Anyone in Phoenix area have success dealing with neighbors with barking dogs? (Surprise: renters, HOA)
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Sorry for the long post but I want to convey all the information so I can get the best advice how to proceed.
There are a lot of HOA's in the Phoenix area so I'm hoping someone has dealt with this situation and can offer some advice. I live in Goodyear, in a neighborhood with an HOA and dealing with a neighbor with a barking dog.
The house next to mine has sat vacant for nearly a year when three weeks ago some renters moved in (owners live out of state and I have no idea how to get a hold of them). They have a 165 lb Great Dane (dogs owner told me the specifics when I confronted them). The first weekend they moved in the dog was left in the backyard all day and barked non-stop for 12+ hours until that evening when they let the dog in the house. I figured they were moving in and busy so I'd cut them some slack.
Come Monday morning they both went to work and left the dog outside all day long starting at 6:00am and it barked non stop. That night I went to their house to speak to them about the dog and they would not answer the door. I've been over there five times (both cars in the driveway) and they will never answer the door. I left a hand written note on their door about a week ago and they did start putting the dog in the house during the day. The problem is they put it outside between 5-6am and leave it outside barking while they get ready for work and put it in the house around 7am. So now I'm listening to the dog for up to two hours in the morning while my family is trying to sleep. My bedroom window is less than 15 feet from where the dog stands and barks non stop. I normally get up at 7am but due to the dog I'm now up between 5-6 am.
I again went over to their house and knocked on the door yesterday with both cars in the driveway and they would not answer the door. I went home and wrote a very polite letter telling them the situation and that I appreciated them not leaving the dog out all day but the early morning barking was still an issue. I told them I wanted to work this out between us as friendly neighbors and asked if they could please come to our house and speak to us about it.
Last night at around 7pm my doorbell rings and this young couple (the neighbors) are at the door and immediately starts carrying on how I'm unreasonable and they are not going to change their lifestyle because I don't want to listen to a dog bark. They said they called the police on me for harassing them and the police said over the phone that they were doing nothing wrong and they should speak to me and tell me to quit harassing them or the police would come to my house and deal with me. I asked if they could stand outside with the dog in the morning while it did its business to keep it from barking and the wife said "I don't have time to do that I'll be late for work", I said that maybe she could get up a few minutes earlier to take the dog out to prevent it from barking and she said "I shouldn't have to get up earlier to accommodate you" and totally didn't see the irony when I pointed out that she was making me get up earlier to accommodate her and her dog.
I did not want this to get to this point and am kind of at a loss as to what to do. I checked with the city of Goodyear and they have a "package" I can request that requires logs, video/audio proof, three neighbor complaints, etc. I certainly don't want to turn this into a neighborhood war and have to go around and try and get neighbors to gang up on the new neighbors on the block.
Do HOA's have any authority with barking dogs? Does anyone else have any advice on how to proceed other than turning it into a war in the neighborhood?
I've never had a beef with a neighbor so I'm kind of at a loss as to how to proceed.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and respond.
I would check your CC&Rs as far as the HOA is concerned but you have done what you can with the barking dog problem. One thing I have done in the past is use an ultrasonic bark deterrent (about $45 from Pet Smart), set it up outside your window and every time the dog barks it emits a high frequency tone that startles the dog and stops it from barking. These are made by Pet Safe. I know it is kind of unreasonable to go out and spend money to stop their dog from barking...but given the circumstances it sounds like it is worth the $50.
Incidentally, I don't think they have a foot to stand on as far as the "harassment" charges.
read every word of all your HOA stuff to see if they even say anything about dogs....do you have a President or other HOA contact you can talk to?...
sounds like you've done all you can as individual neighbors to deal with it....are you friendly enough with any others around there to ask if they are also bothered by the barking?.....
there's a chance they may now try to keep the barking dog inside now that you've brought it up....
you can look on the assessor's website to see who the homeowner is and see if their home address is listed...write them if you can find that....or try googling the name in their city if you know it
if the barking continues to bother you, you'll have to do that "package" thing.....you may not have to turn in everything (like the three neighbors), but do what you can so it's documented....
I just had the same thing a week ago....I knew the neighbor and called him and he was very apologetic and said call him anytime if it's still a problem
Dogs need to bark a little. I have a dog and I supervise the barking for a very short while during daylight hours only. She is in at night and if no one is home.
My next door neighbors are renters. They have a collection of breeding pit bulls and chihuahuas. The pit bulls are chained up in the back yard in full sun and sometimes without water. They bark 24/7. It would be useless to talk to the guy or his girlfriend or their nine children. They would get even. I have talked to the humane society in Sunnyslope about animal abuse and they don't want to have anything to do with it. To them it is normal to have a chain around a dog's neck with heavy weights on the end. They did give me some hope since the dogs are not licensed...they told me to call the dog pound. The dogs are the only ones with regular jobs, they reproduce as quickly as one litter is weaned. I cannot hear the dogs barking because I have very good double pane windows and German-American blinds. But my dog can. Sometimes she will get crazy inside at 3:00 am or so.
My ultra sonic bark deterrent from Pratt's Pets in Surprise has helped alot. I bought a little birdhouse at Lowe's and modified it so the bark stopper fits inside it. I hung the bark controller as high as I could get it in one of my trees, closest to my block wall pointed at their back yard. You would be amazed how that has quieted things down. The dog's barking activates the silent device and the dogs stop barking. It's a training device. Best $100+ I ever spent. I live in central Phoenix but made the drive out to Pratt's to get it, but you can order them on the internet, too.
I took the front off the the birdhouse and mounted the barker stopper inside. I have a big bicycle type hook on the back of the birdhouse and hang the device on a tree branch as high as I can get it. You would have to hunt for it to find it in the tree.
I screwed up this morning...at 6:15 I'm in the shower and I turn off the water and hear a lawn mower running outside. I'm thinking to myself "who the heck is mowing their lawn at 6 in the morning?". I look out my window and see MY hired landscapers in my backyard mowing, trimming with gas powered trimmers, blowing with a gas blower, etc. I about lost it.
I tore outside and asked the foreman "what the hell are you doing here so early?" and he said "we get started early during the summer to beat the heat". I told him it wasn't fair to my neighbors to be woken up that early listening to my landscapers and that he could no longer come that early.
So now, I was on them about their early morning dog barking and I look like a hypocrite for having yard work done at 6am.
This is why I want to keep it civil. Thanks for the input so far, I'm looking through my CC&R's but have not seen anything about dogs other than restrictions in common areas.
Wow, sorry to hear about what you're going through. Amazes me that some people feel entitled to let such loud barking occur for so long without consideration for their neighbors.
We have some friends who dealt with almost a parallel situation in the city of Surprise. Long story short, they called surprise animal control or the surprise police(not sure who came over), heard the dog barking, and the police or animal control warned this person about the barking. However, the owner continued to ignore it and dog kept barking. Eventually, I understand the barking dog people got a ticket, had to appear in court, pay a fine, and eventually the barking stopped.
I wonder if you can just call back Goodyear animal control or the police, explain the situation and get them to show up to talk to the people/give them a warning? Seems a pain to have to do all the log type thing/get 3 other neighbors to complain, etc so early in the game when just having an officer/animal control to pay a visit might do the trick? Just a thought/might be worth a try to perhaps get you some quiet faster.
As for your HOA, I agree with one of the previous posts....that would be in your CC&R's. I believe ours has nuiscance dog barking as an offense that someone can get fined on. Paying a visit to a board member or the President like someone else mentioned sounds like a good option so they can hear the issue/can move faster to give them a warning/fine them if they don't stop the barking.
Animal control is handled by Maricopa County and I've not had very good luck with them in the past (read previous post about charging me to license a dog that didn't belong to me). I'll try the police if it continues but I've always looked down on the neighbors that always have a cop car in front of their house and I don't want to be "that guy".
Good idea on the ultrasonic dog bark eliminators but looking at the reviews on amazon.com they don't seem to work very well. It may be worth a try.
I'd contact the owner of the property. For all you know, they think the renters have a miniature poodle in there. There's a fairly easy way to find them: Look up the property at the Maricopa County Tax Assessors. Type in the address of the property. Then go to the tab for taxes. Look at the current tax bill and you'll have the owner's name and address.
There's also some new regulations that require the homeowner to register the home as a rental. I didn't read through the details (it doesn't apply to me in any way), but I would assume that those who do not comply get hit with a fine. So, if the owner ignores your plight, you might want to look into this and report them.
Yeah, the process in Goodyear shifted a number of years ago and they will not want anything to do with it unless you follow the pretty long process you described.
I also would take their harrassment call as a bluff ... even if they did call you have done nothing actionable.
Every HOA will vary so it's hard to say what they can and cannot do - although I would doubt there is much in there about a single dog that barks that would go beyond what is acceptable for the city
Good info from JK as far as tracking the owner .... just keep in mind a lot of times the owner is an LLC and tracking the actual person can be tough.
We had some renters next to us that liked to scream and fight ... we just kind of dealt with it until the police rang my bell late one night and started asking questions ..... they mentioned that there was a lot of property damage within the unit
A while before that we saw the property manager in there getting ready to clean/show the property from a prior rental and we took her card - she actually made a point in talking to us as we knew the neighborhood more than her (that and she confessed she frequently takes one of our plant stands to use as a ladder.......)
Anyhow, we relayed the information about the police mentioning the damage and they were gone within the month.
If there is still a rental sign/number available or if you know the number of the person actually handling the rental that may be the best avenue ..... while the dog may be fine for the city and HOA it may go against the rental agreement, especially at that size (although Great Danes are typically awesome and fairly mellow dogs)
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