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Legal recourse agaisnt landlord for a neighbor who is harrassing, loud, and drunk.

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lyssa_brooks

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Georgia
We have lived in this apartment for two years in October. We resigned another year lease last year. We have a 2 and half year old little girl. For the past year we have been dealing with loud neighbors next door. They are in their 40's, their music is played loud with a 500 amp aimed at the bedroom wall, they get drunk every night, jump up and down in their apartment, run up and down the stairs loudly, have loud parties, leave their door open while stripping, and just all around bad neighbors. We have asked them nicely but firmly to stop several times. Other tenants have called the police and other tenants have asked them to please quiet down. They say they will but then they only get worse and laugh about it. After twice being awoken at odd hours of the night with party music going on and waking my sick 2 yr old up, we went to the landlord. It was rent day and the three other apartment tenants went to the landlord and complained finally. The landlord then served a cease and desist letter to the offenders.
That only made them angry and now they harass us. He will only crank up the music for a few minutes in the middle of the night to wake us all up. He has called us snitches, bad names, got in my husbands face intimidate him. We have not reacted but we are scared for our safety now. We are being pushed into a horrible living situation. We want to know if we can break our lease and just leave before the end of the month. We are truly frightened because he is a felon and a drunk.
Could you please give us some recourse. I am not from Georgia (I am from california) and do not know the laws out here and my rights. We have paid our rent on time every single month, never at all been late, and never had any complaints against us. We have however seen plenty of notices put on the offenders door.
Thank you
Lisa BrooksWhat is the name of your state?
 


CA LL

Senior Member
If this was going on when you resigned..not sure why you did. At any rate you CAN ASK the LL to let you out..though you should have plenty of "backup" as in police calls perhaps, other neighbor input, etc.

The LL is not really obligated to do so however. Me I never use leases on MTM so that folks are free to move when they want OR I can terminate tenancies of trouble makers to keep good tenants.

You say this has been going on for a YEAR..so curious why it only now is a problem you are posting about?
 

lyssa_brooks

Junior Member
If this was going on when you resigned..not sure why you did. At any rate you CAN ASK the LL to let you out..though you should have plenty of "backup" as in police calls perhaps, other neighbor input, etc.

The LL is not really obligated to do so however. Me I never use leases on MTM so that folks are free to move when they want OR I can terminate tenancies of trouble makers to keep good tenants.

You say this has been going on for a YEAR..so curious why it only now is a problem you are posting about?
First of all we did want to give the people the chance to abide by simple asking to be considerate. We tolerated it for awhile before even asking. They had the cops called on them several times before by other neighbors. We were always hoping we wouldnt have to make a huge deal and get involved. I mean it seemed likely that the landlord would throw them out.
Second the reason we started to make a stink, my child had gotten very sick went to the hospital and so on. They were informed by my husband to please keep it down and promised they would. That same night they started their music and jumping around at 1am. Which of course woke her up and when I went to the door to ask them to quiet it down he got mean with me and told me to shove it basically( I am using a nice term for what he said).
Third the reason I am posting this now is because since the landlord gave them that cease and desist letter they have been intolerable.They were not a huge problem for us last October when we signed another lease, more for the neighbors below them. Also unfortunately we did not have the money to move then.
 
Start calling the law on these folks each and every time they get too loud after a reasonable time (say 10 or 11 p.m. depending on your city's laws). Then call your landlord each time and tell him that they disturbed you again. I know this will be a pain for a couple weeks, but you need this as evidence that this tenant is disturbing your quiet enjoyment of your premises. Also get copies of all the police calls to that unit since you have lived there. These are public info so you only have to go to the police station to get them (in some areas you can even get them on-line). If the landlord does not evict them, then ask the landlord to be let out of your lease on that basis (they are violating your right to the quiet enjoyment of your unit). If he refuses and wants to take you to court, you will have evidence that you could not live in the unit. Also, some cities now have nuisance laws on the books. After so many police calls to the same unit, the owner is contacted by the court. A hearing is set up with the landlord so he can explain how he is abating the nuisance. If he fails to do so, the landlord is fined by the city. You might want to check your city ordinances to see if you have such a law.
 

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