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Neighbor is operating a commercial business out of his garage.

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JustTired123

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

I live in a densely packed suburb in NJ. My neighbor is a mechanic and he operates a commercial car repair business out of his home day and night. There have been frequent nights where he is out there using an air gun, banging metal, or loudly unloading equipment as late as 11 PM. I have to get up REALLY early for work and it is just killing me. I've talked with him about it, then I've yelled at him, finally now I've got to do something else besides personal confrontation or it's going to get physical.

To be clear this isn't a guy changing oil in his spare time. He once bragged about how great his alarm system is. He said he needed it to protect the hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment in his garage. He's got everything in there short of a hydraulic lift. Tow trucks pull up and drop off customers cars regularly and I've had his clients cars sit outside my house for weeks on end. People will be randomly standing around on my front lawn when I look outside waiting for their cars to be done. I find trash on my lawn frequently from cars that were brushed out. When I complain he apologizes but does nothing to change his behavior.

If it was a 9 to 5 thing I probably would just grit my teeth and bare it, but he has absolutely no respect for his neighbors. We're talking about 6k square foot lots here. I can practically reach the property line out of my side window. I've instituted a zero tolerance policy with night noise and have started calling the cops every time it happens. But I'm kind of afraid of that backfiring if I'm always calling 911 for what isn't really an emergency. Is there any other kind of legal recourse I can go through. I don't live in a HOA or anything so that's not an option.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm at the end of my sleep deprived rope.

-JustTired
 


randomguy

Member
You need to go to city hall and find out if what he is doing is permitted. While that is unlikely it might be. If it's not you need to talk to city inspector and file complain.
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
Does your city have car towing ords ? EG when I lived in MPLS , city required vehicles to not sit on a city street in same place for 72 hours with out being moved or the car could be ticketed and was at risk of being towed. Over night parking on city streets , is it regulated ? ( barred?) what about winter time parking rules so city can plow snow? traffic count, how many customers can come to a run at home business before it must be in area with correct zoning ? a SW burb of mpls used to allow no more than two customer stops at a home per day at the home of a resident I had met who did custom wicker furniture weaving. ( learn if your town has defined the number of customer stops) noise complaints after x pm keep calling police) his bragging about a home security system that covers the garage , well I suppose considering how many people are out of work and how some illegal substance users fund there habit a security system is not a bad choice for many home owners even if they didnt have tools of a trade on site. so before complaining to city learn what its ords are so after you complain to city hall if they do not enforce ords that are on the books you can step up your complaints to city elected officials and know the wording of the ords when you do so.
 

ShyCat

Senior Member
Stop calling 911 for noise complaints. Look up the appropriate phone number for non-emergency calls and use it.
 

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