How to handle a bad neighbor?

Question

Here's the deal, I'm in a situatoin where I share a 2 level house with another tenant (I'm downstairs, she's up) and she is one insane woman. She obviously doesn't like that fact that I also live in this house too, and she makes it known. We also share a front enterance (I have a back door, but in certain instances I need to use the front),in which there's a little porch, and does not want me to use it even though I have legal right to it. If I happen go thru her precious doorway, she'll come home, slam her door, scream, stomp on the floor like a child, throws her own dishes, blares her t.v to the weather channel all hours of the night, and to make matters worse, she obstructs the front enterance with a chair and boxes (somtimes her smelly garbage)and even goes to such lengths to tape up MY door with duct tape. If there ever was a fire, and the front door was my only way out, I'd have an obsticle course because of her **** there.
Any advice? The landlord won't do anything.

I've written her letters, tried to talk nicely to her and evrything else legal...as I type, she's stomping around. I'm looking to move, but time doen't permit that right now.

She knows I ue the door because I move her things out of the way

Answer 1

You say time doesn't permit you to move. That says you're not ready to move. If you were ready, you'd take or make time to move. Waiting for the situation to escalate, are you? I wonder if time would permit if you awoke and discovered her standing over you as you slept in your bed. I wonder if time would permit if your car was keyed or worse?

If you want to stay that badly (and you do want to stay badly): Just use the back door and ask her permission to use the front door whenever you need to use it. Might work for you.

Wake up! Life is too short. Seriously, you both really need to seek help from a medical professional.

Answer 2

well, you have 3 things you can do...
Take pictures or a video of what she is doing. Write a very legal sounding letter to your landlord explaining the situation and how he has been officially notified of the fire hazard and your neighbor's behavior, and that you are expecting him or her to do something about it. If they refuse, you have certain legal rights depending on which state you live in.
Second, I am guessing that you can call the police about the duct tape on the door.That is just really bizarre behavior. A police report will help your landlord understand just how serious the situation is.

You could also try to win her over by sending her flowers and a brief note stating that you would like to get along, but the entrance is a shared entrance, and although you do try not to use it too often you will have to use it sometimes, and a list of your safety concerns. Let your landlord know what you are trying so he knows you are at least trying to make peace with her.

Videotaping with the time and day that she is making all the noise is another good way to make it known to the landlord that she is not being a good neighbor. I would also look into local noise ordinances to see if she is breaking any laws.
Good luck, I don't envy you this situation- dd

Answer 3

well if you have been the nice neighbour so far and have tried to go about it in a rational way and at a loss. time to be the nasty neighbour. how about catching spiders and mice and letting them go in her space. find a bug she is afraid of and let them loose. hopefully shell move. or just in the foyer where the front door is,make her use her other entrance. By law every separate lodging needs two exits. exactly for fire reasons so legally you should have a leg to stand on if you chose to take this to the proper authorities not the land lord hes useless obviously.oh yeah and what ever she blocks the door with take to the garbage and if it is straight garbage scatter it in her way close to her door. pile it up against her door that leads into her suite. she is obviously not a nice women so if you cant move fight fire with fire. sometimes that is what it takes. get some earplugs crank music she would not like. depending on how the ducting has been installed, this will give you an idea close your vents off except the closet one to one of hers, then put a rancid smell on a cloth put it the vent then put a little fan in to push the smell towards her open vents. in your place burn some incense to cover any of the smell that might come into your space. drive her out. it must be frustrating for you but have some devious fun and laugh about it. good luck

Answer 4

Oh - I feel for you. I was in a similar situation (except probably worse). It went on for years. It was an all-out war, and I eventually ended up moving because I couldn't stand it anymore.

First, I wrote several letters to the landlord. He did nothing (as in your case), but I kept copies of the letters for documentation.

My town had an "abatement program." The local police department would flag certain houses for frequent ordinance violations (even the minor stuff, like trash violations, parking cars on the front yard, noise, etc.). Other neighbors and I were instructed to call the police each time we noticed a violation. The local police were to document it, and they would build a file. Then, once a certain number of violations were accumulated, the city was authorized to take the landlord to Court. If the Judge agreed the tenants were a nuisance, the landlord was forced to evict the tenants or lose his property. You can check to see if your town has something like this. If so, be prepared for things to get a lot worse before they get better, because the process takes a long time.

I also started gathering photos (like you could do with the trash), and the police suggested even making recordings of the noise. I saved all documentation, got copies of the police reports, and got witness statements from other neighbors. I did some research online, and found out that there was case law to support a civil suit against my neighbor because of the diminished enjoyment of our property and the harassment. I took the neighbor and the landlord to Court, but in the end I was not successful because I was not ruthless enough. Other neighbors/witnesses were afraid to testify, and I didn't have the heart to subpeona them and force them to testify. I also did not subpoena any of the police officers that had responded to the house because I thought their police reports were sufficient. The Judge told me I did not have enough evidence because I did not subpoena enough witnesses. Therefore, I , unfortunately, lost my case.

Then, the rest of the neighborhood finally got enough balls to stand up to these people, and a Neighborhood Watch was formed. Our local police department provided us with witness statement forms, and every time we witnessed something, we could anonymously fill out the forms and drop them off at the PD or fax them in. That worked out fairly well, and within a few weeks, there was a major drug bust.

If you're up for it, you can try any of these ideas, but the bottom line is, I was the one who had to move. These people still live at that address, even after all of the police involvement. So, as much as I feel for you and understand your rights, my advice would be to just move.

Answer 5

Call the police for noise complaints, tampering with your property, anything that occurs- you'll have a record of it. You're landlord should also be informed every time a complaint is filed. Read your lease to see if perhaps she is in violation which you can point out to your landlord- but you must have proof. If all else fails, you have a bad landlord and I wouldn't wish to continue renting from that person any longer. Find a new home and let the landlord deal with the bad tenant.

Answer 6

Difficult people are a fact of life, and I see you have a real one living there. If she is unapproachable, and the landlord won't do anything, I would suggest making inquiry at the housing board, or council, or whatever is in place in your city or town. If the proper channels were gone through, I imagine it would put a little fire under your landlord. But then, I suppose it could backfire, and the landlord could get angry with you for having brought this to someone's attention. I wonder why the landlord won't do anything. That's suspicious.

Answer 7

How can she tell you've used the front door? Have you tried talking to her about it? I would start with that, if it doesn't work...

I'd start using the front door everyday, so she gets used to it!

The only other thing to do is call the police when she makes noise in the middle of the night and have the fire Marshall talk to her about keeping the exit blocked. What else is there to do. I'd also call the police if she tapes your door up again!

Answer 8

Report the landlord to the Housing Authority for not doing anything about it.

I can think of several ways to report your neighbor, but I suspect that will only make matters worse.

Report the landlord and force him/her to do something about it. If the landlord comes down on your neighber, she may still get extremely p*ssed and think you reported her directly, but it needs to come from the landlord because a personal dispute between you and her won't be pretty.

If it continues I hope the landlord will evict her. Unless he/she is just a scumbag who wants the rent money and doesn't care.


Worse case scenario: Find somewhere else to live - but that isn't really fair to you either.

Answer 9

If the landlord won't do anything, then you take pictures of what she does as far as blocking the entrances and call the Health Department and the Fire Department about filing a complaint.

As for noise at all hours of the day or night, the law states that you have a right to peace and quiet. File a complaint with the police department.

Answer 10

If the landlord won't do anything, then you might consider finding somewhere else to live. But if that isn't an option, I suggest finding out the woman's reasonings for not wanting you going out the front door. Do some research, talk to the landlord and confirm that the door and the porch are there for both of you to use and point that out to her.