Noisy neighbors

[Patiod]

We've lived in our small apartment complex for 15 years, and it's always been nice and quiet (you know where this is going)

Our neighbor for the past year and a half is becoming more of a problem. His girlfriend isn't allowed to smoke in the apartment, so she stands outside our place and smokes and yells into her cell-phone. Their parties spill out onto the common areas at 3am, when his friends become belligerent and fight ("I know I should've made you get an abortion, you whore!!!!"). He practices bow-hunting in the backyard (hope there aren't any kids around). They have parties around an open fire outside, which bothers the closer-neighbors, but at least the Fire Marshall has been by to tell him they're illegal. The landlord has ignored complaints. The guy himself is belligerent, and basically says "fuck you" to anyone who asks him to keep it down. There's no Super anymore. The place is otherwise nice and the rent is eye-poppingly cheap, or we would move.

This morning, for the second time in a month, his friends arrived at 5am to "pre-game" before going bow-hunting. This involves blasting loud music in the apartment, followed piling into cars and yelling from car to car for 30 minutes (the parking area is right next to our place).

My S.O. is planning to go over there tomorrow morning at 5am, pound on the door, and politely ask that to keep it down in the future. Any other suggestions?

[Little Wing]

1. Find a dead moose and drop it from a helicopter on to one of their cars

you gotta do it from way up high so they can't hear it coming

[Patiod]

2. No, we don't have to do it way up high

There are traffic copters all over here when the nearby highway is clogged up -- we've all become immune to the sound of 'copters - he'd never suspect it was us!!!

The problem is getting the moose. Hmmmm............

[ContraBass Black]

3. "...'pre-game' before going bow-hunting."

They drive and hunt while drunk?

[Patiod]

5. Oh yeah, baby!

Hey, if you're the kind of macho dude who shoots arrows at targets in your back yard right next to a neighborhood full of kids, what's a little drunk driving/drunk hunting?

[Shell Beau]

4. Just ask them to keep it down and if they don't, report it to the landlord!

You do have the right to live in peace.

[Patiod]

6. Landlord doesn't care - he's very hands-off

His deal, which has worked fine over 15 years is basically "don't call me, don't bother me unless it's desperate (leaks, for instance), and I'll give you rents from the 1970's.

[Shell Beau]

8. Oh! Well, if it continues to get worse, call the cops!

I would hate to have to do that because I am sure there would be some resentment there, but jeez, you should be able to live peacefully in your own home!

[LeftyMom]

17. You need to send in a written complaint.

Explain

1. That this behavior is unsafe

2. That police, fire etc have made repeated calls to the unit

3. That this behavior endangers his relationship with the good tenants

If you get no response, send a second one return receipt requested, certified mail.

[EnviroBat]

7. Kill them in their sleep and toss the bodies into a dumpster...

Not that I'm advocating violence, or murder for that matter, but I've been in a similar situation for the last 5 years. People like you are describing are nothing more than useless wastes of skin IMHO. I've repeatedly called the police when some new assholes move in and act like they own the fucking place. I usually meet them and let them know upfront that bullshit is not tolerated. But if it continues the police arrive and handle the situation. If the asshole is truly belligerent to the point where you are feeling threatened, that's called menacing, and it's against the law in this state. I know how you feel though, sometimes apartment living is made impossible by total suck-ass morans... Good luck to you, I hope you can get them evicted somehow.

[Patiod]

9. One thing I have going for me is a huge, scary-looking S.O.

Son a a Teamster, and very much the bouncer type. I've seen audiences literally cringe back into their seats when he approaches their side of the stage (he's an actor). Usually cast as the rapist, prison guard, "enforcer", etc, people cross the street to avoid him when he's wearing a ski hat.

Not who you want at your door at 5am.

(Hopefully the neighbor hasn't heard him sitting out on the deck playing the cast album to "Sweeny Todd" or "Avenue Q", which tends to ruin the whole effect....)

[alarimer]

10. I would call the police. Repeatedly.

They can be cited for violations of noise ordinance. Your city has them usually (usually quiet hours are 11 pm to 6 am or something like that).

[Midlodemocrat]

12. I had a neighbor behind me that kept his two large dogs outside 24/7.

They howled like they were being killed all day, every day. I work from home and couldn't get a darned thing done.

I called the police every single time and they eventually moved away.

[SoyCat]

22. You're lucky. The police won't do a damned thing about it here and my mom has to deal with her

next door neighbor's barking dog. (Almost every night)

[flvegan]

11. Take up skeet shooting...in the backyard...at 4am...be a poor shot

Couple weeks of, "PULL!!!" KA-BOOM!! and shot flying through their doors and windows might persuade them to leave.

You could also buy a really big snake. A constrictor of some kind.

[Patiod]

14. He's probably go after the clay pigeons w/his arrows

Drunk. :scared:

[twilight_sailing]

13. If you have never read these books by Paladin Press, they're funny

The Big Book Of Revenge: 200 Dirty Tricks for Those Who Are Serious About Getting Even (Paperback)
by George Hayduke
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Book-Revenge-Serious-Getting/dp/0806521414

Not that I would EVER recommend actually DOING any of this stuff. ;)

[Patiod]

16. We'll start w/a 5am visit from my Scary Scary S.O.

and go from there. He does NOT want my huge, beefy, 275-pound-bench-pressing son-of-a-Teamster crazy-looking-white-boy on his front doorstep at that hour, looking loaded for bear.

Once we've established our displeasure (the neighbors have tried direct request, landlord, police and fire marshall, and only the fire marshal did any good), then on to the Dirty Tricks, some of which were gleaned from just those fine publications.

[Fla Dem]

15. Belligerent.... Bows...not a good mix

I'm not sure you want to confront him head on. I would ask once, when he is along, not causing any problems. Something to the effect, that " a couple of times at late..early hours the noise has been a little loud. Do you think you could keep it down between 10pm and 7am. I would really appreciate it." If he blows you off or gets belligerent, say thanks...just asking and walk away. Do not get into a confrontation with him. Next time there is an issue call the sup. If he still refuses to do anything..... call the cops. It might help if you could get other residents to call the sup too. If he is harrassed enough maybe he'll do something.

The other thing is to call the company that owns the building. Tell them the sup isn't doing his job. You are being harassed by a neighbor who uses bows on the property. You are in fear of your life. You will sue them if they do not provide a safe and quiet development.

Finally, if it gets really bad, you may just have to move.

But don't go pounding on his door at 5am...that will only escalate the problem.

[Patiod]

18. There is no super, and the elderly andlord is thinking of selling

to his sons, who want to tear everything down and build McMansions on the land (it's a beautiful old farm, and the houses and outbuildings have been made into really cool apartments). So we don't want to annoy the landlord to the point that he says "to hell with it, why wait til I die, I should let the kids have the property now. Fewer headaches that way."

The place is otherwise sweet, we have a cool deck overlooking gardens, the cat can prowl the property without the danger of cars, I can WALK to my train into work, the rent is appallingly low, and we are NOT willing to move yet.

Our only hope is that we think the idiot neighbor is graduating from Dental school this Spring, and we are praying he'll go back home to the other coast to set up his practice.

Plus once the cold weather sets back in, we can't really hear his nonsense --- it's only been audible to us because of the unusual situation of sleeping with the windows open in January.

[ashling]

19. This moron is a dental student?

I wonder if he drills drunk too.

[IndyBob]

20. Rude, Noisy, Obnoxious Neighbors

I've called the police already, basically got a guy evicted. I'm usually pretty reasonable, but had a new downstairs neighbor move in. Liked to play his punk/metal very loud during the day, a few neighbors and I went to his place and talked to him. It worked for a few days, but got gradually louder again. Then one morning at 2:30 am the music starts, loud enough to to get several picture frames in my apartment rattling. That was it, I just called the cops. They showed up 1/2 hour later - the music was still cranked, the police could hear it in the parking lot, 50-100 feet away with all windows closed. He got a noise citation.

That same day after I left for work, they started again. It was around 7:00am. The police got called by a different neighbor, and the guy got a second citation. There were rumors of a drug bust as well. Less than a week later, the guy was gone, and my other neighbor's elderly father moved in. Very quiet.

90% of the time, people can be reasoned with. The other 10%, leave to the cops (or a moose?).

[Patiod]

21. You're lucky he left

Our downstairs neighbor is basically an okay kid, but his favorite video game is chock-full of explosions, and he has some sort of sound system rigged up to it so that the bass is pumped way up. Between that and the traffic copters which fly over regularly, I sometimes say to my SO "I'm flashing back to 'Nam here!" (in spite of never having been in the military)

Fortunately, he's not home much, so he mostly plays it at odd hours like after work or on weekends around noon, when it's annoying but bearable.

I'm just hoping with the advent of the cold weather, our Big Problem will be a big problem only for his immediate neighbors. I'll let THEM superglue his locks and put sugar into his gas tank, while I simply pray that he goes back to the Pacific Northwest when he's officially Asshole Bowhunter, DDS.