Trustee (landlord rep) hiring handy man with violent history & requiring that he has solo access to apt (apartment complex)

[Westlosangeles]

Hi Guys,

First let me thank you for your time in reading this & hopefully providing some insight.

Tl;DR (Start at PRESENT SITUATION), or QUESTION at end


BACKGROUND
I live in a 6 bungalow apartment complex in West LA. The landlord lives in one of the other apartments. As he is older, the property management is handled by the Trustee of his parents trust (the original owners of the property).

The complex is old (built in the 30's) & the walls are thin. Up until a few months ago there were constant problems with our next door neighbors in that they chose to rent out the 1bedroom of the 1bedroom apartment and sleep on a day bed in the living room next to the common wall. The tenant was an older lady that seems to handle things with yelling. She also worked during the day & couldn't understand why we chose to use the living room to watch TV from 5-9pm "when we knew that they had to sleep & had chosen to rent out the only bedroom." They are violent and choose to interact with everybody by yelling and screaming (except the trustee/landlord). They have a habit of being nice to the landlord/trustee but yelling & screaming at everybody else (non-tenants included as the walls are thin enough to hear their telephone conversations).

This resulted in numerous calls to the trustee regarding noise (all within normal hour guidelines & at normal levels) in addition to multiple calls to the police. There have been no visits to by the police in the past couple of years since their last visit. They realized that the neighbor tenant had no real grounds to call them (especially repeatedly) and have told us that they put her on the list of repeat callers with no cause. The calls to the trustee, however, continued & we have seemingly been labeled "problem tenants." The problem being that the neighbor tenant repeatedly calls to complain and the trustee seemingly wants to limit the energy and time that she has to put into issues at the complex. We have taken a "hands-off" approach (not wanting to similarly bother/harass the landlord/trustee with what seems like a crazy situation). They have taken the position with the trustee that they are the reasonable people and not prone to violent outbursts several times a week. They are very sweet to the trustee & mean to everyone else. It's quite "Jekyl & Hyde." The trustee even hired the son/handy man to coordinate and supervise the installation of a new roof on the complex.

On one of the occasions where the police were called the son of the tenant (the new handy man) threw open our door and yelled at us for several minutes. This has lead to several occasions where the son has violently yelled at us for nothing beyond the same "walls are thin/noise" issue. He is 6'2", 350+lbs & his outbursts are pretty intimidating.

Back to chronology:
Their original subtenant moved out (she actually became clinically depressed as a result of the verbal abuse of the tenant) & another couple of tenants "moved in." I use parentheses because their tenancy lasted less than a few days each before the constant beratement of the tenant forced them to move. Unable to find anyone to stay, the son/(handy man) moved into the bedroom.

The mother & son combination was constantly violent and fighting with each other (all hours) for the past year (at least one major 10min screaming/yelling fight with slammed doors every couple of days)

Three months ago, another tenant in the building got engaged and moved out. As I am "real-life" friends with the tenant we made it a point to contact the landlord/trustee in regard to changing apartments (even paying the increased rent...we are in a rent controlled apartment and presently pay a low rate). Before responding to our voicemails, the trustee called the neighbor tenant and offered the apartment to her. OK, weird..but seemingly legal. The trustee then offered the son the apartment next door (at a reduced rent if he functions as a handy man).


PRESENT SITUATION:
The handy man doesn't work during the day & I work in the evenings. This leaves me (a small woman) at home alone during the day on most week days. The handy man has on several occasions come over to "investigate things that may need repairing & that the trustee told him to come over." Not wanting to perpetuate the feud with someone whom is now our next door neighbor (yet not wanting to have this man with a history of violence in my kitchen when I'm alone) I told him to have the Trustee contact us. I was very nice about it. I apologized that it might seem that he's in the middle of things but that the correct channels is to have the property manager contact us. He left in a violent huff.

The trustee called us "in an annoyed tone" and said that "we have 24hrs notice" (not specifying what was to be "investigated" or whether we would be required to allow this man with a violent history into the apartment without supervision).

We responded with a reasonable email stating that due to the history of violent outbursts that we don't feel comfortable with the handy man (whom is also the next door neighbor) having access to the apartment when we are not there (unless either the landlord or the trustee is present the whole time) or when I am alone (we stated that my boyfriend being present would be fine with proper notice).

We received an odd response email about how she has known the guy for 15 years and that he is nice....not addressing any of our concerns.

The handy neighbor waited until my boyfriend left for work this morning asking if he was around (my boyfriend has left at the same time every weekday for years & the handy man knows that he's not around).

I said that he wasn't and that issues regarding scheduling times to "investigate" (again??) should be handled through the property management team. He seemed ignorant of this procedural norm so I informed him that notice is required. I was nice & calm about it. He flipped out & started violently yelling and saying stuff like "I guess you guys aren't going to be living here long." (this was 3 hours ago...the guys is presently having a scream match with his mother)


QUESTION:
Is there anything that we can do to keep our next door neighbor (whom has violently flipped out on several occasions) from being in the apartment when we aren't here or when I'm alone. What is the best course of action in this bizarre situation (moving isn't an option at this time )?


Thanks!

[smokingGun]

whoah... that handyman sounds like a major creeper!

If you value your life you would start looking around for another aptmnt immediately. There are sooo many vacancies right now that anyone with a job can rent. Even if you say moving isn't an option, it should take immediate priority.

If you really can't move you need to take some self-defense courses & carry around a can of pepper spray. And get like a portable door anchor/lock. My friend who does a lot of traveling for business always brings one with her to lock hotel doors at night.

[lalagonegaga]

Moving is ALWAYS an option, and in your case, you need to do that NOW. Otherwise, you are only contributing to the drama and will only end up further down the rabbit hole.

[blueyes2]

I didn't have to read very far in your post to come to the conclusion that you should move. You should have already moved, probably a long time ago.