Letter to neighbors landlord? (Woodinville: rental, attorney, house)

[Tac-Sea]

I have a neighbor who rents his house from an older lady. The loud music, constant parties 20-30 deep on the front lawn, etc. have gone on long enough.

Called code enforcement, come to find out they get a lot of calls about that property and have been there several times and have asked for identification from each person there when they've inspected.

The Code Enforcement Officer said that I am not the only one calling and that they are getting on the radar of the city. In my city, you need a rental license to rent a house out. This house is licensed to be a rental, currently.

The Officer said the best thing to do is to just call 911 each time, right away when there is a noise violation (we have ordinances about this). He said that it will eventually be flagged as a nuisance property, at which point the Community Liaison Officer will take it up with the landlord and the city, with the potential of the license being suspended or revoked.

The Officer also suggested writing the landlord a letter, since I've looked her up through property tax records. I am considering doing this but am not sure 1) what to write, anyone seen a template of something like this? 2) I would prefer to stay anonymous. Problem with this is that it gives less credence to the letter in my opinion. What do you think? I could pay an attorney to send it for me. 3) Whether I should even do this.

The lady who owns it is 70+ years old. She lives in the city, but I am not sure that she will care or be able to do much, I am sure she is intimidated by them. It could either hurt or help. Who knows, she might come down hard on them with new rules and such, or encorce existing rules. I just don't see it happening, from a 70 year old woman. Maybe there is a property manager though, although I am unsure how to find who manages the property if she has hired a company.

[Hemlock140]

I saw this happen in rural Woodinville and eventually the police raided the place and it turned out to be a meth lab. It was boarded up and after bailed out some of the inhabitants came back and shot up the place. The elderly landlady was not able to do anything about it and eventually it was sold as a condemned teardown for a fraction of what it should have been worth. I'm not saying your case is that bad or could become that bad but best to do something about it soon. If you have the name and address of the owner send a polite letter, suggesting that she get help in managing the tenants and perhaps talk to the police. Don't be accusatory. If possible, have several other neighbors also sign it so she knows it's not just one mean neighbor being deprived of their peace and quiet.

[Tac-Sea]

Thanks for the reply so far. Any other posters have suggestions?

[mkarch]

Research the Public Nuisance ordinances for your area and do whatever you can to document the problems without bringing too much attention to yourself. The landlord is more likely to do something to solve the problem if they are facing the threat of having the property declared a public nuisance.

I've never done this, but I do know of one situation where a nuisance was abated by reporting the property to the city inspector. Odds are if the place is being abused like that there are some other code violations going on. I certainly wouldn't suggest that as a first step, but it may help nudge the owner to do something if the're otherwise unresponsive.

As for the letter, I'd document specific instances and have it drafted by a law firm, and leave your name off of it.

[freepelican]

Neighbors like that can certainly affect one's peace and happiness! I'm sorry you are going through that. I agree that you should try to get other neighbors to go in with you, at least one more. However, in my experience, people don't like to be involved if they are not impacted as much as you, they not want to. I would suggest talking with the neighbors who are the most impacted first. I would definitely suggest indiscreetly taking photographs and video if you can from your own place.

[NoNansea]

I second mkarch's suggestion, especially the last paragraph.