Originally I posted this in the Real Estate Law category but probably it belongs here instead. Sorry, I'm a newbie.
I am a college student in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I own (well, a trust in my name owns, I'm the beneficiary my parents are the trustees) a rowhouse where I live with one roommate who rents from me. There is a similar rowhouse on either side of me. If you were standing on my front steps facing the street, the one on the left has been divided into two apartment condominiums, one on the top two floors, the other on the main and basement floors. The owner of the lower condominium rents his unit to his sister and brother in law. These renters have been causing me problems ever since I moved in (mid August of this year) and I want to cause them to somehow stay out of my life, or (if possible) have them evicted. Here's why:
Upon moving in, the neighbour let it be known that she felt I had no right as an undergraduate to live in her neighbourhood. She did several things of minor annoyance. I saw her with some frequency on the back deck, which is at the same level as her own, and I was unfailingly polite in the face of some very vulgar and strident language. She turned her hose over my deck furniture a few times to make sure it was wet and unpleasant at dinner and breakfast times, she yelled at my guests for putting their feet up on my deck railing, she told me that I had better not play my music loudly or there'd be "severe consequences."
I'm deaf. I don't play music.
The final straw came when I was installing an umbrella in my outdoor table and she came outside claiming I was standing on the chair with a brand-new umbrella in my hands for the sole purpose of peering into her windows. I had my back to her windows and could care less. My mom, who was still here at the time, decided that less contact with the neighbour was warranted. The deck has eight foot posts with a top rail all the way around it, in addition to the regular waist-high railing. I think it's intended purpose was to accommodate hanging plants. Well, on the side abutting this renter's property, we removed the railing and installed a privacy fence that goes to the height of the hanging plant rail. A building permit for this alteration was applied for and rejected as unnecessary by the city.
Following the installation of the privacy wall, I was served with a suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas which alleges I did this maliciously and did it in violation of local codes and required variances and stuff. Well, we got a lawyer who said nope, no laws violated, the historical ordinance code they cited is not in force in my neighbourhood (not a historic zone) and moreover since they are renters they can't claim to be damaged, only their landlord can. So he's 100% confident it will be dismissed.
Since then the neighbours have:
My Questions: What kind of injunctions or restraining orders can I get? Can I force an eviction? Is it possible at this point to win a suit alleging harassment? If so, could I waive damages and ask that they move instead? What can I do? If I get a restraining order that says they need to keep x number of feet away from me at all times, and the brick wall between our houses is like 2 feet at the most is that an exception?
Also the neighbour who shares the deck on the other side of these people is willing to testify about their bad neighbourliness and her own similar pattern of abuse from these people, plus the guy who went to the community meeting says he'd be happy to do an affidavit in support of the fact that it was a meeting organized to complain about me being a student who lives next door.
Thanks for any advice you can share.
I am a college student in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I own (well, a trust in my name owns, I'm the beneficiary my parents are the trustees) a rowhouse where I live with one roommate who rents from me. There is a similar rowhouse on either side of me. If you were standing on my front steps facing the street, the one on the left has been divided into two apartment condominiums, one on the top two floors, the other on the main and basement floors. The owner of the lower condominium rents his unit to his sister and brother in law. These renters have been causing me problems ever since I moved in (mid August of this year) and I want to cause them to somehow stay out of my life, or (if possible) have them evicted. Here's why:
Upon moving in, the neighbour let it be known that she felt I had no right as an undergraduate to live in her neighbourhood. She did several things of minor annoyance. I saw her with some frequency on the back deck, which is at the same level as her own, and I was unfailingly polite in the face of some very vulgar and strident language. She turned her hose over my deck furniture a few times to make sure it was wet and unpleasant at dinner and breakfast times, she yelled at my guests for putting their feet up on my deck railing, she told me that I had better not play my music loudly or there'd be "severe consequences."
I'm deaf. I don't play music.
The final straw came when I was installing an umbrella in my outdoor table and she came outside claiming I was standing on the chair with a brand-new umbrella in my hands for the sole purpose of peering into her windows. I had my back to her windows and could care less. My mom, who was still here at the time, decided that less contact with the neighbour was warranted. The deck has eight foot posts with a top rail all the way around it, in addition to the regular waist-high railing. I think it's intended purpose was to accommodate hanging plants. Well, on the side abutting this renter's property, we removed the railing and installed a privacy fence that goes to the height of the hanging plant rail. A building permit for this alteration was applied for and rejected as unnecessary by the city.
Following the installation of the privacy wall, I was served with a suit in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas which alleges I did this maliciously and did it in violation of local codes and required variances and stuff. Well, we got a lawyer who said nope, no laws violated, the historical ordinance code they cited is not in force in my neighbourhood (not a historic zone) and moreover since they are renters they can't claim to be damaged, only their landlord can. So he's 100% confident it will be dismissed.
Since then the neighbours have:
- Held a community meeting in their home to mobilize the neighbourhood against me. The flyer they put up reads "Important Community Meeting Tonight! If you want to prevent [my college] from allowing its undergraduates to encroach upon the peace and historic character of our neighborhood, join your concerned neighbors at an action meeting [date time location] Help preserve our neighborhood from noise and desecration!" A neighbour who attended later introduced himself to me and confirmed that it was a gripe session about me.
- They left me a very threatening sticky on my door telling me to move my car at once from blocking their parking spot or they would have it towed 50 miles away and that they don't appreciate my "wanton harrassment." This was an easy one: I don't own a car or even have a license, and my house has 3 empty parking spaces of its own where I could park if I did.
- They cut the hedges, whose roots/structure are entirely on my property but along their property line, down to nothing and according to the landscaper who we hired to take care of trimming them on a regular basis, they had just been trimmed two days earlier. They're now so damaged that they're not going to survive and will need to be replaced. Estimate: $310.
- I got a warning letter from the city saying that I need to make sure all my trash barrels have tightly covered lids. I don't know who complained but I did have one (of four) barrels that the prior owner left behind which had no lid. I've never used it. I asked the garbage people to take it away. The only people who could have seen that there was an empty barrel with no lid in my back yard are the next door neighbours since the barrels are behind a fence and against the side of the house.
- I got an anonymous letter complaining about the filthy smells coming from my house and that if I don't take better care that the city will be told to inspect my house for vermin. Well, I eat basically salads and eggs and oatmeal and boneless skinless chicken and one time I baked cookies from a tube... most of my meals and all of my roommates are eaten out or on campus. So someone and I think it's reasonable to presume that it's the next-door neighbours is either hallucinating or deliberately threatening me or both.
- Last night I had several friends--final head count, 12 including me--for a party. Well it was more an informal get-together. Not from want of trying, but there was no alcohol and since everyone had been warned about the neighbours, the music was kept low and we didn't use the deck to keep sound down and inside the house. The police showed up to investigate a complaint of underage drinking. I let them in and let them see there was no alcohol here--one of my friends is mormon, two others were islamic--and showed them my "harassment folder." Well, they were pretty disgusted at having to waste their time preventing us from drinking soda and eating cheese curls and playing trivial pursuit, so they went next door. They came back later and told us that they had warned my neighbours to stop bothering me and told me that I should not speak or precipitate a fight with them, because then they'd have to do something (wasn't planning on it anyway) and apologized for ruining my party. Which they did, but they were just doing their jobs.
My Questions: What kind of injunctions or restraining orders can I get? Can I force an eviction? Is it possible at this point to win a suit alleging harassment? If so, could I waive damages and ask that they move instead? What can I do? If I get a restraining order that says they need to keep x number of feet away from me at all times, and the brick wall between our houses is like 2 feet at the most is that an exception?
Also the neighbour who shares the deck on the other side of these people is willing to testify about their bad neighbourliness and her own similar pattern of abuse from these people, plus the guy who went to the community meeting says he'd be happy to do an affidavit in support of the fact that it was a meeting organized to complain about me being a student who lives next door.
Thanks for any advice you can share.
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