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Old 03-11-2018, 02:05 PM
 
Location: San Antonio, Texas
4,287 posts, read 7,989,170 times
Reputation: 3938

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I've complained on here before about our next-door neighbors dogs' barking penetrating into our own home. Recently I came upon small claims court and I was wondering if I could take these people to small claims court for their pets' barking.

We built our home last decade as a dream home for my parents: the plot was carefully picked (not carefully enough, I'm afraid), the architectural plans were personally drawn by my stepfather (who had initially set out to be an architect prior to ending up in his chosen profession), we constantly came out to the site to watch the progress, we had a cross blessed at the Vatican buried into the foundation. A lot of love, labor and sweat went into this house, which we absolutely adore: it is perfect for us. Well, almost perfect.

In 2013, after 6 or so months of loud construction (3 of which I had been working night shifts and was forced to sleep in the game room instead of my own room due to the construction) the new neighbors moved in. We were excited for them! We remembered how wonderful it was for us to move into our new house and how much fun it was decorating and getting used to it and all sorts of fantastic experiences. It's a dream come true! We were excited for them!

But then came the barking in the middle of the night. They had 2, sometimes 3 dogs that they kept outside at all hours of the day and night. It woke me up. It woke my mother up. My little brother. My little sister. My grandmother. It was absolute HELL. I began saving a list of the times we were subjected to barking loud enough to wake us up. I have the list somewhere on my hard drive still. 3:45 AM. 2 AM. 11:30 PM. 6:45 AM when the kids went out to meet the bus, sleep-deprived because of being woken up at 4 AM by those little monsters!

We had no idea what to do. We thought maybe the dogs "needed to adjust to the new environment", after all, they had moved in from someplace far away, didn't they? Then we learned just who these people were. They had a house in the neighborhood, from which they moved. They built their OWN dream home just as we did and they plonked these little monsters smack dab into the yard. They used to be the neighbors to our good friends down the street and subjected their daughter to no end of terror. One of the dogs would constantly get out of the yard and chase her down the street when she came home from school. The people did NOTHING about it. Oh, they claimed that they did, but they really didn't.

When they finally moved into the new home, they "learned their previous lessons" and built a pretty good-sized fence. RIGHT ON THE PROPERTY LINE. Not perpendicular to their home, not recessed back away from the property line. RIGHT ON IT. So the dogs could practically stick their noses into our property and bark their heads off. UGH!

I also learned, essentially the same day I learned about what they did to our friends, that the neighborhood had a bark law that barking should not occur between the hours of 10 PM and 10 AM. These nincompoops were blissfully unaware of it. Or they deliberately chose to ignore it. So I went to bed that night at 11 PM sharp, right around my usual time. (This was after I had stopped working at the night shift job and I was back on a regular schedule) Sure enough, right on the dot, at 11:03 PM, I heard barking in my room. Are you SUPPOSED to hear barking in your room when you don't have a pet in it?! I went absolutely berserk, got dressed and drove down to the guardhouse at the entrance of our gated community.

I politely explained the situation to the guard. They said they would take a look at it. About twenty or so minutes later, as I was perusing the list of times they had woken us up at, the guard lady rang our door. She asked us "Do you have a cat? The neighbor said that your cat is walking around and causing the dogs to bark."

We had no cat at the time. We have never had a cat since we left Russia. So this SCUMBAG is completely absolving himself of all responsibility and blaming AN IMAGINARY CAT!?!?!??! How unbelievably GALLING!! ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!

And so the neighbors stopped keeping the dogs out at night. At first, they had a relatively poor compliance rate, requiring me to ring their doorbell at midnight and rant at them. They just looked at me with a quizzical expression on my face. Like "What are you getting your panties in a bunch for?"

I'll explain why I "get my panties in a bunch." Because this is my house. They didn't pay to build my house. They don't pay rent. They don't pay the property taxes on my house. They don't live there. They don't maintain it. So why in the BLUE HELL is THEIR noise pollution in MY HOUSE?! They have NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER to do that at ANY time, day or night!!! GET OUT OF MY FREAKING HOUSE! Beyond that, I personally do respond worse to dogs' barking than the other members of my household and the reason for that is that I have sensitive ears since birth. I have also previously had ear surgery (2 weeks prior to their move-in. Funny, that.) which predisposes me to rather bad tinnitus at times. Needless to say, it's severely aggravated by aggressive barking that enters within my walls at random times. Ringing in my ears for HOURS. Completely unwanted and extremely annoying. When a truck drives by, at least the Doppler effect allows the sound to build gradually and go away gradually and allow my auditory system to adjust. But adjust to random, loud barking? Yeah, right.

Going back to the story, the neighbors had a rather poor compliance rate at keeping their pets in nightly, but they have greatly improved since then. It has been absolutely forever since the last time they were barking past 10 PM. It's been wonderful.

But they are still outside in the daytime. They still bark at literally NOTHING in the daytime. Sounds which penetrate our home. I have to avoid my room all day long. I have to be careful about working in the yard adjacent to the property line. I cannot just lounge on the pool in the daytime without the chance of being horrifically disturbed.

My communications with these people have consisted mostly of phone calls and chat messages with the matriarch. An absolutely horrific person. "Why do you still live with your parents?!" "Why don't you just wear earplugs?!" "Why don't you just move out of the house?!" "Why don't you just build your own wall?!"

And my reply, as always: "Why don't you just get out of my house? And STAY OUT!"

I learned recently that one can use small claims court for nuisance barking. I realize that a small claims court may not be able to FORCE them to keep their dogs away, but perhaps the judge can issue a judgement for my "pain and suffering". And pain and suffering it has been. Wouldn't you feel the same way in my situation? "Nuisance barking" is defined as "when a dog creates a noise, by barking or otherwise, which persistently occurs or continues to such a degree or extent that it unreasonably interferes with the peace, comfort or convenience of a person." I found that online somewhere. Wouldn't you think that my "peace, comfort or convenience" in my own home has been disgustingly violated?

I have videos on my old phone shot within my own room where you can hear the dogs' barks at 11 PM or midnight or so. I can always take new videos showing the effect that their barking has in my room. I can find the old list of times that they woke us up during that month of hell in 2013. What other evidence do you think I might need for a small claims court session? What do you think I should do?

Do any of y'all have experience with small claims courts? What were they for and how did the result go? Did it lead to an improvement in your lives? Is small claims court an option for me and my situation? Would a judge be inclined to award me damages for pain and suffering to force them to pay me and to change this ridiculous situation. Talking to them hasn't worked. Yelling at them hasn't worked. Nothing has worked. These people feel entitled to MY personal property and MY personal space. It is horrifying.

Thanks so much for reading this. I know it was long and I sincerely apologize for it, but I had to stress the effect that this has had on my life, physically and psychologically. Let me know what y'all think. Have a great weekend!

P.S. After yesterday's amazing weather, there's a nice, cool breeze outside. I opened up my window to let in some fresh air and to enjoy the breeze. Not 30 seconds goes by when what happens? Yup. You guessed it.

Torture. Absolute torture. Again, thank you for reading. It's been cathartic.
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Old 03-11-2018, 02:56 PM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,172 posts, read 85,998,837 times
Reputation: 130885
They improved the situation with night time barking, but I don't think there is anything you or the Small Claims Court can do about daytime noise.
Best would be to consult an attorney for recommendations.
Oh, wait... there is a hope, but there is not much money involved. Would this amount make you happier?
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclope...noise-faq.html

Here is something else you could do:
https://www.houselogic.com/remodel/w...proof-windows/
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how...-noises-191472

Last edited by elnina; 03-11-2018 at 03:12 PM..
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Old 03-11-2018, 03:27 PM
 
1,647 posts, read 2,050,425 times
Reputation: 1534
Those dogs would have "disappeared" long ago if I were you. Incredible patience.
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Old 03-11-2018, 03:45 PM
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
11,495 posts, read 26,735,973 times
Reputation: 28029
What does your HOA say about it? Usually the bylaws say something about not being a nuisance to other homeowners. It seems like the neighbors on the other sides of your neighbor would be equally inconvenienced by the barking, and if all of you contacted your HOA together, maybe something would be done.

Otherwise, there are a couple options. Sleep with a fan on to block the noise, or sell your house and move where you have enough land that you won't be inconvenienced by neighbors' dogs.


My neighbor's dogs used to bark whenever my kids went in our back yard. We started feeding them treats through the fence. Now they don't bark at us, but they do bark if anyone else walks up to our front door. That was a decent solution, that didn't depend on my neighbor suddenly becoming a considerate person or expending any effort, which he wouldn't have done.
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Old 03-11-2018, 08:08 PM
 
Location: Texas
5,717 posts, read 18,782,862 times
Reputation: 11222
As you're probably aware, the dogs aren't the problem, the neighbor is. To solve your problem I see it as you have to be smarter than the dogs. Here's what I would do. I'd go to Walmart and buy a huge bag of Ol' Roy dog food. Every evening slip a few pounds over the fence before you go to bed. Dogs like to sleep when the stomach is full. All you have to do is put enough out they fill themselves then go to sleep but if they wake up there's enough left for them to fill up again.

While this is a little off the subject, a reasonably new house shouldn't have dog barking going thru the walls. Might consider having the house evaluated by CPS for energy efficiency. It costs you nothing and if there are any holes that needs caulking or something like that, they should find it. Sound is transmitted via the air so there's obvious air leaks somewhere. I'm going to assume that the house at least double pane windows? If not, there's the sound. My 40 year old house I had my guys put in new double insulated Low E glass windows in and I can't even hear thunder in the house. It can hail, storm, etc and you'll never know it in my house. We also raised the insulation package on the house which has saved me major money. You might need some upgrades that will kill the noise and save you money at the time.
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Old 03-11-2018, 10:01 PM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,172 posts, read 85,998,837 times
Reputation: 130885
You are expecting OP to buy a " huge bag of Ol' Roy dog food" every day to feed the dogs?
Also - the neighbor might sue HIM for feeding his dogs without his approval. They might be allergic to something, sick or on a diet. He could say that he is suspecting, OP might be trying to poison his dogs, especially while there is this noise dispute.
Not a good idea....
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Old 03-11-2018, 10:50 PM
 
Location: San Antonio, Texas
4,287 posts, read 7,989,170 times
Reputation: 3938
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pancho-Villa View Post
Those dogs would have "disappeared" long ago if I were you. Incredible patience.
You are absolutely right. You have no idea how much I have dreamed of such a thing to happen, both intentional dreaming and subconscious dreaming. This has really affected me psychologically. But morally, it is wrong of me to do that. They are sentient beings that I have no right to harm, in spite of the fact that they are harming me. No matter how much I would love to rip their vocal cords out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom View Post
What does your HOA say about it? Usually the bylaws say something about not being a nuisance to other homeowners. It seems like the neighbors on the other sides of your neighbor would be equally inconvenienced by the barking, and if all of you contacted your HOA together, maybe something would be done.

Otherwise, there are a couple options. Sleep with a fan on to block the noise, or sell your house and move where you have enough land that you won't be inconvenienced by neighbors' dogs.
The HOA just has that 10 PM-10 AM rule. No more, no less. I haven't tried to take it further than that because they haven't really been violating it. The other neighbors actually aren't inconvenienced by it. If they are, it's not to the degree that we (I) am. The lots in this neighborhood are rather large and the distance between the neighbor on the other side and the culprit is much greater than the distance between the culprit and my house. Bear in mind that the culprit deliberately built their home this way, knowing that their dogs were nuisances in the previous house they had in the neighborhood. They knew their dogs and how they behaved and yet they built the lot so that they were right on the property line. Very interesting, isn't it?

As for the sleeping with the fan thing, I try. Remember the problems I have with my ears? I can barely hear the fan as it is in silence. But I CAN hear the barking. It doesn't drown it out. Selling my house? Remember the part where I mentioned that this is my parents' dream home? How hard they worked for it and how much passion they put into it? I'm sorry if I sound mean or annoyed, I don't mean to. I'm just trying to answer everything as honestly as I can. And I DO appreciate your suggestions as well as the suggestions of others.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TrapperL View Post
As you're probably aware, the dogs aren't the problem, the neighbor is. To solve your problem I see it as you have to be smarter than the dogs. Here's what I would do. I'd go to Walmart and buy a huge bag of Ol' Roy dog food. Every evening slip a few pounds over the fence before you go to bed. Dogs like to sleep when the stomach is full. All you have to do is put enough out they fill themselves then go to sleep but if they wake up there's enough left for them to fill up again.

While this is a little off the subject, a reasonably new house shouldn't have dog barking going thru the walls. Might consider having the house evaluated by CPS for energy efficiency. It costs you nothing and if there are any holes that needs caulking or something like that, they should find it. Sound is transmitted via the air so there's obvious air leaks somewhere. I'm going to assume that the house at least double pane windows? If not, there's the sound. My 40 year old house I had my guys put in new double insulated Low E glass windows in and I can't even hear thunder in the house. It can hail, storm, etc and you'll never know it in my house. We also raised the insulation package on the house which has saved me major money. You might need some upgrades that will kill the noise and save you money at the time.
Yes, you are right. Our windows are double-paned as it is and yet the dogs bark loud enough to penetrate that barrier. They are THAT close to us. I did mention that they built their fence right on the property line. They built their gate and their garage on that side of the house and the dogs love to stay there because that is where their owners would return in the evening. The neighbors, to their credit, have actually parked their cars on the street and walked into the house to avoid arousing the dogs and having them bark, but it really doesn't always work. What WOULD work is keeping their pets on the OTHER side of the house, because that neighbor doesn't seem to ever mind, the distance is big enough.

The other thing about that is that it requires my family and I to expend money. Why should we? Why should we waste any darn money on a problem that THESE people generated in the first place? Get outta my house! Simple as that! They never belonged in my house, yet here they are. Get outta here! No, I'm not paying to get you out. YOU get YOURSELF OUT!

Is that so unreasonable? This is why I'm looking at small claims court as an option. I've been tolerating it since 2013 when they began taking their pets into their home at night. I don't want to tolerate it. I want to ENJOY my house, my life, to the fullest, not just between the hours of 10 PM & 10 AM. Is that difficult to understand? Maybe hitting these people in their pocketbooks and making them listen in front of a judge is the best idea to get them to understand just what the hell they've been putting me through.

You know, the first time I ever met their oldest son, who was away at college, he drove up the driveway and got out of his car. One of the dogs approached him happily, tail wagging eagerly. He paid it no notice. Not a pat on the head, not a belly rub, not a greeting. Nothing. Just walked away into the house tapping on his cell phone. The dog skulked after him. I almost felt sorry for it. Almost.

These people seem to keep pets as trophies, as "guard dogs". They don't really seem to love them. The fact that they left them outside 24/7 when they moved in? Isn't that cruel? Loveless? That's just the way it appears to me, though. I could always be wrong.

I just don't want to hear any barking in my house. That's all I care about. I don't care about the garage, I don't care about the driveway. Just don't want to hear it in my freaking house. If I don't hear it in my home, I will hear it that much less in my driveway and in my garage and that'll be worth all the effort in the world.
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Old 03-11-2018, 11:29 PM
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
11,495 posts, read 26,735,973 times
Reputation: 28029
Since you're not the homeowner or a renter, wouldn't your parents have to be the ones to take them to small claims court? Maybe they don't want to live in their dream house, into which they've poured their money, and their passion, with an enemy next door. That's what will happen if they sue the neighbors. Presumably one day you will grow up and move out, but they'll be stuck living next to someone whom you've antagonized beyond any hope of reconciliation.
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Old 03-12-2018, 12:30 AM
 
Location: San Antonio, Texas
4,287 posts, read 7,989,170 times
Reputation: 3938
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hedgehog_Mom View Post
Since you're not the homeowner or a renter, wouldn't your parents have to be the ones to take them to small claims court? Maybe they don't want to live in their dream house, into which they've poured their money, and their passion, with an enemy next door. That's what will happen if they sue the neighbors. Presumably one day you will grow up and move out, but they'll be stuck living next to someone whom you've antagonized beyond any hope of reconciliation.
Absolutely not my problem nor my parents'. Incidentally, my parents are generally the LEAST bothered by this because their room is the farthest possible, on the other side of the house. There's actually a small chihuahua in the house adjacent to that property, but they can barely hear it in the daytime and when asleep, don't hear it at all. That neighbor keeps the dog inside at night and most of the day, actually, so the point is moot.

I may not be the homeowner or a renter, but I am an inhabitant, with my address on my driver's license and other government documents, so that gives me some right. If I can't do this with my name on it, it'll happen with someone else's name on it.

Antagonizing the neighbors? They're the ones who started this. They're the ones who do little to nothing about it. They're the ones who are violating our personal INDOOR space. Do they pay for the house? Do they perform maintenance on it via contracting and self-maintenance? Do they pay rent? Do they pay property taxes? Do they own any part of our property? I believe the answer is....no. So then why on earth are they inside my house?

We are already beyond any hope of reconciliation. Matter of fact, the only way to reconcile is for them to get out of my house. That's it. Between my last post and this current one, I had talked to my little sister. She hears them in her room all the time. Her room is the SECOND-FARTHEST AWAY from the property line. Let that sink in as you think about just how loud these animals are. Bear in mind that all this is with the windows closed at all times. We don't DARE open the windows. I did it earlier today (well, Sunday afternoon) and was brutally punished for it within minutes (seconds, even!) with unbearable tinnitus.

They're already an enemy. They're the ones who caused this situation. What have I done to cause it? Am I barking into their home? Do I have pets barging onto their property?

Many personal friends have told me that I am being unreasonable, that they have rights, as well. As I see it, the rights of their pets do NOT outweigh my family's right to enjoy our HOME in peace. As I see it, if I didn't raise any stinks, we would STILL be woken up at 3:45 in the #@&* morning every night just to appease these "enemies".

Reconciliation? I laugh. I don't care what they do. It's not my responsibility, it's not my problem. I just want them out of my house: they have no right to be in my house in any way, shape or form. They obviously don't care about us, so why should I reciprocate?

Here's the funny thing: they directly acknowledge how loud the animals are in our house by taking them away at night. You'd think they would realize that the sounds emitted are the same in the daytime, right? After all, while the daytime temperature increase DOES alter the speed of sound, it does NOT drastically change the laws of physics. So the dogs are still audible in our house. Wouldn't a good neighbor...you know....keep the dogs away? Not these people, obviously. Ha!

Again, thank you for your response, Hedgehog Mom. It was thoughtful. Everyone's responses have been. But these THINGS have absolutely no right to be in my house. Ever. And after nearly 4.5 years of this, I am drawing the line.
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Old 03-12-2018, 01:55 AM
 
Location: Tricity, PL
61,172 posts, read 85,998,837 times
Reputation: 130885
Just in case you would not reach any compromise, would you consider to move to another room far away from that side of the house, or maybe switch the rooms with your parents who seem not to mind the dogs barking?
I hope there is a quiet room in your house that face the opposite direction to the barking dogs. Other than that there might be no other way to escape the noise.

Or perhaps try one of those products? They have promising reviews:
https://www.amazon.com/UPGRADED-Ultr...582JN6V2GYK6HA

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079Z44T6N..._t1_B079LVTDTB

BTW: do you stay all day in your room? The dogs are quiet during the night, so you can get good night sleep. But during the day you're either at work, or busy with other things, in another parts of the house. No?
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