is anyone here an attorney? (Katy, Cinco Ranch: apartment complex, new home, buyers)

[alwaysflyin]

Hi everyone,
I am at my wits end. In early October my husband and I bought a nice house in Cinco Ranch. At the time because of the full trees in our backyard we could not tell that we backed to the Ashley House apartments on Mason road. These are nice apartments and there has been no issue with this except for one thing.

One tenant has a beagle that is left on his patio most of the day. This dog is let out in the morning usually about 6-6:30am and HOWLS. I mean howls at the top of its lungs, and this can go on for up to thirty minutes. I am not a particularly light sleeper but it wakes me up, it wakes my husband up, and we cannot enjoy being in our house or sleeping while this dog is out there. And let me emphasize that we know which apartment it is, and this deck is not even facing our backyard, so I can't imagine how loud it would be if it backed to our yard. Then it howls again periodically during the day. My husband has talked to the manager four times, and apparently they've had other complaints. Ten days ago we were told the resident was told he had 24 hours to either keep the dog inside or find it a new home. Clearly this hasn't happened.

I want to emphasize that I love animals and hold the dog blameless in this whole thing. I feel sorry for the dog and angry at the idiot owners.

I am wondering whether under Texas law, would there be a way to threaten a lawsuit on the grounds that our right to have reasonable enjoyment and use of our premises is being unreasonably impacted? I fear nothing will change unless this becomes a legal matter. Thank you for any help and advice.

[Point man]

I've faced a similar problem whenever my wife and I would go visit my parents in Boerne. The neighbors two German shepherds would bark all night long and we could not sleep. Whenever anyone would go out to the back porch of the home the dogs would bark incessantly and the neighbors would not do anything or were incapable of doing anything about it. My folks could not enjoy sitting on their back porch. I asked my Dad about this and being older (70's) he was not really excited about confronting his neighbor over the matter.

My Dad did talk to the neighbor several times nicely to try to resolve the problem to no avail. Finally I checked into the local ordinance and found that Boerne had a very strong animal nuisance law on the books. Dad called animal control several times and the neighbor was issued citations/warnings, then it came to the last warning and they threatened to impound the animals. The trouble is, animal control was not willing to enforce the ordinance and impound the animals. Other neighbors had also complained.

Not wanting to get embroiled in a lawsuit over this, the strategy was just to call the police on every occasion the dogs would incessantly bark. Several neighbors joined forces to do this.

The pressure finally worked and the neighbor took action to have the dogs properly trained. They haven't since had the problem.

You are not alone in this and there is a lot of information on this difficult subject that you can find on-line if you search.

Dog Law :: Barking Dogs > Talking to Your Neighbor :: DogLaw.HugPug.com

Good luck to you.

[alwaysflyin]

Thank you for the info Point man! I will investigate.

Wow, I'm just amazed that people are so rude and inconsiderate. It is really impacting our quality of life here. If we had to sell our house right now I don't know what we would do. This dog howls periodically all day, and I know it would scare away prospective buyers.

[Point man]

I know what you are saying and sympathize with you entirely. It is really weird how some people can be totally un-neighborly, unreasonable and irresponsible regarding the way that they treat their neighbors and fail to control their pets. It can totally make you the victim and destroy your quality of life.

To me it's a big deal.

It is going to take work on your part to overcome this but in my opinion the answer is not in the courtroom - yet.

Document everything you do.

I would try to talk to the guy/gal first and see if they try to take corrective action. Feel them out, get their phone number if you can. They are aware of the problem (it's a beagle for Christ's sake).

Get some allies. Your not the only one that's been effected. Talk with the neighbors including those in the apartments and gang up on the dog owner, in the sense of using teamwork to issue your complaints. This dog owner is making your life/lives miserable, make him miserable too. Call him to complain. Call the authorities and complain. Complain. complain, complain. Don't be nasty, don't be upset, just calmly report the problem. He won't do anything until he is bothered to the point of action.

Research the local ordinances and use them to your advantage. Report your complaints to the appropriate authorities and document everything.

Use the courts as a last resort but if you've documented all of your calls and complaints then at least you will be able to show that the barking is a nuisance and that will strengthen your case. Hope you don't have to go that route.

[derekv]

Alwaysflyin-

I think your best course of action is to draft a letter to the apartment complex manager detailing the dates/ times of the barking. Indicate that you will pursue further legal action if the barking is not remedied within the next 48 hours. This is called an intent to sue letter, you don't have to be willing to really sue, just put them on notice that you are serious. I'm sure the apartment complex wants them out as well. Is cinco ranch unincorporated? or is it part of Katy?

[alwaysflyin]

Originally Posted by derekv

Alwaysflyin-

I think your best course of action is to draft a letter to the apartment complex manager detailing the dates/ times of the barking. Indicate that you will pursue further legal action if the barking is not remedied within the next 48 hours. This is called an intent to sue letter, you don't have to be willing to really sue, just put them on notice that you are serious. I'm sure the apartment complex wants them out as well. Is cinco ranch unincorporated? or is it part of Katy?

Thank you! Good advice. I'm going to be working on this tonight. Yes, I believe the apartment complex does want them out. Apparently they are getting many complaints about this.

I really don't know if Cinco Ranch is unincorporated. I can check that out.