Neighbor and Landlord Harassment

Wisconsin: This is pretty long but I need help. Thanks for reading.

I play the drums and one of my roommates plays guitar. We don't play late at night(since our neighbor asked us not too) and we don't play loud. On numerous occations our neighbors on one side have called our landlord to complain about loud noise(not just us playing). The neighbor on the other side of us is a middle aged man that we talk with a lot. We ask him all the time if we are ever too load and he says that we have always been fine. A few times the lanlord has come over after a complaint and not heard a thing.(He told us about it) Our neighbor is a female (i think man-hating) police officer. (I think) she sent over one of her officer friends to try and scare us and i asked him our rights when it comes to noise. He said the area has a 24 hour noise ordinance. Your noise should not be heard publicly, he said that ment the sidewalk in front. You can never hear us on the sidewalk. Today our landlord stopped by unanounced to tell us that we had to get the drums out of the house in 24 hours or he would evict us. My question has 2 parts, 1.) Can he legally make me remove my drumms from the house?. Because i have nowhere to put them. Whouldn'y he only be able to take action because of noise in general, not a specific instance. This would be like telling us that we can't have a stereo. 2.) Is there anything we do to stop this harassment by our neighbors for these very minor offences? I've tried talking to her. We live upstairs and our downstairs neighbors have the same type of problems. She even called to complain one night when 7 out of the 8 total between the 2 units where out of town. This is getting ridiculous. I'm really sorry that this is so long but i had to explain the situation. Please help.

I'm not sympathetic. And I don't really believe you. People have different noise tolerances. If you can't make peace with her, you're out of luck.

I am having the same trouble. Not so much drums, but with my children. I have been told that if my two-year-old child yells anymore that I will be fined for each instance in the amount of $25.00. I have further been sent violations for my child bouncing a basketball at 1:00 in the afternoon and for cigarette butts that do not belong to me. This is all because of the case of one neighbor that just moved in. When I tried to inform the landlord/management office of my side of the story she hung up on me. To the response you got from the LADY LAWER: I feel being harassed by landlords and neighbors is something that you should be sympathetic too. The fact that he called the "neighbor" a "man-hating policewoman" should not impede you from offering some constructive advice. Anyway, if you get anywhere with your landlord let me know. I am in the process of seeking legal advice.

I am having the same trouble. Not so much drums, but with my children. I have been told that if my two-year-old child yells anymore that I will be fined for each instance in the amount of $25.00. I have further been sent violations for my child bouncing a basketball at 1:00 in the afternoon and for cigarette butts that do not belong to me. This is all because of the case of one neighbor that just moved in. When I tried to inform the landlord/management office of my side of the story she hung up on me. To the response you got from the LADY LAWYER: I feel being harassed by landlords and neighbors is something that you should be sympathetic too. The fact that he called the "neighbor" a "man-hating policewoman" should not impede you from offering some constructive advice. Anyway, if you get anywhere with your landlord let me know. I am in the process of seeking legal advice.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dave:
Wisconsin: This is pretty long but I need help. Thanks for reading.

I play the drums and one of my roommates plays guitar. We don't play late at night(since our neighbor asked us not too) and we don't play loud. On numerous occations our neighbors on one side have called our landlord to complain about loud noise(not just us playing). The neighbor on the other side of us is a middle aged man that we talk with a lot. We ask him all the time if we are ever too load and he says that we have always been fine. A few times the lanlord has come over after a complaint and not heard a thing.(He told us about it) Our neighbor is a female (i think man-hating) police officer. (I think) she sent over one of her officer friends to try and scare us and i asked him our rights when it comes to noise. He said the area has a 24 hour noise ordinance. Your noise should not be heard publicly, he said that ment the sidewalk in front. You can never hear us on the sidewalk. Today our landlord stopped by unanounced to tell us that we had to get the drums out of the house in 24 hours or he would evict us. My question has 2 parts, 1.) Can he legally make me remove my drumms from the house?. Because i have nowhere to put them. Whouldn'y he only be able to take action because of noise in general, not a specific instance. This would be like telling us that we can't have a stereo. 2.) Is there anything we do to stop this harassment by our neighbors for these very minor offences? I've tried talking to her. We live upstairs and our downstairs neighbors have the same type of problems. She even called to complain one night when 7 out of the 8 total between the 2 units where out of town. This is getting ridiculous. I'm really sorry that this is so long but i had to explain the situation. Please help.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

1. No, you have a right to keep a drum set there. Just do not play it there. Find some offsite practice room to play in like a rehearsal studio, band room, house out in the country etc.

2. If you follow #1 above, you may not have to worry about #2.