How Can You Deal With Hellish Neighbors?

Question

I will go into as much detail as I possibly can about our current situation. We moved into our apartment complex last July. Our hellish neighbors moved into the apartment directly below ours in September. They immediately started playing loud music (we complained to the apartment office three times before it was dealt with). Every now and then we'd hear their music or television and my husband would slam a few times on the floor and it'll stop.

Just last week my husband was outside on our deck and the neighbor was below him talking on his cell phone to a friend explaining all the ways he wished he could kill my husband. My husband called the police. The police told my husband that nothing could be done but he'd talk to our neighbor. This caused my neighbor to directly threaten my husband (just minutes after the police officer left). My husband again called the police but was again told they could do nothing about our neighbor.

Not only do they now play their music and television loud (some nights past 10pm), they slam their front door so hard that it makes our windows rattle. (Their door is directly under our laundry room.) They have two trucks (one is on a raised hitch) and neither has a muffler (the larger truck needs about five minutes to warm up before it can actually be driven anywhere). When they do this at six o’ clock in the morning or at midnight, you can see how this becomes annoying.

They have two beagle dogs that never stop barking when left alone (which is usually from 10am to 6pm). Okay, that’s an exaggeration, they do stop but they bark inconsistently throughout the day (so it feels like its all day). And they bark if someone passes by one of their windows (like a squirrel) or knocks on their door (like the mailman).

I am seriously afraid that my husband will end up doing something drastic and end up being thrown in jail. He has already expressed interest in dousing our neighbor in water the next time our neighbor starts to go into a rant about my husband or myself (he hasn’t said nice things about either of us). Is there anyway that we can deal with our neighbors that won’t leave me worried sick about my husband?

My husband has already expressed interest to my neighbor about clearing this all up but our neighbor responded (and I quote) “I don’t want to talk to you, I’d rather fight you. You called the cops and that was a pretty [censored] move. I punch first and think later. I grew up fighting, you obviously don’t know how that is.” I understand that this kind of philosophy in life will get our neighbor no where (or our neighbor’s wife) but it’s really eating up my husband.

Our apartment complex’s office has expressed no interest in helping us (by ignoring it they figure it’ll all just go away) and the police have told us that nothing can be done. We CANNOT afford to break our lease and move.

So, our only choice is to stick this out but is there a way that we can handle it so we don’t drive ourselves mad?

Oh and in case this is brought up, the other neighbors have the same policy as our office "ignore it and it'll go away". So enlisting their help in any situation will not work in our favor.

Answer 1

Life is too precious to have to live with that but you can't break your lease. Perhaps you should plan to move when your lease is up. In the meantime, you both might have to wear earplugs to muffle out some of the noise, and wear headphones for listening to TV or radio if your equipment is compatible. It is very important that your husband stop having confrontations with these people. He should not speak to them directly anymore, and he should avoid all contact with them until you can move. These people could mean real trouble such as bodily injury to your husband, or they may provoke him into an assault on them. Then he would be in jail with a record that will follow him the rest of his like. Don't give these jerks the satisfaction of knowing they are annoying you anymore. Other than that, your only option is to read the fine print in your lease papers to see if your landlord is breaking your lease by not doing something about this.

Answer 2

I'm not reading your details.
How I've dealt with it is by ignoring them when I can and calling the police when I cannot. I suppose I have something of an advantage in not being afraid of them and having a police department that takes neighborly misbehavior seriously and will talk to them. I had one who liked to shoot at the crows. He didn't want to listen to me tell him, so I called the police. They were quite willing to go explain it to him more carefully. And the rest of the time he lived there he hated me but knew I'd call the police again if I had to.

Answer 3

first of all i would stop paying them and go to housing court informing them on a reimbursement for all the rent you have paid!my sis dealt with this nonsense in the past too. do you have the main office number address etc. also get yourself a recorder and record ALL CONVERSATIONS regarding this matter. This is horrible. I have a annoying neighbor too! they like to stump over my head. we bang the ceilings. only good thing with this, this is my land lord he owns the house and live upstairs, so what i do is turn on the hot water and let it run and put the heaters on 2 of them. when he gets his electric bill he will sit the ****** down and stop running across the floor! oh and keep this yahoo answer as record too. oh the precint, get the captain of the dept name and also the state attorney general office should be involved. i wouldn't pay them shittt. and the rules to living in the apt. see if the neighbor is violating. because if he is the management office SHOULD DEFINITELY GET IN TROUBLE! THEIR NOT ON THEIR JOB! email me direct if you like. (smile)

Answer 4

Go file a complaint with the apt complex, then go see the DA attorney and tell them what is going on the police have got to follow up on this and they should have filed a complaint if someone is threatening your life they are suppose to take it seriously.also you could go talk to the chief of police.

Answer 5

Stick a potato in the muffler and bake them some exlax brownies!

Answer 6

.move that its move no one should live like that.and why put your self to that get you things and move cause its going to get worse ...move the same happen to me and it was to much for me i couldn't sleep and they knock at my door and run and it was a mess .and .I live alone .just me and it was jealousies.one day her husband said hi.and . I had a little money.but i move

Answer 7

throw food at them like the osborns or see if the mang. will let you move to another unit

Answer 8

will the apt complex let you move to a different unit?

Answer 9

just go down there you and your husband and tell them to stop it