At my wits end with renting neighbors (rent, house)

[Colonel_Mustard]

I hope someone can help me out.

We live on the north side about 2 miles from UTSA in a subdivision with no mandatory HOA. My neighbors (2 adults, no kids) have been renting for about 5 months now and I am at wits end because the landlord refuses to do anything. The tenants have multiple dogs in the home during the day and let them out at night. We never see them or the dogs because we work 8-5. Everything they do is at night when we are asleep.

Well, they don't clean the backyard and actually pile up the dog poop and leave it there. Garbage bags are piling up in the backyard and there are piles of leaves from 2 months ago all over the front yard (which is a terrible eyesore).

Here is the major problem. They allow their dogs to poop inside. The smell that emanates from the home is truly horrible. We can smell it from our yard and our backyard is worse because of their piles of dog poop.

I have called and filed a complaint with code compliance after an incident where the fire and police dept showed up. Code compliance only forced them to clean up the backyard but that didn't last as its back again. The inside of the home hasn't changed and the code compliance officer said that the city can't enter the home.

Again, the landlord refuses to do anything about it.

Are there any legal actions that I can take towards the landlord or the tenants?

[wellguy]

I would contact Code Compliance again and TONIGHT. I have seen first hand where someone was given a chance to correct a problem without facing any fines. When called again for the same reason the Officer citied them for both that visit and the first one.

Contact Metro Health @ 207-8853 and ask for Amanda. The piled up Poop is a Health Hazard as you know. Contact COSA Animal Control. Since the People are living in Filth you can contact Adult Protective Services with the State.

Remember Everyone has a Boss (if you feel you are getting no where with City Staff) even if you end up contacting the Mayor's Office. I work for a City Owned Utility -If you want to see Folks JUMP HIGH and QUICK like Chickens with their heads cut off then let your problem get to your Council Person ,the City Manager, or Mayor.

Contact your HOA- You are paying Dues so something like this does not happen.

Ask the person(s) on the other side(s) and those in back to take the same actions as you.

You can never rattle too many cages in a case like this. Continue and something will be done.

I would not worry about any legal actions. Let those that you are paying solve this one for you.

Trust Me. I would never suggest anything to anyone that I would not do myself.

[pobre]

Is the landlord aware of the inside mess? Surely, they would not allow that!

[giz2000]

That's disgusting. We rent and would NEVER in a million years let our dogs (if we had any) even poop in the yard! I can't believe the dogs are pooping in the house. That's a health hazard! Is their anyway you can get the health department/animal control involved?

What ever happened to taking care of other people's property more than your own?

[Colonel_Mustard]

Originally Posted by pobre

Is the landlord aware of the inside mess? Surely, they would not allow that!

You would think this. The house is destroyed, I'm sure of it. She cares, but is obviously easily pushed around. We have tried to contact her but she doesn't think/isn't willing to do anything.

The incident I mentioned is interesting and comical. They were burning something that smelled liked plastic. One day (my wife just happened to work from home that day) the fire department shows up because smoke was billowing out the home. Another neighbor had called but they later blamed us.

So the fire fighters are knocking on the door and they don't answer the door. They break down the fence and go into the backyard to get a better idea of what is going on.

One guy is there and he finally opens the door for them. They go inside and ask him some questions and they go back outside to talk amongst themselves. He closes the door behind them and then refuses to reopen it.

By this time my wife had been outside along with other neighbors watching this play out informing me on the events over the phone. She talks to one of the fire fighters and he tells here that he is hiding something. So they call the cops.

About an hour later the cops show up and the guy still hasn't opened the door. By this time the fire had stopped because it wasn't a house fire, he had just forgotten to open up the fire place vent. I'm on the phone with my wife and I'm thinking crack-house 'please, please, let it be a crackhouse.' It made sense, bad smell (chemicals), burning stuff (getting rid of evidence), only work at night (moving product), etc. This would mean that they would be gone soon. We weren't that lucky.

The cops show up with some crazy device that takes air quality measurements to see if certain chemicals are being used. Nope, nothing, clean. By this time the cops had been hammering on his door and he opens. The cop comes back out and is whispering to the firefighter with my wife a couple of feet away. She hears him ask

"Did you guys go in there?"
"Yes."
"Did you wear your masks?"
"No, we didn't."
"It's dangerous in there."

My wife yells out, "Great!" The cop looks over and says "Yes ma'am, I would recommend going inside and I will go over in a bit."

Another hour later he comes over adn lets her know what's going on. He says they have ten dogs inside and he had been trying to 'clean' using bleach which only compounded the smell. He said it was the most horrible thing he had ever smelled in his life. Great.

He filed a report with code compliance and I called a month later to follow up. The officer enforced the poop as I mentioned in my original post.

Later on the guy asked my wife if we had a problem with them. She said yes since we didn't enjoy smelling dog crap coming from your house every time we go outside. He threatened us with a law suit for harassment.

We don't know what to do.

[Colonel_Mustard]

Originally Posted by wellguy

I would contact Code Compliance again and TONIGHT. I have seen first hand where someone was given a chance to correct a problem without facing any fines. When called again for the same reason the Officer citied them for both that visit and the first one.

Contact Metro Health @ 207-8853 and ask for Amanda. The piled up Poop is a Health Hazard as you know. Contact COSA Animal Control. Since the People are living in Filth you can contact Adult Protective Services with the State.

Remember Everyone has a Boss (if you feel you are getting no where with City Staff) even if you end up contacting the Mayor's Office. I work for a City Owned Utility -If you want to see Folks JUMP HIGH and QUICK like Chickens with their heads cut off then let your problem get to your Council Person ,the City Manager, or Mayor.

Contact your HOA- You are paying Dues so something like this does not happen.

Ask the person(s) on the other side(s) and those in back to take the same actions as you.

You can never rattle too many cages in a case like this. Continue and something will be done.

I would not worry about any legal actions. Let those that you are paying solve this one for you.

Trust Me. I would never suggest anything to anyone that I would not do myself.

Thanks.

I have called adult protective services... actually submitted it online. I am not sure if they have even investigated yet. I will call on Monday.

I have called animal control, nothing has happened.

I have called code compliance but you are right I need to call him again. I have the officers number and will call him on Monday.

HOA is non-mandatory and as such they have little/no power.

Thank you for the Health Department name and number, I will call on Monday. Finding contacts and city code is difficult.

[mhounit]

Law suit for harassment ? You should welcome the opportunity to tell your story in court . Tell him to bring it on .

[BamaSailor]

Send an email to the city councilman for the area as well as the mayor.

[PopsGuysRule]

Well, Colonel Mustard, perhaps you can get Mrs. Peacock to crack open the renters' skull with the Candlestick.

But if that doesn't work, I'd try to have Professor Plum to teach you to arm yourself with the Candlestick and a Piece of Rope. You could put a scented candle in the Candlestick to remove all the stinky dog-poo, tie up the tenants with the rope and let the dog out of the yard while you're doing all that.
I'd do that in the Conservatory or the Ballroom; keep the music up high and noone will hear the screams.....


sollllllllyyyyy , couldn't help myself......

[doss1]

Originally Posted by colonel_mustard

the officer enforced the poop

lol.