What type of lawyer for noisy neighbor?

[SHRED]

Situation:

Town home with attached wall.
We own and they do too.
No HOA.

For the last 3 or so years our attached wall neighbor comes home from the bar, usually Friday and Saturdy nights, and has hot tub-stereo-loud conversations in the backyard. General drunken disrespect.

We have:

Met with the Sheriff Capt., City Council, City Manager, and various Sheriffs who come out when we call.
To make a long story short there's NOTHING that the "government" can do. At least not in our City.

We need an attorney to guide us in evidence collection and possible future lawsuit.
We are hoping an official letter would scare him enough but we want to be prepared to "back it up".

Any advice on where to search and what type of attorney would handle this type of case?

Thanks,
Desperate in CA

[Warpy]

1. I faced a similar situation once

Only I was lucky. It was a single family home on land that was zoned residential/agricultural.

The neighbors to the side and back had a swimming pool and one of the teenaged sons had an obnoxious girlfriend who shrieked constantly. Summers found Miss Shriek at full cry every night until 2 AM.

So I took some stakes and twine out to that corner of the property and started to make a lot of noise. The neighbor came out and asked what I was doing.

I said, "This is where we're putting the pigs."

Needless to say, an agreement was reached about pool hours and shrieking girlfriends and the problem disappeared.

I'm sure you can come up with a creative nuisance. Good luck.

[bperci108]

2. Perhaps you should try...

...fighting fire with fire.

An extremely loud home stereo, replete with sub-woofer aimed at your shared wall capable of making the pictures fall on the other side, employed about the time the oaf decides to sleep it off, or about three or four hours before he has to be at work every day (if he's employed...) should do the trick.

I would suggest some Public Enemy (if he doesn't like urban music) or maybe some really hard Industrial band like Ministry.

If he likes this sort of stuff, then maybe some Percy Faith or Petula Clark at 105 decibels.

Sit back with your surplus Micky-Mouse-ears type hearing protectors on and chuckle your ass off.... :evilgrin:


(Also, have you ever seen what an opened bottle of Dawn Ultra dish soap does to a hot tub when lobbed into it from afar? Welcome him home from the pub with a backyard full of suds. :) )

[Quantess]

9. You think it would work, but it doesn't.

They'll just shrug their shoulders and assume you're cool with noise. That, or, when he/she realizes that you're making a statement, s/he'll snicker and think you're kinda silly.

The reason is because the noisy neighbor probably doesn't mind if his/her neighbors are noisy. The noisy one probably assumes that no one else minds.

I know this from experience. I had an extremely noisy friend, who blasted loud music until wee hours, had wild parties all the time, and was in general a loud person. Anyone who complained about his noisiness, he jokingly referred to as a "volumist". He felt right at home with other noises, and could sleep through anything. He was happy for close neighbors when they would have a party, and relieved when they were noisy.

You don't want to taunt a noisy person. That will just make the noisy neighbor lose even more respect for you. Taunting the noisy person from afar, or doing pranks like throwing suds in their hot tub, just turns things hostile and bitter.

Fist step is always: Calmly let the person know that their noisiness bothers you.

[mzteris]

3. I lived in an apt complex

where one guy used to play his stereo LOUD all the time. He was asked repeatedly by more than one neighbor to Please turn it down. Nope. It was his "right" to play his music blah blah blah...

Well - we all got together - the upstairs person and the people on either side - and we all put our speakers up to his wall (or tilted to the floor - his ceiling) and turned on different types of music - opera, country, hard rock - and turned them up LOUD. VERY LOUD. Then we all left for the day/evening/night......

We never had a problem with him again.

:evilgrin:

[mzteris]

4. Seriously, though -

you should see if your town/city has Mediation center and see if he will enter into Mediation with you so you guys can work out a workable compromise.

[hashibabba]

5. Called the cops last night

Most towns have noise ordinances and they'd been partying ALL day long. Besides, one of the guys I talked to had a little girl in his car and he was so drunk he couldn't understand the words "turn it down." He would have driven off and possibly killed her in an accident. This way, the little girl was safe and I got my peace and quiet.

[hobbit709]

6. Friend of mine had that problem once

He kept calling the cops-as soon as they left the clowns turned it up even louder. One night when the outside kitchen wall in his house was vibrating from the stereo-the side AWAY from his neighbor- he had enough. He went out to the guys breaker box next to the meter, pulled the handle to off and padlocked it. No more problems after that.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Believe it or not there is a specialty called "Neighbor Law".

http://www.nolo.com/resource.cfm/catID/D0B308BB-D553-438E-94E8D66498A911D7/213/243/267/

http://btobsearch.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&btob=Y&endeca=1&isbn=141330060X&itm=1

Get familiar with the legal principles and then find an attorney who is knowledgeable in neighbor law esp. with condo/apartments.

Is there any way you can resolve this matter w/o going to a lawyer, i.e., go to a board, the superintendent, etc.?

[SHRED]

8. Good News!

A new neighbor is an attorney with connections.
She has been calling the Sheriffs also.
Good to know we are not alone.

fingers crossed!