Neighbord from Hell in Rowhouses in Northeast Philadelphia (section 8, 2014)

[mamisajoma]

I need some serious advice! I am so fed up and desperate, but I do not know what to do in this situation.

I live in a row home in the city of Philadelphia, and my next door neighbors are the neighbors from hell! First of, they are dirty! They wait for the trash truck to come by on Thursday morning, and THEN AFTER the truck is gone they take out three to fours bags of trash into the back yard WITHOUT putting the bags into a trash can. So all that trash sits there for a whole week, and animals come and scratch the bags open and all of the trash goes everywhere (including into my yard since there is no fence or gate dividing the yards). The trash brings in rodents, it smells horrible, and looks very bad all over the ground. Last year I did contact the Philadelphia Streets Department and submitted a complaint (including pictures I took of the trash everywhere), and I believe the city gave the home owner a ticket. The problem is that the people that live in this house RENT the house, and they could care LESS if the owner got a ticket or gets another one. Obviously that did not work. I own my home, and feel pride in keeping the grounds inside AND outside clean and neat at all times, but these people could care less.

The other big issue with the neighbors from hell is that they are VERY noisy AND they smoke cigarettes INSIDE their house. Since we live in row homes, the houses are attached side by side, and my home always smells like someone in MY house smokes because the stench of the cigarettes penetrates through the walls and air vents. The biggest issue with this is that we have a 20 month old baby who has been breathing this since she was born. The smell is so bad on some days that it becomes nauseating.

As far as the noise goes, these neighbors have about three young children that apparently do not attend school like normal children. The children (and adults as well) run up and down the stairs, slam doors, scream at each other, throw large objects (and themselves from a bed to the floor I believe), and run after a small barking dog ALL DAY AND NIGHT LONG EVERY NIGHT. Last night they were all up making a lot of noise until 4:15 a.m. My husband and I both wake up for work at 6:00 a.m. on Mondays through Fridays. One night not long ago the noise was SO bad that my husband (who is a very heavy sleeper) was awakened by the noise at around 2:00 a.m. He got very upset because he was already tired (he works 10-11 hour days), and he got up from bed, went outside, and asked the neighbors from hell to please have their children quiet down or he would have to call the police because we are a working couple and needed to get some sleep, and this was NOT the first or only time this happened. One of the men that live in the house told my husband he was sorry, and the children were somewhat quieter for the rest of the night. Well that did not last long because the very next night the children were at it AGAIN! I would not mind if the noise was only on Friday and Saturday nights (heck, even Sunday nights I might be able to pass), but this is EVERY WEEK NIGHT AND WEEKEND until VERY late (4:00 a.m. most of the time). It seems these people sleep in because I never hear them on the weekends during the morning hours (between 6:00 a.m. and about 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays). The walls where all the noise comes through is the wall that is directly behind my bed's headboard, and my baby's crib in her room. The noises have even waken my baby up on some nights (and she is also a heavy sleeper).

I have already looked around into buying a single home in the suburbs, but at the moment we cannot afford a higher mortgage until we pay off some debts (and this might take at least two more years). We are saving as much as we could, and even stopped eating out completely in order to be able to pay off debt and move, but in until that happens we are stuck in our row home.

This situation has me feeling depressed lately because I feel like I cannot be at peace in my own home. The noises, cigarette smells, and trash all over the place are ridiculous! Please share some advice on what I can do in this situation. I would prefer NOT to call the police because I am sure that if I do call the neighbors will know that it was us that called, and then things will just get worse.

I have no idea who the owner of the home is, so I am not sure if the talking to the landlord advice would help.

Can you believe that one of the neighbors from hell even asked me for my WIFI password one day?! She never speaks to me, not even to say hello, and she stopped me on my way inside my home one day and started rambling about how their internet bill was so high that they had to cancel their internet service. She claimed the children were driving her crazy, and asked if she could have my WIFI internet password in order for the children to get on the internet and play games. I just responded, "I am sorry, but I cannot give you that." and walked inside my house.

These neighbors from hell also buy and sell used cars. They purchase up to three to fours cars at a time, and they park them on our block in front of our houses (with no license plates or registration stickers), and there is never a parking spot near the front of my home. I usually have to park at the end of the block, and walk with the baby and bags to my house.

Please someone share some good advice on how to deal with this! Sorry about the long post!

[sj08054]

City of Philadelphia: Welcome to Philly 311

Complain enough and the home owner will have to deal with it. If you want to find to find out who the property belong to, check this site.

City of Philadelphia: Property Information

Use this site to check if home owner is doing what LL are supposed to do.

City of Philadelphia: Licenses and Inspections


I would not confront the neighbor. Let the LL and the city deal with them.

[jazzy jeff]

Those unfortunate situations come with row home city life. If things are as bad as you say I am sure your other neighbors must not like it either. Did you and maybe another neighbor or two try talking with these people? Other then that if they are within the law there is not much that can be done. Sorry I can not help.

[daisy2010]

I lived in a single home in the burbs and still had issues for 2-3 years with noise outside at all hours from this group of young adults who would hang out in front of someone's house all hours of the day and night. I wake up early for work too, so I had to resort to calling the police, almost every night I had to call them. That did nothing. Police even laughed and joked with this kid whenever they were called over. Seems they "knew" someone in his family.

The only thing that worked was 1) documenting every thing he did and 2) writing a letter to his parents and sending my copious documentation. The thing that really got it fixed was stating that my livelihood was being affected. I think they were afraid I would sue. Technically you can sue in small claims court for "damages". In your situation, though, you are probably better off not approaching the people like someone suggested but I am only telling you what worked for me. I would suggest copious documentation.

Document, document, document! Put down dates, times, and what happened. Such as: "12/10/2014. 2:05 AM Awakened by noise on west wall. Noise sounded like...Baby woke up, could not get her back to sleep until 4 AM., etc. etc." It is a pain but keep doing it. Keep pictures too.

[mamisajoma]

Thank you all for your great suggestions!

I believe that documenting everything and taking pictures, and then trying to contact the owner of the home and showing him everything might help. Maybe the owner will see everything and be afraid I might try to sue him like daisy2010 suggests. I really hope this will help because I do not know how much longer I can take it!


Thanks once again!! I really appreciate it!

[ebyrnes]

My sympathies to the OP. I lived in a row house for a few years and my neighbors were noisy at times, but nothing like yours. As far as the cars go, there might be something that the PPA could help with: Laws & Enforcement | The Philadelphia Parking Authority. If you are pretty sure that the kids are of school age and not attending (so sad - who doesn't want their kids to do well in life?), I'd be a busybody and call CYS DHS:Welcome to the Children and Youth Division Home Page. Wish I had an idea for the smoke situation with your baby; she shouldn't suffer from their slatternly habits. And as far as the noise, definately start to complain to the landlord, and don't give up on it. I feel bad for the kids in that family.

[CarbonCountyLiving]

Use the links abover and complain, complain, complain. Take pictures and send them to the Streets department. If the landlord continues to get fined he/she will eventually realize that these tenants are costing more money than they are worth. Sometimes the only way to get through to people is to hit them in the wallet.

[Mimidae]

Ugh, I'm so sorry. That sounds like more than the "average row home experience". One or two of those annoyances, yes. All of them at once? Woof. I don't blame you for being at your wit's end. The neighbor asking for your Wi-Fi password really takes the cake. Can you afford to build a fence around your backyard now? That would only take care of one of your myriad issues, but it might also improve the value of your home, making moving away that much quicker.

[Better Than You]

If they are Section 8 tenants, it'll be fruitless attempting to talk to the owner. All he/she cares about is the guaranteed rent.

[pookybean]

No advice, but i am in the same boat. so much so that i thought you lived on the other side of my neighbors from he!!
when i read that yours has the trash in the yard i figured you weren't because we only have a common back porch....with yes, all of their trash bags. sigh. i am really debating on walking away from it, i can't sell it at all.

good luck to both of us! At least it's almost spring = tons of time at the playgrounds!