I've got a pretty unusual situation going. I've lived in my flat for nearly five years now and the three sets of neighbors I have had downstairs have been outragously crazy. The neighborhood I live in is usually very quiet...except for the people who live below me.
The first set were a married couple who were very loud and had two mentally challanged children and two dogs. I had to file a police report against the woman because she threatened to beat me up for making too much noise in the middle of the afternoon (I was putting a cd tower together) and they were eventually evicted because the woman spent the rent money on drugs too many times.
The second set were a family of gypsies. At one point they had seven people and a dog living in a two bedroom flat. They stole my mail (packages, mostly) and I could hear them speaking in tounges in the middle of the night. When my landlord asked them about the stealing they told him that God told them to steal. They were evicted.
The current neighbor is incredibly loud, smokes pot (I can smell it through the floors) plays loud music all hours of the night including during the week (I have asked him to turn it down and he has told me 1) that he pays more rent than I do and he can do what he wants 2) to fuck off) has trashed the basement that is a public area for the house, lets his cats poop in the basement (while my cats are confined to my flat) doesn't take care of the lawn/snow removal (which is part of the rental agreement) and our mail wasn't delivered for several days last month and the city has posted notices saying that he is in violation of city code (for the lawn being a mess) and would be fined. He's drunk quite a bit and has told me that he suffers from panic attacks and blackouts. He has hit his girlfriend and called her daughter a 'junglebunny' (the girl is 12 years old and biracial. Hearing this broke my heart and I hope she wasn't home when it happened)
I have spoken with my landlord on many occasions about this and he came over last weekend after the crazy neighbor shoved a broomstick in my boyfriend's face and threatened to kill him because his girlfriend overheard us talking about how they had trashed the basement. He had been blasting Metallica in the basement to wake us up and told my b/f that he had been downstairs waiting for him all night. Then he kept saying 'is this clean enough for you Air Force?' (my b/f is in the reserves) and my b/f said that all he wanted to do is get our laundry from the dryer. Then the neighbor said 'that's all you'd better be doing'
When the landlord came over he said he'd act as a mediator between us and the crazy one, but nothing has changed except he cleaned the basement.
Last night he blasted music from 3-7:30 am and I was too afraid to call the police because he is very vindictive and I'm not sure what he will do.
Obviously we planning to move, but can't for about another two months.
I'm really not sure what to do until we can get out of here.
My boyfriend and I are trying to lay low until we move, but this guy seems to me antagonizing us.
We are very good tenants and try to be respectful of the people around us, but we aren't being treated the same way and sometimes I don't even feel safe here.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation? How did it turn out?

That absolutely sucks eggs, Apple... Rude, offensive and disrespectful neigbors are horrid enough...add to it the wacked-out craziness and threats of violence, and it must be unbearable...I've never gone thru something that severe, but the smaller experiences I've dealt with were stressful and definitely makes even being home an emotional drain...If I were you, I'd make real good friends with the local football team or something...lol..invite them over for a few weeks, offer free beer or sumthin'...let yer neighbor see these huge hunks o' beef hangin' around witcha, walking down to the basement with you...whisper in some hairy linebacker's ear while your neighbor's watching, then point discreetly in his direction as you and the linebacker look and giggle...lol...Eh, just a thought... 8)

Good luck with it all, tho... Applekisses

You could: contact your local Fair Housing Association/Authority and see what your legal options are.
If I were you, I wouldn't worry about breaking your lease--just find a place to move into so you can get away from them.

Thank you, Welly I'm going to have to bust out my cheerleader outfit!
I needed to laugh about this. It's really been torturous. But, I know that there are lessons here to be learned, so that's the way I'm trying to look at it until we can move.
My hopes are that we can get through this with no lasting damage or injury.

I had a psycho housemate. sigh. I can't go into the details of her without getting all riled up. Thank God she moved out this month.

AnotherLover2 said:

Thank goodness that right now we are in a month-to-month lease, so breaking it will be no problem. We need to be able to save some money in order to move so we've set a move date of March.
Could the Fair Housing Association/Authority do anything other than help with breaking the lease?

Natsume said:

Did he/she move out on his/her own or was it an eviction?

applekisses said:

From my understanding, they deal with safe housing conditions and landlord/tenant disputes. You might have legal grounds to get some money out of the landlord. Document everything that happens.

applekisses said:

She moved out before we could kill her.

We could have gotten her easily evicted, though. She was dealing drugs out of our apartment. The worst part was that she was such a shitty dealer. She was never home and didn't have a cell phone/pager, so we were basically her goddamn secretaries.

On a side note - is that Giovanni Ribisi in your avatar, apples?

And what happened to that cute photo of you and your bf in your profile?

AnotherLover2 said:

Oh, excellent! Good idea!
When there were probs with the first neighbor I started investigating about tenant rights, but didn't really find much of interest. But this points me in the right direction. Thanks, hon

applekisses said:

It's helpful to write down all of the times you've asked your landlord to do things and he didn't; all of the times your neighbors were supposed to clean/maintain the property and they didn't. I knew a family whose downstairs neighbors were basically running a meth lab and the fumes were horrible. The landlord didn't do anything for a really long time. The family I knew withheld rent and put it in an escrow account...

Dunno if it (Fair Housing) will help your situation, but maybe!

Natsume said:

you should have been charging her at least $9/hr for your clerical services! But, I bet you're more than relived that you have some peace in your house once more.
My avatar is a pic of Peter Murphy -- my sig is a quote from one of his songs called 'To Be Remembered' he's SUCH a babe
My profile pic (thanks for the sweet compliment, btw )disappeared after the last Org blackout. I just noticed about 10 minutes ago that it was missing (Tron's thread made me look to see if it was still there.)
I'm going to upload the pic to my b/f's Web site so I can put it back.
I wish the way profile pics are uploaded wouldn't have changed because a lot of folks don't have access to a Web site and can't use it to post their pics.
I think we may be getting a lot of celebrity look-a-likes

AnotherLover2 said:

I haven't, until this point, actually kept a written record of these things, but I have a great memory and I think that if I sit down with a calendar that I'll be able to put something together.
The worst thing is that this is the third time this has happened (we've had NO good neighbors since moving in here) and I really feel that I can't fight anymore. The landlord keeps renting to unsavory folks (as a result of not doing background checks, I guess.) It's time now just to leave, but as I said, it'll be a few months.

AnotherLover2 said:

Exactly ... & highlight everything in ur lease that pertains 2 this particular situation. Send it over & over again, if u must, 2 get results (keep a "carbon copy" on file). The landlord agrees 2 certain conditions with his/her signature in the same way that tenants do ... i feel 4 U, because i'm in a similar situation. Hope everything works out.
peace

aspera773 said:

That's good advice. The only result would be that the tenants downstairs would be evicted. But, really, I don't trust the landlord's judgement when it comes to renting. He's chosen three bad tenants. I think it just may be time to move and start new. Which is too bad because I like my flat and the location is great. But, I'd rather deal with a more professional landlord.
I hope everything works out for you too. It's really difficult to not feel at peace in your home.
Good luck to you

That is terrible, apples... I'm sorry.

I'm happy to hear that you may be moving in March!

applekisses said:

Ain't it the truth!!! Wish U the best too.
peace

Sorry to hear about that apples, that's really shitty. I've had crap neighbours in the past but usually once I have a word things improve a bit. The building where I live has a lot of flats occupied by students... for the most part they are fine, but they have a tendency for impromtpu parties late at night (which are fine but the guests are usually all shouting on the staircase as they go in and out so it echoes around the building).

Anyway a few weeks ago I had to get a bit nasty with them. I couldn't sleep because of the noise, but I'm a very light sleeper anyway. However my wife couldn't sleep at all because of the noise so that made up my resolve to take the situation in hand. At 2.30am I got dressed and thumped as loudly and as menacingly as I could on my neighbours front door. I guess I must have been a scary sight with my shaved head, tattoos and Irish accent coz when they answered the door they went pale and were very agreeable Luckily they didn't know that I'm a complete pussycat and wouldn't hurt a fly!

have u considered The Equaliser or The A-Team?

applekisses said:

Your not kidding, damn this is a long post.

Gosh Apples this is so sad..

"He has hit his girlfriend and called her daughter a 'junglebunny' (the girl is 12 years old and biracial)

I would have gone ballistic if I would have heard this. Then I would have lectured the mother on the importance of her daughter.

sag10 said:

I thought it was horrible. I just pray that the girl wasn't home when it happened.
The boyfriend is so violent that it's wise that we (my boyfriend and I) don't speak to him, her or the daughter. In fact, while he was holding a broomstick an inch away from my b/f's nose, the neighbor told him that he is NOT to speak to any of them.
Also, the girlfriend is still there, so I don't think that she is ready to face what is going on.
So, it's best that we stay out of it for now and perhaps call social services after we move.

ian said:

Thanks for sharing your story