Roughly two years ago my husband and I decided to rent the bottom portion of a multi-family house. The house is divided into three sections; An attic apartment, 2nd-Story apartment and a downstairs apartment with a shared basement. We chose to move here because it was perfect for us to start a family while simultaneously save up for a down payment for a house of our own. The neighborhood is beautiful, affordable, quiet, and most importantly safe enough for the children around here to walk to and from school. Also, my husband's job is located right around the corner (I work from home). Upon moving in, the attic apartment was unoccupied, and the upper level was inhabited by a grandmother and her two grandchildren (we will call her Sue). We never had any issues with them, and they never had an issue with us. We got along famously.
Six months after moving in, we found out we were expecting our first child and just before she was born Sue had a family emergency and moved out of state to care for her ailing loved one. The week we brought our daughter home from the hospital was the week our new upstairs neighbors (We'll call them the Smiths; a family of five with 3 college aged children) were moving in. We were able to welcome Mr.Smith and the kids to the building as they were moving in but Mrs.Smith wasn't around. Mr.Smith didn't seem intent on stopping to chat and that was fine with us as we were busy as new parents and naturally tend to keep to ourselves. There wasn't much interaction after that at all, so we assumed that they also preferred to keep to themselves.
Almost immediately we noticed that they were LOUD in everything that they did. Doors slammed, stomping feet up and down the stairs, the television or their sound system was on 24 hours a day and the volume and bass levels were up. The Smith sons play basketball and we could often pinpoint dribbling basketballs above our kitchen and down the stairwells. I'm not new to the renting game. I understand that when you live below someone there will be some noise. I was also in-tune to the fact that our newborn baby wasn't as cautious about noise as her father and I are, and that perhaps they were trying to drown out the cries of our baby, but by all means she is not a colicky baby, and really only screamed for basic needs which we were quick to tend to. Three weeks passed and I began to get used to the slamming, stomping, and basketballs, but I just couldn't block out the bass from the sound system, I am not exaggerating when I say it went on 24-hours a day. Some days it was loud enough to rattle the floors and I could actually tell you each song in their playlist, other days it was just thudding from their sub-woofer, either way, I was sleep deprived and unable to escape the noise from their stereo system. It was maddening and finally I'd had enough and decided to write a polite letter to avoid confrontation explaining the issue and asked if they'd mind trying to keep the sound system down. I made it a point not to address the other issues with slamming doors and stomping because I don't expect anyone to tip toe around their living space, I just wanted to be able to enjoy some peace and quiet in my own living space. I placed the note in the Smith's mailbox in the morning and I believe they received it that evening because all I heard was indistinct yelling coming from Mrs.Smith.
She. was. pissed. I could not fathom was I had put in that letter to set her off like that, but something offended her and she made it clear. If it wasn't clear enough by the screaming and yelling that evening, it was made clear when in passing I offered Mrs.Smith a "Good Morning!" and she stuck her nose up and walked right by me without saying a word. The noise stopped, for a few weeks, then it was back to being loud and this time they opened all of their windows when they blasted their music, which I could only take as an act of retaliation. My daughter at this time was no longer sleeping like a newborn, and the music was not only disruptive to my peace but to her nap time and bedtime. This time my husband wasn't having it, so he notified the landlord of the disruptive noise.
The landlord didn't seem like he wanted to be the mediator in this situation at all, and was quick to suggest we call the police. We felt that was pushing it a bit too far, even though the Smith's weren't happy with keeping the noise down, they didn't deserve having the Police knock on their door.
I don't know what the landlord said but the noise stopped, but, the problems with the Smith's continued to ensue. I noticed one of the Smith son's were turning our trash bins over when they were on the curb for pick up, in our city Rumpke wont pick up the bins if they're turned over. The basement in which each floor shares for laundry, has lights designated to each apartment and you pay the electricity on your light. They would use our light and leave it on, which is annoying when you're trying to save money every which way you can. We noticed on occasion our washer and dryer would be unplugged, and the breaker to our refrigerator would be flipped off after we were gone for the day. We couldn't prove they were tampering with the breaker box and our washing machine and drier, the son had stopped pulling the trash bins over, but we knew for sure they were leaving our light on. So when knew they were home, we went to knock on their door to ask them to be mindful of the light. No answer; the cars were there, the tv was on, but they weren't opening the door. So we thought the reasonable thing to do would be to put a little note just below a sign that says "First Floor Basement Light" that said "Feel free to use this light, but please turn it off when you're done." Well this also pissed off Mrs.Smith but instead of yelling she called the landlord on us saying we were bullying her family. Through our landlord, we learned that she was offended that we were choosing to write notes instead of knocking on her door and that even though each light switch was labeled, they were confused about which switch was, in fact, theirs. This was shocking to us to say the least. Especially after the Smiths were flat-out ignoring us after the first complaint about the noise.
Fast forward a few months, and we now have more new neighbors who live in the attic apartment(we'll call them the Wilsons). They share a stairwell with the Smith's. The Smith's introduced themselves to the Wilson's as they were moving in. My windows were open and while in the middle of dinner my husband and I had to sit and listen to the Smith's tell the Wilson's how horrible we are, that we are racists, and that we "just had to go". There have been other exchanges between the two of them outside of open windows. One where they laughed about us being "scared" because we are actively trying to stay out of their way now.
Another exchange about how they should throw sardine cans out in the yard near the street so that our dog will investigate and get struck by a car. The most recent exchange that took place between them, again, outside of an open window was a discussion about boxing us out of our street parking spot so when it gets cold outside, I'll have to park a street up and haul the baby up the block in the cold.
This was the best idea they had because sure enough as the weather turned, they parked all along the street next to our entrance, successfully boxing us out. These cars haven't moved in 3 months. They (Smiths & Wilsons) park the cars that they do drive in a small lot that was only available for both the upstairs levels to rent because it is closer to their door.
I don't know what to do. I have an apathetic landlord who doesn't even want to mediate a noise complaint. I fear for my dog's life. Every time I open the door I fear there's a trap to lead her into the street. I'm bitter because I'm hauling five bags and a 5 month old up a block when I could easily park in front of my door if it weren't for my neighbors doing everything they can to push us out of this apartment that we used to love so fucking much. This is the last thing I ever wanted to happen, and I feel like I can't call the police because at this point it's our word, against theirs. I've been renting for over 10 years and I have never had any issues with my neighbors. We are very quiet, passive people who like to avoid conflict like this at all costs, we thought we were doing the most unconfrontational thing by writing that letter. Now our life at home is stressful and we fear what they will plan to do next in order to get us out of here. Unfortunately giving them what they want and moving just isn't an option for us right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
TL;DR Moved into the perfect place to start a family and save money. We had a baby, new noisy neighbors moved in, asked them to keep it down and chaos ensued.
Edit: Sorry for any spelling and grammar errors, I didn't expect to be writing this long and now I'm rushed and unable to edit thoroughly.
Submitted December 17, 2015 at 01:27AM by SingingBone http://ift.tt/1NxIh9w Advice
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