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Neighbor does minor damage in retaliation but unsure whether to file complaint?

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redmare

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

I wrote a very detailed post that just disappeared so I'm doing the short version now.


I live in apt complex. Had ongoing noise issues with downstairs neighbor. Management won't do much. They tell me to stop coming to them and call police instead..so I have. She plays her music after 10 pm and I cannot sleep. It happened again last night. I called police and she got pissed and slammed the door hard after he spoke to her.

This morning, in what I believe is retaliation, she first played her music again very loud for about 20 minutes and then left. Later, she comes home and I am sitting at home with my preschool-aged daughter (I"m a single mom..so it is just us.) I hear water splattering outside and at first I think it is on the sidewalk. I then realize it is hitting my porch and front door. I walk out and the water has stopped spraying but my porch is saturated. All my stuff I had stacked there for back-to-school is ruined (my daughter's special books she had received from her new teacher and other items..plus expensive shoes I had removed briefly before heading out again. I leaned over railing and could see my neighbor holding a water hose which was still running. I know it was her . Had to have been. My porch is well-covered and very private so it would take some effort to spray it down. It could not have happened "on accident" very easily. I took a few pics of the wet ground of porch but not much else showed up in the photos. I do have all the wet stuff, obviously. But my word against hers I guess, right?

What are my options besides the obvious of doing nothing. Is it worth filing a report with police? What type of crime, if any, would this be considered? I'm concerned about it escalating should I need to call police about noise issues again...but I'm also worried that if I don't file, I won't have record of this in the future.

Advice?
 
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sandyclaus

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

I wrote a very detailed post that just disappeared so I'm doing the short version now.


I live in apt complex. Had ongoing noise issues with downstairs neighbor. Management won't do much. They tell me to stop coming to them and call police instead..so I have. She plays her music after 10 pm and I cannot sleep. It happened again last night. I called police and she got pissed and slammed the door hard after he spoke to her.

This morning, in what I believe is retaliation, she first played her music again very loud for about 20 minutes and then left. Later, she comes home and I am sitting at home with my preschool-aged daughter (I"m a single mom..so it is just us.) I hear water splattering outside and at first I think it is on the sidewalk. I then realize it is hitting my porch and front door. I walk out and the water has stopped spraying but my porch is saturated. All my stuff I had stacked there for back-to-school is ruined (my daughter's special books she had received from her new teacher and other items..plus expensive shoes I had removed briefly before heading out again. I leaned over railing and could see my neighbor holding a water hose which was still running. I know it was her . Had to have been. My porch is well-covered and very private so it would take some effort to spray it down. It could not have happened "on accident" very easily. I took a few pics of the wet ground of porch but not much else showed up in the photos. I do have all the wet stuff, obviously. But my word against hers I guess, right?

What are my options besides the obvious of doing nothing. Is it worth filing a report with police? What type of crime, if any, would this be considered? I'm concerned about it escalating should I need to call police about noise issues again...but I'm also worried that if I don't file, I won't have record of this in the future.

Advice?
How is it that she could saturate your "well-covered" porch with a garden hose? If that's possible, it's also possible that it was an accident (she may have been hosing down her own porch), or it could have gotten wet from rain or other precipitation.

You are right that it's your word against hers. Without proof of her intent, calling the police would do little good, except to stir up the pot. And quite honestly, you shouldn't have left items outside, uncovered, that couldn't withstand the elements. That's on YOU.

Just keep taking notes. If there is something else she does that is obviously intended to harass or annoy you, then call the police again, and again, and again. You should ALSO document all of the calls to the police, as well as the reports you've already made to management in a written log of some sort, and present them to the LL with a complaint and demand that she take the appropriate action. At some point, management will be required to act or face a claim on your part for them not taking action against the offending neighbor. The management has a duty to ensure that you have quiet enjoyment of the rented property - and by them not responding and taking some kind of punitive action against the tenant who is intentionally harassing and annoying you, they are failing in that duty.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
if you took pics of her with the hose I think you have a pretty good argument for a civil court.

whether you call the police or not is up to you. It might be a criminal issue but unless there was intent to damage property that, by your own description, was most likely not able to be seen by the hose wielding neighbor, I suspect is will not be seen as such.
 

redmare

Junior Member
But I'm upper level and she is lower and......porch was bone dry a few minutes before

How is it that she could saturate your "well-covered" porch with a garden hose? If that's possible, it's also possible that it was an accident (she may have been hosing down her own porch), or it could have gotten wet from rain or other precipitation.

Obviously I need to clarify because this part is important. I live on the upper level and she lives below me. My patio is large and covered by a ceiling that extends out far enough that rain cannot get my patio wet. If my porch was not "well-covered", wouldn't it be easier to saturate it? The well-covered ceiling area means it would be harder to saturate and would take more effort. I have been here for years and have never had more than a few drops on my porch from windy, rainy days. Besides it did not rain today and I had just been on my porch less than an hour before and it was bone dry. And putting all of that aside, I saw her standing there with the hose. It doesn't take a genius to put that together.

My daughter and I had just walked upstairs except we parked in the back which means she may have thought we weren't home. I had just placed a stack of items on the porch that we were going to be loaded in another car within the hour. The items sat for less than 15 minutes before they were saturated and many people leave their shoes on their porch. I have done it for years and they have always stayed dry and untouched. So..how could she accidentally spray my porch that much being on the bottom level? You would have to directly point a hose in a very deliberate way to saturate my porch like it was by raising it over her head and pointing it...unless she was levitating in the air while she sprayed!

Sorry for any sarcastic tone! Just very frustrated and feel like I'm spinning my wheels all the time.
 

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