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Obviously, the message to move 30 feet over either way to the grass field isn't getting from the parents to the children in a way that drives home the point that balls should not be in the lot at all.
Maybe put in a soccer goal in the field? Not what you would want to do per se but thinking outside the box...
Sounds similar to a place I lived recently. TONS of kids (at one time we counted 20) gathered outside on a small grassy area around our unit, or on the street in front of the unit playing with everything from footballs to soccer balls to tennis rackets/balls. The balls (and rackets) hit vehicles, flew into oncoming traffic, etc. The kids were incredibly loud and gathered on our porch then started knocking on our door and running because they thought it was funny. One day I listened to them plotting it and opened the door right when the little brat was about to knock and told them we weren't stupid and they need to go knock on someone else's door. That stopped the knocking, but the management wouldn't do anything about them swarming all over everything and playing in the street. They kept asking for pictures, which we attempted to provide, but to my knowledge nothing was ever done because the issue continued.
We had a ton of maintenance issues there as well so they let us out of our lease without charging us the penalty. We're now in a much more quiet place without children running wild everywhere. I know moving isn't what you want to do, but if it continues, you might try to see if you can break your lease and leave.
Ever since the start of summer and he arrival of new tenants with children this has been an issue where we are renting.
Cars being hit, kicking balls at the dumpster fence and directly at the buildings
I've talked to the office numerous times. Each time they say they will and have talked to the children's parents and their is nothing more they can do.
Obviously, the message to move 30 feet over either way to the grass field isn't getting from the parents to the children in a way that drives home the point that balls should not be in the lot at all.
I've resorted to calling disturbances in to the police because of people's property being affected but these kids all scatter when confronted and hide or so nobody is being held accountable.
If you confront them and ask them to stop or move they hide and act like you can't see them or wander away and come right back 5 minutes later.
Most apartment complexes have rules concerning where kids are allowed to play or more specifically, where they are not allowed to play. Check your tenant handbook or your lease and if it prohibits children playing in the parking lots or streets of the complex (as many do) take that to management. The parents should be issued a warning letter and if they pile up 3 of them, they technically could be served with an eviction notice. I doubt it would come to that, evictions are a pain in the butt and you just end up with another apt. to turn and fill but the warning letters document the problem..........just in case.
The more folks you get to complain, the bigger of a pain you all become to the management. The hope being that you motivate them to get tough with the parents rather than of listening to a bunch of people constantly complaining about the problem.
........now if said rules do not exist in the tenant handbook or in the lease, then you have a Gray Area. Some renters are absolute Einsteins when it comes to finding gray areas. If that's the case, you may be screwed.
One thing's for certain, you Do Not want to deal with the children directly. That's just asking for trouble regardless of whether or not you're in the right.
Oh the rules are explicitly understood by both the parents and the children who I have spoken to. They just choose when to apply them.
The parking area is not a playground, that is why they are provided a play space away from the buildings and the cars.
The boys all do this after the office has closed so they have no reason to fear anyone during that time. That is what initially drove me to taking videos for the least toddies to see and help identify who these kids where.
I talked to the owner of one of the vehicles this morning as we caught each other on our way out and informed him his car has been getting pelted with these kids kicked balls. He has asked to see the video I have of any incident where his vehicle is being struck.
He wasn't happy to hear this, he has a dent in his rear panel that he assumed happened elsewhere, but now he is concerned it may have happened here.
On a side note I have found out one of the boys is the son of one our the maintenance staffers who live on the grounds. I will be having a talk with him soon.
Unfortunatly their are so many different kids doing this that unless they are all made to stop, one or two of them won't make much of a difference
I agree with Catdancer. You need to make sure that you and other tenant's complaints become more of a pain in the neck than doing nothing. So far, your management company has told you to leave the parents alone, so that means they have spoken to them and they find it more difficult to deal with them than to correctly manage the complex.
Is this a large company? Is there a regional manager above the local people? If so (and I would probably only do this if you can get several people to come with you and co-sign your letter/email) write to them and explain the situation and that you've gotten no help from the manager.
If ther is no higher level, you need to start encouraging other tenants to begin complaining each time it happens.
Of course this is where renting sucks because you need to be prepared for them to not renew your lease, which is why you need numbers.
The indivual I spoke to about his car being hit the other day has called and spoken to the actual management company in charge of this property.
They are getting involved now. Everyone who is annoyed by this has been told to allow them to handle the issue and give them everything they may have that can help identify the children involved.
The are looking at how they can encourage the children to use the grass play area and posting notices to all residence that the lot is not for their children to be using as a play area.
Sounds encouraging! Looks like making "noise" to the management might make a difference.
I once had a tenant complaining about another tenant, and I ended up calling up other tenants in that area of the building to ask if they were being disturbed, too. Every single one of them were also enduring unreasonable noise from the tenant, but none of them had complained. Didn't want any trouble, etc. But, having that info helped me get rid of the problem tenant. I told them all that it may take a few months, but if that tenant doesn't change their noisy ways, they are outta here, and I did end up kicking them out.
I didn't want to lose a bunch of good tenants. But, it does make a difference if more than one person is complaining, so the manager can't think the one person complaining - is just a complainer.
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