Patrice Poltzer knows one thing for certain about her downstairs neighbors: “Whatever stereo system they have is fabulous.”
So fabulous, Poltzer said, that for months it pounded pop into her Wrigleyville apartment, the lyrics so loud she could sing along and the bass so thudding she could feel the vibrations through the floor.
Poltzer, 26, was loath to come off as a cranky curmudgeon, but when the music sometimes blared until 5 a.m.–and she had to wake up at 7:30 a.m. to go to work at a public relations firm–she would grudgingly knock on her neighbors’ door to appeal for some quiet.
Luckily for Poltzer, diplomacy prevailed, so her tale of neighborly woe has a happy ending. But many people aren’t so lucky.
Neighbor warfare can drag on interminably, be it over a loud TV, obnoxious kids or failure to scoop a pup’s poop in a shared back yard. Noise is the most common complaint, though boundary issues–such as when neighbors install lights that illuminate someone else’s property–are gaining ground, said Bob Borzotta, a New Jersey-based media consultant and author of the forthcoming book “Neighbors from Hell.”
The animosity is getting worse, Borzotta said, in part because people no longer try to get to know those who live around them.
“When we don’t know someone who presents a problem, it makes us immediately assign to that person the role of enemy,” he said.
And it can be harrowing when your enemy lives next door. Several people who shared their neighbor horror stories with RedEye declined to have their names published or to have their neighbors contacted because they were afraid of retaliation.
One woman who lives in the western suburbs said she moved from Arizona to escape “two and a half years of living in hell” among neighbors who would toss trash in her yard, spread rumors about her and her husband, and use her property as their dog’s toilet, among other abuses.
Poltzer’s case was much sunnier.
Poltzer, who lives with two roommates on the top floor of a three-story graystone, visited the women living below her several times to complain about the loud music they were playing at all hours.
“They were so nice; they would always turn it down or turn it off when we asked,” said Poltzer, who chalked the problem up to the old building and differences in lifestyle. “They even sent us an apology letter.”
But the Top 40 tunes kept blasting.
Eventually, Poltzer contacted her landlord, who last month sent out an e-mail asking tenants to be quiet. There’s been peace ever since.
“We’ve been very conscious of it,” said Carly Mulliken, 23, who lives in the apartment with the fabulous speakers.
Mulliken admits she and her two roommates may have been overdoing the music because “we had just moved to the city [from Wisconsin], we didn’t have jobs, and we were just having fun.” Now employed, they’ve calmed down.
But Mulliken said she also is a noise victim in their building. When people walk in Poltzer’s apartment, “it sounds like stomping, and when they move a chair, it sounds like they’re moving large pieces of furniture all the time,” Mulliken said. “They also have a yippy dog that barks all the time.”
Poltzer said her roommate does indeed have a dog, but that “he’s really not that bad” when it comes to barking.
People living stacked like Pringles usually accept such inconveniences as an urban reality akin to alley rats and ambulance sirens, and can diffuse problems with simple communication. But dealing with particularly unreasonable neighbors can get complicated.
Some chronically noisy neighbors “have this rage against anyone who orders them to behave in and around their home,” Borzotta said. “It requires a certain amount of respect [to behave civilly], and people over the years have been losing respect for anyone outside of their circle.”
They tend to shut up if a noise ordinance hits them in the wallet, but often police officers responding to a noise complaint don’t issue one, Borzotta said. Seeking help from landlords and condo or homeowners associations also can be futile, he said.
Homeowners associations generally abstain from neighbor disputes unless someone is violating a house rule, said Taylor Hogan, president of Northbrook-based Taylor Management, which manages 75 condo, townhouse and homeowner associations in the Chicago area.
For example, many associations have quiet hours–often between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. on weeknights–so if people are too loud during that time, the association can fine them, Hogan said. Normally, after an initial warning, the standard fine is $25, which doubles for every violation thereafter, he said.
Landlords, often called upon to quiet a rowdy neighbor, don’t have the power to fine for nuisances, so they usually send a letter or talk with the offending tenant.
“We are in the people business, so we try to resolve it between people,” said Dan Adams, president of the Chicago Property Owners Association.
Not that it always works.
Landlord Andrew Levin, owner of Bass Realty Chicago, said some people just deny, deny, deny when confronted.
“It’s always, ‘I wasn’t even home then’ or ‘I don’t even have kids,’ ” said Levin, who most frequently gets complaints of children running to and fro on hardwood floors late into the night.
If certain behaviors violate the terms of the lease–and most leases do have noise provisions–landlords can give the offending tenant a 10-day notice to correct the problem or face going to court, Adams said. The problem, however, is that a bad tenant rarely gets the boot, he said.
“The way the judges are, they ask if the person has fixed the problem, and the tenant will say yes, and that’s it,” Adams said.
He advises perpetually aggrieved tenants to call police on their obnoxious neighbors, if only to act as a deterrent or have a written record of the complaints.
But a call to 911 doesn’t guarantee a charge against a naughty neighbor, even if there is a law on the books. Police get disturbance complaints daily, and the officer who responds uses his or her discretion to decide whether to issue a citation, said Chicago Police Sgt. Eugene Mullins, a police department spokesman.
Increasingly, people who can’t get help from management or the authorities to fix a neighbor problem are seeking their own justice, Borzotta said. He said he’s noticed more neighbor disputes turning violent because “the system is broken.”
Many other people just give up.
“The bad guys win nine times out of 10,” Borzotta said. “The good neighbors, I find time and again, just move away.”
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WAR STORIES
You think you have it bad? Check out message boards on neighborsfromhell.com and annoyingneighbors.com, which let people rant about their horrid neighbors and exchange advice on how to deal with them (cease-and-desist orders are mentioned several times). Here are some snippets. “The pounding on the shared walls, the yelling, door slamming, the repeated dropping of heavy objects, noisy items repeatedly falling down the stairs … the screaming … all of which I am sure … has been intentional … this is why I use a digital recorder which captures this all quite nicely.” [ neighborsfromhell.com ]
“The night before last, our cars and driveway were egged … again! … I’m so discouraged and depressed now. I cleaned the egg off my car but I feel so upset … I just don’t want to live here anymore.” [ neighborsfromhell.com ]
“I get a knock on my door at 5 A.M.!!!!! He is complaining because my dogs are in my house and they barked! They’re IN MY HOUSE!!! NOT OUTSIDE!!! … He then proceeded to tell me he was going to shoot my dogs.” [ neighborsfromhell.com ]
“First of all, they all let the two entrance doors slam behind them, which is so loud and annoying that it makes the wall shake. And not to mention that they do it at all hours. Second of all, one of my neighbors has to whistle every time he comes through the doors, and very loudly too. Another one even hums!”
[ annoyingneighbors.com ]“The girl above us walks like she weighs 500 lbs. and has concrete boots on … The problem is, she is the farthest from that, she is about 115 lbs. … It drives me nuts, I can hear her stomping around now. She makes my lights shake in my apartment, and the windows rattle when she clomps around. I love my 6 a.m. alarm clock–when she wakes up. I feel like I am in ‘Nam.” [ annoyingneighbors.com ]
“My neighbors used to be nice and quiet, until these two brothers moved in downstairs. They are real jerks. They smoke PUTRID cigars ALL the time. The stench and smoke fill my apartment and the stairwell and have damaged all my clothes and furnishings. … I’m moving out because I can’t take it any more. My health is too important.” [ annoyingneighbors.com ]
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HOME IMPROVEMENT
You tried talking it out. You tried getting your landlord or homeowners association involved. You tried calling police. And still the neighbor combat rages on. Here are some other ways to restore sanity to your home life.
Mediation
For no charge, volunteer mediators with the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago will facilitate a discussion between feuding neighbors until they reach a mutually acceptable resolution, said Marilyn Smith, executive director of the non-profit group.
Sometimes that means setting a schedule so that basketball practice in one driveway doesn’t conflict with dinner next door, Smith said. About half of the disputes the center handles get resolved during mediation, she said.
“People tend to get distorted when they’re in their own reality,” Smith said. “We feel like people wait too long to ask us for help.”
Mediation works best when all parties involved in the dispute are willing to sit down and talk, Smith said, so the center sometimes rejects cases in which someone doesn’t seem rational.
The center focuses on helping people who wouldn’t otherwise have the means to pursue professional mediation, and markets its services accordingly.
CCR won’t turn people away just because they’re higher income, but it would advise them of its mission and offer to refer them to other professional mediators.– www.ccrchicago.org, 312-922-6464
Break your lease
If you’re renting, and the only solution left to your neighbor hell is to move, the Center for Renters’ Rights can help you get out of your lease. The key is finding breaches of the City of Chicago Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, which covers most buildings (but not, for example, owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units).
“We can always find something in the ordinance that’s not being complied with,” said center head Shannon Weiss. Some of the most common violations include landlords failing to provide tenants with a proper summary of the ordinance, lead paint disclaimers, a complete street mailing address or proof of a fire insurance carrier.
The Center for Renters’ Rights charges half your month’s rent to help break a lease.– www.renters-rights.com, 773-244-8152
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aelejalderuiz@tribune.com
