Carl Miller
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2002
- Messages
- 1,461
I'm new to our neighborhood, just moved in a few months ago. Unfortunately, I've got a troublesome neighbor to one side and I could use some advice. I'll try to keep the situation short as possible.
Problem started when they knocked on our door last month and asked if we'd remove the tree that is in our front yard, but hangs over their property. The tree drops nuts onto their cars, and the nuts leave stains. I like the tree, it's one of the few left on the block at all, the guy has another driveway he doesn't use for reasons he just won't explain (the one he uses isn't the original, it's an add-on) and frankly, it gives us some sense of seperation blocking the view of his teenaged sons and absorbing some of the constant basketball bouncing that thumps 3 or 4 hours a day.
Speaking of thumping, the sons, both in high school, live in what used to be rented as an illegal apartment on the side of house that faces our side. They have seperate everything from the rest of their house, pretty much go unsupervised (drinking, parties and noise well into the early a.m. hours on weekends) and worst of all, blast their pretty powerful stereo every day the moment they get home from school and most all the weekend. Its loud enough so that it actually sounds like it's being played in my house. We've asked the kids to turn it down, which they do, but only for 10-15 minutes before the volume goes up again. The parents are often home when their stereo cranks, and I really have no idea how they tolerate it.
Needless to say, when I've spoken to the parents, they're unwilling to do anything because of, I think, the tree.
Then we have the garbage, which is piled up on the side of their house. Lots and lots of garbage, open pails, assorted junk and such. It smells, looks bad and I've spotted a couple of mice popping in and out of their garbage area already.
And now, back to the kids. They constantly ride their bikes across our lawn to save a few feet. No big deal, except they managed to ride over and bust one of our sprinkler heads, twice in the past 3 weeks. The father, of
coure, said I had no proof they were responsible and refused to compensate me for one (I let the first one go)of them. Of course I have proof the sprinkler head was broken by their kids, the bike tracks across our lawn run right over the head.
And finally, to top it off, a neighbor told me of "the tree incident" with the prior owner of our house...Seems the tree has been an issue for years with this guy, so much so that he once attempted to poison the tree with deck sealant, and the tree was in fact repaired by a professional...which answered one of my initial questions to the realtor which was "why does the tree have a big black seal"? Turns out the repair guy did it to repair the damage caused by the sealant.
To sum up, the last tree discussion we had with them is that I offered to clean their driveway once the nuts started to fall. I told him I'd wash off the stains, and clear the nuts off his property. He in turn offered to pay for the tree removal. I told him he had whole other driveway he could use, and he said he was entitled to use whichever one he chooses.
I don't want to complain all the time to them or their kids, but this is ridiculous. No way I'm going to spend my entire summer listening to their kids music from 5:30 when I get home until 10:00 on weekdays and for about 8-10 hours each day on weekends. Even if I used the tree as a bargaining tool to get him to quell their kids music, there's no way he'd live up to such an agreement based on what I've gotten from this guy so far, which is a total lack of willingness to compromise about anything.
So, what to do? Any advice on how to go about handling this mess? I've actually been tempted to point my stereo speakers and sub out the window facing their house and give them a nice little taste of what it feels like. But, tempting as it may be to rattle their windows, I just don't want to put the other neighbors through that and refuse to sink to that level.
Problem started when they knocked on our door last month and asked if we'd remove the tree that is in our front yard, but hangs over their property. The tree drops nuts onto their cars, and the nuts leave stains. I like the tree, it's one of the few left on the block at all, the guy has another driveway he doesn't use for reasons he just won't explain (the one he uses isn't the original, it's an add-on) and frankly, it gives us some sense of seperation blocking the view of his teenaged sons and absorbing some of the constant basketball bouncing that thumps 3 or 4 hours a day.
Speaking of thumping, the sons, both in high school, live in what used to be rented as an illegal apartment on the side of house that faces our side. They have seperate everything from the rest of their house, pretty much go unsupervised (drinking, parties and noise well into the early a.m. hours on weekends) and worst of all, blast their pretty powerful stereo every day the moment they get home from school and most all the weekend. Its loud enough so that it actually sounds like it's being played in my house. We've asked the kids to turn it down, which they do, but only for 10-15 minutes before the volume goes up again. The parents are often home when their stereo cranks, and I really have no idea how they tolerate it.
Needless to say, when I've spoken to the parents, they're unwilling to do anything because of, I think, the tree.
Then we have the garbage, which is piled up on the side of their house. Lots and lots of garbage, open pails, assorted junk and such. It smells, looks bad and I've spotted a couple of mice popping in and out of their garbage area already.
And now, back to the kids. They constantly ride their bikes across our lawn to save a few feet. No big deal, except they managed to ride over and bust one of our sprinkler heads, twice in the past 3 weeks. The father, of
coure, said I had no proof they were responsible and refused to compensate me for one (I let the first one go)of them. Of course I have proof the sprinkler head was broken by their kids, the bike tracks across our lawn run right over the head.
And finally, to top it off, a neighbor told me of "the tree incident" with the prior owner of our house...Seems the tree has been an issue for years with this guy, so much so that he once attempted to poison the tree with deck sealant, and the tree was in fact repaired by a professional...which answered one of my initial questions to the realtor which was "why does the tree have a big black seal"? Turns out the repair guy did it to repair the damage caused by the sealant.
To sum up, the last tree discussion we had with them is that I offered to clean their driveway once the nuts started to fall. I told him I'd wash off the stains, and clear the nuts off his property. He in turn offered to pay for the tree removal. I told him he had whole other driveway he could use, and he said he was entitled to use whichever one he chooses.
I don't want to complain all the time to them or their kids, but this is ridiculous. No way I'm going to spend my entire summer listening to their kids music from 5:30 when I get home until 10:00 on weekdays and for about 8-10 hours each day on weekends. Even if I used the tree as a bargaining tool to get him to quell their kids music, there's no way he'd live up to such an agreement based on what I've gotten from this guy so far, which is a total lack of willingness to compromise about anything.
So, what to do? Any advice on how to go about handling this mess? I've actually been tempted to point my stereo speakers and sub out the window facing their house and give them a nice little taste of what it feels like. But, tempting as it may be to rattle their windows, I just don't want to put the other neighbors through that and refuse to sink to that level.