Noisy Repairs After Giving Notice

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: TX
I am not really looking for any answers. I am moving out one week from today, so legally, nothing could be done in that time frame that would benefit me. I am just ranting out of frustration.

We moved into our rental house about 4 years ago. It is a 1300 sqft 3 bedroom house where my wife, 2 daughters and I live. It also has a 1000 sqft 3 car garage/shop in the backyard. The lot is about 1/2 an acre. The neighborhood is not a very good neighborhood. It is a mostly Hispanic neighborhood (nothing wrong with that), but most houses have multiple families living there with numerous cars parked in front. Our neighbor has 16 cars. The one on the other side of us has 12. Parking is tight and we often cannot get into our driveway without asking them to move. There are also problems with gangs and graffiti.

When we first moved in, the landlord and his wife were very nice to us and had been up until the beginning of this year. They are in their late 60's to mid 70's. It was in the contract that they would maintain everything including the yard work. Because I actually enjoy getting out and doing stuff like that, I mowed not only my yard, but theirs as well (using his riding lawnmower of course). I also helped him out with his computer from time to time.

Early this year, the husband went to the hospital for about a week. His wife told us that he had a mini stroke, but he denies it and said it was just heat exhaustion. About a week after that, he called my up around 9:00pm telling me I had to come over to his house right away to fix a problem on his computer and that it was an emergency. He maintains his high school reunion stuff and they had one the next day that he needed a slide show from. I told him I was out of the area and would not be in until very late and would not be able to help him. He told me to stop by when I got home. I arrived home around 3:00am very tired and very intoxicated (My wife drove). I went straight to bed.

The next day, he came over at 7:30am and chewed me out for not coming over the night before. It was all my fault that he would not be able to do his slide show and that some of the people at this years reunion would not be around next year to see it. He told me I was not allowed to work on his computer ever again. [sarcasm]Naturally, I was heartbroken[/sarcasm].

The following few months, he starts coming into our house during the day when we are not there, but denies ever coming in. We know he has been there because we can smell the smoke, or see stuff moved around. I came home one time and found several drawers open on my tool box in the garage. We have seen his footprints in the house when he had dirt on them and walked through. The thermostat was changed ( he hates for the thermostat to be above 77') and one time, the front door was left wide open (We called the police and they came and checked the house). He denies ever coming in of course.

Last month, we found a house and we were approved on the loan to purchase it yesterday. Our closing date is one week from today. We told them this as soon as we found out and gave them about 2 months notice. We are only required to give 30 and are on a month to month rental. We have also kept them informed that we have been looking so it was no surprise.

A couple weeks ago, the landlord came to me and told me he was going to replace the roof on both the shop and the house, but he was going to wait until after I moved out. No big deal and it shouldn't affect me. For the last 2 months, we have been packing our belongings and storing them in the shop. Our intention was to back up a moving truck to the shop and load them directly from there. It is elevated so it would have made it very easy.

Last Friday, he started working on the shop. He called me 20 minutes before I left for work and told me to get everything out before I left that morning. I told him I could not. He then told me he was not responsible for anythign that was stolen out of there. The person he was going to use to redo the roof was the father of some local gang kids that we have had run ins with before on several occasions and we have had them arrested before for trespassing and graffiti. The father was making the kids do the roof as punishment.

The problem I had was I had a almost brand new $9000 atv in the shop along with power tools and a pressure washer along with all the boxes. I quickly rolled my toolbox (think snap-on size, not craftsman) around to the garage attached to the house along with the pressure washer. I loaded the atv up in my truck and took it to work with me, then to my parents house later that night. It took them one day to finish the roofing. Since they started, we have had our landlords 3 cars, plus the roofers 7 other cars parked in the backyard.

I work a later shift and do not get up until 9:30am. They started our house Monday morning at 6:30 am. They worked until about 9:00 am and stopped until around 7:00pm, right about the time I get home. They did the same thing yesterday and this morning. I spoke to the guy doing the work when the landlord was not around and he told me that they are being told to only work during these hours.

Yesterday, while I was on my way to work, he called me and told me that he needed to replace the vent stacks on the water heater, air conditioning and vent-a-hood. He would have to shut off the appliances until he could complete them (this is only true for the water heater. It is 109' outside and we are not using the central heater, so no need for a vent). He shut off power and locked the electrical box with a master lock. He then said he got another emergency call that another of his rent houses was flooding and he had to leave. When I got home, I saw that many of the boxes I had packed up for moving next week had been moved and many of them had been opened and gone through. They were in the way of him working, but there was no reason to do anything other than move them. He came back around 9:30pm last night, after our daughter was in bed and started working on the vent tubes. This included sawing through sheet metal and the roof in the hallway right outside her room. He worked on this until around 2:30 this morning, air compressor running and lots of hammering. It looked completed to me, but he said he cannot turn it back on until the roof is complete.

I went over and spoke to them and told them we were going to go stay in a hotel down the street since it was still 102' at 10:00 pm at night and the house temperature was up to over 90'. His wife told me to bring her the bill for the hotel and she would deduct that from rent, but he got upset and told us we could not do that. A few minutes later, he brought over a window unit ac and told us we would have to use that. It was undersized but it was able to get a single room down to around 82'. All 4 of us slept in the master bedroom last night.

When I spoke to the guy doing the roofing, he said at the rate he is being allowed to work it will take him to weeks to complete the job. The landlord is only allowing one person on the roof at a time and no power tools up there. Any power tools have to be used on the ground and the material carried up there. he has also made him redo several sections because they walked on the tiles after they were installed. They are also only allowed to go up and down from the roof at one location, conveniently located right next to my bedroom window.

The roofer also told me that the landlord told him he could keep his cars parked in the backyard for the next 3 to 4 weeks while they do our house and the landlords afterwards. They all live in a house down the street so they walk home. What this will do is prevent me from parking a truck in the backyard on my moving day and force me to roll all the boxes over a grassed over calichi rock yard with a dolly for a good 50 yards to the front of the house. It will also prevent me from getting movers in to move my hot tub from the back.

The landlord told me that he did not want us to move out because we are some of the only tenants he has that always pay rent on time and take care of the property. At this point, I am just frustrated beyond belief at the lengths he is going to, to make us miserable. He told me a couple days ago that we wouldn't be moving out because thing never go right at closing. He indicated he had friends that work at our title company (he does know many people in many different walks of life).

While I don't think that he has enough pull to follow up on his threats, it is rather disconcerting knowing that he would do something like this. I cannot wait to be out of this place.

If you have actually read this entire story... wow. I am impressed. As I said, not really looking for any legal remedies. I just want out. Anything legal, would take more than a week I am sure and I do not want to extend my business relationship with this man at all beyond that point. Not looking for money or retribution or anything of that sort.

I read parts.

The utilities were obviously shut off in an obnoxious manner; is that issue now resolved? With just the one day out of the house?

What does your lease say in relation to your use of the grounds? If it gives you exclusive possession of the yard, consider showing it to the contractor and indicating that the landlord has no right to give anybody the right to park there, and that he can move his vehicles or have them towed. See if that clears out the yard.

The utilities are back on now, but the roofing is still going on. He has fired all but one person and he only allows that person to work between the hours of around 6:30 am until 9:00 am then 6:30 pm until it gets dark. After the contractor leaves, the landlord goes up on the roof doing something. I am not sure what, but there is lots of sawing and hammering until 1:00 am or so. Their is also an air compressor right outside our window (running off our electricity) that runs constantly on and off all day and night. It seems to have a slow leak so it cycles about every 10 to 15 minutes.

The lease is very short, 1 page, and does not mention the backyard other than to say that it will be maintained by the landlord. It has a few rules like no smoking in the house and the carpet must be vacuumed at least once a week, but the yard is definitely not exclusive use. It has always been shared. For the 4 years I have been living here, he has on frequent occasions parked his work van in the back yard and that has never been a big issue for me. It was always parked on the back fence and mostly out of the way. There are also two gates between our backyards that are usually left open for vehicles and lawn mowers to drive through. The shop in the back is shared by both of us. He has lots of stuff in there and so do I. On a couple of occasions he has let out of town family stay in the shop for a night or two. It has a bathroom with shower, a mini kitchen of sorts and a small area for an inflatable bed. It has not ever concerned me. It has always been a very open deal where he would frequently be in our backyard or the shop doing whatever.

I had asked him a couple weeks ago about fitting a 27' Uhaul truck in the back if he thought it would fit through the gate and around the corner in the alley when we move out. At the time, he told me he had a 18 wheeler parked back there before so the 27' would be no problem at all. I guess he had changed his mind afterwards.

Right now, there are 5 cars parked in the backyard. Two are blocking my hot tub, the other 3 are conveniently placed around the yard so as not to be too intrusive, but they will prevent me from getting a moving truck in.

We still have a week before we start moving, but it looks like he intends to make it as difficult as possible for us. My brother-in-law, who's company is doing our mortgage loan for us, told me today that the landlord showed up at his office asking questions about our loan and trying to get real friendly with them. He managed to get away from him for a few minutes and call me to ask about it. I let him know what was going on and they quickly ran him off. He said he did not tell him anything, but I am concerned at the lengths he will go to in an effort to sabotage this. I have no idea how he even found out who my mortgage company was. The only thing my wife and I can figure out is he has been looking at our mail and saw one of the packets come in.

As I said, not really looking for a legal answer. Just posted for others entertainment reading.

6 days and counting until our close date. Can't wait.

The compressor is for a pneumatic nailer? It should be unplugged when not in use. Every such compressor I've encountered has had a 'slow leak', I suspect to minimize the chances of the compressor getting stuck in an "on" setting and blowing up the tank. If you can access the plug, I suggest unplugging it when it's not in use.

That is correct, the compressor probably is for a pneumatic nailer, but they do not take it on the roof. He is nailing in every shingle with a hammer. The landlord will not let him take power tools on the roof. The only thing I have seen them use it for is an air blower. I unplugged it yesterday and it came back on after a couple hours. I unplugged it again tonight, but it came back on about 45 minutes later. He came over and told me to leave it plugged in. That way he knows it has not been stolen. I asked if we could move it into his garage and he said he did not want to be bothered in the morning when they get started. Where it is now, it is barely visible from the street. I did let him know I am not responsible for it.

I can't wait to see my electricity bill this month. It has been the hottest month in years and our electricity bill has been outrageous, more than double what it was the same month last year. It would not surprise me if there were power lines running underground from my house to his that I did not know about.

Hmm, I wonder if a metal detector would tell me if there were electrical lines in the yard. I may have to do a little snooping this weekend.

Just a quick update on this. All the roofing is complete. He fired the entire crew on Friday morning and finished the job himself. He worked all weekend inside and outside the house. All the cars were removed when I got home on Friday. He is still doing other work around the house and is frequently going in and out of the house, but at least the noisy part is done.