needhelp11
New Member
I am having harassment problems with two neighbors on both sides of my house. It all started 3 years ago when we moved into this house. We introduced ourselves to both neighbors and things were fine. The main problem with neighbor 1 was that she would let her dogs bark 24/7. Five months later into this, I talked to her in an extremely nice way about it and the dogs stopped barking for a few weeks but then the barking started non-stop again. She was a housewife at the time. We worked from home and still do. One day after the dogs had been barking for over 20 mins I noticed that the dogs were barking right next to her and she would do nothing about it. I was very surprised about this. She seemed to be very airheadish but this was plain disconsiderate. To cut a long story short, in the end I had to contact neighborhood code compliance and this did the trick. But the consequence was that she and her husband started harassing us and are still doing it. I did not realize they were harassing us and thought everything was a coincidence until I caught her husband staring through our fence one day. I noticed from day one that every time we went outside to our yard or to the front of our house, they would all go outside themselves to snoop, they still do. They know our schedule and are practically obsessed with us. The final straw that made me realize what was going on was the that I caught her husband clanking their children's metal swing set several times. He then went right inside his house and stared at me through his window. He saw me and hid. Another example is when she made a Sunday 7am loud phone call when she saw we had our windows open and she knew we were sleeping.
The harassment continues, for example, she lets the kids out at 7am on Sundays to scream or the dogs bark and on our side of the house enough times to wake us up and then brings them in and remains quiet. She has also been throwing trash in our yard and in front of our house, etc. The harassment had been on and off but now is constant, it increases when we have good things going on in our life like for eg when we started redoing our kitchen. I believe she is jealous about something because we are not saying or doing anything to them but she keeps stirring up trouble and snooping, 2 years now. Now neighbor 1 has an ally. Both neighbors are in their late 30s/early 40s.
Neighbor 2 moved out and put his house for rent. He rented the house to this family that had huge loud parties every other week, etc. They moved out and now a couple with two young girls moved in (3 & 1 1/2 years old). I was so sick about the neighbor thing so I was not that crazy to introduce myself to these new neighbors but eventually did and even gave her kids some gifts. They were fine at the beginning but she made friends with neighbor 1 and now both are harassing us. Neighbor 2 suddenly started letting her kids scream in the most horrendous way and blow whistles, bounce balls and cry forever in the yard and for long periods of time. I ignored neighbor 2 as I had been ignoring neighbor 1 but it was very disturbing and had to talk to her. Although I was extremely nice to her, she told me she could not do anything about it and she even told me to get ear plugs. The kids have stopped their continuous screaming but now she is harassing us in the same way as neighbor 1. Neighbor 2 started to blow her car horn for several times right in front of my house and send her kids out to blow their whistles 3 times every 2 hours. She had been trashing the front of my house and had been sending her kids to scream in front of my house or when I am in my yard. It was so obvious that in the end I sent both a letter telling them that if they keep harassing us I will call the police and sue them. Neighbor 2's reaction was to stare at us in a mocking way one day we were leaving in our car. They both stopped for a week but are back again. The landlord is only interested in keeping his house rented so I cannot count on him to stop his tenants. Two years ago I talked to the neighbor on the other side of neighbor 1's house about the barking to get her signature for neighborhood compliance. She did not want to get involved in this though she admitted that the dogs were very disturbing. I still cannot understand this. As for the neighbor on the other side of neighbor 2's house, she has always made friends with the renters although I don't understand why as it did not stop them from being boisterious. I am not sure if she would be willing to help me. I spoke to her husband a few weeks ago and exchanged phones. He could not say anything as he is always travelling. The Police or Neighborhood compliance cannot help me either. The Police have advised me to go to mediation but what mediation can be done when these people will not stop? They have also suggested that I video-tape them and get a restraining order. I will need to get new windows but this is expensive and I am doing it because of the harassment. Both neighbors should pay for these windows, really.
Now every time I go to my yard, Neighbor 2 hears me and starts opening and shutting her windows, she is also honking her horn several times but now she is doing this when she is parked right outside her house. She honks twice and then a little later goes inside her house.
Last night I let my dog out in the yard and sat there for a bit. It was dead quiet. A few minutes later I heard her tv, she had raised her volume extremely loud and started opening all her windows. I was very surprised and wonder how sick can she be to do that. I even wonder if she has a video camera pointing at my yard or is so obsessed with us that snoops on us 24/7. Well, knock yourself out I thought and went inside but suddenly my phone rang. It was 10:15pm. I did not pick it up and could see who it was as I have caller ID. It was someone who lives very nearby as her phone has the first same numbers as mine. Her landlord has my phone as well as the neighbor on the other side of her house. I never gave her my phone. She could have gotten it from neighbor 1. I believe she had this acquaintance call us and I think this is too much and I have to do something about it. I can continue to ignore both neighbors. Neighbor 2 may move out in august but I am not sure, she could stay another year. And then, another renter would move in, the landlord would tell them about the noise problems and this story would repeat itself.
I would appreciate it if someone could give me any legal advice on how to go about this. Maybe I should send the landlord a letter from a lawyer? What kind of lawyer handles this? Maybe I should attach some video tape about these actions but I would have to put an effort on this though I have better things to do than to dedicate my time to this!
I am ignoring them but the phone call was too much and I am really tired of the games. Our neighborhood is nice and I am not moving out because of this. We have the right to enjoy our house and to have peace at home.
Thank you for your help.
The harassment continues, for example, she lets the kids out at 7am on Sundays to scream or the dogs bark and on our side of the house enough times to wake us up and then brings them in and remains quiet. She has also been throwing trash in our yard and in front of our house, etc. The harassment had been on and off but now is constant, it increases when we have good things going on in our life like for eg when we started redoing our kitchen. I believe she is jealous about something because we are not saying or doing anything to them but she keeps stirring up trouble and snooping, 2 years now. Now neighbor 1 has an ally. Both neighbors are in their late 30s/early 40s.
Neighbor 2 moved out and put his house for rent. He rented the house to this family that had huge loud parties every other week, etc. They moved out and now a couple with two young girls moved in (3 & 1 1/2 years old). I was so sick about the neighbor thing so I was not that crazy to introduce myself to these new neighbors but eventually did and even gave her kids some gifts. They were fine at the beginning but she made friends with neighbor 1 and now both are harassing us. Neighbor 2 suddenly started letting her kids scream in the most horrendous way and blow whistles, bounce balls and cry forever in the yard and for long periods of time. I ignored neighbor 2 as I had been ignoring neighbor 1 but it was very disturbing and had to talk to her. Although I was extremely nice to her, she told me she could not do anything about it and she even told me to get ear plugs. The kids have stopped their continuous screaming but now she is harassing us in the same way as neighbor 1. Neighbor 2 started to blow her car horn for several times right in front of my house and send her kids out to blow their whistles 3 times every 2 hours. She had been trashing the front of my house and had been sending her kids to scream in front of my house or when I am in my yard. It was so obvious that in the end I sent both a letter telling them that if they keep harassing us I will call the police and sue them. Neighbor 2's reaction was to stare at us in a mocking way one day we were leaving in our car. They both stopped for a week but are back again. The landlord is only interested in keeping his house rented so I cannot count on him to stop his tenants. Two years ago I talked to the neighbor on the other side of neighbor 1's house about the barking to get her signature for neighborhood compliance. She did not want to get involved in this though she admitted that the dogs were very disturbing. I still cannot understand this. As for the neighbor on the other side of neighbor 2's house, she has always made friends with the renters although I don't understand why as it did not stop them from being boisterious. I am not sure if she would be willing to help me. I spoke to her husband a few weeks ago and exchanged phones. He could not say anything as he is always travelling. The Police or Neighborhood compliance cannot help me either. The Police have advised me to go to mediation but what mediation can be done when these people will not stop? They have also suggested that I video-tape them and get a restraining order. I will need to get new windows but this is expensive and I am doing it because of the harassment. Both neighbors should pay for these windows, really.
Now every time I go to my yard, Neighbor 2 hears me and starts opening and shutting her windows, she is also honking her horn several times but now she is doing this when she is parked right outside her house. She honks twice and then a little later goes inside her house.
Last night I let my dog out in the yard and sat there for a bit. It was dead quiet. A few minutes later I heard her tv, she had raised her volume extremely loud and started opening all her windows. I was very surprised and wonder how sick can she be to do that. I even wonder if she has a video camera pointing at my yard or is so obsessed with us that snoops on us 24/7. Well, knock yourself out I thought and went inside but suddenly my phone rang. It was 10:15pm. I did not pick it up and could see who it was as I have caller ID. It was someone who lives very nearby as her phone has the first same numbers as mine. Her landlord has my phone as well as the neighbor on the other side of her house. I never gave her my phone. She could have gotten it from neighbor 1. I believe she had this acquaintance call us and I think this is too much and I have to do something about it. I can continue to ignore both neighbors. Neighbor 2 may move out in august but I am not sure, she could stay another year. And then, another renter would move in, the landlord would tell them about the noise problems and this story would repeat itself.
I would appreciate it if someone could give me any legal advice on how to go about this. Maybe I should send the landlord a letter from a lawyer? What kind of lawyer handles this? Maybe I should attach some video tape about these actions but I would have to put an effort on this though I have better things to do than to dedicate my time to this!
I am ignoring them but the phone call was too much and I am really tired of the games. Our neighborhood is nice and I am not moving out because of this. We have the right to enjoy our house and to have peace at home.
Thank you for your help.
