kiki2
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posted on December 9, 2000 04:58:43 PM
Hope you all dont mind if I do some venting here about my horrible neighborhood. Before I get the "why don't you move" remarks, let me say that right now is not a good time for us to move (no matter how hard I pray we could!).
When we bought our first home, we were so excited. It was a nice home for my small family and at a great price and after seeing tons of other homes that didn't suit our fancy, this one was a gem. It is close to schools and churches and at the time had great neighbors. On one side of our home is a small alley but on the other side is a house. This house is less than 5 feet apart from ours. When we moved here, it was occupied by a sweet elderly lady. Unfortunately this lady's family put her in a home and sold the house. It was bought by a couple in their 50's and quickly rented. The first occupants were wonderful. A married couple with a teen daughter and two toddlers. They moved a year later when they bought their own home then the hell began.
The second family was a single, hard-drinking mother with multiple (sometimes abusive) boyfriends and five kids. All over the age of 11. To say the least this once nice home soon became run down. After 2 years, they moved and a friend of this woman (the woman who rented) moved in with his four teenagers. A single father, he was barely at home which meant a NUMEROUS amount of teens hanging out at this residence. The house had worsened and is now a complete dump! And the man and his kids moved out a few days ago. Owners show up today, put "For Rent" sign in window and leave: a broken trampoline in the back yard, a pile of garbage and abandoned freezer on the small, falling down back porch, a discarded bicycle and sled on the front porch, droopy broken mini-blinds in the front window, piles of wood on the side of the house, the screen in the front door ripped and hanging loosely and one of the windows in the front door broken out and replaced with duct tape (not kidding). To say the least, its an eye-sore. When I approached the owners about problems with the property their reaction was "I have a mortgage to pay".
I know there is no meaning to this thread but for me to vent. I know there are responsible homeowners out there who rent but these folks don't give a rat's behind about anything. Has anyone ever encountered a situation like this? Perhaps neighbors from hell? If so, what can be done? I dread what will happen next. I don't understand why anyone would want to pay the high rent these people ask for such a dump! And I get an ulcer worrying about who will move in next. It was enough having to put up with the home conditions but add teens and loud music and the pets they irresponsibly let loose with these last two renters, what will be next? No doubt more of the same. 
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Zazzie
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:03:30 PM
The house is empty----Arson sounds like a good solution
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packer111
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:03:46 PM
My sympathies to you. Don't you have city ordinances to rectify the situation? In most cities it is illegal to let your dog run free let alone leave garbage in the yard. Check with your city hall and see what can be done. Nobody should have to tolerate this.
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Shadowcat
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:08:04 PM
You should call the city health department...if the house is as bad as you say, it could be condemned by the city.
My mother had a friend who was the world's second worst housekeeper-they had pet ducks that roamed through the house, fercryinoutloud!-and when they moved, the neighbors called the health department and the house was condemned. Whoever owned the house either had to get it back up to standards, sell it, or bulldoze it and start over before it could be rented out again.
Edited to add there should be zoning ordnances about the trash in the yard, too.
[ edited by Shadowcat on Dec 9, 2000 05:09 PM ]
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Meya
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:08:27 PM
kiki2, how I can understand your neighbor dilemma. We have pretty good neighbors right now, but have had our share of problems over the years.
You might want to give your city or township trustees or councilmen a call. Anyone who owns and rents property is under certain regulations and laws. Getting the right people to pay some attention to these owners may be just enough to help solve the problem. Unfortunately, the worse shape the property is in, the worse the tenents are going to be.
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Zazzie
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:18:26 PM
sorry---I don't mean to be flippant.
In my town you can complain to city hall about a property and the city sends a warning to the owner that they have so much time to clean up and fix something ---if they don't comply the city comes and does it and the cost is tacked on to their property taxes. This includes debris, overgrown hedges, not mowing the lawn--etc.
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SilkMoth
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:22:31 PM
Shadowcat: Who holds the title of worst housekeeper, then?
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not SilkMoth anywhere but here
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Shadowcat
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:40:56 PM
Silk Moth: Some people for whom I babysat.
I went over to their house one evening while they went to work and just about puked when I smelled the inside of the house.
(Brace yourself. This is nasty)
It was the week before Christmas and the remains of Thanksgiving dinner was still on the table. Their dog had puppies, which were confined to the family room and the floor was covered with animal urine and excrement. The kitchen was filled with stuffed garbage bags. I had to move about three just to make a path from the sink to the fridge and stove. There was not a clean dish in the house-they were piled on the counter. The bathroom looked like a slime monster had died in there. The whole house smelled like dog poo and rotting food.
I washed enough dishes to feed the children and cleaned the tub so they could bathe. There were no clean clothes so they had to put on dirty underwear and they slept on filthy sheets under filthy blankets.
When the kids were asleep, I found a can of Lysol spray and used it to clean off the vinyl recliner in the living room. Then I got a bottle of soda and the TV remote, plunked my butt on the one clean piece of furniture(the recliner) and stayed there until a friend came to relieve me. When the smell got too bad, I'd shoot some Lysol in the air(I used up most of the Lysol over the course of the evening).
When my friend came by-he was their friend and I had been doing him a favor-I told him I would never babysit for those people again because their house was so filthy. He thought I was exaggerating. The next day, though, he told me he told the people that he wasn't going to babysit for them either and to get the house cleaned before he called the health department and the child protective services.
They cleaned.
I still didn't go back.
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SAABsister
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posted on December 9, 2000 05:46:21 PM
kiki2, we've had to deal with similar problems in our neighborhood. The health department is a good place to start. The offices or departments that enforce building codes and zoning can sometimes help. We've used the Animal Control Office and police department to deal with aggressive dogs and dogs that howl all night. Actually, the last problem tenant that we encountered was asked to vacate the property early after we wrote the landlord calmly detailing all the citations that the various agencies had given his tenants and stated emphatically that his tenants prohibited our quiet and peaceful enjoyment of our property and if he didn't remedy this we would sue. Our documentation helped to convince him to act.
You have my sympathy. We've had about ten different tenants near us in the last twenty years. Only about three have been problems. But I was certainly glad to see them go.
[ edited by SAABsister on Dec 9, 2000 05:50 PM ]
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SilkMoth
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posted on December 9, 2000 06:25:11 PM
Shadowcat: YUCK.
I think I would have taken the children home with me before I stayed in that place that long!
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not SilkMoth anywhere but here
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stockticker
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posted on December 9, 2000 07:18:07 PM
I can beat your story, Shadowcat. A number of years ago the house down the street from where my parents live was rented out (with rent paid for by the city welfare department). When the tenants moved out the landlord discovered that every single window in the house had been broken. A hole had been chopped in living room floor, and the hole was used as a privy.
Irene
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Shadowcat
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posted on December 9, 2000 07:29:55 PM
Stockticker: What did they think the toilet was-a fishbowl? An auxiliary sink?
EEEEUUUUUUWWWWWW!!!!
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fastback4
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posted on December 9, 2000 07:32:22 PM
The roof,The roof,The roof is on fire!!!.....merry x-mas to all
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kiki2
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posted on December 10, 2000 06:00:28 AM
Thanks to everyone for replies and suggestions! 
I am going to give them until Wednesday to clean things up. Since the guy renting moved the last of his stuff out on Friday, I will give the benefit of the doubt that he will be returning to clean up. However, I won't wait longer than Wednesday and only because I am a nice person (most of the time!). Then I will call zoning. We do have laws and one of them is the upkeeping of your property. You aren't even supposed to have chipped paint which of course this house has.
Thing is earlier this year I had called zoning because the downspout on this rental house was broken and water was pouring onto my property. I had reported it to the homeowners and was promised it would be fixed. Two months go by and nothing. I call the owners again and they tell me that they sent a roofer there and he said nothing was wrong (he arrived on sunny days!). I insisted there was and I wanted it repaired. When I seen no one after a couple of days I called zoning, showed them some still photos I took and they sent them a warning to repair it. At this time the woman and her five kids had moved out and this new tenant was about to move in so the owners showed up (to make sure they got their money as they NEVER come near the house any other time). They apologized and said they didn't know and that the new tenant was a roofer and they would have him repair it. Luckily it had rained the night before so we had videotaped it (to use as evidence if we had too). They showed the new tenant and promised yet again that it would be fixed.
A month later and still it was not repaired. My husband called and threatened to go to zoning again as another warning and they would be taken to court. The tenant fixed it the next day. It took a total of six months to get it repaired!
The zoning officer isn't much help right now because-- of all times--the office is in the middle of a lawsuit. The former zoning officer was fired due to his age and replaced with a 21 year old--the son of a school board member and higher up in town.
Add to the fact my neighborhood has gone downhill but we had a shoot-out on the main street of town on Friday. I grew up here and it saddens me that a once nice place to live has become a hell!
kiki2 <---feeling very cynical right now
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stockticker
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posted on December 10, 2000 08:42:23 AM
Kiki2: Can you not get the support of your other neighbors - even if it just their signature and address added to the bottom of a letter of complaint? No one likes to see the value of their property go down because of a trashy-looking house in neighborhood.
Irene
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argh
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posted on December 10, 2000 06:33:30 PM
We had a house like this across the street. I always thought it was odd that they didn't have trash service; when the house finally sold we found out what they had done with the trash. It was all in plastic bags under the crawlspace. I still don't understand why we didn't have rats in the neighborhood.
The new owner was taking a bath one night in the clawfoot bathtub, and suddenly the tub kinda collapsed into the floor. When he took the thing out to repair it, he realized that the tub was not hooked up to any plumbing. It drained directly to....you guessed it - under the house where the trash collection was kept.
My personal favorite violation was the dead car that they parked in the middle of the front lawn. It caught on fire one day; what was left of it was very badly burned, but they still left it sitting there like it was a yard ornament.
The funniest part was that they asked the new owners to please leave the outside exactly as it was so that they could come by for a dose of nostalgia!
Argh
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HartCottageQuilts
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posted on December 11, 2000 06:48:17 AM
I still don't understand why we didn't have rats in the neighborhood
You may have, but with a paradise like the one your neighbors created, why would a rat bother to visit anywhere else?
Yuck.
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gravid
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posted on December 11, 2000 08:51:00 AM
Zazzie- Carefull there. If you suggest something illegal there are a couple here like the sgt who will be trying to send the police to your door.
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HartCottageQuilts
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posted on December 16, 2000 10:29:13 AM
Just be glad your neighbor isn't one of these:
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/print/weekly/health/A58357-2000Dec12.html
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SAABsister
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posted on December 16, 2000 11:03:52 AM
HCQ, my husband was involved in one of those cases. The house was so unsafe that much of it had to be unloaded through the windows - using a forklift. It was too dangerous to enter - the floor joists had started to buckle. (I don't think the online print version of the Post includes all the pictures that were in Tuesday's paper. )
[ edited by SAABsister on Dec 16, 2000 11:35 AM ]
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labrat4gmos
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posted on December 16, 2000 05:26:05 PM
Theres a professor at the University of Texas
(I believe) that is doing research on brain disfunction and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). I haven't read his research, but other researchers are connecting OCD and hoarding. The total inability to get rid of anything...even garbage (in the extreme). This may be why all the garbage under the floor. If they got rid of it, they would be getting rid of part of themselves. Or maybe they like to hoard rats (like the Post cat article). You didn't see rats in the neighborhood cause they were all under the
house!
My neighbor from hell:
I found out after we moved in to our last house that our next door neighbor was a drug dealer...a middle man, so we had lower dealers stopping by next door and emerging with little brown bags! The guy wasn't very bright...paid well over a hundred grand for the house in cash, and did various other things to arouse suspicion. He was about 23 when he bought the house. The Feds caught him. When I ask my neighbors why no one had warned us so we wouldn't have moved in, they said that it wasn't important because almost every neighborhood had one! Yuk. My kids weren't allowed in the front yard until they nabbed the slimeball and his family moved out.
[Edited cause I didn't use spell-check again, probably find more too.]
[ edited by labrat4gmos on Dec 16, 2000 05:28 PM ]
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kiki2
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posted on December 17, 2000 06:33:44 AM
UGH on some of your stories! Unbelieveable!
I thought I would update on my situation. A day after I posted this thread, the renter who had moved came back to the residence and took down the broken trampoline and put it along with several other pieces of furniture on the front porch. The owners came by a few days ago looking for him (he didn't pay his rent nor his utilities as the water company put a shut-off notice on the door). In the meantime, I seen them leave and come back with 3 bags of cleaning supplies and a bottle of Chlorox. They were there cleaning inside the house for over 5 hours (yet I have a strong feeling it would take 5 weeks and it would not be clean enough) then they left. The renter FINALLY showed up last night to get the stuff he had left on the front porch. Yet the front door still has a broken glass with duct tape and a ugly screen hanging loosely. In other words, the outside is still an absolute hell-hole. And I find out yesterday because it was raining all day that the gutter and downspouts on the house are pouring water onto my property AGAIN! The owners refuse to pay the money to have them replaced professionally and their minor idiot repairs aren't working.
Am sure I won't see them again until they have someone interested in looking at the house to rent. I'll keep you posted on what else happens. Thanks to all for your suggestions and your stories. I have been taking photos and video to support my complaints. Now if I could only get more neighbor support. Many are older folks who are afraid if they say something that people will retaliate.
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gravid
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posted on December 17, 2000 11:54:29 AM
We have a friend in an Italian neighborhood and drug dealers moved in across the street, this summer. It was the older people who did something about it. A big long line of nice cars parked down the whole block and each had a older Italian gentleman in their "uniform" of a jacket and white shirt but no tie. Each got out and leaned on the car with a gasoline can
beside him on the pavement. One old white haired fellow went up to the door and in a load enough voice to be heard next door told them that they were all old Sicilian gentlemen and it offended their honor for the drug dealers to be there. "Don't make us come back tomorrow." He said and they all got in the cars and left. The next morning the house was empty with bare windows. Guess they could see it was gonna be a BBQ.
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kiki2
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posted on December 27, 2000 07:09:56 AM
I thought I would update my thread!
The owners of the property have been cleaning it since I last posted. I wrote them a registered letter about their gutter leaking onto my property and how I wanted it repaired. Well, they came to my home yesterday to let me know that they hired someone to fix the gutter and do some repairs around the house. They also said that they are taking the last renter to court for property damage. Not only did he trash the outside (which I have mentioned) as well as the damage to the doors I also mentioned but they had to remove all the carpeting in the house because he had cats which stained it terribly. He also left behind TONS of garbage in the house. She said there were over four boxes of clothing alone. They said that they are going after him aggressively. The owners told me that they have decided to pay a real estate agency to rent the property for them. That way the agency can run checks on potential renters and handle collecting the money etc.
I don't know if this will be any better but at least its a step in the right direction. Thanks again for all the advice given here. I am not an aggressive person but have done what I could to make sure this property was taken care of. I only hope it does improve.
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