Crazy Neighbor. Coward Landlord.

Drinsic_sl said:

There's plenty of places in the U.S. you're allowed to shoot guns on your own property during daylight hours. Don't know about rentals though.

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In Texas, you can't discharge a firearm in a county over a certain population (I think it's 1 million). Don't know what city fam lives in, but the city itself is probably over 1 million. I'm curious how home boy gets away with hunting outside the apartment building too. Is he using a BB gun?

Furry_sl said:

buy him a pack of ear plugs. You can get like fucking 100 pairs of the things for sub 20 dollars.

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Good idea. I was going to suggest anonymously buying him an awesome set of ear muffs and a white noise machine.


Since you do all that stuff anyway, I'd probably sign the extension. The landlord telling you that you don't need to doesn't mean jack shit. Did he put it in writing that you don't need to sign it? But you might want to make modifications to it. Such as set a level of proof. The sound must meet a decibel level and be witnessed by at least 2 neighbors, etc. Also, get a clause added in that you may not under any circumstances knock on a neighbors window, floor, or ceiling during those hours to complain about said noise. And limit the door knocking to once per month before cops or landlord need to be called.

I've had a much milder situation going on the past year in my apartment complex (I've been there 6-7 years), where the downstairs neighbors were complaining, the manager agreed I wasn't doing anything wrong, and they had multiple violations for other things. Namely, they had moved their entire storage unit into their apartment so you literally couldn't walk through it (if you looked in the window all you saw was a mattress about five feet off the ground on top of other furniture), tons of crap out on their patio (a direct violation), they had been pounding on the floor whenever they felt I was too loud (every neighbor around us had complained about the pounding, but none about me), and then they decided to use their full-sized barbeque (from the storage unit) inside the little passageway between all the apartments, filling it with smoke for hours at a time. As well as being just shitty, disgusting people.

When they finally left me a note complaining, I spoke to the middle one (3 generations of females, youngest in high school, oldest in her 50s probably) and she was exactly like what you have all seen on Jerry Springer. She's black, by the way, just to complete the picture. Nothing I said mattered, because she was the oppressed one in her mind.

After several weeks of back and forth and the manager getting involved, he assured me that he was making them leave at the end of their lease anyway because they had so many violations (including several times not responding to 3-day notices that carry an eviction with them if you don't follow up). This was last Februrary. Finally they agreed to stop so they could stay until the end of their lease, which was April. April ends, and they are still there. I ask the manager, he says they just want to stay until the youngest finishes school. May comes and goes, but ok maybe their school goes into June. June ends, so I ask again, he says, "The short-term lease they signed should be up the end of this month, then they'll be out." I ask him every month or two until December 1st. Every time he says that he thinks their lease should be up, and they should be leaving. I flat out tell him that he lied to me and tricked me into signing my new lease last June by saying they'd be gone (I stipulated I wasn't going to renew unless they were leaving), and that every two months he has told me the same exact story. I'd have rather he just told me they begged to stay, or threatened discrimination, or whatever. I'd rather know they were staying instead of having him lie to me and string me along.

Now, they don't pound on the floor anymore, and I don't really have any interaction with them beyond nasty looks, but when a manager constantly lies to you like that, you worry what might happen if something more serious arises. My rent is good, the complex is extremely safe for being sort of in a crappy neighborhood (I am on good terms with the drug dealers diagonal below me, which helps, even though I don't do drugs), and I'm less than five miles from work. And I *have* to have a washer/dryer in my apartment, because fuck laundry facilities anymore. So moving anywhere else is going to suck, be more expensive, and be further from work. But I'm going to do it at the end of my lease, because you can't live in a place where they don't have your back if someone else is being shitty. Even if they move from underneath me before then, I'm still moving for that reason alone (unless I can find something to purchase, which I might have to save a little while for, then I'll stay longer).

Your landlord is trying to cover his ass, which makes sense, and your situation is a lot more volatile than mine, but be very aware that he is probably talking out both sides of his mouth trying to appease both of you. He could very well be telling the crazy guy that he's trying to get you to move out too. He might not, but the stuff he is telling you sounds a lot like what my guy was telling me. Anything to get me to shut up for another month and get out of his office, basically. If they don't support you fully when you aren't doing anything wrong, they never will. And this guy is legit crazy and might shoot through the ceiling or something for all you know, so I'd get the fuck out as soon as you can. Coming home every day and having stress about possibly running into him, getting into an altercation, worrying you are being too loud...it isn't worth the money you save. I am not worried these bitches will gank me one day, but I still hate seeing them outside because I know if I say anything I'll be the one reprimanded by the manager most likely, not them.

It isn't worth the stress, and he's probably just waiting for one of you to leave so he doesn't have the headache anymore. Get out.

I forgot about the pet odor thing, I'd definitely move if he kept holding that over my head. It is complete bullshit, by the way, because in my years of apartment living I've probably experiend 3 or 4 times when an apartment near me (once right under me) had to have this industrial strength deodorizer used on it. It is so strong that I couldn't stay in my own apartment for a day or so. It usually has a fairly decent scent to it, until you get hit with the massive wave of it once it builds up. I asked about it the first time, and that's exactly what it is, something so strong that it overwhelms every other smell (usually pets or smoke), and then somehow is either vacuumed up or just dissipates (no clue), and bam, everything is gone. I mean literally, you'd never know someone smoked or had a pet there.

I'm sure it costs them more to do that, but yeah, that's what a fucking pet deposit is for. You don't ever get that one back, unlike a normal deposit, so fuck spending MORE money trying to keep the smell down while you actually live there.

I will try clotheslining my neighbors tonight if I see them, and will report back on the results! I'm such an idiot for not thinking of that earlier.