Rant

I'm cranky and irritable having listened to the neighbour's bass reverberating through my walls until 1:30 a.m... as it has pretty much every night since Christmas.

It's not really loud so I feel stupid calling the cops, but I can hear it and feel it and it's making me crazy.

It's part of a bigger problem that's making me even crazier. I've owned this house for 20 years – it's a decent neighbourhood of 100 year old houses that are very close together. My neighbours are all decent people – many of whom have been here for decades.

Last year, the old couple beside me sold their place under the table to a guy and his wife that have several rental properties around the city. They turned it into a berkeleying rooming house!

Unlicensed rooming houses are illegal in this city, and after the problems we've had with crack and fires, the city placed a moratorium on any new ones. Because of the high unemployment rate (we're currently just under 12%), they won't close them down though, they will only police them.

I'm berkeleying tired when I get home from traveling, and have a pile of work to do - and most of last summer was spent tearing my hair out over the loud music, skeevy creeps with no shirt, fights and gross people standing around in the driveway smoking. The worst was the second floor deck that overlooks my back yard, where they'd hawk up their lungs in the morning and drink all day – so I haven't used my yard in over a year.

I called and emailed and badgered the city, the cops and the fire department - who forced them to tear down the deck that was built without a permit. The landlords hate me - they think I'm "unreasonable". Unreasonable? They've lowered our property values and destroyed our neighbourhood for their own profit, and I'm unreasonable because I object to seeing an ex-con take a piss off the balcony first thing in the morning?

Now, I see they've plastered building permits all over the windows of the property that give them permission to build another deck.

I don't have the energy for this crap and think my best recourse is to slap some paint on the place and get out of here.

So the city won't do anything about an illegal rooming house?

Call the owners and see if they want to buy your house and ruin it too.

Sucky situation. Problem neighbors may be the most insidious thing in the world.

Could you sell and buy something that would put your nearer your horses??

Houses don't generally last if they're burned down.... just sayin'. With that kinda clientele, it'd be really easy to assume it was one of them.

Anonymous story to the local news about slumlords building unzoned boarding houses?

Jewish Lightning.

Install this in your house on a timer that goes off every hour on the hour whenever you are not home

This is why I look at houses like cars - you have to be ready for the actions of someone else, that you had no control over, to reduce their value to that of scrap.

The only other option is an HOA...comrade.

I alternate between red anger, and just wanting to cry.

I'm really private. All the shades on that side of the house are drawn, so my kitchen is dark. Otherwise, they can see right into my house. I've talked to a local reporter - it's a problem that's city-wide. The cops, councilman, fire department and city have just advised me to pick up the phone at the slightest infraction - but berkeley, that just puts me in an ugly mood. I circulated a paper around the neighbourhood, and while all the other neighbours thanked me, they really don't want to do anything about it. I explained to them that it will ruin all of their property values, and if I move, it's likely my house will go rental as well. With two of them, what happens to the neighbourhood?

Buy an old work van. Tint the windows really dark. When the neighbors are not about, park the van near their house on the street. Move it every couple days. Maybe if they think they are under surveillance they will disperse.
You can come stay at my house if you need some peace and quiet.

If you're not happy in your home, it's time to move.

Yeah, I'm pissed all the time.

But I haaaate the idea of moving.

surveillance cameras

Rename your wi-fi to FBISurveillance .

All life's problems can be solved with the proper application of high explosives....

CGLockRacer wrote: Rename your wi-fi to FBISurveillance .

I have already done this

Prosecute the owners yourself

Install soundproofing? That might help.

CGLockRacer wrote: Rename your wi-fi to FBISurveillance .

That never keeps me from hopping onto them if they're un/poorly secured

Cameras, lots of them.

Cameras + internet website = hours of fun.

In reply to DoctorBlade:

Thats a good money making idea........just do camera's and a live stream. If they constantly do dumb and hillarious things, you could probably afford a nice house in the country within a year from the ad revenue......

Say, didn't we just have a thread on this? http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/mysterious-bitchy-neighbor-should-i-do-anything/61080/page1/ might have some good ideas in it.

Such as.

Wally wrote: When I lived with my parents and had my tow truck some people got the town to pass an ordanence saying no commercial vehicles in residential driveways. It started as a despute between a plumber down the street and the old lady next door. Once it passed 7 of us on our street had to rent spaces for our trucks and vans. When they wrote the law instead of going by vehicle size they said anything with commercial plates. He bought the uglist cheapest Mack he could find and registered it as an RV. Her bedroom was next to his driveway and 2-3 times a week he'd take the Mack out to pick up beer in the middle of the night. It must have weak compressor because every time he started it he'd have to rev the piss out of it to build up air pressure.

Just start going to work at about 6 AM, those people ARE NOT morning types.

say the word lesley, I am sure there any number of people on this forum who could firebomb the place and be out of state before anybody was the wiser

mad_machine wrote: say the word lesley, I am sure there any number of people on this forum who could firebomb the place and be out of state before anybody was the wiser

You act like this would be hard......John Candy nearly did it without any other help.