To Complain or Not to Complain...

[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.