Dealing With Neighbors

[Paul Novak]

BP Community I recently purchased a rental property in the town I grew up in and I am having trouble with the neighbors.  I know this area pretty well and I would consider this area a B class neighborhood, not the best, but not horrible.  The house we purchased was an Air BnB previously, had many upgrades to it, and is in really good shape.  I love the property.  We got great tenants and have already built a strong relationship with them.  While we aren't rental pro's at this point we have been at this for 4 years and now have 6 doors so I also wouldn't consider myself a rookie. 

When we closed on the house my wife and I spent about a week over there doing small repairs, cleaning, and getting it ready for the new tenants.  We didn't observe any issues during the day other than the house next to us looked a bit run down with some garbage outside.  We found out the property was an upper and lower rental and I talked to the landlord about cleaning up the garbage.  The conversation went well and we moved forward.  When my wife met the new tenants to give them the keys they noticed a dead dear with a tarp over it in the neighbors backyard.  She again worked with the tenants next door and their landlord to get it removed and disposed of as we can't have rotting animals in the backyard in the middle of the city, honestly I don't even know how that would have ended up there.  Now our tenants have been there for about 3 weeks and every night there is shouting, people coming and going, and loud music in their driveway which butts up against our house from 10pm - 3:30am.  This is keeping our tenants up, along with their small children.  With all the random cars that keep showing up to the house for 10 minutes a pop and then leaving and it being all different people I think this could be a drug problem.  Last weekend someone who went to that house actually abandoned a car in the driveway of our property and it had to be towed.

I am someone who isn't afraid of conflict or having a tough conversation.  I have tried to handle this situation by talking to the neighboring tenants and the landlord.  The conversations have always gone well but we are still having the noise issues.  They did clean up the garbage and remove the deer but the people coming and going along with the noise is the biggest issue.  Ultimately I am worried about protecting our business's reputation, the safety of our tenants, and having a viable rental.  I did work with the police on Monday to explain the situation and see if they could help and I told the landlord next door that I took this action.  If issues were going on at my property I would like to know about it and have a chance to fix it first.  I have also been asking the landlord what it's going to take to remove the tenants that are and issue.

I am sure others on here have delt with similar situations and I was curious if you had any advice on things I should try?

[Michael Smythe]

@Paul Novak landlords MUST be careful how involved they get in domestic disputes, etc.

Tenants always want to dump their problems on the landlord!

If the problem is something related to the property itself or rent payments, then it is the responsibility of the landlord to address.

Anything outside of that a landlord should avoid or proceed with great caution.

Tell your tenants your hands are tied and you need them to help you to help them and call the police so you can also file complaints with the city.