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Can we as a neighborhood sue a landlord?

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tammy8

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

I am longtime (9 yrs) resident of a home owned (2+ acres fenced in backyard) by family that lives across the street and is mine except in deed. There are 2 homes, one beside my rented home, one on the side of my rented property that are owned by the same landlord.

Over the past 3 yrs, there have been more than 30+ police calls (noise/music/parties, domestic violence, breaking and entering, warrant searches) made to both the homes (another home owned by same landlord that is 2 streets down has had over 20+ calls to police/ER service in the past 18 months). There have been problems with rodents due to trash issues which the city simply came out and told the tenents of those homes to clean up), there is a vicious (pit) dog that has ran loose many times (animal control doesn't work at nights...), threats from one *recent* baby daddy and there is always ppl in and out of all 3 homes, again all owned by same landlord. Honestly we are all terrified by the newest move-in to the point that no one goes outside while he is around.

Several of us have complained to the police dept but have been told there is little we can do without the PD witnessing the activity. Today after much research we found out that these houses that we were under the impression of being Section 8/HUD are not (but no one can understand how these *families* are in these houses as they do not work fulltime or higher paying jobs..)

The Section8/HUD person we spoke to suggested suing the landlord for every occurance but we are unsure on how to even start with the documentation or even what we would be suing them for (except being pieces of trash).

Anyone got any further info to help protect our neighborhood? NOrmally I myself would suggest moving but this is the neighborhood I grew up in, my parents, my Aunts, my cousins all live here and I don't want to move, I just want PEACE!)
 


ecmst12

Senior Member
You can't sue anyone for being a bad neighbor and you can't sue a landlord for who he chooses to rent to. And of course if you DO file a baseless lawsuit against your landlord, expect to be moving whether you like it or not.
 

tammy8

Senior Member
Okay, just going by what the HUD director and PD told us we could do to try and rid the neighborhood of dangerous neighbors:(, just hoping they were not talking out their arses about having no control of bad landlords.
 

Searchertwin

Senior Member
The Section8/HUD person we spoke to suggested suing the landlord for every occurance but we are unsure on how to even start with the documentation or even what we would be suing them for (except being pieces of trash).
Why would you say something like that? You have to understand everyone needs a place to live. It's your choice to stay or move.
Section 8 only said this to pacify you and probably get you out of their hair. Sue on what grounds is what I would have asked. They would not be able to tell you.

NOrmally I myself would suggest moving but this is the neighborhood I grew up in, my parents, my Aunts, my cousins all live here and I don't want to move, I just want PEACE!
)
I can understand wanting to be close to family like that. I can understand to get away from neighbors that lives a different life style than yours. Your best bet is do what we did 12 years ago. Buy property, split the acres, and build.
 
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Gail in Georgia

Senior Member
Have any of you folks actually spoken with the landlord about any of this?

The reason I ask is that it's often typical of folks in this type of situation wanting "others" (i.e., city/county/community employees) to address their concerns as they don't have the courage to contact the landlord directly. In other words, neighbors are suffering from this activity but want "others" to do the dirty work in taking care of it.

Reporting tenant activity to the landlord again and again might, eventually, cause him/her to get sick of all this calls and get rid of the tenants. IF these tenants have a signed lease (as opposed to a month to month tenancy) the landlord needs to have a LEGAL reason to evict them and for that, they need some type of proof of the activity you claim.

SOME communities (and this would be a community ordinance, not a state one) have ordinances that address "nuisance" issues where, after a certain number of documented incidences involving noise, dangerous animals, police calls, etc. can result in a landlord being fined by the city (not the neighbors) as an incentive to evict such tenants. You might look into whether this is the case in your community.

Gail
 

Banned_Princess

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

I am longtime (9 yrs) resident of a home owned (2+ acres fenced in backyard) by family that lives across the street and is mine except in deed. There are 2 homes, one beside my rented home, one on the side of my rented property that are owned by the same landlord.
which means its not yours at all. :rolleyes:
 

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