To Complain or Not to Complain...

[RedefinedDiva]

I am having a dilemma and I need advice from my GC fam on what to do.

My downstairs neighbors are crackheads. I have never seen them smoke crack or anything, but I just KNOW. (If you saw my neighbor, you'd have NO doubt in your mind either!) There are people in and out of there all day, everyday. Some of these people look quite unseemly, if you know what I mean. Well, this morning's incident was the last straw.

Here it was 4:30am and someone is BANGING on the door downstairs. They proceed to come around to the bedroom window and begin BANGING once again. When that didn't work, they returned to BANG on the front door. Finally, they come BACK to the bedroom window and proceed to YELL for someone to open the door, in conjunction to BANGING. I was so startled by the initial banging that I nearly fell out of bed. I looked at the clock and it was about 4:30 am. Of course, I was BOILING mad and COULD NOT go back to sleep!!

This is NOT the first time. These "people" are constantly in and out. They BANG on the door at random hours of the day and night. Some of them couple their banging with yelling so that they can gain entry or "score." Today was just the last straw because you all know that I am in school and keep crazy hours. After being in school all day and FINALLY having the chance to get some rest before it all starts again, the last thing I want is to be disrupted from my sleep by some damn crackheads!

My dilemma is deciding if I should complain or not. And if so, what is the nature of my complaint? I feel like I am in a Catch-22. I live alone so I am concerned with the charaters that come around this area. I don't fear for my safety, but I am concerned. However, I know that carckheads are unpredictable and I don't want to "snitch" on them and they try to do me something. I also don't know what to tell the office if I do complain. I know that people are free to have company as they please, so I don't feel like I can complain about people knocking on the door. But this "traffic" has GOT to stop. I have had enough.

PLEASE offer me some suggestions. (And for the record, moving is NOT an option right now) What should I do?

[CrimsonTide4]

Register it as noise complaints -- loud noise during the "quiet hours (usually 10PM - 8:00AM or thereabouts). From what I remember about my lease, if enough complaints are made in a certain time period -- 3 in 3 months -- your neighbors could face eviction.

Hope this helps! I've been there before.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by CrimsonTide4

Register it as noise complaints -- loud noise during the "quiet hours (usually 10PM - 8:00AM or thereabouts). From what I remember about my lease, if enough complaints are made in a certain time period -- 3 in 3 months -- your neighbors could face eviction.

Hope this helps! I've been there before.

This sounds like a nice logical solution to me.

In other words, co-sign.

[neosoul]

Originally Posted by CrimsonTide4

Register it as noise complaints -- loud noise during the "quiet hours (usually 10PM - 8:00AM or thereabouts). From what I remember about my lease, if enough complaints are made in a certain time period -- 3 in 3 months -- your neighbors could face eviction.

Hope this helps! I've been there before.

you could even call the cops, citing that as noise level as an issue, and they can come check it out w/o mentioning names

[unspokenone25]

Soror RD, you already know what I'm going to say.

Sleep is precious when you are in law school so I say complain. Your lease should have some restrictions regarding a noise level after a certain period of time (e.g., after 10p.m. during the work week). I know you don't want to "snitch" but this is about your livelihood, not theirs.

[RedefinedDiva]

I'm all about telling. But I don't want these crazy crackheads to try to harm. One of them accosted me at 4:30am once during finals when I was returning from studying. I almost ran over the chick! She was coming towards my car and acting all strange. She had been downstairs trying to score and must have assumed I was coming around for that reason as well. When she heard that engine revving up, she left the area.

I just called the office and complained. Hopefully something will be done. They need to shut that crackhouse down. If it happens again, I'm gonna call the police. There needs to be a raid up in there or something.

[Honeykiss1974]

I was in a VERY similar situation not that long ago, exceptinstead of crack, the nuts next door smoked weed. And they smoked so much that the smell would be in my apartment STRONG. And since my job does random drug testing, there was NO WAY I was going to let a dime bag and a few ragamuffins stand between me and my paycheck. I complained to the office manager. She told me that the next time it happened was to just call the police and in the meantime she sent them a very strong letter worded in such a way that it seemed like everyone in the building was complaining of the smell as opposed to just me. The letter worked - now I am just overcome by the strong smell of cinnamon (lol) but its better than weed.

I would tell the office manager of the situation and let them know so that she can at least do whatever they can on their end. In my complex, if the police comes out to your place for stuff like that (ie drugs, fights, etc), you will be evicted pronto so don't be afraid to call.

Good luck!

[lovelyivy84]

Call the office and the cops!

Don't eb afraid to call the cops, because if you don't you may be the one who gets hurt. I live in an apartment building, and one of my neighbors- a couple- was always reaaaal "twitchy". Kurt said they would have huge loud physical fights (I wasnt there and sleep like the dead so I never heard it). I came home one day to find that one of them and his boy had burst into an upstairs neighbors apartment and threatened to beat the hell out of one of the guys who lived there!

Come to find out they were meth heads and had actually offered meth to other neighbors!!!

Don't take your personal safety for granted on this one.

[TonyB06]

I'd also let your landlord know that you've "created a record" regarding your complaint to them.

If nothing else, if something jumps off, they know they are on record as having been told of the situation on ____ date, and could have some down-the-line liability. This alone should prompt management to take some action.

[mccoyred]

Originally Posted by Honeykiss1974

The letter worked - now I am just overcome by the strong smell of cinnamon (lol) but its better than weed.

I thought NUTMEG was used

[SummerChild]

Soror since you have lodged a complaint with the landlord, I would ask the landlord to keep the source of the complaint in confidence as people are crazy these days and I would not want them to try to retaliate. I know you said moving is not an option but would moving to say another apartment in the same building be an option? Would that help? Can you ask your landlord to evict them? There are also housing clinics in many cities that deal with tenants rights and they might be able to get your neighbors out w/out any cost to you.

ETA: Soror, I am not sure if you said that moving is not an option due to your lease or other reasons (financial, etc.). However, if it is due to your lease, I would encourage you to take a look at it and call a housing clinic b/c there are grounds by law that allow you to break a lease w/out penalty. The grounds don't have to be written into the lease either. For example, I later found out that when someone broke into my apt a few years ago, I could have gotten out of my lease w/out penalty. Of course the landlord failed to mention that when I called to report the incident. If the conditions are unsafe, I do believe that you may have grounds to get out of your lease w/out penalty. Just a thought.

SC

Originally Posted by RedefinedDiva

I am having a dilemma and I need advice from my GC fam on what to do.

My downstairs neighbors are crackheads. I have never seen them smoke crack or anything, but I just KNOW. (If you saw my neighbor, you'd have NO doubt in your mind either!) There are people in and out of there all day, everyday. Some of these people look quite unseemly, if you know what I mean. Well, this morning's incident was the last straw.

Here it was 4:30am and someone is BANGING on the door downstairs. They proceed to come around to the bedroom window and begin BANGING once again. When that didn't work, they returned to BANG on the front door. Finally, they come BACK to the bedroom window and proceed to YELL for someone to open the door, in conjunction to BANGING. I was so startled by the initial banging that I nearly fell out of bed. I looked at the clock and it was about 4:30 am. Of course, I was BOILING mad and COULD NOT go back to sleep!!

This is NOT the first time. These "people" are constantly in and out. They BANG on the door at random hours of the day and night. Some of them couple their banging with yelling so that they can gain entry or "score." Today was just the last straw because you all know that I am in school and keep crazy hours. After being in school all day and FINALLY having the chance to get some rest before it all starts again, the last thing I want is to be disrupted from my sleep by some damn crackheads!

My dilemma is deciding if I should complain or not. And if so, what is the nature of my complaint? I feel like I am in a Catch-22. I live alone so I am concerned with the charaters that come around this area. I don't fear for my safety, but I am concerned. However, I know that carckheads are unpredictable and I don't want to "snitch" on them and they try to do me something. I also don't know what to tell the office if I do complain. I know that people are free to have company as they please, so I don't feel like I can complain about people knocking on the door. But this "traffic" has GOT to stop. I have had enough.

PLEASE offer me some suggestions. (And for the record, moving is NOT an option right now) What should I do?

[Lady of Pearl]

As a seasoned tenant not by my choice, I have encountered some similar situations. I complained to my previous landlord about my upstairs neighbors and had to eventually call the city on the landlord. Needless to say I did move- and no longer live there. I strongly suggest that you get a lawyer through legal aid to advise you- . At my new residence I had a problem similar to yours but not to that degree. People were loitering on the steps and smoking marijuana. I made several telephone calls to the landlord and they did address the problem. I guess it all depends on whether or not your landlord is responsive and wants to maintain you as a tenant. I suppose you'll have to grin and bear it until your lease is up. I would suggest start looking for another apartment now! In certain areas it is a buyers market for houses and would seriously consider that option just because you won't have to deal with situations as this or even get with a real estate agent to event possibly rent a house. I would also suggest contacting the landlord tenant association as stated earlier by my Soror in the above post. There is a formal process that you have to go through to notify your landlord in writing-that gets results sometimes and the tenant association can counsel you on certain actions to take. I think you can get out of your lease because the landlord is not providing you with an environment that is allowing you to experience peace and quiet. I urge you to contact Legal Aid or the Landlord tenant association in your area.