Well, this sucked as well

[cantdog]

Okay, here's the deal.

My daughter has the upper half of a duplex house. That is, her apartment consists of half the house. Two apartments, stacked one atop the other. She has been a renter there for many years now. This fall, a new set of neighbors rented the lower floor.

We have our Sunday nights at my daughter's place because the space is marginally larger. We can all find a seat in the same room easier in her place than in ours. Since well before these people moved in, every or nearly every Sunday we have a dinner party. Then we talk, at some length. Music plays on the stereo. But the music is set to a level which does not interfere with conversation; conversation is, after all, the point of the gatherings. Consequently, there is no loud music.

Now, these people are distinctly not normal.

When my daughter moved in there years ago, the landlord had told her she could use the cellar of the building, and she had placed a small wine rack in it. The same landlord told these people they could also use the cellar, and they have moved a good amount of stuff into there. So far, all serene.

But they began to weird my daughter out. When she went to fetch wine, she found they had thrown a blankie over the wine rack. A blankie! My daughter asked herself what the fuck does this mean, but she didn't object. No harm done, after all. She extracted her bottles and left.

Then my daughter went out of town for a day and a half. When she returned, it was another half a day before she happened to go into the unheated back pantry area. There she found her wine rack, empty, in the unheated space. Also, all the wine and champagne, in Wal-Mart bags, all over the floor up there.

Not once had the neighbors spoken to her about the wine rack. They just moved it all up there when her back was turned.

The only thing the girl had put the cellar was just the one object. Now, it had been vandalized. Imagine if you can the sort of mind it would require to have committed such an enormity.

She stowed rack and wine in her guest room, and went downstairs to confront them.

"Why did you move the wine rack? Don't you understand it could have frozen? There's three hundred dollars at least of wine there. The landlord said I was free to use the cellar. I see you are, too. The only thing I have down there is this one wine rack. Leave it alone!"

But they said, "Wine doesn't freeze!"

"That doesn't mean you get to mess with my wine!"

"The landlord said we could have the cellar!"

"He told me that, too. Have the cellar! All I want to have is my wine, in the cellar, where the temperature is fairly constant. Leave my stuff the hell alone!"

"But but but..."

"What made you think you could do this to my wine?"

"Wine doesn't freeze! I used to drink it, I know!"

"You had no right to mess with my wine at all!"

Well, they were cringing and blubbering, but also absolutely unapologetic. She left, heroically, because to stay would have been to scream at them. Anger had begun to take over reason.

That very day, they wrote to the landlord complaining that she "made noise" sometimes in the late evening. The landlord forwarded her the letter, or at least the complaint. And it's true, she does, actually, make quite a bit of noise.

My daughter explained, "Well, yes. I had sex. I do that. They "make noise" in the mornings. I sleep in the mornings, because I work evenings. But you know? I figured, I live in an apartment! I got over it, because I realize I do not have the house to myself!"

Plus, she told the landlord the story of the wine rack.

What makes people start a war with a neighbor? These people have lost their car, and winter is on us. They may well need a neighbor for something. It's very poor policy. Two tenants back, in the crescendo leading to a messy divorce, the people who were then downstairs used to throw things, slam things off the furniture, and howl and curse at one another at all hours. But my daughter didn't call any police about that, for the very good reasons I shall now list.

1) Smoke was not rising
2) No gunshots were heard
3) and they lived in apartments. If for some reason you really need tranquility you move to a house all your own, in the country. This sort of thing, while legitimate to bitch about, is just what happens when you live that close to other people.

Last night, Sunday night, these neighbors called the police because of the noise upstairs. 8:30 at night. Talk.

She told the cops she'd deal with it, and she told us all to calm it down. But she was seething. Why didn't they talk to her? Why was the first step the police?

Then! Eleven thirty, and the crowd was cut in half. Many of us had already gone home, the party was winding down. The police show up again.

Because the assholes had called them a second time!!

My daughter is thirty years old! Never in her entire life has anyone done such a thing to her. Conversation! She was infuriated! It's war, now. Somehow, she must remove these people from her building. They have to go.

Police! They told her, on the second call they usually serve papers. They didn't in this instance, because they knew her mom. But if this keeps happening, it will force their hand.

I place the story before the consulting committee, which is you.

Freeze their doors shut? Deliver buckets of horse shit to their rug once a week? I like the shit one, because it sounds so like justice-- a pile of shit once a week that they didn't ask for, that will keep happening until they pack their asses up and leave. This is technically feasible, too. I know where to obtain cheap plastic pails by the dozen, at a feed store. I know a man whose buddy keeps horses. That man was there at the Sunday night when this happened, and he too resents these folks. Remove the fuse and disable their heating? All doable. They broke their back door, which is also the door into my daughter's unheated pantry. The day she found the wine rack up there, they also told her the back door had been left unlocked already for some weeks, ever since they broke the lock. So we can get in there any time we like, without going through my daughter's place with, for example, a pail of horse dung.

Or maybe my daughter will just have to move.

 

[CharleyH]

Now, these people are distinctly not normal.

THIS is what makes me want to read more.

 

[cloudy]

Do she and the landlord have a good relationship?

Tell her to document, document, document - every little pissant thing, and then take it to the landlord.

 

[lipsofanangel]

Do she and the landlord have a good relationship?

Tell her to document, document, document - every little pissant thing, and then take it to the landlord.

I'm with Cloudy on this. I think it'll get you further in the long run.

 

[Guest]

Well, OK. I'm with cloudy, too, I guess.

But I still like the horsie poop idea.

 

[Penelope Street]

I'm sorry to hear of your daughter's dilemma. That more than just sucks.

P.S.
Not that it matters in the big scheme of things, but I left some wine on our porch once and, yeah, it definitely does freeze.

 

[CharleyH]

What makes people start a war with a neighbor?

What makes one on Lit? Stupidity or miscommunication? What made a neighbour in Germany (WW2) and now makes one with Iraq?

 

[SeaCat]

Okay, here's the deal.

My daughter has the upper half of a duplex house. That is, her apartment consists of half the house. Two apartments, stacked one atop the other. She has been a renter there for many years now. This fall, a new set of neighbors rented the lower floor.

We have our Sunday nights at my daughter's place because the space is marginally larger. We can all find a seat in the same room easier in her place than in ours. Since well before these people moved in, every or nearly every Sunday we have a dinner party. Then we talk, at some length. Music plays on the stereo. But the music is set to a level which does not interfere with conversation; conversation is, after all, the point of the gatherings. Consequently, there is no loud music.

Now, these people are distinctly not normal.

When my daughter moved in there years ago, the landlord had told her she could use the cellar of the building, and she had placed a small wine rack in it. The same landlord told these people they could also use the cellar, and they have moved a good amount of stuff into there. So far, all serene.

But they began to weird my daughter out. When she went to fetch wine, she found they had thrown a blankie over the wine rack. A blankie! My daughter asked herself what the fuck does this mean, but she didn't object. No harm done, after all. She extracted her bottles and left.

Then my daughter went out of town for a day and a half. When she returned, it was another half a day before she happened to go into the unheated back pantry area. There she found her wine rack, empty, in the unheated space. Also, all the wine and champagne, in Wal-Mart bags, all over the floor up there.

Not once had the neighbors spoken to her about the wine rack. They just moved it all up there when her back was turned.

The only thing the girl had put the cellar was just the one object. Now, it had been vandalized. Imagine if you can the sort of mind it would require to have committed such an enormity.

She stowed rack and wine in her guest room, and went downstairs to confront them.

"Why did you move the wine rack? Don't you understand it could have frozen? There's three hundred dollars at least of wine there. The landlord said I was free to use the cellar. I see you are, too. The only thing I have down there is this one wine rack. Leave it alone!"

But they said, "Wine doesn't freeze!"

"That doesn't mean you get to mess with my wine!"

"The landlord said we could have the cellar!"

"He told me that, too. Have the cellar! All I want to have is my wine, in the cellar, where the temperature is fairly constant. Leave my stuff the hell alone!"

"But but but..."

"What made you think you could do this to my wine?"

"Wine doesn't freeze! I used to drink it, I know!"

"You had no right to mess with my wine at all!"

Well, they were cringing and blubbering, but also absolutely unapologetic. She left, heroically, because to stay would have been to scream at them. Anger had begun to take over reason.

That very day, they wrote to the landlord complaining that she "made noise" sometimes in the late evening. The landlord forwarded her the letter, or at least the complaint. And it's true, she does, actually, make quite a bit of noise.

My daughter explained, "Well, yes. I had sex. I do that. They "make noise" in the mornings. I sleep in the mornings, because I work evenings. But you know? I figured, I live in an apartment! I got over it, because I realize I do not have the house to myself!"

Plus, she told the landlord the story of the wine rack.

What makes people start a war with a neighbor? These people have lost their car, and winter is on us. They may well need a neighbor for something. It's very poor policy. Two tenants back, in the crescendo leading to a messy divorce, the people who were then downstairs used to throw things, slam things off the furniture, and howl and curse at one another at all hours. But my daughter didn't call any police about that, for the very good reasons I shall now list.

1) Smoke was not rising
2) No gunshots were heard
3) and they lived in apartments. If for some reason you really need tranquility you move to a house all your own, in the country. This sort of thing, while legitimate to bitch about, is just what happens when you live that close to other people.

Last night, Sunday night, these neighbors called the police because of the noise upstairs. 8:30 at night. Talk.

She told the cops she'd deal with it, and she told us all to calm it down. But she was seething. Why didn't they talk to her? Why was the first step the police?

Then! Eleven thirty, and the crowd was cut in half. Many of us had already gone home, the party was winding down. The police show up again.

Because the assholes had called them a second time!!

My daughter is thirty years old! Never in her entire life has anyone done such a thing to her. Conversation! She was infuriated! It's war, now. Somehow, she must remove these people from her building. They have to go.

Police! They told her, on the second call they usually serve papers. They didn't in this instance, because they knew her mom. But if this keeps happening, it will force their hand.

I place the story before the consulting committee, which is you.

Freeze their doors shut? Deliver buckets of horse shit to their rug once a week? I like the shit one, because it sounds so like justice-- a pile of shit once a week that they didn't ask for, that will keep happening until they pack their asses up and leave. This is technically feasible, too. I know where to obtain cheap plastic pails by the dozen, at a feed store. I know a man whose buddy keeps horses. That man was there at the Sunday night when this happened, and he too resents these folks. Remove the fuse and disable their heating? All doable. They broke their back door, which is also the door into my daughter's unheated pantry. The day she found the wine rack up there, they also told her the back door had been left unlocked already for some weeks, ever since they broke the lock. So we can get in there any time we like, without going through my daughter's place with, for example, a pail of horse dung.

Or maybe my daughter will just have to move.

Oh the joys of livng with neighbors in an Apartment building.

Your daughters best bet is to start a log. List all offenses including the wine rack being moved and the Police being called. (Include if possible the Police reports.)

If the people downstairs do something like damaging a door or her vehicle, report it to the police so it is on record and logged. If the people downstairs have a loud party that runs beyond the normal hours, have her call the police and have this logged as well.

It is people like this that make apartment living uncomfortable.

I mentioned well over a year ago about my neighbor in an apartment building I was living in at the time. We had fenced in yards, and I blocked a hole in the fence that his dog was using to come into our yard. (He would literaly push his dog through the hole so it would od it's business in our court yard and not in his.)

When I blocked this hole he came over carrying his dog and insisted I open the hole in the fence. He claimed that he and his dog had been there first and therefore his dog was to be allowed access to my courtyard.

Naturaly I refused and he complained several times. If I want Dog Shit in my courtyard I'll get a dog. Besides his dog loved to chase my cats. It would try to get into our apartment and would often sit outside the screen door and bark at our cats. Several times he kicked the blockage away from the hole.

Finally I rebuilt that section of fence. He couldn't open the hole again without taking down an entire section of fence. He came over again to complain. One of my other neighbors, a Sherriffs Deputy, was over to visit at the time. He set his dog down on my patio, (where it promptly took a major shit,) while telling me I was being cruel because his dog was feeling neglected. It didn't have access to the space it normally had.

I asked him, quite politely if his dog paid rent on my place. He became upset at my sarcastic question and told me his dog had as much if not more rights to my courtyard than I did. I got irritated. I got up and picked up his dog by the scruff of the neck and headed towards the corner of the courtyard where I had the grill. He asked me what I was doing and I told him that he had pushed his dog into my courtyard way too many times. In my bok that meant the dog was a wild dog and I, like the Chinese never turned down free food.

He grabbed his dog and rapidly vanished. I never saw his ass again.

Cat

 

[CharleyH]

Do she and the landlord have a good relationship?

Tell her to document, document, document - every little pissant thing, and then take it to the landlord.

Terrific on a personal level, but what about a societal one?

 

[cloudy]

Terrific on a personal level, but what about a societal one?

eh, I have too much shit on my hands at the mo to worry about society.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

A lot of stuff that was very funny

Hahah! What a great source of great stories you are. I love every word.

 

[sophia jane]

My upstairs neighbor complained about our noise level one time, at about 4 in the afternoon when I had six kids here playing. I knew they were being too loud and I was very sorry we had bothered our neighbor. But his handling left alot to be desired. He beat on my door and when I answered, said "you do know that other people live here right?" I apologized, and I've tried to keep my kids quiet since, but it sucks to have an asshole for a neighbor.
I wish I had good advice for you Cant. They seem to have pushed things past the point where polite discussion or an invitation is going to solve the problem. Maybe documentation and talking to the landlord is the best bet. In fact, a friendly conversation with the landlord now might be an okay idea. Just a simple "I just wanted to let you know. I had some people over like I've done every week for however many months, but the neighbor called the police. But you know the kind of person I am and know that I'm not a partier and I feel awful that this is happening." Giving the landlord her side of the story (and also trying to get him to her side by kissing up and being friendly) might be better than waiting for the neighbor to present the landlord with a list of police reports.

 

[cantdog]

Yes. She has been there six years, trouble free until now. And she oiled the hardwood floors for him, using the linseed oil he wanted to use, rebuilt the sagging and crooked cabinets in the kitchen, insulated the doors... she has not only been a steady tenant but has improved the property. She is the one who makes arrangements for snow removal every year.

But. The old guy is more senile all the time. He is difficult, nowadays, to make follow through. He handles every situation de novo, because for him, it is de novo. He has forgotten any history, you see.

A more reliable thing might be to charge them in civil court about the vandalism. A public record of that incident would be useful if their complaints land her in court.

But of course she would never approve of the shit or the ice or the fuses or even making a fuss about the vandalism.

I would have to do that without consulting her...

And really, I've already gotten over this, myself. But it's like living over a nest of vipers; one hardly dares walk around.

I think she may just have to move. I said, "So tell the landlord that! Tell him you feel like you can't so much as run the washing machine or walk around. Tell him, they have driven you off, so you're going to have to move."

She was unsure. Seething resentment had given way to moping at that particular moment. But it would call the question. Which tenant does he want?

 

[CharleyH]

eh, I have too much shit on my hands at the mo to worry about society.

Damn, you have experienced my dog.

I get it C, but such a shame.

 

[cantdog]

They are not, I think, primarily concerned with influence on the landlord. They are calling the police. This is a power play.

She is not free, any longer, to ignore the problem, while they compile a police record. She must act. And she is thirty years old, old enough to work this out on her own. I believe she could have influenced the landlord very nicely, if he were not failing so. But the police just want the endless yapping to stop, and they have ways of forcing the matter to a head, if they feel inclined to.

She has to act. It only takes one to start a war. She is in one, and she will have to decide what is called for. Perhaps she could buy the house. The landlord placed it on the market not long ago, but withdrew it again. She can afford to do that. It is inertia which has kept her from moving, and a reluctance to deal with tenants that kept her from buying the place before. It's her call.

I would have loved a really genius idea, though. Keep mulling it.

 

[CharleyH]

It only takes one to start a war. She is in one, and she will have to decide what is called for...

I would have loved a really genius idea, though. Keep mulling it.

Interesting thought, Cant.

 

[Liar]

I would have loved a really genius idea, though. Keep mulling it.

Sign em up for the mother of all mail order porn catalog spam floods.

 

[cantdog]

Yeah. It's automatic, it will indeed continue until they move. Heh.

 

[Guest]

im not too much into murder but you live in a land where icicles grow freely.
perfect weapon.


sigh
i wish i knew. i can say, selfishly, thank god its not me.

 

[Guest]

Is she interested in buying the house?

That would solve many a problem, I would think.

 

[SeaCat]

Depending on how much access she has to their place or their services she has many options. It depends on how nasty she wants to be.

Give me a PM with her situation and her nastyness level and I'll give you some ideas.

Cat

 

[The_Fool]

It would really suck if a pipe broke while all were away and everything got soaked.

 

[cantdog]

She toyed with the idea, but she isn't very horny about dealing with tenants.

Pharmacy is retail, and she comes home with the idea that she now has the option whether or not to bother with other people. A landlord finds herself interrupted sometimes.

But then, when she was toying with the idea and thinking why buy trouble-- well, she didn't really have to buy the house. It was just an idle thought, then.

 

[cantdog]

It would really suck if a pipe broke while all were away and everything got soaked.

And frozen

 

[SlickTony]

Couldn't she sue them for harrassment or filing a malicious report or something?

Wine certainly does freeze. I ended up having a Chenin Blanc slushy because of this.

Those wine fridges are getting cheaper all the time, you can see them in Wal-Mart and Costco and places like that.