What To Do About Fighting Neighbors?

Question

My fiance and I live in a side by side townhouse. We have houses on both sides of us. Our neighbors on one side fight all the time. One guy lives there and he owns the house, then he has a g*y lover that I guess lives there (?) they broke up 5 years ago but this lover wont leave my neighbor alone.(we only know this stuff because we can hear every word when they are fighting. The neighbor lets him in and the lover gets drunk and they start fighting.

Sometimes the fighting starts early like 9pm and can go all the way until 9 AM! And sometimes the fighting starts as late as 4am!

My fiance and I are night people so the noise isnt too bad since we arent sleeping, but it does get annoying to hear their fights all night, every night. We can hear what they are saying too!

The guy who owns the house has called the cops on the lover many times, in fact its about a once a week thing. The lover gets taken away, either to detox or to jail, but as soon as hes out, hes back at the neighbors house.

What can we do to make them shut up? Call the cops everytime they fight? Wait for the neighbor to call the cops himself? I dont wanna go over there since they are drunk and the lover threatens the neighbor saying he is going to stab him and stuff, so I dont want to get involved in that! Do I pound on their wall? I dont know what to do! And if I should call the cops, do I call 911 or what? Cause I cant find a police number that works in my town after midnight

Answer 1

Why is he letting him in the house evey day just to throw him out? i think you need to confront the "victim"(bring your fiance along just in case) and tell him that if he doesn'tt do something. you will pursue further action. maybe put him in a situation where he has to do something about it. Maybe he would then get a PFA????

Answer 2

Call 911 -- every single time.  If they get the cops called on them enough, they will finally stop.  We went through something similar in our old neighborhood, and we called 911 just about every single day.  Finally, the cops got tired, the neighbors got tired -- and believe me, WE were certainly tired.

Don't worry that your neighbors might think it's you calling.  If they are loud enough that you can hear everything, people outside can hear it too.

Answer 3

Are you part of a condo community?  If so, you should take your concerns to the condo board of directors.

No way should ever confront the irate drunk yourself, that's bound to be trouble.

Have you ever spoken to your neighbor directly?  He should be the one to get a restraining order against his nasty ex-lover.

Can you somehow soundproof your townhouse or use "white noise" to minimize the noise that you hear?

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

http://www.laist.com/2007/09/13/loud_nei...

(This last web site is interesting.  Please excuse the rough language in it.  Perhaps when you call the police, you specify that it's a DOMESTIC DISPUTE and not just neighbors fighting.  I think the police would take a domestic fight more seriously than a "regular" fight.)

Anyway, best wishes to you and hopefully, some peace and quiet.

:)

Answer 4

My gosh!  I really feel for you - what a terrible situation you live in.  Add in the danger factor, and you're just waiting around for a bullet to come through the wall or someone to get killed.  

I would call 911 every time.  I would also call the precinct during business hours and ask to speak with a lieutentant to see if he/she can make a special trip to talk to your neighbors.  I did that with some bad neighbors and it worked.  

The next thing I would try is your Homeowners Association.  Surely there are rules and covenants.  If children are involved please call Children's Services and tell them of the environment there.  Children suffer the most in these types of trailor-trash, drunken 24/7 "Jerry Springer" show families.  

Good luck.  If all else fails, get copies of the incident reports at the police station, take it to an attorney and sue them.  Or, you can simply move.  Seems a shame that you would have to take such drastic measures.

Answer 5

They are disturbing the peace & it seems like you have legal action. I would ask the police if you can file a complaint & what can be done about it. Have you ever watched Judge Judy. It seems like this would go on there where she would have to order the person to either quiet down or be arrested. If he is arrested then he will be in trouble. Treatment for a day here or there is not going to do anything. Maybe if he gets in trouble he will be ordered to a long term treatment center. This can be good for him. He will have a place to stay & might actually recover from his addiction. Your neighbor needs some counseling himself because he needs to stop putting up with this abuse...If the police can't help you call a lawyer or the courthouse to get help & if you still can't find out call librarians to see if you can get this info.

Answer 6

You've been given good suggestions... but let me just use the phrase, "Citizen's Arrest."

Your best thing to do is to VIDEO TAPE the violation... true, it's mostly audio, but NOTHING convicts like video PROOF.  Be sure you set your date/time on the camera, too, so that you can prove the times of the violations.  You may have to tape several incidents, AND even tape those involving then cops are called.

Talk to your county (city?) attorney, they can even give you information as to exactly what should be taped in order to provide better LEGAL proof that they can USE.  And if criminal charges cannot be brought, then bring CIVIL charges against them.   If you have several neighbors affected by this, you might choose to "go together" for an attorney... the more the merrier!

GOOD LUCK!

Have a polite day.

Answer 7

That's quite an awful situation. My heart goes out to you.

You guys are doing the right thing by calling the cops. Do call them EVERY NIGHT that t his happens, all the time. His nightly fights and all are grounds for "disorderly conduct" charges filed against him. But you or one of the neighbors has to file those charges I believe.  If the lover has threatened your life or your neighbor's, then he or you need to press charges for making deadly threats. All these are punishable with serious jail time.

But I understand your hesitation. Once he gets out of jail, you worry that he may come after you. I think at the very least your neighbor needs to grow some balls and file a restraining order against the lover. As soon  as you see him come over, call the cops and he'll be hauled away.

Another option is to file a petition to have this neighbor evicted from the premisis since he's not in control of all this drama. He's the one who invites it.