must be because we ask them to keep it down all the time :rolleyes:

We’ve talked to them many times and were even on a friendly basis for a while. There have been warnings from the Apartment Manager, the cops and security have both been here before and not a thing has changed.

We’re at our wit’s end, actually past the end into oblivion it seems.

I wish we lived in Middle Earth - there it is okay to slay Orc’s :smiley:

2

Struth!!

Well, I can relate to bad neighbours, having had a few myself over the years, and even having one at the moment who leaves a lot to be desired but videotaping?

I mean if someone was videotaping me every time I turned around I would be furious. Words would not express the anger I would feel at such an invasion of my privacy. I think I might go out of my way to make the videotaper’s life as miserable as I could.

Maybe you should move,** dreamer **, and sell your videocamera.

3

Uh, no.
She was videotaping them when they were being annoying. So, if you were to go to the police and compain to them about your husband getting hit, when you didn’t feel it was nice to invade their privacy, when they ask for evidence, what are you going to do?
:wally

4

Thats not so bad.
I live in a duplex.
My Nieghbors smell, my side of the duplex smells like Cigarette smoke all the time even though I don’t smoke.
They fight all the time, a fight usually happens at least twice in a 24-hour period.
They cops are always parked our yard even though I don’t call them well, not every time.
Lately though the loud music and TV has stopped cause their electricity has been turned off.
I have come home twice to find an extension cord from their front door to an outside electric outlet on my side of the duplex. First time I called the landlord. Second time I called the cops and my landlord even though I had the breaker for the outside outlet off. My land said they would be out by the 5th of December its now the 13th of January.

I call them black hole people.
They suck the life out of everyone around them.

5

And it sounds like dreamer was only videotaping them when they were outside on their terrace causing a ruckus. You have no right to privacy outside.

6

The Police themselves called our patios public property and said as long as there are no shots inside their windows, I am allowed to video anytime. I have done some research as into taking your neighbors to small claims court and they actually advise you to get all the evidence you can, including video.

I’ve been in this situation before and have had to move because of unruly neighbors. I don’t want to have to move again so I am protecting myself and my SO.

7

Have you considered taking up the bagpipes?

8

I don’t know what the laws regarding noise are in your states, but here it’s illegal to make noise that is considered an “annoyance” and/or “noise pollution” that can potentially be heard 20 yards away or off of your own property lines.

I had similar problems when my “neighbors” consisted of a convenince/grocery/gas station/mcdonald’s store across the street from my house. It was basically a local hangout for the teens in that area.

I got not only the cops involved, but the owners of the store, the ombudsman, the community council and all the neighbors. It took about 2 years unfortunately, but ultimately the store ended up closing it’s doors and only being open to the public until 1am.

The noise has decreased considerably. I no longer live there, but still own it and rent it out.

It may help if you too try the sources I mention above, you will probably have quicker results than I did, as your neighbors aren’t a business.

Good luck!!!

9

Sorry, I can’t top that one.

10

Not to make light of your situation - but I see “Judge Judy” written all over this for a resolution…

11

Dreamer,
Wait! Did these women move in about six months ago?

I think you got our old neighbors! (they were evicted)

Do they appear to have no jobs? I mean, people who work tend not to party 'til 5 every night on a work night. And the odd thumping noises followed by group cheers during their parties…I swear they were throwing themselves down the stairs to see who could be hurt the most.

And I still don’t understand why they lived in old lawnchairs on the patio…they had a townhouse after all…but maybe the house was filled up with all their scruffy male ‘guests’.

All I can say is ‘I’m sorry’. Video taping sounds better than my plan of action. (hiding under my pillow and whimpering because they kept me awake)

12

HaHa **Lady of the Lake **!! It just might be them!

I think my SO and I are going to head over to our local library tonight and get a copy of our city’s noise-control ordinance. Then I will make a copy of our lease where it states "Resident shall show due consideration for neighbors and not interfere with other resident’s quiet enjoyment"

That paragraph also says*“and Management shall be the sole judge of acceptable conduct”* - which I take to mean that the Apartment Mgt. has the final say?

Then a copy on their front door and one to the Apt. Mgr.

My SO wants to take all their cuss words, hacking coughs, and shrieking laughter and put them all on tape and mix them into a hip-hop song. Then of course he wants to play it over and over on our patio so they can hear. That probably isn’t such a good idea. I know it would royally piss me off if I were in their shoes. It sure would be funny though :smiley:

13

Unfortunately, unless they open fire on you from the balcony or something, (i.e., actually break a law), it’s pretty much up to the apartment management.

I had this situation myself a while back. Neighbors from hell. Every time they bought a new album, it had to be “road tested” on their incredible stereo system, loud enough to shake the pictures off the walls in my living room.

Management didn’t care. The cops did, but they’d just wait until the cops left, then crank it back up again.

Now I own a house. No one lives in the house except people who are actually members of my family. And the cats, of course.

And life is good.

14

dreamer, your SO is truly evil! Welcome back, by the way. My old boyfriend, another evil type, used to retaliate against noise by playing bagpipe music which he loved. The only thing is, I felt sorry for those caught in the crossfire.

Keep doing things the right and legal way, but feel free to come up with perverse and twisted revenge strategies. I’ve found they can be a wonderful form of catharsis! No, I’m not saying anything more.

CJ

15

Ugh. There’s nothing worse than bad apartment neighbors.

Can you move to a different unit in the same complex? I know you shouldn’t have to, but life really is too short to put up with shit like this. Hopefully the apartment managers will help you out, but I wouldn’t count on it.

16

Just in case you’re starting to feel better about things.

I’ve got great neighbors. Quiet, thoughtful, friendly, take care of their yards and houses. Yep, hard to beat neighbors.

17

dreamer, sorry if I seemed a bit abrupt before, but videotaping of neighbours is considered pretty low in Australia, no matter what the reason.

I am assuming that both you and the neighbours from hell are tenants? Do you have a tenancy tribunal you can go to? We do here, and bad tenants can be forced into mediation, if they refuse, it is the big E (eviction) for them. There are certain legal requirement when you sign a lease to do with neighbours quiet enjoyment of their properties, as you say. There must be a govt body which oversees these things?

The police are reluctant to get involved here as are local councils, but they do have noise bylaws in residential zones that you must adhere to, and they must enforce. Good luck with getting it resolved

18

Lower than people who hold noisy parties and then threaten violence when the neighbors ask them in the middle of the night to keep the noise down?

19

I guess we just use different methods. Thats the time you ring the police, collect witnesses from other nearby apartments etc. to support your complaint to the local council and the tenancy tribunal.

Here, people who videotape neighbours seem to end up the subject of tabloid ‘current affairs’ programmes as neighbours from hell themselves. My point is there are other options.

20

As I said before I only resolved to video-taping because I was once in a similar situation and was labeled as a “troublemaker” and had to move out for my own sanity. I like where I live and don’t want to have to move again.

If I believed the Apartment Managers would do something about it without evidence, then no need for videotape. But we all know that’s very unlikely.

I don’t know if they would allow that **Giraffe
** although our lease is up in March. We can’t afford a house here in So Cal so we’re pretty much stuck with apartment living.

I do like the bagpipe idea if only they weren’t so expensive. :wink: