Landlord ignoring a situation that happened between another tenant and myself

Superstar

Superstar

CAGiversary!
I am desperately in need of some legal advice.

First off, let me explain what kind of apartment I live in:

The apartment is a one bedroom, fairly small place. The apartments are connected. The door next to my apartment door had stairs right when you open the door that go up and above my apartment. The walls are VERY thin, and you can hear someone even if they are talking in a normal tone.

Okay, so onto the instance.

Last Saturday my wife and I we're arguing over some bills we have to pay and a shortage of money. It wasn't a crazy argument or anything. We were just raising our voices, not screaming. I heard the guy upstairs scream "Shut the F*** up" and then he ran down his stairs, and started pounding\kicking my door in. I opened my door and he was insulting\threatening me saying we are being too loud and he is trying to sleep. Mind you, it was 11:30 AM on a Saturday.

He repeated to threaten me and insult my wife and I. He threatened to "kick my a**" but he didn't do anything. I am not a violent guy or anything, but man, it took all I had not to punch him in the face. He went back into his apartment and i went back into mine.

We we're so angered about this situation that we really didn't even think to call the cops. I called my land lord about 5 times and left a voice mail message explaining the situation. Throughout the week i repeatedly called her and left messages and she's not answering or returning my calls. One time it sounded like someone picked up then hung up on me.

I just need some advice on what steps I should take from here out. I looked at my door and it has cracks in it and the hinge is falling off due to him kicking my door in. I also left my landlord a message stating this. She still hasn't done anything. In my mind, the next step is to send her a letter in the envelope with my rent when I drop it off in a few days. We just drop our rent off into a drop box so I thought I'd put it in there with the money order.

Another side note is that this guy has parties every week and people are insanely loud to the point where my wife and I can't sleep because they are right over our bedroom. Then there are people drunk\stoned outside throwing beer cans and making loud noises. We try to mind our business and we have never reported them or anything.

Is it illegal for her to ignore my wife and I in a situation like this? Our lease is up in October and to be honest - I really don't want to break it but I can't live in a place with such a huge security flaw. In a sense anyone can just go threaten anyone else and kick their door in and the landlord isn't concerned about it.

Am I being unreasonable to at least want a call back to explain the situation and get my door fixed?

I appreciate your input and suggestions. This is the first time I have had my own place, so I am not used to dealing with situations like this.
 
I am not a lawyer.

But - I would take photos of the door damage and send certified mail (and email) to your landlord documenting the damage.

Second:

41aF5qfesFL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Third, get some white noise sound they are awesome in apt/condo situations

Fourth - invite me to some of those killer parties bro!
 
Buy a tazer. Next time he pounds on your door, open it and light up his nuts.

Talk to other tenants. If you can get a long enough list of people pissed off at the guy, it'll be hard for the landlord not to do something about it. All it might take is the guy finding out the whole building is sick of his shit.
 
[quote name='crunchb3rry']Buy a tazer. Next time he pounds on your door, open it and light up his nuts.

Talk to other tenants. If you can get a long enough list of people pissed off at the guy, it'll be hard for the landlord not to do something about it. All it might take is the guy finding out the whole building is sick of his shit.[/QUOTE]

The worst part is.. his girlfriend is pregnant. I feel bad for her in some ways, but she chooses to stay there.

I didn't think of getting a list of people. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
If she uses a dropbox and ignores calls, that's SOP for her unfortunately. She's renting just to make money. I would move in October.
 
[quote name='RAMSTORIA']does your landlord like kids and can you use that to your advantage?[/QUOTE]

To be honest I have only seen the landlord twice. First when I saw the apartment and second time when I signed the lease.

Usually we call her if we have maintenance issues, and she sends someone over.
 
He kicked your door and damaged it? Threatened you? Don't be so lenient with this guy just cause he is your neighbor. I'd call the cops to have something on record in case the situation escalates.
 
Legally:

1) About the guy - What are you going to do? You call the cops, they're not going to do shit unless he is there threatening or trying to harm you in front of him. They're just going to tell you to go get a restraining order against him. You go to court to do that, the judge is going to send you to mediation because its going to be absurd to get a restraining order when you have to live on top of each other. If mediation is successful you'd likely sign a contract saying neither of you will be loud, neither of you will threaten the other, etc. If one of you breaks it, the other can file for a restraining order.

Here is the thing about restraining orders: They don't differentiate between retarded disputes like this one, or people that beat their wives and need restraining orders. They come up on criminal background checks because they don't differentiate as to why a restraining order was needed. Good luck owning a firearm or working around kids if either of you get a restraining order on the other. They're serious shit.

So thats why if mediation doesn't work out and you're back before the judge, he's not going to grant the restraining order. He's going to send everyone home for a few weeks and see if there are any problems when you guys come back next. If your neighbor is smart he won't do shit and the judge will have no reason to issue a restraining order.

2) About the door - Document every phone call you make and message you leave. Take pictures. Include a written note with your rent check explaining who kicked the door in and why they kicked your door in and that you need it repaired ASAP for security reasons. Include the pictures. If your landlord doesn't fix it in a reasonable amount of time, chances are you can fix it yourself and deduct that cost from your next rent check. You're going to need to check your local state landlord tenant laws though to see the exact procedures and how quick your landlord has to fix it and to see what you can do yourself if she doesn't fix the problem. Every state has a website like this, Google for yours.


As for your landlord and the neighbor - She doesn't have to do shit about this guy. If he's seriously threatening and harassing you enough, thats a matter for the police and/or the courts. She's not in charge of what happens between you and him. If this guy is wrecking her property though, she may choose to evict him.

If this guy is being loud throwing parties and keeping you up, don't be a passive aggressive bitch about it anymore. Either go confront him yourself and find yourself stabbed, or call the cops every single time he has a party. Even if its not louder than local ordinances permit, they'll still come out and harass him a bit provided it is a little bit loud.

If your local cops won't do that much, and if your landlord doesn't seem interested in making this guy pay for what he did, you need to move out to somewhere less sketchy.
 
Definitely take pictures. Whenever there's a dispute over damages ALWAYS have pictures.

Also, you should have lots of crazy sex with your wife. LOUD sex at all hours. If you're lucky, this guy and his girl will try to compete with you and your wife and it could escalate into an awesome orgy! Then you can make him feel bad by really wrecking his girlfriend.

Just make sure to take pictures of the damages :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top