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Nuisance Neighbors
Hi, I'm from Iowa. I've been trying to find Iowa laws on Tenants rights, but I'm having a hard time finding things that pertain to my situation.
I live in a duplex with no lease. The landlord owns two duplexes separated by a 4 car garage. I’ve been here since January 1998. Up until this point I’ve had no problems with the previous renters. There have been several.
A little over a year ago new tenants moved next door to us. A young couple. The problem started the first night they moved in. They continually slam their doors. My husband works 3-11 so we’re not early birds by any means. These kids would slam their door starting at 7:30AM. My husband went and talked to the kid. The kid was arrogant and so basically that didn’t go well. We then complained several times by letter to the landlord who lives in the second duplex.
Finally the slamming stopped, but the kid decided to get a dog. A dog that would bark all day and all night. Basically because the kids are in and out all day and night and never home for a length of time. I’m sure the dog was bored and frustrated and I feel sorry for it. However, I don’t feel I should pay the price for that. Again, we complained to the landlord. His comment was ‘it’s just a puppy. You know you can gather more flies with honey than vinegar. You should try that.’ I informed him that bad puppy behaviors became bad adult dog behaviors and I shouldn’t have to listen to it puppy or not. He then claimed he could hear my dog bark all the time. And my dog barked more than his neighbors or mine. This is not true. I don’t work and I’m home all the time with my dog. When I caught him in this lie, because I’m guessing he didn’t know I didn’t work. He retorted with ’what are you a dog expert now? Deal with it or I’ll evict you.
I dealt with it and called the police. Police weren’t much help. They kept telling me there was nothing they could do but would call the kid (since he works for the city, meter reader) and let him know there was a problem, since he wasn’t home at the time.
Finally got the dog from barking all the time. Now I think he’s retaliated, for me calling the police, because he’s back to slamming his doors, stomping the hallway steps, jumping down on the landing from the steps and just about anything else he can think of to do next to our connecting wall. I’m tired of getting woke up at 7:20 AM, like today. I don’t sleep well so I tried to take a nap at 5PM… less than an hour later I was woke by the slamming of the door again. And at times they’ll repeatedly slam it two or three times in a row. I don’t feel I can complain to the landlord again since he’s already threatened to evict us instead of the kids. And I don’t know if slamming the door is really something the police will handle since a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning about 2AM he started slamming things around. I called the police and they didn’t show up for 45 minutes. This is a very small town and with temp below freezing the town was dead that night. When the police finally did show up they sat at the second duplex for three minutes. Never once got out of his car. Drove off, came around again and stopped just in front of the driveway. He was there less than 30 seconds and drove off again and that was that.
So now I’m wondering if it’s because he works for the city that he gets all this special treatment. And what exactly can I do to get them to stop slamming the door or making so much noise stomping and pounding, because literally it sounds at times like he’s remodeling the place. He’s got my dog so up tight with the slamming that he hides under the bed which really isn’t easy when you’re a 80 lb dog. And I’m grouchy most days because of lack of sleep and the fact I can’t get any due to the slamming and noise. My husband wants to retaliate back but I won’t let him because I want to do this legally if something can be done. I don’t want to get started in a slam fest. Please help.
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Re: Nuisance Neighbors
You cannot expect complete peace and quiet when you rent a property which shares a common wall with other people. Perhaps you should consider moving to a single family dwelling.
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Re: Nuisance Neighbors
I never said I expected complete peace and quiet. When I first complained about the door to the landlord I never even mentioned his running the stairs. Although annoy I do understand common every day noise. This has gotten worse. When I say he's slamming the door I don't mean just shutting it hard. I mean slammnig making my livingroom walls rattle and knocking my clock off several times. Slamming as in waking us up from sleep in a room that isn't even near the connecting wall. He's no longer running up and down the stairs he's purposely stomping each one, then jumping off them on the landing.
Anyway, thanks for your advice.