Community Chat

[Chrystaltree2]

Call your town hall and inquire about the sound ordinances and while you are at it, put in a complaint about the piles of trash your neighbors store in their yard.  I'm sure that must be against some public health ordinance.  Don't approach them yourself about either problem, nothing good will come of it. 

[Julie928]

Many, many thanks to everyone who responded.  I truly appreciate all of your input.  Turns out about 9 last night the amp was turned up even louder (must have been all the beer kicking in) and the guitar playing continued.  I had enough and called the police.  Watching from the front window (like Mrs. Kravitz from Bewitched, lol) I saw the squad car pull up and park in front of my house.  After sitting there for a few minutes the police officer got out of his car and made his way over there.  PARTY OVER!!!!!  I went out today and bought two trellises to attach to our fence to help give us more privacy.  Unfortunately, we just had to take down a huge dead elm tree that was the perfect barrier between us and their filth.  I am determined to turn this ugly situation into something postive.  There are now two bags of trash laying outside their door.  My next action will be to call code enforcement.  Hope it doesn't come to that.....

[PINKdogWOOD]

There are some great suggestions here.  Calling the fire dept - who knew??!!  I never would have thought about calling them for some of these problems. 

I never was able to get the health/trash dept to give me any help with the trash problem next door to me.  I hope you get a better response AND help than I got.

And I had to (sort of) laugh at the comment someone made about you not being allowed to prune or cut back the weeds/whatever in the neighbor's yard now coming over into  your's.  The day the 2 guys who bought the house next door to me moved in, the father of one of these guys (who I called the slum lord) had his tools out CUTTING the wisteria OFF OF OUR GARAGE.  First this wisteria is probably 60-70 years old, a really speciman variety.  Mind you, my husband is a landscaper by trade, a master gardener, been doing this work since he was 20, has his degree in it. 

Driving home that fateful evening watched this guy just hacking the heck out of OUR wistersia on OUR garage!!!!  Needless to say my husband absolutely FREAKED out on this guy.  Well, long story short, the father never came back to his son's house.  And our wisteria grew back.  Yes it is invasive and we admit that.  However YOU NEVER CUT anybody's landscaping.  If it's in your yard, go for it however.  I have no problem with that especially if they're just weeds AND I know they're just weeds.

[lobstergal]

OP, you could get a privacy screen that attaches to your fence.I'm not sure if they sell them in your local stores but I know you can get it on ebay. 

[Pearlee]

@Julie928 

LOL about Mrs. Kravitz & Bewitched. Thanks for the laugh!

That garbage will bring rats!  It's got to be in a container!

[feline groovy]

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@MaggieMack wrote:

I would be traipsing down to City Hall to learn definitively what your options are. I'm sure there are noise ordinances, barking dog restrictions, weed control regulations, etc. This will not be an easy situation to remedy and you need to be prepared. Where I live, we can only have garbage cans out in view from the street for the 24 hours surrounding pickup. And dogs are not allowed to bark incessantly. People don't like to be essentially told they are slobs with bad habits. You want to approach their compassion and not appear officious or it will just get worse.

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And these days, likely retaliatory.

[feline groovy]

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@Julie928 wrote:

Thank you for your responses!  At this point I feel like this ~ clearly we are dealing with people that are, plainly put, ignorant.  Who does things like that?  If I hated my neighbors with a passion I wouldn't hook up a guitar to an amplifier and play it well after dark.  I should also mention that they had trouble with another neighbor a few houses down.  I won't go into details but the bottom line is I have no intention of living like this.  I'm not perfect and I'm sure we make noise, too.  The difference is we know when & where to draw the line.  I guess if it continues I will file a complaint and if they find out it was us oh well.  Clearly this neighbor & I are not playing on the same field...

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People not raised by at least one decent parent.

(there, but for the grace of God and the universe, go we all)

And they're not necessarily "ignorant".

[feline groovy]

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@fortune wrote:

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@Julie928 wrote:

Good evening, everyone!  Just wanted to share an experience with a neighbor that I guess you could say is less than pleasant.  First, these people let their dogs bark for extended periods of time right outside our window.  Second, they have let their weeds on their side of my fence grow taller than me (and I'm 5'6").  Third, they do not dispose of their trash the way the rest of the neighborhood does.  You see, they hoard it in plastic grocery bags on the side of their house.  Once they have accumulated enough bags they load them in their car and dump them somewhere ~ have no idea where.  Did I mention I can see and smell their trash from our window?  But wait!  There's more!  Then this evening I noticed them setting up an amplifier of some sort in their driveway.  Then the man of the house and one of his buddies starting playing their guitars which yes, are both hooked up to the amplifier.  This is all being done within 20 feet of our window and has gone on for well over an hour.  How would you handle this?  I am not against people having friends over and if you want to play your guitar fine.  But does it have to be hooked up to an amplifier???  We have put a lot of blood, sweat & tears into maintaining our property and have no intention of being chased out because of people like this.  I love it here and want to handle this as neighborly as possible but have to admit both my husband & I are at our wits end.  Thanks in advance, everyone!

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You better believe I would report them!!  They are violating several laws.  First of all, I would report them to your homeowners association, if you have one.  Then, your county most likely has a form or forms for reporting people who don't mow their lawns and have extensive trash on their properties.  Your local police should be called if they violate the after-hours noise laws.  I think there are fines, etc. for infraction of these laws.  I have already had to do this with a neighbor across the street--whom I call Pig Pen.  If you have an elected official in your area, call their office, as well.  Oh, and did I mention the Health Dept.??!!

These people don't deserve any kindness or consideration from you--after all they are driving down your property value, compromising your health and safety,  and making your life a living He--!!

Don't let one more day go by without taking drastic action!! 

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That could result in your death.

I.E.:  people are being killed over mere apartment parking spaces.

For your safety (& those of your loved ones) you should should catch up on how the world - but especially our country - REALLY is.

No one cares anymore about the consequences for their actions, especially the male gender, some of who must always get the last word/deed  in.

And "these"/those people could easily be every single one of us.

[sailor_moon]

feline groovy is right; you don't want to get into a feud, with your neighbors, because you never know how unstable they could be. 

[YorkieonmyPillow]

@Julie928 --- Have you ever spoken to these people at all?

Really it's better to befriend people than start calling the police or other officials when they do something like this.

I wouldn't call the police or anyone else regarding these issues. I would just grin and bear it and try to make friends with them or at least be on speaking terms.

You don't want a war with a close neighbor.