Replies

I have a lot of sympathy for you and the hubby as something similar I dealt with rude neighbors. I had an apartment made from an old Victorian house in a neighborhood I thought was very quaint and quiet and neighborly. The apartment-home had lots of charm but thin as hell walls. I just had back to my native city (Rochester NY) from Boston where I got my MA degree. I got a job in an outsourcing firm and worked long hours. I had pretty good neighbors (who shared the other 1/2 of the house until a college frat moved in.) I had the type of landlord whose philosophy was "screw background checks...as long as they can pay the rent." I got not only parties (where the music of choice was bass-thumping wall shaking rap music like the phony wiggers they were) where I could not sleep on the weekend, I had beer cans all over the lawn and I used to pick them up for deposit. These bastards had the audacity to say it were "their" bottles I was taking. They filthied up the walk with toilet paper and openly had arguments with their girlfriends on the porch at 4 in the morning when I had to get to work at 8am. Then, they had a party that was so destructive one weekend (lots of breaking glass, fights on the lawn et. al.) that I called the police. They came and went...thanks a lot. Then for revenge the kids went downstairs and BASHED in my electrical box and all my lights went out. They came knocking on my door in hoards, on top of my car and broke my antennae. One kid said "I am going to kill you...crush your head in bastard!!" in a RAGING voice. I somehow fumbled in the black darkness and called 911 and the police showed up. The sounds of breaking glass and banging on my door were so frightening but the police came finally. They caught three people running like Owens and were almost 1/2 mile away. They asked me to identify these people and to their FACE I said they were the ones who broke the stuff and made threats against my life. They asked if I want to press charges (this was 3:30 in the morning mind you) and I looked in the kids' eyes and said "yes" and signed the papers. They were led away and the party dispersed. I was given in return for release from prison a one year restraining order, and their fraternity was given a one year penalty or something. My landlord said they were OUT FINALLY...but because of a fluke, they were allowed to stay for another few months until their lease ran out. I got out and broke my lease and told him to sue me if he wanted to (he got me out of it and promised a recommendation) and in 2000 I moved to the apartment I still live in...mature tenants, respectful landlords and even an underground indoor garage! (I had on street parking...yechhh!!).

So you can see that I have heaps of sympathy for you. MANY of us had the roommate or neighbor from HELL.

I defy anyone to say otherwise! ;-)

My advice is to ask yourself whether living there is worth it or not, and if the answer is no, get legal advice on how to get out ASAP.

Oh I DEFINITELY feel for you and am glad it worked out for you. When my husband and I were first married, we had a couple of neighbors in apartments like that, but they soon moved out, or were kicked out. We waited so long to buy the house we really wanted. He and his wife keep their house up, but he's just a horrid drunk. When he's sober, he's fine. His wife AND his kids never bother us. When he's drunk, he usually puts his friends' kids up to doing things, which is sad. I've gotten alot of good advice and sympathy from all of you. I think the first thing I'm going to do is look into noise ordinances, then maybe use a camcorder to document what's going on, and then we'll go from there.