Unlawful Eviction Apartment telling us to move for issues out of our control.

[StressedMess]

Jurisdiction

Tennessee

This is a call for help. My wife and I are freaking out because we have a dog and the lady below us is complaining about her. We have been living here for 2 years with no complaints. When we moved in, we had our very well trained dog with us. We paid the pet fees and we still pay pet rent. We have never missed a payment and I feel we are very good tenants. We never have anybody over and we are very quite people. However we do both work the night shift and usually get home around 11ish to midnight. We try extra hard to keep quite but our dog gets excited to see us (only till we pet her and say hello, literally maybe for 30 sec). She doesn't jump or run wild around the apartment. She is 4 and we have heard her bark maybe 2 or 3 times her whole life. However the new tenant, a MEAN old lady below us, has filed a noise complaint. She is saying she is hearing thumping and loud foot noise. I say she is MEAN because the first and only time I talked with her she randomly came out of her apartment and yelled " are we gonna have a problem!" I said no mam why and she just slammed her door. Ever sense that incident she has been filing complaints. But anyways our apartment is being very threatening saying we need to move or get rid of our dog. It is out of our control. We can't keep our dog locked up for the 12 hours we are gone 3 days a week. I can't scold her for getting a little excited to see us. I need help because I feel this is going to go to court and we will lose sense the company will have a lawyer and we won't.

 

[army judge]

This is a call for help. My wife and I are freaking out because we have a dog and the lady below us is complaining about her. We have been living here for 2 years with no complaints. When we moved in, we had our very well trained dog with us. We paid the pet fees and we still pay pet rent. We have never missed a payment and I feel we are very good tenants. We never have anybody over and we are very quite people. However we do both work the night shift and usually get home around 11ish to midnight. We try extra hard to keep quite but our dog gets excited to see us (only till we pet her and say hello, literally maybe for 30 sec). She doesn't jump or run wild around the apartment. She is 4 and we have heard her bark maybe 2 or 3 times her whole life. However the new tenant, a MEAN old lady below us, has filed a noise complaint. She is saying she is hearing thumping and loud foot noise. I say she is MEAN because the first and only time I talked with her she randomly came out of her apartment and yelled " are we gonna have a problem!" I said no mam why and she just slammed her door. Ever sense that incident she has been filing complaints. But anyways our apartment is being very threatening saying we need to move or get rid of our dog. It is out of our control. We can't keep our dog locked up for the 12 hours we are gone 3 days a week. I can't scold her for getting a little excited to see us. I need help because I feel this is going to go to court and we will lose sense the company will have a lawyer and we won't.

You have no idea what the animal does while you are away at work.

That said, the dog is jeopardizing your tenancy.

You have three choices, as I see things.

You can negotiate your way out of the lease, because the LL directed you to leave.

You can get rid of the animal, and stay where you are.

You can take the animal to a kennel while you are working.

I suggest you remedy the problem quickly, because you don't want to end up getting evicted.

An eviction will hamper your ability to rent decent housing for decades.

Fix it before it goes too far.

 

[mightymoose]

I suggest the first option given above.
Discuss this with the landlord. Point out how long you have been there without a problem.
If they insist the dog is suddenly a problem them negotiate an early release from your lease and find a new pet friendly home. Get any agreements in writing.

 

[zddoodah]

This isn't terribly complex:

1. Get rid of the dog.
2. Move.
3. Do nothing and deal with the consequences.

You can't stop your neighbor from complaining, and her complaints put your landlord in a position to favor you or the other tenant. If you don't have a long-term lease, you can be evicted at any time without cause (and you can move at any time by giving appropriate notice). If you have a long-term lease, it will be more difficult to evict you, but it can't be done.