Johnson1954
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Massachusetts
Hello,
Here is our situation. We live on a small dead end street. One of the homeowners has been renting out his house for the past 4 years. He and his family lived in the house previously for about 10 years. He has an illegal(?) apartment in his basement. He rents out the house as one unit(on paper), but it is always really being used as a two family.
This house has been nothing but problems for our small dead end street. The last tenants were dealing drugs right on the street, even in the daylight. The landlord learned of this, and did nothing. He possibly said something, but the drug dealing did not stop, so it wasn't enough. Thank God they just moved, though not because of the Landlord telling them.
By the way, the landlord is a MA State Trooper. He is a total disgrace to his uniform. He must believe that he is above the Law, since he constantly breaks the Law. He signed a sworn affidavit(filed at city hall) when he bought the house, that he would only use the illegal apartment for personal use. He has always had it rented out from day one, even when he lived there. That does not seem like personal use to us.
Let me go a little deeper into what type of person this Trooper is. He was down here a couple years ago after a huge snowstorm. He was in his house for 2 hours drinking with his tenants. When he was leaving, he started recklessly driving up, and down, the street slamming into snowbanks with his pickup truck. One of our elderly female neighbors went outside and asked him what he was doing. She said she could smell alcohol, and she told him so, then he quickly rolled up his window. He continued to go on a "rampage". If the elderly woman did not move out of the way quickly, she would have been ran over, believe it, or not. She was very shaken, and upset. The local police were called, but he left before they arrived. The State Police put him on some type of probation, and they placed a restraining order to stay out of our neighborhood. He still would show up whenever he felt like it.
The neighborhood would really love it if he would sell his house, and stop harassing the neighborhood. That does not look like it is going to happen, since all he cares about is money, and does not care that he is personally responsible for single handedly destroying our once nice middle-class neighborhood.
Some of the neighbors went down to city hall to see what could be done about the illegal apartment. Our city is supposedly trying to get rid of the illegal apartments in our city. The city use to have that house down as an illegal two family. All of a sudden it is now listed as a one family with 2 kitchens. The landlord is a state trooper, and knows people in the city, so it appears that something has been changed, possibly illegally.
The neighbors were told to see the building inspector. The building inspector was very rude. The neighbors believe that he knows the landlord.
That apartment was built by the previous owner without any permits. The previous owner worked for our city, so something went on.
In 1994 the fire department supposedly approved the apartment, even though there was no proper inspection done.
We believe that records have been changed, and the landlord is being taken care of by the city, since he knows people, and is a State Trooper.
We would not wish that house next to our worst enemy. You have no idea of what our neighborhood has been through, and it continues.
The landlord was not a good neighbor when he lived here, but it is even worse now that he is renting it out.
He does not maintain the house at all. The board of health has even been after him to clean it up.
Our neighbors have been harassed(by landlord and tenants), threatened( by tenants), and are very unhappy of what has happened to our once clean, quiet, dead-end street.
Is there anything that may be able to be done, or is our neighborhood "up the creek"?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You Very Much in advance.
A Desperate/Ruined Neighborhood
Hello,
Here is our situation. We live on a small dead end street. One of the homeowners has been renting out his house for the past 4 years. He and his family lived in the house previously for about 10 years. He has an illegal(?) apartment in his basement. He rents out the house as one unit(on paper), but it is always really being used as a two family.
This house has been nothing but problems for our small dead end street. The last tenants were dealing drugs right on the street, even in the daylight. The landlord learned of this, and did nothing. He possibly said something, but the drug dealing did not stop, so it wasn't enough. Thank God they just moved, though not because of the Landlord telling them.
By the way, the landlord is a MA State Trooper. He is a total disgrace to his uniform. He must believe that he is above the Law, since he constantly breaks the Law. He signed a sworn affidavit(filed at city hall) when he bought the house, that he would only use the illegal apartment for personal use. He has always had it rented out from day one, even when he lived there. That does not seem like personal use to us.
Let me go a little deeper into what type of person this Trooper is. He was down here a couple years ago after a huge snowstorm. He was in his house for 2 hours drinking with his tenants. When he was leaving, he started recklessly driving up, and down, the street slamming into snowbanks with his pickup truck. One of our elderly female neighbors went outside and asked him what he was doing. She said she could smell alcohol, and she told him so, then he quickly rolled up his window. He continued to go on a "rampage". If the elderly woman did not move out of the way quickly, she would have been ran over, believe it, or not. She was very shaken, and upset. The local police were called, but he left before they arrived. The State Police put him on some type of probation, and they placed a restraining order to stay out of our neighborhood. He still would show up whenever he felt like it.
The neighborhood would really love it if he would sell his house, and stop harassing the neighborhood. That does not look like it is going to happen, since all he cares about is money, and does not care that he is personally responsible for single handedly destroying our once nice middle-class neighborhood.
Some of the neighbors went down to city hall to see what could be done about the illegal apartment. Our city is supposedly trying to get rid of the illegal apartments in our city. The city use to have that house down as an illegal two family. All of a sudden it is now listed as a one family with 2 kitchens. The landlord is a state trooper, and knows people in the city, so it appears that something has been changed, possibly illegally.
The neighbors were told to see the building inspector. The building inspector was very rude. The neighbors believe that he knows the landlord.
That apartment was built by the previous owner without any permits. The previous owner worked for our city, so something went on.
In 1994 the fire department supposedly approved the apartment, even though there was no proper inspection done.
We believe that records have been changed, and the landlord is being taken care of by the city, since he knows people, and is a State Trooper.
We would not wish that house next to our worst enemy. You have no idea of what our neighborhood has been through, and it continues.
The landlord was not a good neighbor when he lived here, but it is even worse now that he is renting it out.
He does not maintain the house at all. The board of health has even been after him to clean it up.
Our neighbors have been harassed(by landlord and tenants), threatened( by tenants), and are very unhappy of what has happened to our once clean, quiet, dead-end street.
Is there anything that may be able to be done, or is our neighborhood "up the creek"?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You Very Much in advance.
A Desperate/Ruined Neighborhood