I have already posted a previous question on here regarding my neighbour. The situation has declined; I have had to put my bed in my living-room and have been forced to sleep there for the last year and seven months due to the noise my neighbour makes all night long, dragging furniture across the floor, emptying wardrobes, internal doors constantly being slammed, and running the water in the bathroom repeatedly, and going out into the garden and watering the plants at 3am regardless of the temperature or the weather. Her behaviour is manic and frantic, and then she sleeps all day. Her son moved in once I got in touch with the authority, but he is a prolific cannabis user and just goes along with the dementia, so he is up all night and sleeps all day to. They only use the bedroom which is on the adjoining wall, to both live and sleep in, meaning the noise is on the wall all night long, I gather she has hoarded herself out of the rest of the property. I was expecting social services to have attended, but then the lockdown came in, and since then my Landlord has had no luck getting social services to attend. They ended up shutting the case after talking to the family, and since then the family have brought more of the hoard back into the property. My partner and I have also been threatened by the family to stop going to the authorities or they will harm us, I reported it to the police. The family have also taken photos of our cars, which has also been reported to the police. Now we can't park our cars near our home for fear they will be vandalised. The elderly neighbour has also accused me of stealing from her garden and threatened to stab and kill me, for which I telephoned the police again. She has previously threatened to kill another neighbour, and she has chased her own family members with knives. She has also called me a Dumba** B*tch, a whore, a hoe, and a C word. The family appear to be hiding the extent of her dementia from social services and I don't know why? She has been making accusations of theft towards most of the neighbours and her own family for years, her husband left several years ago because he couldn't put up with her dementia and hoarding. Most of the family do not work and smoke cannabis, they also supply it to their elderly grandmother which cannot be helping her paranoia. This has become more than just a neglected neighbour with dementia and hoarding, as the family are obviously refusing help for their mother, and as such the situation is not changing. After over 2 and a half years of sleepless nights and stress I don't know if to just move? The Landlord is only forwarded so much power, and unless social services intervenes then they can only treat it as an antisocial/noise issue, and serve warnings for the state of the property. The courts are not evicting people during the coronavirus. My own grandmother had dementia as did my partners father, and neither affected their neighbours because we looked after them, it is a difficult disease to deal with, and without support could drive you mad. The only thing that is keeping me here is that I love my home, and I have spent a lot of money on it, but if you are afraid, exhausted and cannot live in it for purpose then what's the point?
I had some really nice neighbors upstairs from my family flat in town, who unfortunately got up at 4am for shift work a couple of days a week. Hard concrete floors, my plasterboard ceilings straight under the uncarpeted concrete floor above- I heard every step, every thing they dropped, even toilet use. I solved it with earplugs, so they might help you too. Decent sleep helps a lot.
If you do move, I would seriously consider reparations against the landlord, such as demanding that he pay for the move (someone may have mentioned this earlier), agreement to cancel the lease, and refund of any deposit as well as monthly balance of rent.
And if you do move, discuss with the new landlord high levels of privacy, no recording of a new lease, etc. to ensure that the problem people don't come after you.
BTW, does your unit have any security monitoring? Video cameras of people approaching the unit, something like that?
ETA: I've just discovered that Rose is updating the thread, but it doesn't seem as though there's been any positive change.
Rose, I've had another thought. Is the landlord the actual property owner of record? If not, you could contact the property owner directly, by using the local county recorder's office, or Treasurer's Office, to identify him or her. Be careful of Treasurer's Office records though, as someone other than the title holder might be paying the taxes, if management has been contracted to a company (of which the landlord is a member, owner, shareholder, etc.).
I ran into this when a house abandoned was left unattended, grass overgrown, snow not cleared, etc. Treas. Office records showed a particular company was responsible for the taxes, so I traced it down, found it was just a company providing limited services for another company. Traced that down but no one would return my call. (The property was left abandoned for 6 years after the owner died.)
Get out of there while you can and before you have a fire that burns everything you own. It is not worth the aggravation and the loss of sleep. The stress is bad for you. You can make a new home elsewhere.
:)
IF I were in your situation, I would NOT stay as long as you have. A book can have a lovely cover, but if it is full of blank pages, or worse, pornography, would you keep it? Your situation is even worse than that. Noise, threats, vermin with no recourse!
You've tried most avenues to try to put a stop to this, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Clearly the family isn't concerned, so they are not going to do anything. The landlord could try more, but even without virus and moratoriums on evictions, the eviction process alone is expensive and very time consuming. Even worse is how the "system" deals with people who have cognitive declines or other issues - they tend to try to keep people as "independent" as possible, so even if social services determines she's at risk, so long as "family" is living with her, they will likely not intervene much.
I would find another place. There are other lovely places that you can call home! Hard as it may be to give up what you like, giving up what you don't like will be so much better! Having your BR in the LR, you can't even entertain (not that we should be right now.) You've stuck it out for a long time now, and no one else seems concerned (family, police, social services.) If this person has dementia, it could be years before it reaches a point that she would be taken to a facility. If you're willing to put up with all that for many years, stay. If not, you should be looking (probably should have been when you found these "responsible parties" wouldn't or couldn't do anything.)
NOTE: Maybe when you do get to the moving stage, you can make sure it's as noisy as possible during the day! Play the loudest most obnoxious music you can! Then again, who knows what they might resort to... At the very least, I wouldn't make any effort to be quiet for them while they sleep during the day.
And again, people with mental health issues do have rights, as a hoarder there will be certain leniency, which is why she needs proper assessment for her dementia as this is the only thing that will override her rights. I believe she is way past being classed as having a capacity, since she is delusional, and aggressive, but unless social services goes in, then this could go on and on, that's my fear, because I've had enough already.
Disgustedtoo, no noise wakes her up in the day, and that is because the drugs she should be taking at night to sleep, she is taking in the morning when she goes to bed.
Thank you ever so much for your response.
I understand your viewpoint.
However, I believe a lot of times in our life, "we have to stand still." Most of what we face, is really just a battle of the enemy of our soul.
We will face many situations that are not pleasing but we can't run from it.
I could give you a long list of things that go on with our neighbors.
Damaging our home, vehicles and garage. The list goes on and on.
Do we pack up and move? Nope.
We stand still.
Go to city council meetings
You should be working with your other neighbors in unison with these city agencies.
Keep good records of your activities with the city people IE date time, who you met with, who came to the house. track their comitments make sure they are kept.
Use email to keep a clear papertrail of communication
Contact the media find the local TV consumer helper.
You will not be able to easily sell your home with this right next door and or you wont get a reasonable value.
If your a renter.. after 2 years Yes it is time to move out
Local newspaper reported that neighbours had advised this house to Police & Council many many times & they were very angry not enough was done.
The neighbours had iinstalled their own fire alarms & kept the vegetation on their fence lines trimmed. Paid for regular pest extermination too. All they could do.
The house burned down completely but luckily the fire fighters saved the neighbouring houses.
When interviewed about what he would do, where he would go, Mr Hoarder said he had been offered public housing or a nursing home room (can't remember now) & was happy about that. When asked if he was sad about losing all his stuff - no! He was happy it was gone! Didn't know how to get rid of it... the fire was a blessing.
I heard that one neighbour said he should have lit the match himself years ago to save the whole street years of anguish...
I wouldn't advice arson! I'd move if I could afford to.
I seriously doubt that you would miss anything about your current living arrangement.
In fact, you will most likely feel relieved that you left and wonder what took you so long to leave.
Start packing! Enjoy your new place! Look at this as moving towards a better life instead of leaving your home behind.
If I love my home and have spent a lot of money on it, how am I going to let someone else run me away?
It's not happening.
She is the problem. Not me.
She's got to go. Not me.
litterally
Both being renters changes the dynamics of a dispute like this.
Then get out, move............remove yourself from this place as soon as humanly possible. It's a no brainer in my book. I'd have moved out after a month or two of this kind of chaos. How have you lasted years????
Good luck!
I’ve had terrible neighbors before and I know it can take over your life and cause terrible stress. I worry the elderly lady will pass then you’ll be stuck with her son and the hoard is still there.
I would also call The Elder Abuse Hotline and report the son for financial abuse.
Call as many agencies as you can think of. The goal is to get lots of official people inside her unit. One of them will surely make something happen. If not, rinse and repeat with the calls.
Good luck, keep us updated on progress!
Cheryl J. Wilson, M.S.
You say you love your home and have put in a lot of money, have adjoining walls with neighbors - so sounds like you bought a condo or apartment type unit while neighbor is only renting. Landlord of renter could have done something about this issue a long time ago, before covid. Most leases are 6 mos or 12 mos. If he had real concerns over the condition of his property he could have went month to month on her rent to give 30 day notice to vacate or refused to renew lease with her. He did neither. Probably because it's better for him to collect rent every month instead of cleaning up her mess and finding another renter.
You aren't getting help from landlord or police even though you asked long before covid was an issue. The threats are just threats until someone gets hurt and it's too late. That family is going to continue to make life miserable. The covid virus is not going away anytime soon, so with that issue holding up evictions now, the lady is not leaving. Get away from her. There's a place out there that you can love and have some peace of mind.
Look up "sunk cost fallacy" and then think honestly and realistically how you would feel if the problems continued another 3 or 6 months, or more. Think also about how it would feel to relocate and not have the chaos, drama, and threats.
It sounds horrible. Years ago I lived in a flat below a mentally ill woman and still remember it as one of the most stressful times of my life. I loved that apartment and yard, it was such a great place. But as sad as I was to leave it, I knew the situation had little likelihood of resolution, andI had no influence to make it change. And it was SUCH a blessing to no longer live with the anxiety, anger, and distraction that living there committed me to. I now live in an extraordinarily sane, quiet building and thank my lucky stars every day.
This is a hazard to you as well as other neighbors.
A lease that is signed between you and your landlord is a contract and in exchange for your rent he agrees to provide a safe, habitable place. This sounds like neither.
You could send him a letter indicating that since your current place is not safe, sanitary due to the conditions the neighbor is creating you are going to move out.
(If you move out without cause he could sue you, the letter and any other documentation you have proving unsafe or unsanitary conditions and proof that you have tried to get him/her to correct would probably go in your favor if the landlord were to take you to court)
I am surprised that APS has not taken more steps to protect this woman and make her safe as it does not sound like she is safe being cared for by the person that is supposed to be.
Noise is one thing but hoarding can be a disaster. With some help from my friends I moved the very next day. I suggest you do the same before you wake to the same problem.