What would off topic do? You know how every neighborhood has the white trash redneck implant in it? Well, that guy lives across from me. My 'hood is pretty decent but there was one very small house owned by an old lady for many years. She eventually died and a new family moved in. They have about 40-50 cardboard boxes stacked on the front porch that have been there for years. There is kid mess all over the yard - basketballs, bikes, etc. I hear them almost every morning literally *screaming* at the kids. When the mother takes them to school I hear "get in the g*d d*mn car you little *#*$ if you dont do it right NOW you are going to get it!". I mean it sounds like she despises these kids! So anyway, the father has had like 8 jobs in 3 years and I noticed a few months ago he has a sign on his pickup truck that reads "expert tree and stump removal" with his home phone below it. About 5 weeks ago he was up at 8am on Saturday with a chainsaw and gas powered wood chipper chopping up a tree. He was working on it for a good 6 hours. Sunday morning same thing. Next weekend, same thing. Couple of weeks break, then 2 more weekends in a row, same thing. I was running late for work last week and I noticed a big ass truck arrive and drop off at least 3-4 pretty LARGE trees. I mean this truck had a big four claw grip on a crane that hoisted the trees into his yard and dropped them off. Then Saturday morning, 8am he's out there with the chainsaw cutting for 3 hours, then 3-4 hours of the gas powered chipper chopping this stuff up. All day Sunday too, and as I type this he is out there again doing it. Thing is, I have some nice things that I would not want to be damaged by this guy, so going over there and telling him to STFU will meet with a predictable response, and if I take it to the next level he will know its me. Any ideas? The only things I could think of were sending him an anonymous letter and signing it "your neighbors" and telling him hes bothering everyone. The other thing would be call the city and let them know this guy is operating a tree removal company out of his home. Many years back I got a biz license for doing computer repair out of my home and they told me UPS/FedEx could not come more than 2 times a week or they would put a stop to it due to bother to neighbors, and that was considering I told them I would have zero customer traffic at my home. So I can't imagine if they were that strict with me, that doing what this dude is doing could be OK. Its so friggin aggravating. I work late during the week and Saturday is when I sleep in. The window on my bedroom faces his house directly. He does this stuff in the side yard and I have woken up to a f-ing gas powered wood chipper at 8am 6-7 times in the past 5-6 weeks!
Wow.. I had the exact same situation (redneck neighbors) for almost two years and they actually moved out last week, thank god. Nothing like people screaming at each other at 4am to get your goat. We sent them the exact same letter via the mail in regards to their dogs (who barked non-stop all night) and they seemed to keep them in check afterwards. It also helps to fight fire with fire, you might want to get up before him one morning and start making an even worse racket- our neighbors found out that we had 4 floodlights pointed at their home when they'd leave a very bright porch light on for a few days in a row (our backyards faced each other). A face to face confrontation will only make it worse. -Chris
I think OSHA would be VERY concerned. Small children and job safety are paramount. They have decided small businesses are where the fine $ are, so they are VERY aggressively pursuing claims against them. EPA is also concerned about possible toxic spills of 2 stroke oil as used in chainsaws and splitters. Noise ordinances can be a bltch too. Shame if someone caught a pic of the truck dropping off the trees, pic from the street so one house couldn't be ID'ed as the source. Homeowners assoc should have some teeth, but not much. Feds are the way to go. Sorry I didn't have any ideas for you.
Wow!! Call the city and the police..let them deal with it. maybe before so set up a video camera and have the date and time in the bottom of the frames so you have proof of all this for a court hearing if it comes to that. I do not recommend taking matters into your own hands. Just have the cops and the city show up at his house one day out of the blue while he is doing his work. They will shut him down in a hurry.
I would also recommend you make sure everyone on the street is as angry as you are, much better to have the whole street against him than just yourself.
Well, s-h-i-i-i-i-t-t, whut's da problem? Dat old boy jus trying to make a living, unlike some folks I know. And hell, so he yells at the kids. Big deal. I bet he's good to his dogs. Besides, half dem kids probably ain't hisin anyhow. And whut's you got that you're so high and mighty about? You thinkin that your poo poo don't stink? Damn Yankees...
Should check on your towns noise bylaws. My town basically states you should hear almost nothing from your neighbors and we had a big case here about a year ago when someone complained his neighbors pool pump along with it's waterfall was to loud. The town had to hire an attorney to order the pool shut down and did . This battle went on for a year and cost my town much money before it was finally settled. Also most towns and cities here in Puritanical New England have strict rules on noise on Sunday
I have neighbors always yelling at their kids and each other, it's really annoying when I'm outside trying to wash my car in peace and quiet. One day, i'll have to go over there and tell them to STFU.
Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking to just call the city building inspector (who is the one that approves or disapproves small businesses in the city) and see what he has to say. More than likely, the guy doesnt have a permit at all, because after the hassle I went through, I can't imagine this guy would get one, unless he said he was only going to put a sign up and and answer calls and do the cutting elsewhere. The only concern is that often these departments require a complaintant before they will do anything, and I don't want to be the guy listed on the forms as bringing forth the complaint. I will try to just talk to 'em and see what they say. If they require an actual written complaint in someones name, maybe I will just try to send the letter and maybe mention the next step would be to contact the city/police regarding building code and/or noise violations. Fish, why would I want this guys house? It sucks. Its across the street from mine, and it's on a postage stamp sized lot bordered on either side by nice big houses. Absolutely no use to me at all. The old lady died about 8 or 9 years back and I am sure even as low-end as their house is in this neighborhood it's appreciated quite a bit. Better to have the cheapest crappiest house in a city with a good school system than the nicest house in a slum with a horrible school system. They would not want to move.
Jesus, did you live in my house. Same EXACT thing. We just ignored them except when the tough guy sons would be in the back playing basketball cursing and fighting. Then my mom would get pissed. Eventually just put up a big fense, that they over the course of 3 years managed to break into little tiny pieces of wood somehow. Visited to old neighborhood couple weeks ago, still the same. Everyone still hates them.
The way I see it is its private property, he can do as he pleases. If you buy it then you can decide what happens on that property...no, I am not a big fan of zoning regulations as a concept...private property on the other hand is sacrosanct.
Call over your F-chat friends and setup a Dynapack dynomometer in your garage. Face it towards his house and pull some runs at 3AM.
Kinda of like there's always a patsy at a poker game, and if you don't know who it is then it's you? Well, I don't know any white trash in my neighborhood, so it looks pretty bad for the Gunboat family.
This is a "private nuisance." You and/or your similarly offended neighbors have a case. These are recommended steps: http://www.ired.com/news/lieberman/050109.htm ___ My .02 Documentation - you've already got some. If you hear them, write it down, don't rely on memory. Audio/Video recorders are a wonderful thing. You mention some massive work has been dropped off - document this now. If your camera is out of film, even a convenience store will have "Fun" cameras for 10 bucks. Go get one and start snappin'. Audio/Video/Photograph large equipment they needed to drop this off. The sheer scale of this will steer judge and jury in your favor. Remember - possession is 9/10 of the law. He possesses the equipment to process work in a loud manner - any time is untimely. You absolutely must possess proof of that in order to put you and/or your neighbors investment in an attorney to good use. You (all) possess a home in a residential neighborhood. In the eyes of the law, you need to possess proof (the more, the merrier) there is a private nuisance... whether or not it progresses to the Civil Courts. May not ever get that far, as the City or County may be able to put this to a stop - pronto. _____ Rent The 'Burbs. Please, no one give away the plot. _____ Incidentally, a fantastic way to get rid of a mockingbird outside a window is to record it in full song. Set up speakers, crank it, hit play, goodbye mockingbird. Trust me, it works.
If you had bought that Chrysler hemi powered, Civil Defense air raid siren that was on E-bay a few years ago, you could have persuaded them to tone down the noise a bit.
Have you ever bothered to talk to this guy? I'm not saying that's all it will take, but before devising some sort of elaborate plan, just ask the guy to stop. In the likely event he's a violent prick, then you have even more ammunition to use against him. But you never know...
do you not have a noise by law. That people cannot pass XXX amount of decibles of noise before 9 am? Try and find out if you have something like that,.
I agree 100%, but try this one on for size. My neighbor was operating a hand railing manufacturing business out of his single car garage in the alley. Not only setting up steel sawhorses and welding right in the alley, he also spray painted the railings and just threw all the paint solvent and other debris in the dumpster. I called the EPA and the City to investigate. While they agreed with me that this was not kosher, they said that they could not do anything because the guy did not have a valid city business liscence. Therefore he was legally not in business. Therefore they could not enforce any laws. I felt this was a big pile of crap, and dealt with the Jackass myself. He packed up and left in a couple of day's. My suggestion is that when the bad neighbor moves, buy his house. Then you can control your neighborhood. I have one more property to get my hands on and I will be completely insulated from A-holes.
I'm not worried about him being violent... I don't like the guy at all (heard him screaming at his kids plenty times) so I'd have no problem laying him out, but that would do neither of us any good. But what will talking to him do? Either he doesn't realize he's pissing everyone off which is highly unlikely IMO, considering he's making a ton of noise for 5 weeks in a row, or he does realize and doesn't care. Even if he didn't realize, it doesn't mean he will stop - after all this is his business. More likely he will then know he's pissing everyone off and still do it, or do it less but still annoy. And in any of those scenarios, any further action will highlight me as "the guy" who had a beef with him. Nah, I am not going to just go talk to him. I will probably send the letter and also call the building inspector this week but not turn the guy in. If it happens again, I will call the building inspector and have them handle it. As for noise laws, I am sure we have them, but I think him doing it at whatever hours is based on the noise laws. And even considering noise laws, I don't think it's OK to just be as loud as you want all day on the weekends for several weeks in a row. Fish, I can appreciate your point of view but in the real world there are laws regarding what can and cannot be done. I am sure you would not want me running a tree service 50 yards from your home and doing it every weekend day for 5 weeks for 6-8 hours a day.
Great idea Wax (and others who suggested similar things). It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant some neighbors can be. I used to shut my garage door when I fired up my Vette (not what you think - I'd run it for 5 seconds to let the oil pressure build up after doing an oil change) after working on it because I'd get done at 9pm and I didnt want to bother the neighbors. I have a family next door who have guests over frequently but they always take it inside at 9pm and have asked if they are bothering me, and I tell him I appreciate that he cares and no it doesnt bother me. When he put in a new fence he came over and checked we were cool with his plans, etc, etc. Just a group of nice folk. When their dog comes in my yard I play with him and then take him back 'round. No hard feelings, no problems. But the other guy - Mr. 'neck is a real piece of work. ALWAYS doing something outside, always making noise, his dog and cat roam the neighborhood and crap everywhere, he has 50+ cardboard boxes piled up on his porch, put a nice silver chainlink fence in this nice neighborhood, house looks like crap - unpainted, falling apart, always 3-4 cars, one being worked on in the driveway and 2 on the grass, etc, etc. Rarely have words with the ****** guy, but the last time I did he asked me what I thought of 'spicks' moving in. It was my new next door neighbor, who is hispanic and a really nice guy. Dudes a doctor and I was partially amused that redneck boy thought that guy was bringing down the 'hood when he was the one with the ugliest, crappiest house and junk everywhere and the other guys house has manicured lawns, is 3 times the size, and generally is a very nice place.
Mike, true my argument was mor philosophical than practical, but I do prefer market solutions to legal solutions. Maybe, you could go into business as silent partner, rent him a place of business away from the neighborhood...make a few extra bucks and have an abundance of firewood for the Winter.
