This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/bestofredditorupdates by /u/Choice_Evidence1983 on 2024-11-23 05:02:08+00:00.

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I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/fool4eggz

Originally posted to r/neighborsfromhell

Neighbor sits outside of our bedroom windows with guests, every night, all night.

Thanks to u/soayherder & u/Direct-Caterpillar77 for suggesting this BoRU

Editor’s note: added paragraph breaks for readability

Trigger Warnings: entitlement, harassment

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Original Post: November 13, 2024

Hey y’all, I’m in need of some advice. I apologize in advance for the length.

Some background info: we live in a 2-story house, moved in about 7 months ago. My roommate and I (23F & 27F) live on the bottom floor, and our neighbor (40-something M) lives upstairs in a studio that is accessible through a separate entrance. He is also a BIG smoker, I think he goes through 1 1/2 packs a day.

The issue: Ever since we moved into the house, our neighbor has had a table and chairs that he has nestled in the corner of the backyard. It’s kind of an odd setup, but an important detail is that it sits right in the old concrete foundation of a garage that was knocked down years ago, and then is cornered in by a fence and another building behind our house. Additionally, all of our bedroom windows are facing towards where the table is, about 15 feet away. This essentially places the table into an echo chamber of sorts.

Shortly after we moved into the house, I noticed that our neighbor would have people over to sit at the table to talk, drink beers, and smoke. The people would come over around 5:00pm and not leave until about 1:00am, and sometimes the people he would have over would stay and talk after our neighbor went to bed. They also would go through an entire 16-pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes between 3 people.

Because of the echo-chamber situation and them being drunk every time, I was able to CLEARLY hear the people talking outside of my bedroom window. I also have raging ADHD and am a really light sleeper, so hearing people talk is super distracting for me and prevents me from sleeping well. But I figured it was only a few times a week, so I’d get used to it. Boy was I wrong.

Fast forward 7 months of living here, and our neighbor has had a minimum of 2 other people over nearly every single night since we moved in, completing a 16-pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes every. single. time. (we share a garbage so I know this for sure.) This means that we can’t keep our windows open at all without letting the smell of cigarette smoke in, let alone hearing them talk, and our house gets pretty stuffy.

During the warmer months, there would be weeks that would go by without a single night of silence, always going well past midnight. If they got too loud, I would go out and yell at them to either be quiet, or if it was late I would just tell them wrap it up.

They ended up moving their table further away from our windows to be “nice”, but it honestly doesn’t really help since they’re still in the concrete box so I can still hear them just not as clearly. Additionally, our neighbor was fired from his job a few months ago, and now just sits outside at his table hacking up a lung while he smokes and drinks, from about 11:00am until his people come over at 5:00. Eventually he started inviting up to 6 people over, and the last straw was when those 6 people started yelling and laughing loudly enough to wake my roommate and I up at 3:30 in the morning on a Wednesday.

After that, we spoke with our landlord and got a 12:00 quiet hour curfew during weekdays implemented (I would’ve preferred 10:00 as my roommate and I wake up at 7:00 for work & school, but I understand he is a night owl and wanted to compromise.) I assumed this meant that my neighbor would send people home at 12:00, but instead they have decided that moving to a different corner in our yard was good enough. I could still hear them talking, but I figured that since winter was coming up they wouldn’t be out there as much and I could deal with that.

Again, I was wrong. Now they have started having fires outside (again, 15ft away from our house) so they can stay out as long as possible. This is a problem because 1) the smoke smell gets through our vents and 2) they have stopped moving to the other corner of the yard once it hits midnight, and we have had to again ask them to be quiet. I even got a fan to run to cover their noise, but since it’s almost winter, it’s not my favorite to use.

I’m getting really frustrated at this point, because I feel like we have been really accommodating and my neighbor is being super inconsiderate. I feel like hearing people talk right outside of your bedroom window for that many hours a day would drive anyone insane, but my roommate insists that it’s fine and we shouldn’t create conflict. But at this point, I’m not sleeping well, I can’t focus on my work, and I’m ready to do whatever it takes so that they won’t want to be out there every day anymore. What do y’all think I should do? Thank you in advance :)

Relevant Comments

Commenter 1: In addition to finding out what the city ordinances are for noise, find out how far away from the house he has to be to burn anything or if he even can. Is he even using a fire pit or anything? Call the fire department or fire marshal about it. Inform your landlord about the situation if you don’t want to go that far. I’m sure he doesn’t want his house to burn down by a wayward spark because a bunch of drunks are having a fire every night. Also, cities that allow fire pits have regulations about what can be burned in them, like no trash and no fresh wood.

OOP: He is using one of those small charcoal grills that is basically just a big metal bowl on legs. I checked the residential fire regulations and they said they have to be more than 20 feet away from a residential structure, which they are not. You can also call the non-emergent FD for “nuisance fires” which is where you can call if the smell of smoke is getting into your house. Lots to work with here! Thank you!!

Commenter 2: Find out what the “hours of quiet enjoyment” are where you live then start calling the police when they violate it.

Commenter 3: Most cities have a noise ordinance of ten o’clock at night . Check out yours and start calling cops . Also what hours of the day is this guy sleeping . If he is asleep while you are at work you could fight fire with fire . Leave a radio on sitting on the floor so it’s above his head while he is sleeping . There is no noise ordinance in day hours . It doesn’t have to be on blast but enough to bug him . Maybe aim a spotlight out your window to blind them with light while sitting out there . Get neighbors that are annoyed by them to also call cops and landlord to complain . When you play the radio try to find a station that may be most annoying to him . Old crappy music , religious music , sermons etc…. Contact Mormons and such , give his name and address . Make a small donation in his name . Tell them he is interested in converting 🤣. Tell them to contact him whatever hours you think it is that he sleeps . Have some fun with it .

 

Update: November 16, 2024 (three days later)

Original post -

UPDATE //: Thank you guys SO MUCH for all of your suggestions on my last post. Some of y’all are devious masterminds, and I will surely be pocketing most of them.

Now for the update: a few days ago my neighbor decided to stay out past the agreed quiet hour (for the second time that week), and when I went outside to tell them to wrap up, neighbor and friends decided that the best course of action in their drunken state was to cuss me out, be aggressive, and refuse to leave. After some back and forth yelling, I decided to let them dig their own graves, and promptly let my landlord know what was going on.

After about half an hour of staying outside, we hear them go upstairs to my neighbor’s apartment and start banging LOUDLY on the floor. Obviously on purpose. This happened about 3 times between the hours of 12:30 and 3:00, and I made sure to record it every time. Now apparently my landlord does NOT take very kindly to drunks being aggressive and unruly, especially because the quiet hour was lease-enforced.

So the next morning, my landlord promptly served my neighbor his final warning for noise, which means one more noise complaint and he will be evicted. My landlord also tightened the quiet hour time to 10:00, where people cannot use the common spaces after that time (we have an awesome landlord who is really understanding.) This rule also applies to us, but we are never outside past 10:00, so it’s not like we are being hypocritical or anything. I’d assume that my landlord already is having some issues with my neighbor, as he was pretty upset and thorough when dealing with him. So I guess that’s a win in my book, with lots of quiet time ahead :)

As for the revenge… let’s just say my neighbor has let said friends store a ton of stuff in our backyard (I have no idea why.) Let’s also say that his friends bring a very yappy dog with them when they come over (which is…

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