So our neighbors have been a growing problem for a few months now. They seem to be a flop house for six or seven people, most of them look high all day. They go out and Rev a Harley at 3am, they burn plastic been our houses in a fire pit, they have a new dog every two weeks because they keep getting out and getting hit by traffic in the busy street we live on, the current two have bit people. I’m not one to care how someone lives, but these folks make the rest of our slum neighborhood look downright utopian.
I’ve tried taking to them, they’re stupidly hostile. I’ve put in complaints with the city, noise complaints with the police, they don’t do anything about it. Does anyone have advice on dealing with this? I’m tired, at my wits end, and my small town tactics aren’t as easy to pull off in a proper city.
Yeah… so I had a trap house move into the abandoned house next to mine.
Lots people spouting off with this and that and the other but won’t give you advice that works. And advice that works? Banana bread.
Dead ass. Make them banana bread. Monthly if not weekly. Make them notice when it’s not there.
We did this with the gang / crews that would rotate through next door. Was a rolling assemblage of cardroom, drug spot, ladies, just depended on the crew.
But I’ll have you know, they do not fuck with the house that makes them banana bread. We ask them to not having people smoking and talking around outside? Next day, signs up on the porch “No smoking or hanging around”, same with music, you name it. Obviously there are limits, but it took what could have been a terrible situation and made it bearable.
For this to work you have to change you attitude. Eventually they got busted by the feds, but once we had made “neighbors” with them, the rest was easy. They even started moving the trap house lawn. Respect earns respect. Change your attitude and you might be able to change the situation.
And then they all clapped, the gang, the neighbors and even the banana bread joined in
The banana bread’s name ? Albert Einstein .
Albert’s gang affiliation? The next door neighbors!
This is actually the tactic I used on the rest of the neighborhood. The small town charm and my double chocolate brownies cooked in a waffle maker (I call them Wownies) has me on good terms with everyone from the dealer down the street to the homeless under the bridge. Unfortunately these folk don’t bite when I offer and bite too much then I don’t. After the first few tries they just started trying to hang out in my yard and started peaking too close at me workshop.
You can’t, end of discussion.
The most that the city or the police can do is issuing them a small fine for the noise complaints. The only one with even an ounce of power here is their landlord, but then it depends heavily on your country/state.
In my experience, bad neighbors don’t really move. If you’re lucky, you can move. But yeah, the qualities that make them bad neighbors often follow them to the rest of their lives, and they’re stuck at their current means and especially in this economy, that’s not a recipe for moving.
It sounds like it’s a gang. In my experience gangs usually move on after enough people from that house get arrested, killed, or OD.
There isn’t a hell of a lot you can do to really get rid of them. I’d try to find out if they’re renting the property and see if you can get in contact with the landlord/property management company and tell them about it. Most lease agreements require that you disclose how many residents are staying there so there’s a good chance theyre violating that rule among many others. The other thing is (assuming that this is the US since no location given and that’s where I have experince) document absolutely everything. Make a notebook just for writing down the date and time of every stupid / possibly illegal thing you see them do. Take video / audio recordings whenever possible and avoid direct contact. Then every time they rev their motorcycle at 3am call the non emergency police line. Every. Single. Time. The cops will get tired of it, but they’ll be more tired of the likely rude/violent reaction from your scumbag neighbors. Also call animal control any time you see their dog running outside of their property or of it bites someone. Long term / extreme pettiness is what’s going to work. Most importantly though never confront them directly and never tell them you’re calling the cops.
In addition to this [already great] answer: if you get other neighbours on the same page of you, even better. Have them reporting the scumbags to the cops, documenting the shit that they do, etc.
I’m saying this because, from the cops’ PoV, it’ll sound way more serious if multiple people are reporting the same thing. So they’re more likely to act.
An important detail: don’t make shit up. It’s fine to report small shit, as long as it’s real; but cops have a professionally trained nose for bullshit, so don’t try to bullshit them, it’ll backfire.
I think this is a great answer.
I would buy a camera security system so it’s always on and you have an automatic record. Something with a hard drive.
Don’t say anything about it, just quietly set it up first pointing at your house. For “your security”. Then a few days later point those cams at their house / the street / their yard / etc. You may see more that you didn’t know was going on.
Video evidence goes a long way. More than a person’s word, usually. Sadly.
You’re upset the physical evidence is worth more than hearsay?
Human memories are notoriously unreliable, and physical evidence, like video footage SHOULD ABSOLUTELY be worth more than a person’s word.
Hm, so idk how I feel about this one.
I think everyone deserves privacy, even shitty neighbors, recording individual instances is one thing but literally setting up surveillance on someone’s home is a little yikes
What you may not have tried yet: If the yard is bad enough, call code enforcement, not police, they will send notices to the landlord not the residents, then the landlord will come yell at the residents. Burning trash may also be a code enforcement thing, not police. Those code people don’t mess around, once they send a notice you have to respond/address it.
Theres legal ways and Illegal ways. How morally flexible are you?
If in being frank, they have an open crawl space next to unguarded electrical boxes and a gas main. This is an easy fix, but I promised my partner is keep it legal until we had a real reason not to.
I was thinking of a few words and maybe a little beer money for whatever your neighbourhood has for scary bastards. A few hundo in beer money for a few 1%ers to turn up on their doorstep and tell them to knock it the fuck off…
Aside from the motorcycles revving at night, are these people bothering you at all?
Well the dogs are constantly trying to get my son, the burning plastics can be smelt in the house, they’ve broken a section of our fence trying to get their dogs, and of course the 3am motorcycle business.
“They” will be more flexible. So?
Seems like the issue is what can you do that won’t also blowback on you. They know where you live, and anything you do to make their lives miserable can also happen to you. As others said I would document everything, and report anything that’s illegal. You might be able to get animal control or some agency like that out for the dogs. There might be noise ordinances for the night motorcycles. Anything you file I’d try to make anonymous.
Sometimes your local legislator’s office can make things happen if police or whoever seem to drag their feet. You talk to your city councilor / state reps staffer, maybe get a bunch of neighbors all to sign a thing or show up at their office/event, and then they’ll lean on the cops. Local politicians pay attention to organized groups of people who seem like they won’t give up (vs individuals who are pissed off but seem unlikely to be persistent)
I’d recommend those cameras with the ball enclosure so someone can’t see which direction it’s pointed. If you don’t already have a fence (and it’s appropriate) I’d put one up. Could also plant privacy hedge type plants (like arbor vitae).
We’re currently working towards cameras, and while we have fences, they’re ranch style so they don’t stop anything that’s more persistent than a dead cat. We have been breaking up our Yucca grass and trailing it along the fence to help keep their dogs out.
Do you know if they own the house? Find out.
They could be renting the place or - as was the situation in my neighborhood - one of your bikers could have “borrowed” the house from a family member. In our neighborhood, the house previously belonged to a distant relative who passed away. The majority of the family lives over a thousand miles away, so they told their wastrel daughter that she could use the house while she was getting clean.
Needless to say, the “getting clean” process never happened. She invited a host of random people to hang out at her place and they trashed it over the course of almost a year. Eventually, the family found out about the situation when one of the neighbors thought to look into ownership. They kicked the daughter out of the house and have been gutting it for the last two months, trying to clear out all of the damage done by the daughter and her friends.
Long story short, find out who actually owns the house. That may give you some options…
Catnip.
Buy a bunch of catnip (it’s not expensive on eBay) and sprinkle that shit all over their yard. Get it in the flower beds, get it in the ditches, get it everywhere. It’s a mint and it grows like a weed. Next thing you know the neighbors front lawn will be littered in cats and there will be no way to get rid of them.
Added bonus is you’ll have cats you can pet, and very little pests in your neighborhood.
Considering who the neighbors are, the cats could be in danger.
Gonna level with you… If they’re roaming outdoor cats, they’re already in danger. If you really feel motivated to help them this would also bring them to an easier for SPCA to pick up. They’re also a threat to local wildlife.
Used to be - by the numbers - a cat that goes outside At All would live half as long as one that never-not-once went outside.
Now it’s 1/4. Source: SPCA contact.
And sure they’ll kill pests, but a housecat is an absolute killing machine for songbirds. You want less mosquitoes, you need to see far fewer cats.
I think we’ve done well enough with the insect extinction
I have 3 “strays” currently that are all 15+ years old, born outside and the only time they’ve seen a vet was when they were fixed.
good on your for animal negligence I guess.
strange flex.
I mean they’ve never need to go and got their shots when they were fixed.
…look, good on you for taking care of 3 strays, but honestly: pets require yearly vaccinations - you really aren’t doing them any favors if they haven’t been to the vet since they were spayed/neutered. Please, take care of your animals.
https://www.lowcostpetvaccinations.net/cat-vaccinations-cat-need/
Actually, catnip was on my garden list already! I was planning on getting fast and loose with the seeds so this won’t take much extra.
If you want to get really nefarious and don’t mind getting a little legally sketchy, bug spray normally kills grass in the areas that it’s sprayed in. If you happen to draw rude things in someone’s front lawn there’s no way to stop it from showing aside from spraying more, or just waiting for it to grow out
It sounds like you’re dealing with a biker gang. If that’s the case then you’re not going to be able to reason with them. They’re further entrenched in their lifestyle than in regular society. I hate to suggest narcing, but next time you call the cops, let them know that they’re running gang activities out of the house. Cops care more about gangs than they do noise complaints. If you’re in a really bad neighborhood then they still might not do anything about it, but they’re more likely to mobilize if they think that there’s the possibility of a big bust. Be careful though, if the gang suspects you ratted on them, it can be a hard time for you.
Seems like a bit of a leap. They’re probably just regular ol’ white trash.
Doesn’t seem like a leap at all to me. What they described is a gang flop house, not some po-dunk family. It should be fairly easy to tell the difference though. Biker gangs typically wear patches on their jackets indicating their membership.
OP never said that they’re white, and there are many different ethnicities that ride Harleys.
there are many different ethnicities [who] ride Harleys
Huh. Here I thought it was trashy old white guys and their fans.
The Mongols are a huge gang and they’re predominantly Hispanic. There are plenty of African American motorcycle clubs that ride Harleys on the West Coast.
Also when the cops find out you lied about gang activity, to manipulate them into moving against non gang members, you’re fucked.
I’ve been in this situation several times. In the first case we moved out because the neighbour was also harassing our landlord and he decided to sell rather than deal with her. In the second case, the neighbours’ landlord evicted them because they accidentally burned down the garage. In the third case another neighbour (a big guy whose face is mostly scars) threatened them with violence and it worked.
I think the first avenue I’ll have to try here is the land lord, I’ve never seen him but there’s gotta be documents who owns the building.
A lot of it depends on local regulations.
HERE, a property can be declared a “chronic nuisance property”:
https://www.portland.gov/code/14/b60
But your mileage may vary depending on local ordinance.
Many paces do not allow more than “x” number of unrelated people to live in the same house. Might try that avenue. If its several people, see what zoning allows max capacity of the home to be. Buildin, housing and fire departments don’t like too many people in one house.
That’s actually a wholly new idea to me, I’ll be looking into this immediately. Thanks!
Best of luck.
Are they renters? Can you complain to the homeowner?
That’s an option I’ve considered and from what I can tell the property might belong to an old guy the town over, but I can’t find any recent contact info. I’ll look into contacting city records.
Have you tried setting their house on fire?
/s
That might have some undesireable repercussions
Depending on where you live, you have a few possibilities. First, I’m assuming that you do not have an HOA. The premise of an HOA is that they can enforce certain restrictions, even if the law cannot/will not. I’m also writing this with the assumption that you are in the US.
If they are breaking the law, you may need to find ways to encourage the local authorities to take action. Generally, this involves doing the cops’ jobs for them. The company CompuTrace, makers of LoJack for laptops, has been criticized for selling (at a high price) software that does very basic tasks that anyone can do to collect evidence on the thieves. But what they really sell is that they can use that evidence to spur the police into action, since it’s an easy win. You’ll probably need to talk to an attorney, or at least the prosecutor’s office (not the police) to find out what they need.
Also, be sure that you have contacted all of the relevant agencies. The burn pit may need to be addressed by the fire department (especially in times of wildfire risk), or an environmental agency. They sound like irresponsible pet owners, which might be of interest to the humane society or animal control.
If they haven’t broken any laws that you know of, you still might be able to sue them. You have no say in how they choose to live their lives, but you can get an injunction on how it impacts you and your property. The dog bites, specifically, are likely actionable. Loud noises probably are not.
In any event, talk to an attorney. I’m not even sure what type you would need, but the bar association can probably help.
