So our neighbors have been a growing problem for a few months now. They seem to be a flop house for six or seven people, most of them look high all day. They go out and Rev a Harley at 3am, they burn plastic been our houses in a fire pit, they have a new dog every two weeks because they keep getting out and getting hit by traffic in the busy street we live on, the current two have bit people. I’m not one to care how someone lives, but these folks make the rest of our slum neighborhood look downright utopian.
I’ve tried taking to them, they’re stupidly hostile. I’ve put in complaints with the city, noise complaints with the police, they don’t do anything about it. Does anyone have advice on dealing with this? I’m tired, at my wits end, and my small town tactics aren’t as easy to pull off in a proper city.
Yeah… so I had a trap house move into the abandoned house next to mine.
Lots people spouting off with this and that and the other but won’t give you advice that works. And advice that works? Banana bread.
Dead ass. Make them banana bread. Monthly if not weekly. Make them notice when it’s not there.
We did this with the gang / crews that would rotate through next door. Was a rolling assemblage of cardroom, drug spot, ladies, just depended on the crew.
But I’ll have you know, they do not fuck with the house that makes them banana bread. We ask them to not having people smoking and talking around outside? Next day, signs up on the porch “No smoking or hanging around”, same with music, you name it. Obviously there are limits, but it took what could have been a terrible situation and made it bearable.
For this to work you have to change you attitude. Eventually they got busted by the feds, but once we had made “neighbors” with them, the rest was easy. They even started moving the trap house lawn. Respect earns respect. Change your attitude and you might be able to change the situation.
And then they all clapped, the gang, the neighbors and even the banana bread joined in
The banana bread’s name ? Albert Einstein .
This is actually the tactic I used on the rest of the neighborhood. The small town charm and my double chocolate brownies cooked in a waffle maker (I call them Wownies) has me on good terms with everyone from the dealer down the street to the homeless under the bridge. Unfortunately these folk don’t bite when I offer and bite too much then I don’t. After the first few tries they just started trying to hang out in my yard and started peaking too close at me workshop.
You can’t, end of discussion.
The most that the city or the police can do is issuing them a small fine for the noise complaints. The only one with even an ounce of power here is their landlord, but then it depends heavily on your country/state.
What you may not have tried yet: If the yard is bad enough, call code enforcement, not police, they will send notices to the landlord not the residents, then the landlord will come yell at the residents. Burning trash may also be a code enforcement thing, not police. Those code people don’t mess around, once they send a notice you have to respond/address it.
Theres legal ways and Illegal ways. How morally flexible are you?
If in being frank, they have an open crawl space next to unguarded electrical boxes and a gas main. This is an easy fix, but I promised my partner is keep it legal until we had a real reason not to.
Aside from the motorcycles revving at night, are these people bothering you at all?
Well the dogs are constantly trying to get my son, the burning plastics can be smelt in the house, they’ve broken a section of our fence trying to get their dogs, and of course the 3am motorcycle business.
I was thinking of a few words and maybe a little beer money for whatever your neighbourhood has for scary bastards. A few hundo in beer money for a few 1%ers to turn up on their doorstep and tell them to knock it the fuck off…
“They” will be more flexible. So?
Do you know if they own the house? Find out.
They could be renting the place or - as was the situation in my neighborhood - one of your bikers could have “borrowed” the house from a family member. In our neighborhood, the house previously belonged to a distant relative who passed away. The majority of the family lives over a thousand miles away, so they told their wastrel daughter that she could use the house while she was getting clean.
Needless to say, the “getting clean” process never happened. She invited a host of random people to hang out at her place and they trashed it over the course of almost a year. Eventually, the family found out about the situation when one of the neighbors thought to look into ownership. They kicked the daughter out of the house and have been gutting it for the last two months, trying to clear out all of the damage done by the daughter and her friends.
Long story short, find out who actually owns the house. That may give you some options…
Seems like the issue is what can you do that won’t also blowback on you. They know where you live, and anything you do to make their lives miserable can also happen to you. As others said I would document everything, and report anything that’s illegal. You might be able to get animal control or some agency like that out for the dogs. There might be noise ordinances for the night motorcycles. Anything you file I’d try to make anonymous.
Sometimes your local legislator’s office can make things happen if police or whoever seem to drag their feet. You talk to your city councilor / state reps staffer, maybe get a bunch of neighbors all to sign a thing or show up at their office/event, and then they’ll lean on the cops. Local politicians pay attention to organized groups of people who seem like they won’t give up (vs individuals who are pissed off but seem unlikely to be persistent)
I’d recommend those cameras with the ball enclosure so someone can’t see which direction it’s pointed. If you don’t already have a fence (and it’s appropriate) I’d put one up. Could also plant privacy hedge type plants (like arbor vitae).
We’re currently working towards cameras, and while we have fences, they’re ranch style so they don’t stop anything that’s more persistent than a dead cat. We have been breaking up our Yucca grass and trailing it along the fence to help keep their dogs out.
It sounds like you’re dealing with a biker gang. If that’s the case then you’re not going to be able to reason with them. They’re further entrenched in their lifestyle than in regular society. I hate to suggest narcing, but next time you call the cops, let them know that they’re running gang activities out of the house. Cops care more about gangs than they do noise complaints. If you’re in a really bad neighborhood then they still might not do anything about it, but they’re more likely to mobilize if they think that there’s the possibility of a big bust. Be careful though, if the gang suspects you ratted on them, it can be a hard time for you.
Seems like a bit of a leap. They’re probably just regular ol’ white trash.
Doesn’t seem like a leap at all to me. What they described is a gang flop house, not some po-dunk family. It should be fairly easy to tell the difference though. Biker gangs typically wear patches on their jackets indicating their membership.
OP never said that they’re white, and there are many different ethnicities that ride Harleys.
Also when the cops find out you lied about gang activity, to manipulate them into moving against non gang members, you’re fucked.
You move.
It’s not up to you to control their behavior if it’s not criminal.
I don’t agree with the second sentence, but the OP’s options are basically “live with it until they leave of their own accord” or “move yourself.” The government will be no help here unless you know someone in it, especially if it’s a large-ish town.
Please explain. How does OP have the right to dictate the bahaviour of other people when it’s only an annoyance to them, rather than criminal or directly harmful?
Technically violations of noise ordinances are criminal, although they’re usually minor misdemeanors. That would cover the bikes revving at 3am. The foul smells of plastic burning is probably also illegal.
Really this most of the rest of it covered under “don’t be a dick.” If someone’s life’s work is to be a dick, we should determine which people want to be dicks and put them in the dick section of town where they can all be dicks without anyone else complaining. It’s just crazy to hear people sticking up for obvious assholes and being “MAH RIGHTS” about it.
It’s just crazy to hear people sticking up for obvious assholes and being “MAH RIGHTS” about it.
That’s very literally what rights are all about, my dude. If you only had the right to peacefully protest when it was something popular, like bringing Firefly back to finish the series, then there wouldn’t be any point to enshrining it as a right. Rights have to exist for everyone, even for truly awful people, or they aren’t rights at all.
Look, your posting history says you’re a reasonable person, and I respect that about you.
We’re not talking people next door protesting some government action. We’re not event talking about people doing something unpopular. We’re talking about people who don’t have the common courtesy to be a good neighbor. It’s “I will do whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want and if I’m bothering other people in my neighborhood then fuck them because no one tells me what to do.” I live in an area where I regularly have to deal with people rolling coal and revving their engines because they want people to know the rules don’t apply to them and no one is going to tell them what to do.
The old rule was “you right to swing your fist ends at my nose.” After COVID it seems like the rule is “I’ll swing my fist wherever the hell I want, and you had better get out of my way.” The local PD has been quiet quitting ever since then unless they can harass some minorities.
I understand your frustration with shitty neighbors. Really. Esp. since I lived on the west side of Chicago and had to deal with all of the nonsense that comes with it. (Although, honestly, the local gang wasn’t too bad; as long as you weren’t fucking with them and weren’t a customer, they left you alone. Overall they seemed mostly like they were just trying to get by.)
But the problem is, where do you draw a line? Yes, OPs neighbors sound like antisocial assholes, based on how I perceive people, and how I live my own life. But if OP was a religious fundamentalist, then they would be framing things like an LGBTQ+ couple having a pride flag in the same kind of way, and claim that it was causing them the same distress to have obviously non-straight neighbors that were ‘forcing their gay lifestyle on him’, or were ‘grooming children’. And it’s quite reasonable to claim that flying a pride flag on your own property, or having a garden party with your LGBTQ+ friends on your own property, is a case where your neighbors shouldn’t have any say at all over your conduct.
I don’t like using concepts like ‘common values’ or ‘community values’ on things like this, because that’s a very steep and slippery slope to redlining neighborhoods and institutional racism/sexism/etc. So I try to look for bright lines that you can apply in all circumstances. And it seems to me that, once you can point to a real, direct harm, then you have a solid case that it’s reasonable to take action.
people rolling coal
This one bothers me personally as well, because it causes real, proven harms to the environment. Yeah, the individual effect is small, but the failure to enforce emissions laws in general–or to toughen them–is killing us.
I’ve been in this situation several times. In the first case we moved out because the neighbour was also harassing our landlord and he decided to sell rather than deal with her. In the second case, the neighbours’ landlord evicted them because they accidentally burned down the garage. In the third case another neighbour (a big guy whose face is mostly scars) threatened them with violence and it worked.
I think the first avenue I’ll have to try here is the land lord, I’ve never seen him but there’s gotta be documents who owns the building.
Aside from the Harley thing being a nuisance, I’m absolutely thankful we live in a society where there is nothing you can “do about” the neighbors you don’t like.
You have the option to move, I suppose.
Where do you live? Need a place with a friendly neighborhood to cook my moonshine and get drunk all day with my cousin wife. She’s a huge fan of Barbra Streisand and a bit deaf so I hope you won’t mind. Most of our dogs are friendly with the kids unless they don’t ride a bike.
I need to warn you though, sometimes my wife and get arguments about politics, especially when we start drinking in the morning, but it only happens once or twice in a week. No biggie.
Did I say she’s a bit deaf?
Anyway. See you soon neighbor!
A lot of it depends on local regulations.
HERE, a property can be declared a “chronic nuisance property”:
https://www.portland.gov/code/14/b60
But your mileage may vary depending on local ordinance.
Are they renters? Can you complain to the homeowner?
That’s an option I’ve considered and from what I can tell the property might belong to an old guy the town over, but I can’t find any recent contact info. I’ll look into contacting city records.
Many paces do not allow more than “x” number of unrelated people to live in the same house. Might try that avenue. If its several people, see what zoning allows max capacity of the home to be. Buildin, housing and fire departments don’t like too many people in one house.
That’s actually a wholly new idea to me, I’ll be looking into this immediately. Thanks!
Best of luck.
Not sure where you live but if this happened in Japan you’d talk to the local Yakuza and they’d take care of it. Meaning they’d make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Sadly, the US keeps all it’s organized crime in the halls of government buildings.
Sounds like a J6 opinion…
If you live in Jersey I can hook you up. But be prepared to return the favour.
Have you tried setting their house on fire?
/s
That might have some undesireable repercussions
