Rude and Messy Neighbors

[Tigerlily.]

To start off with we live in apartments, and basically you have a sliding glass door leading to the parking lot and from the sliding glass door you have one stone step down to a stone patio, some of them have one porch spanning over in front of 2 apartments like the one we live in, obviously just divide it in half metaphorically, rather simple. Well they have no respect for our parking spots or our patio area, we have cigarette butts all over the place and plenty of trash because of them. And a week or less ago, there were smashed rotten strawberries all over their area, their kids had ridden through on bikes smearing it all over our area and there were some rotten strawberries in front of my mom's car, today, there was dog poop in front of our door... We don't have a dog so obviously not from us, yet our neighbors do... Basically they have no respect for our area or property and when my mom saw the strawberries, she asked if they would clean it up, then she called us to let my aunt and I know since we were out and would be for about 4 or 5 more hours, so that if they were still there, we'd know they didn't pick them up, my aunt and I got home, and they were still there, my aunt had to pick them off of the ground like scrape it off. And then today my aunt and I pulled in from shopping for dinner and their door was open about a foot and half, and there's this little 2 year old, maybe younger, just sitting in front of the storage shed about 15-20 feet away and no adults anywhere. My aunt told someone inside and they didn't know he was out there and didn't care either. But that's a bit beside the point. And also they pound on the walls until 3 or 4 in the morning sometimes.

My question is, they refuse to pick up after themselves even in our area, I mean they let their dog shit right in front of our door! What can I do? We've asked them to clean up before and they never do so we always have to clean our area of their mess because we refuse to have that kind of stuff on our porch. What should/can we do about it?

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

The first thing I would do is look up the legal policies regarding your apartment. All houses are required to maintain their property to certain degrees and I assume the same holds true for apartments. Generally, there are laws regarding picking up after one's dog in public as well as around houses. The child being out is dangerous but that's neither here nor there. So, look up these policies and if they fail to maintain their property, contact the person(s) in charge of the apartment (i.e. landlord) and if they see the mess, it is their duty to enforce the policies. The noise they make past 3 am or so is something you also would bring up with your landlord.

While there are crimes, such as disturbing the peace, they apply to public areas and I'd assume the apartment is a private area. So your best way of dealing with this is through your landlord. Unfortunately, you still need to clean up the mess that is on your property, otherwise one could argue you are also failing to meet the legal policies even though you didn't cause the mess. It's akin to a neighbour accidentally throwing a ball into the backyard of your house (I know you live in an apartment but for this example pretend you live in a house). If you have a guest over and they fall on the ball resulting in injury, it is your fault because you did not maintain the property, even though the ball doesn't belong to you.

I would recommend taking photographs as well as video recording (unless your apartment has video surveillance, in which case just have the landlord look at the tapes and get a copy of them for yourselves).

If the policies do not cover the mess they do, then I would do the same/similar back. If their dog shits on your porch, scoop it up and put it on their porch. If the policies allow you to modify the front area, get a short metal fence or short metal spikes or some other short barrier and drive them into the ground. As a result, they cannot bike there.

You can also ask your other neighbours if they are affected in the same/similar way. If so, have them sign a petition regarding the legal policies being enforced by the landlord. I don't think you can have a petition where you want them evicted because it may not be admissible. However, I think any rationale or even irrational landlord would support your side, even if it is not against policy, it is disgusting and vile to have such stuff on your property. There's also an argument about the living conditions for the small child because if they allow disgusting stuff outside the house and don't care their kid was outside, it begs the question how the inside of their rooms are. This is something the landlord or inspector can assess, not your family or you.

[Carpe Diem]

I second what the man and xx master said, there are laws that could benefit you. I'm sure your mom knows about these so it's her responsibility to use them against your neighbors if she can't get them to comply. Also, it doesn't seem that you've actually talked to them seriously about the manner; sometimes that's what it takes to get people to understand. Take MY neighbor for example. Her dog kept pooping on our lawn and we kept telling her politely to pick it up every time we saw a new one. She wouldn't listen, so my dad had a serious conversation with her about how it's her responsibility to pick up after HER dog; not ours. Especially when it poops on OUR lawn!

Good luck, I'm sure you'll find a way to get it through their thick head xD.

[Tigerlily.]

As much as I know these are like the best answers ever, there's a few problems. Our landlord doesn't and probably never will even keep the buildings in general up to code. They aren't and haven't been in years, not to mention the landlord dislikes us and the only reason we're still here is because we're the only ones who pay rent on time. We follow their rules, even when they're ridiculous etc... And also she allows others to break the law on how many people can be in a certain size house. Like again, those same neighbors have at least 10-13 people in a 2 bedroom house which is really against the code here, for a 2 bedroom you can have 4-5 people. So obviously bringing up the code to the landlady would not make a difference to her.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

In that case, you have three options.

First, live with it.

Second, move.

Third, since you are in California this will work quite well, contact the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD). You can report a violation and an inspector (not the landlord) will come to the apartment to view the alleged violations. You can read more of this at the following links (the first link is the main one):
http://lahd.lacity.org/lahdinternet/...0/Default.aspx
http://cris.lacity.org/cris/informat...code/index.htm

Just know that legally, it is the duty of the landlord but usually it becomes the tenants/renters' duty.
http://www.tenantslegalcenter.com/