How do you get rid of bad neighbors?

So our neighbors have been a growing problem for a few months now. They seem to be a flop house for six or seven people, most of them look high all day. They go out and Rev a Harley at 3am, they burn plastic been our houses in a fire pit, they have a new dog every two weeks because they keep getting out and getting hit by traffic in the busy street we live on, the current two have bit people. I'm not one to care how someone lives, but these folks make the rest of our slum neighborhood look downright utopian.

I've tried taking to them, they're stupidly hostile. I've put in complaints with the city, noise complaints with the police, they don't do anything about it. Does anyone have advice on dealing with this? I'm tired, at my wits end, and my small town tactics aren't as easy to pull off in a proper city.

Gerbils ,

Do you know if they own the house? Find out.

They could be renting the place or - as was the situation in my neighborhood - one of your bikers could have "borrowed" the house from a family member. In our neighborhood, the house previously belonged to a distant relative who passed away. The majority of the family lives over a thousand miles away, so they told their wastrel daughter that she could use the house while she was getting clean.

Needless to say, the "getting clean" process never happened. She invited a host of random people to hang out at her place and they trashed it over the course of almost a year. Eventually, the family found out about the situation when one of the neighbors thought to look into ownership. They kicked the daughter out of the house and have been gutting it for the last two months, trying to clear out all of the damage done by the daughter and her friends.

Long story short, find out who actually owns the house. That may give you some options...

RBWells ,

What you may not have tried yet:
If the yard is bad enough, call code enforcement, not police, they will send notices to the landlord not the residents, then the landlord will come yell at the residents. Burning trash may also be a code enforcement thing, not police. Those code people don't mess around, once they send a notice you have to respond/address it.

suction ,

Not sure where you live but if this happened in Japan you’d talk to the local Yakuza and they’d take care of it. Meaning they’d make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Postmortal_Pop OP ,

Sadly, the US keeps all it's organized crime in the halls of government buildings.

suction ,

Sounds like a J6 opinion…

If you live in Jersey I can hook you up. But be prepared to return the favour.

Delphia ,

Theres legal ways and Illegal ways. How morally flexible are you?

Postmortal_Pop OP ,

If in being frank, they have an open crawl space next to unguarded electrical boxes and a gas main. This is an easy fix, but I promised my partner is keep it legal until we had a real reason not to.

TropicalDingdong ,

Yeah.. so I had a trap house move into the abandoned house next to mine.

Lots people spouting off with this and that and the other but won't give you advice that works. And advice that works? Banana bread.

Dead ass. Make them banana bread. Monthly if not weekly. Make them notice when it's not there.

We did this with the gang / crews that would rotate through next door. Was a rolling assemblage of cardroom, drug spot, ladies, just depended on the crew.

But I'll have you know, they do not fuck with the house that makes them banana bread. We ask them to not having people smoking and talking around outside? Next day, signs up on the porch "No smoking or hanging around", same with music, you name it. Obviously there are limits, but it took what could have been a terrible situation and made it bearable.

For this to work you have to change you attitude. Eventually they got busted by the feds, but once we had made "neighbors" with them, the rest was easy. They even started moving the trap house lawn. Respect earns respect. Change your attitude and you might be able to change the situation.

Thorry84 ,

And then they all clapped, the gang, the neighbors and even the banana bread joined in

Postmortal_Pop OP ,

This is actually the tactic I used on the rest of the neighborhood. The small town charm and my double chocolate brownies cooked in a waffle maker (I call them Wownies) has me on good terms with everyone from the dealer down the street to the homeless under the bridge. Unfortunately these folk don't bite when I offer and bite too much then I don't. After the first few tries they just started trying to hang out in my yard and started peaking too close at me workshop.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

A lot of it depends on local regulations.

HERE, a property can be declared a "chronic nuisance property":

https://www.portland.gov/code/14/b60

But your mileage may vary depending on local ordinance.

Eol ,

Live and let live. Mind your business and move.

Probably not what you want to hear... But I mean it.

D1G17AL ,

Wow, two in a row. I don't even have to fully type it out again.

Its so easy to say, move. The practical reality is often different. Also why the hell should they move if they aren't being obnoxious but the neighbors are. There's a certain level of decency that one should have in any setting. Being obnoxiously stupid to the point of doing all the things in OP's post makes people like that just fucking unacceptable or intolerable to live with. If people want to live like that then they should go live in the fucking wild. The rest of us actually want to live in civilized society.

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