Retaliation Eviction for Complaining

By Alicia

Hello,
Moved in to a duplex. Adjoining garage-remodeled apt lives a man with same landlord. Lived fine with this man for 1yr. Then, he buys a Home Theatre Stereo system for his tiny apt.

BASS vibrates our walls, our bedroom is right next to his wall. Have knocked on his door 3 times and politely asked to turn it down. 3rd time, we were screamed and yelled at. Contacted landlord 3-5 times a week because of music. Sometimes doesn’t work. Neighbor tenant confronts us with unnecessary conversations, insulting us, yelling at us, and once threatening life. "I’ve been to jail, next time I’ll go for life, don’t call the landlord anymore" etc.

Landlord is "stern" with tenant every time. But it just keeps happening. Went to police for threat. Now we only go to police when music is loud. Police came by, happily asking neighboring tenant "what kind of music is that? ohh cool" and not helping us. We have this on video tape, as well as a video of before the officer came, with a decibel reader reading 65+ decibels. (passing noise ordinance levels).

Next time we call the police, the same officer responds and before he comes up, the tenant turns off the music. Officer comes to our door and reprimands us for calling nonsense complaint for no reason, and says "video taping is harrasment to the other tenant". We have this on video tape and also decibel readings of before he came. We only video tape on our property, and not at tentants property, so it’s 100% legal.

Officer has a conversation with our landlord, of what I don’t know, but our landlord said that "the police said that you made a nonviable noise complaint" and everything is just falling apart after that. Landlord took that "one time" nonviable complaint (which is false and we have proof) to get rid of us because he’s tired of us complaining about the music he has not solved.

During a face to face last discussion with the landlord about the music, before he received the rent, he left agitated saying he would "have his lawyer handle this." We received a "notice of nonpayment" asking us to pay, and the money we pay will not be used for rent, and also "lapse of lease". I know this was sent in retaliation. What can I do about this?

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