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Help me deal with a terrible neighbor.
Frei
A French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered User regular
A French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered User regular
So, I'll try to keep this short.
Moved in to new apartment building with wife in July. Everything was good, we had nice neighbors that were very respectful, the only exceptions being the girls living directly next to us occasionally being loud on the porch, but it didn't happen often at all and eventually just stopped.
Anyhow, about a month ago a guy moved in downstairs with his girlfriend. One of their first nights there on a weeknight, had several people over (mostly people who looked 16-18) drinking and yelling on our steps, basically directly outside our windows. Went outside and talked to his girlfriend, was very polite and so was she, even went back to make sure she didn't think I was trying to be a bitch or anything since I'm pretty laid back. So, the underage drunks quieted down and things were okay.
Couple nights later, screaming, yelling, pounding on doors and windows at 3am. Apparently he locked girl out of apartment after they had a fight and she would not leave (he is a dick). I came outside and asked if she needed help, to which she responded "I DON'T NEED TO TALK TO ANYONE!" and then started crying and ran off. She apparently moved out, but would come back sometimes, bang on his door and window and even threw a neighbors charcoal grill on the ground. I had reasonable talk with the guy, but he's kind of the typical stand-offish guy with an alpha male complex, he wouldn't directly acknowledge anything or even really show any mutual respect. I'm 24, he's probably 19 or 20, I'd say. I believe that you show people respect until they give you reason not to, and he has given reason not to.
Now, I know the best thing to do is to be to register a complaint, which I did. I talked to our apartment manager and she was very receptive and supportive, she talked to him, but it didn't keep him from blasting music that vibrated our floor, making unnatural amounts of noise at ungodly hours, etc. I have called the apartment manager over there a couple times and she has talked to him more, but it's always just a momentary fix. He stops when he's told, but just a day or two later it's whatever shit again. I don't think I'd care as much as I do if I were not living with my wife, who is not confrontational but still has to get up early and all of that. I'm fairly certain he won't be evicted unless something major happens, so I sort of feel like I have no recourse.
So, I'm not above getting my hands dirty (in perfectly legal ways) but I feel like I don't really have any recourse here. Do any of you have any experience with this or unconventional methods of dealing you'd like to share?
Moved in to new apartment building with wife in July. Everything was good, we had nice neighbors that were very respectful, the only exceptions being the girls living directly next to us occasionally being loud on the porch, but it didn't happen often at all and eventually just stopped.
Anyhow, about a month ago a guy moved in downstairs with his girlfriend. One of their first nights there on a weeknight, had several people over (mostly people who looked 16-18) drinking and yelling on our steps, basically directly outside our windows. Went outside and talked to his girlfriend, was very polite and so was she, even went back to make sure she didn't think I was trying to be a bitch or anything since I'm pretty laid back. So, the underage drunks quieted down and things were okay.
Couple nights later, screaming, yelling, pounding on doors and windows at 3am. Apparently he locked girl out of apartment after they had a fight and she would not leave (he is a dick). I came outside and asked if she needed help, to which she responded "I DON'T NEED TO TALK TO ANYONE!" and then started crying and ran off. She apparently moved out, but would come back sometimes, bang on his door and window and even threw a neighbors charcoal grill on the ground. I had reasonable talk with the guy, but he's kind of the typical stand-offish guy with an alpha male complex, he wouldn't directly acknowledge anything or even really show any mutual respect. I'm 24, he's probably 19 or 20, I'd say. I believe that you show people respect until they give you reason not to, and he has given reason not to.
Now, I know the best thing to do is to be to register a complaint, which I did. I talked to our apartment manager and she was very receptive and supportive, she talked to him, but it didn't keep him from blasting music that vibrated our floor, making unnatural amounts of noise at ungodly hours, etc. I have called the apartment manager over there a couple times and she has talked to him more, but it's always just a momentary fix. He stops when he's told, but just a day or two later it's whatever shit again. I don't think I'd care as much as I do if I were not living with my wife, who is not confrontational but still has to get up early and all of that. I'm fairly certain he won't be evicted unless something major happens, so I sort of feel like I have no recourse.
So, I'm not above getting my hands dirty (in perfectly legal ways) but I feel like I don't really have any recourse here. Do any of you have any experience with this or unconventional methods of dealing you'd like to share?
Are you the magic man?
Frei on
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2) blast music into his place at 7am the next day for every night he is loud past 11pm. hammer shit. stomp on the floor. fog horn directed downward while you have earplugs on.
3) sue him in small claims court.
4) buy him a beer and ask him if he would please be a bit more considerate. think of the women and children, etc., etc., etc.
If he's really an alpha-male type, I would just keep calling the cops. He's not going to listen to reason, and if you challenge him directly it'll just make things that much worse.
Just keep registering complaints with the landlord. He'll get kicked out eventually provided a) people are complaining about him and b) the people doing the complaining are good tenants.
If you call the cops every time he blasts his music, he'll eventually start getting citations. Also, every time they come out, they have to file a report. If you complain to the apartment complex, and provide police report numbers, they can eventually kick him out.
Unfortunately, you've already done the worst thing you can do, which is identify yourself to him as having a problem with his behavior. It opens you up for any manner of retaliatory behavior, and he knows where you live. Granted, anything he does to you can be dealt with through the legal system, but you still have to deal with him being a dick to you.
The neighbors whose grill was knocked over got into a big argument with him, while I've only ever been friendly and never let on that I reported him. Regardless, he is a scrawny and obviously cowardly man and I am not really worried about any sort of retaliation. In fact, if he tried something, it may even help me. The best thing that could happen would be if something were to provoke him without it leading to me, causing him to behave even worse.
I have not called the police yet, but I guess that's all I can do. Sometimes these things are just little 20 minute affairs, meaning by the times the cops got here, it'd be over and done with... even though sleep had already bee disrupted and all that. Basically, with calling the police, I'm afraid that whatever is happening will stop before they get here and they'll not take future calls to that location as serious.
maybe one contact from them will be enough to scare him into stopping
I would also look into your lease to see if he's breaking any of it's terms. Our building essentially had quiet hours from 11pm to 7am and enough violations of that could get someone evicted. I would also bother your landlord quite a bit more about this and make it clear you're not going to go away and that they need to take this more seriously.
I'd follow advice in this thread but keep an eye out for new places to live as well. I don't know exactly how walking out of your own lease would work, but it's probably at least somewhat in your favour. Most of the time it favours tenants, and it seems like you have a good reason to move and are trying to be reasonable.
As So It Goes said, you need to establish a pattern if you're going to force your landlord to take action - dig in your heels and keep calling your landlord, keep calling the police, keep telling your landlord that you're calling the police. Make yourself a pain in the ass until it gets fixed, and don't assume the police aren't going to take you seriously unless it actually happens.
Also, as far as timing goes and the police catching him in the act, make sure you know exactly when your local noise ordinances and/or the lease rules about noise take effect - if quiet hours start at 10 PM and he's still blaring music at 10:01, then don't waste any time and call.
For parties or longer, call the cops.
This mix should cover your bases. As long as you are just reporting noise complaints with the cops it will not change the way they would respond to a different and/or more serious call.
Many cities have noise ordinances. Where I lived in college, and where I live now, if you are too noisy (particularly when its late) and the cops get involved, you can face a fine.
write down every happening, every call to the landlord, every call to the police. get everything on paper so that should something come of it, you have a written record that can correspond with the written records of the cops and the landlord.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
1) yes
2) No, he's 24, not 7. PLUS doing this with a stand-off alpha male person usually just makes the person step up their annoyance, or just straight up punch you in the face
3) I don't see thins going anywhere without paying some serious dollars
4) from the OP it looks like he's past the "we'll be buds" stage. He's asked him to stop like a dozen times, it seems, he's called the manager or landlord several times, the next step is police.
Calling the cops is a perfectly legitimate approach here. Once he racks up hundreds of dollars in fine and/or gets arrested for serving booze to minors, he'll likely clean up his act fairly quickly. If not, keep calling the police. Cops love writing tickets.
Rigorous Scholarship
I would go outside and ask them to leave, but I would say that my boss was making me do it. Kind of "we're buds, and I think it's totally cool that you want to smoke crack in front of our store, but my boss is riding my ass about it and I'm gonna get fired if I don't ask you to leave. Can you help me out?"
People seemed to respond better to me asking them to do me a favor rather than me asking them to stop being an asshole. You could phrase it "my wife is getting woken up and she's getting pissed at me and womenamiright bro?"
Let the cops handle it. Keeping the peace is part of their job.
Rigorous Scholarship
It's funny, I did try this approach at first, kind of playing the buddy and the henchman to my wife. The result was the same as when I didn't do that, though... he'd quiet down and just start up again the next day/night.
To the person who asked why I didn't call the cops the first time, that's just kind of... victim blaming. I haven't really had to call the police on anyone before and I definitely didn't think of it.
A development, though, apparently the cops were called on him while I was gone and the apartment manager came over, too, because he was blaring music in the middle of the day so much that two people in the building called the apartment manager. The fact that other people are starting to get involved bodes well.
Also, if his GF or whatever she is shows up and starts fighting, whether he lets her in or not, call the cops and report it as domestic violence, they'll show up in a hurry, and are way less likely to let it skate.
I used to live above a guy who would play his music so loud that we couldn't watch TV or do anything, and he refused to turn it down, so we would lay my speakers down on the floor and crank up Metallica or something so loud that it would drown out his music to the point that he couldn't hear his music over ours. This happened 2-3 times before he got the hint and stopped doing it. (I am not condoning this behavior, especially if your other neighbors are home.)