Ok So I didn't want to take up room in the April Thread. But I've got to vent.... We had a little powwow with our neighbors yesturday, along with two of the other girls that live in our building. My Fiance and I live at the very top of a 5 building unit, it's a gorgeous apartment, and we fell in love with it the minute we saw it. At the time our landlord seemed nice, and that he knew how to maintain a building, and wasn't going to be a bad landlord. Don't get me wrong we still think he is a great guy, but just has no clue when it comes to renting or maintaining. We moved in Nov.of last year. Well November, December weren't too bad, then we had issues with the girl downstairs who was parking at the bottom of our stairs blocking access to our stairs unless we literrally climbed onto or thru the massive snowbank, just to get to our stairs.
So she continues to do this everyday, not b/c there isn't room to park but b/c she is lazy, and doesn't want to have walk further to her door. Fast Forward to Feb, we are having our Housewarming/Engagement party. The morning of she is parked right at the foot of the stairs again, my fiance calls her cell (the only number we had for her) to ask her to nicely move. No answer...he then goes down to her house, and knocks on the door..no answer. I call my landlord just to simply ask him if he had an alternate number for her. He informs me he doesn't, and very rudely says " I am not coming over there on a Sunday Morning to deal with this". I then nicely said back..."I never asked you to come over here, I simply asked if you had an alternate number for her so we can ask her to please move her car. " That was the end of that conversation. She then moves out of the apartment she was originally in...and my FI tells a coworker about the vacant apartment. The landlord takes 4 days to get back him, when he finally does he tells my FI to call the woman living there, and make arrangements with her to do a walkthru. His first thought is " It's his building, his tenant, isnt' it his responsibility to arrange the walk thru, not mine" So my FI sets up the walk thru not as a favor to our landlord but to his friend, she comes over and looks at the apartment. My FI and his friend were DISGUSTED! The wall had crayon and marker all over it from her child, smelled like cat, and the kitchen was disguting dirty dishes, mold bugs, FI said the place smelled disgusting. So what does the landlord do, he allows her to move of that apartment that she trashed, and move into the one right across the hall from her that he just got finished repainting. First problem, If I had a tenant who was just a down right a slob, and I saw the condition she left that place 1st step take her security b/c it was her child who ruined the walls with crayon and marker, and it was so bad he had to put a new toilet, and vanity in the bathroom, and get her the heck out of my building. I don't need tenants like that ruinig my apartments making it harder to rent to new prospects. Needless to say my FI's friend couldn't run fast enough from that place. So now here is March new tenants move in.
A girl who seems normal, and her boyfriend, who we all noticed from day one seemed a little shady. Fast forward two weeks we all find out he's on a Probation Bracelet, where he has to be monitered. We find this out after two weeks of him being there, and what had us all concerned at this point was from the day they moved in every night at least 6 or 7 different cars show up, and are only there 5 or 10 mintues and then leave. Sometimes they pull in, then the people will pick up there cell phone make a call leave, and come back 20 minutes later, go in for 5 minutes and then leave....Classic sign of something not good. In the past few weeks We've had people knocking on our door looking for the new tenants and we live on top floor, we hear people coming up and running down our stairs (ours are the only ones to our apartment and no one else uses them but us) they've had a few house parties until 1AM, and their friends take up all of our parking which is for tenants only. One tenant has called our landlord already, and he said he was going to do something about it. Here is is Middle of April, they are still there, and the traffic has not stopped. Our neighbor's have two children 10 and 13 who they are not allowing outside to play anymore unless they are at home to supervise, b/c of the traffic next door. I don't sleep well at night, B/c I am worried about a break in, driveby, the driveway isnt' well lit, what if I come home and people are waiting to do something to these people, and they mistake me or my FI or anyone else in our building for one of them?
our neighbor is calling our landlord today, and letting him know that we were all there for dinner last night, and we all feel the same. Then when he calls us, and the other two girls we are going to tell him either they go, or we go. One of the girls has been there for 5 years who works overnights, who is now afraid coming home b/c of these people.
We also want the slob girl out. She leaves her garbage right under our stairs instead of putting it out with the rest of the trash, and is just a gross slob. I don't want to come home, and smell that festering in the heat in the summer time or have to worry about animals getting into when I get home at night...I am just so aggravated...any ideas here girls.. thanks for letting me vent!!
Last edited by Irishgirl; 04-18-2005 at 09:43 AM.
Reason: Adding
Irishgirl: Man, what a mess. If it was an option, I'd be looking for another place to live. Besides the fact that the woman slob now lives across the hall, if she is that dirty I would be afraid of getting cockroaches or worst (if there is anything worst). If you are on the top floor, do you live in Boston? I had a friend that lived in a brownstone 5 flights up. Man, what a walk. I can understand your frustration on the parking situation as well, especially in the winter months. I'm afraid you may get into things like that in any type of apartment living. Yikes, hope things work out.
If you call the police and tell them you suspect illegal activity (and throw in the illegal parking and garbage dumping while you're at it) they can issue a summons without involving you....and might fine the Landlord, which would motivate him to get off his a**.
Irishgirl: Man, what a mess. If it was an option, I'd be looking for another place to live. Besides the fact that the woman slob now lives across the hall, if she is that dirty I would be afraid of getting cockroaches or worst (if there is anything worst). If you are on the top floor, do you live in Boston? I had a friend that lived in a brownstone 5 flights up. Man, what a walk. I can understand your frustration on the parking situation as well, especially in the winter months. I'm afraid you may get into things like that in any type of apartment living. Yikes, hope things work out.
No we live in western mass. We are in the attic that has been redone into a gorgeous loft apartment. I don't think we'd get bugs from her messy apartment she lives three floors below us, we are the only ones on the top floor. My concern was that the garbage is left outside of the cellar door as opposed to where it is suppose to be kept, and I didn't want to come home to racoon or some other rabid animal getting into it, and what not. We can't afford to move right now not with planning the wedding. It has been stressful enough planning, and starting LAWL, and fending off urges, and what not...and now this whole thing has just added to it. One of my biggest problems with people are those that are just down right dirty. She leaves her childs toys all over, she has a whole cellar to store them in, and they stay outside no matter what rain, snow, or whathave you. The sad part is that the child doesn't even live with her, and she doesn't work, and grrr just really boils me that taxpayers like you and I pay for people like her to sit around be lazy and a slob! The neighbor hood is actually a pretty good neightbor hood, and our neighbors who have been there for 5 years pretty much said since our landlord bought the building it's been downhill ever since.
Truthfully, I don't know much about this stuff, but it seems that this would be suspicious activity if someone were on the bracelet or not??
True, our main point with our landlord and our arguement I guess would be that he doesn't screen very well. And for him to put his tenants in that type of danger is a big
My other biggest fear aside from having our home broken into what if that apartment gets raided, if that happens to goverment can take over the building, and we could loose our apartment, and even not let us take stuff out of the house, due to the fact that building is no considered "evidence," what if it gets raided and they get the wrong apartment, what if something goes wrong?
If we could move out we would however finacially we are not in the position to move. Secondly, IMO I don't feel we should have to move. We were tenants here first, and I don't feel we should have the financial or emotional burden of relocating, because our landlord can't isn'te capable enough to screen tenants properly. As tenants we have the right to"quiet enjoyment" of our apartment, as well as safetly. The neighborhood we live in isn't quite the ghetto, it's a great neighborhood.
Hi Irishgirl...
Working in a prison, I can hopefully offer you some advice. Because the person with the ankle bracelet is on probation or parole, you can call the police/sheriff's department and report apparent illicit activities. The other thing you can do is call the probation office and report the heavy traffic in and out, all hours of the night.
You don't need to worry about your apartment being taken over if that apartment is raided. You would have one heck of a legal case against the local law enforcement.
As for your sloppy neighbor. Every state has tenant/landlord rights. Here is a link for Massachusetts: http://www.rentlaw.com/massachusettslandlord.htm Check that out and maybe if you quote some statutes, your landlord might pay more attention. You should be able to find a place to lodge complaints abuot him.
Wow...that's some story. We ran into an issue like that at our old apartment. Bottom line - we moved. Counted our pennies, and found that we could afford to buy a single family home in a nice community with great schools, and pay LESS for mortgage than we did for rent. Our old neighbor was living rent-subsidized and had no respect for her surroundings WHATSOEVER. We bit the bullet and moved. Boy are we glad we did.
Wow...that's some story. We ran into an issue like that at our old apartment. Bottom line - we moved. Counted our pennies, and found that we could afford to buy a single family home in a nice community with great schools, and pay LESS for mortgage than we did for rent. Our old neighbor was living rent-subsidized and had no respect for her surroundings WHATSOEVER. We bit the bullet and moved. Boy are we glad we did.
If we could move we would in a heartbeat. Around here most places require first last and security. We are smack dab in the middle of planning our Wedding. We don't want a house until we move back to the Boston Area.
Last night things turned kind of dangerous, at 230 in the afternoon there were a group of guys in our parking lot screaming at eachother, and we though there was going to be a problem for sure.
Then A guy in a BMW pulled in around 5:30 went to the door, and when no one answered peeled out of the drive at like 50 miles an hour, with KIDS around playing!!!
Irish - I guess I would say that if it was just me, that's one thing. But when they're endangering children - I'd say call the police. If not you, maybe one of your neighbors has. What if someone gets hurt, really badly? This is reckless behavior, no matter what.
Needing to Vent any advice? Kinda Long Sorry
We had a little powwow with our neighbors yesturday, along with two of the other girls that live in our building. My Fiance and I live at the very top of a 5 building unit, it's a gorgeous apartment, and we fell in love with it the minute we saw it. At the time our landlord seemed nice, and that he knew how to maintain a building, and wasn't going to be a bad landlord. Don't get me wrong we still think he is a great guy, but just has no clue when it comes to renting or maintaining. We moved in Nov.of last year. Well November, December weren't too bad, then we had issues with the girl downstairs who was parking at the bottom of our stairs blocking access to our stairs unless we literrally climbed onto or thru the massive snowbank, just to get to our stairs. 
That is my advice. Good luck
