Living with Difficult Neighbors (Brea, Hollister: apartments, renter, HOA)

[karriereno]

I am a renter in an apartment in Hollister CA. I call the property manager a slum lord, he doesn't do much if there is a problem.
I have neighbors who have children in about six different apartments, age ranges 2yrs -11yrs old. NONE of these parents watch the younger children. Leaving the front parking, I almost hit the 2yr old, slammed on my brakes and confronted the mom who was sitting on her couch at the time, smoking a joint.

These kids run around and climb up a 15 ft high metal handles on the stairs to my apartment, vibrates the metal and makes noises, but my biggest concern is their possible fall 15ft to the cement below. They do acrobatics on the outside of the stairs, and no one but me says anything. Their parents get mad at me....what can I do. Tearing up gates, swinging on them, washroom doors, throwing things in the washing machine, and dryers. My adult son took a picture of a child climbing out of a washing machine, we sent that to the property manager. I think next time i will tell the mom first, and then call the police.
I thought of child protective services, but what other recourse do i have in addition to that?

I get up at 2:30am to get ready for work and I can't get sleep because all this noise disturbs a reasonable amount of my peace and quiet, when the kids run around 10pm -11pm at night.
One baby (six months old) here was allegedly murdered, the mom was on drugs, and somehow that little baby got some drugs in its little system.
I am about to move out of the country next year, but moving isn't an option til i leave. what can i do?

[EscapeCalifornia]

Why can't you move? Break the lease if its that bad.

[Ultrarunner]

I agree... the beauty of renting is that you have no long term commitment...

I would tender my 30 days notice and have a place already picked out. If you've got a lease with a couple of months, I'd probably stick it out...

Everyone is entitled to "Quiet Enjoyment" within reason. The WORST that can happen to you when you break a lease is that the owner will try to collect the remainder due on the lease... the owner must also make reasonable effort to mitigate his loss by a good faith effort to find a new renter.

You could also choose to play hardball if you can document habitability issues and those issues have not been corrected in a reasonable time. Habitability issues are defined by the State of California... and include things such as a safe and properly functioning heating, doors and windows that can be secured... etc.

[kettlepot]

On a practical level, moving doesn't work for the OP. If you are already planning to move within the next 12 months, moving now, and then moving again in 8-9 months, is just too expensive and too much of a hassle.

Besides being a nuisance, many of the things the children are doing are creating a liability risk for the owners of the property. Perhaps, the OP could go around the property manager, and contact the owners that the lax management of the manager is putting the owners at risk of a lawsuit of some kind. Whether this is true or not, fear of lawsuits will certainly get the owners attention. However, the OP should get some help from a friendly neighbor who believes as he/she does, to help with the writing and add the weight of numbers to the complaint. For example the letter could also mention that a concentration of drug users in a building and the accidents and deaths that seem to come with that (list actual, and avoided deaths and accidents), could also generate unfavorable publicity that everyone both the renters and the owners would like to avoid. Don't actually threaten to create that unfavorable publicity yourself, just let the idea float out there without owning it.

And finally ask poster, "Paula Lynn" about this. She's very knowledgeable.

[Just Lookin]

I understand totally. I have the neighbors from hell. Very selfish people. Keep me awake all night riding around on quads with music, trucks, electric cars. Anything that uses a key they own it and make nose with it along with many motorcycle friends. Dogs loose running around fighting with other dogs on our street. Barking all day and night.

I need a new life.

[canibeyou]

Wow... hope it gets better for you. Really. Bad neighbors ruin everything. I mean, after a hard days work and you just want to go home and relax and then you can't even do that. Just wrong.http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/canibeyou/headshake.gif (broken link) Can you try sleeping with earplugs? They have some soft mushy kind on the market. I started sleeping with them about 10 years ago when I lived in a neighborhood where my neighbor had a relentless dog that barkrd 24/7. Now, I can't sleep with out them. When I try, even the crickets wake me up. I only say this as kinda a precaution 'cuz once you start sleepnig with 'em, you might never sleep without 'em again.

I really hope something changes for you and it gets better! http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y164/canibeyou/2pray.gif (broken link)

[new2eureka]

for the one that can't sleep, noisy neighbors, get some adavan!

[whowants2know]

Call Child Protective Services and let them handle the child abuse/neglect issues.

I agree with another poster - - wear ear plugs, they work wonders!

And as the others said, turn in your 30-day notice; or hopefully your lease will expire soon.

Obviously you are in a low-rent unit (if anything in that area can be considered "low rent). You have not indicated if you can afford to pay more for rent.

[cynwldkat]

Besides this being annoying because of unruly children the bigger picture is the possibility of a child getting seriously hurt or killed. The mother smoking a joint while the small children run wild? This is why they have protective services. While I hate the idea in this case it sounds necessary. I would go to the local police station and talk with someone there. They are usually willing to spend some time telling you your rights and will likely check into the situation themselves. Personally I would not want to worry about something happening to one of those children knowing I didn't at least try to do something about it.

[BabyBoomers2]

We agree with the rests of the Replies, "if at all possible GET OUT". If you simply can't get out, do what you can do.......what you think is right anyway. However, it does look like you are going up against numerous parents who just don't care about their kids and that could be hard to do.
We paid a nice/descent price for our house in a nice housing developement and every thing was cool until a couple with two dogs moved in next door to us. We had problems with the dogs owners because they didn't want to do anything about the barking. They ended up putting the dogs in their garage at night....no more barking. Then, one evening, the dogs chewed a hole in their fence and got out a number of times. While the dogs were out once, they chewed a hold in our backyard gate and got into our backyard.......THAT WAS IT. We called our HOA and they sent a letter to the dogs owners. The owners also came over and fixed our fence. The one dog is now gone (ran away, caught by Animal Control, we don't know).
We love dogs, but to all homeowners with outside dogs......your dogs are YOUR dogs, CONTROL them and their barking at night.......some people do have to sleep at night.