What is landlord's responsibility for mentally ill tena

[loggia]

I have a neighbor that makes chronic false complaints to 311 about noise. The police come to my door late at night and wake me up. This has happened more than a dozen times.

This isn't much of a he said/she said. Security in my building, the landlord and many other tenants are all on the record that the complaints are false and the woman is probably mentally ill. Even most of the police that come feel the woman is mentally ill.

But the police have not been much help. They say they must come everytime a complaint is made. They refuse to investigate my documentation. I found one police sergeant who has tried to help. We tried to get the woman to meet with the mobile crisis unit, but she refused. He recommended a number of other solutions and it seems no one else in the precinct wants to be bothered. They basically said exactly that. I wrote to the commanding officer of the precinct and have yet to hear back.

I have two questions:

(1) What is the landlord's responsibility? I have heard that the landlord must protect my right to "quiet enjoyment" of my apartment. Thus far, the landlord has been completely unresponsive. What is the landlord supposed to do? How do I force the landlord to do it?

(2) What are my other options? Thus far, I have tried to work with the police and getting the woman mental help. Both those avenues have resulted in dead ends.

[HardKnocks]

In my experience, landlords will do nothing about anything as long as the offender pays the rent on time.

[mbrenner]

It may cost money, but maybe you should consult a lawyer and have HIM WRITE THE LANDLORD. Sometimes they listen to lawyers more than to us mere mortals. There may be some legal avenues a lawyer can suggest...

[HardKnocks]

I have a loony living above me... for instance, last night she woke me up at 2 (as usual) with her stomping, furniture-moving and drawer-slamming that went on until 2:30. Then I was wide awake until after 3, finally fell back asleep and then she was up again at 4:55 for good. This is standard procedure every night with her. I'm so tired every day I can hardly do my job.

She appears to have some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder (keeping insane hours, constantly rearranging the furniture even in the middle of the night, vacuuming the same room over and over for four hours at a time, etc.) and I've finally written to the landlord today. I'll let you know what happens. Probably nothing.

[mbgolds]

I live above a "crazy lady" although she looks completely sane. She used to complain to the landlord and the super (he lives in our building). The super came to my apartment to check the floors several times and I had to carpet it, I even carpeted the hallway. He tried to blame the "banging on the floor" to my 8yr old dog who does nothing but sleep, eat, and go for walks. He sleeps in bed with me so I know he's not running around in the middle of the night. I even locked my cats in a huge dog crate at night in case their 2lb paws make any noise.

She finally called the police one night saying that I was moving furniture or something of the like. They came to my door and I was in the PJ's. Well, she hasn't complained since. HOWEVER, I did mention that I was going to bring a HARRASSMENT complaint against her because I couldn't "peacefully enjoy my apartment" because I felt like I had to tip-toe around or she'd call the police on me again. So, I'd suggest threatening to bring a harrassment complaint against her. I mentioned it to my landlord and my super and I have the feeling that it somehow got to her.

Good luck!

[HardKnocks]

No, mine is really doing it. The first few days I lived here, she was away... and I didn't hear a sound from up there. The second she came home, there was no mistaking it. And I haven't slept since.

Last night she let me go to sleep at 1, had me up again at 3:30 (doing God knows what) and then for good at 5. She even wears shoes at 5 am. Unreal. It goes on until 7 when she leaves for work, then it's too late to go back to sleep and I'm left exhausted and headachy from the constant broken sleep. Then of course I have to work a full day like that. And so it goes all week long.

Right now my boss and I are at odds because my job performance has suffered so much since I moved that I'm close to useless at work. He's trying to pressure me to MOVE AGAIN, which as you can imagine, is causing a lot of tension every day. I don't blame him. I'm practically delirious from lack of sleep, I can't concentrate and I'm making huge mistakes. This whole situation sucks and there should be some remedy available for those of us being victimized like this.

[too trusting]

Originally posted by loggia:
I have a neighbor that makes chronic false complaints to 311 about noise. The police come to my door late at night and wake me up. This has happened more than a dozen times.

This isn't much of a he said/she said. Security in my building, the landlord and many other tenants are all on the record that the complaints are false and the woman is probably mentally ill. Even most of the police that come feel the woman is mentally ill.

But the police have not been much help. They say they must come everytime a complaint is made. They refuse to investigate my documentation. I found one police sergeant who has tried to help. We tried to get the woman to meet with the mobile crisis unit, but she refused. He recommended a number of other solutions and it seems no one else in the precinct wants to be bothered. They basically said exactly that. I wrote to the commanding officer of the precinct and have yet to hear back.

I have two questions:

(1) What is the landlord's responsibility? I have heard that the landlord must protect my right to "quiet enjoyment" of my apartment. Thus far, the landlord has been completely unresponsive. What is the landlord supposed to do? How do I force the landlord to do it?

(2) What are my other options? Thus far, I have tried to work with the police and getting the woman mental help. Both those avenues have resulted in dead ends.

Ask the police if you can file harassment charges against her. If they've come to your apt and didn't hear any noise and obviously woke you up I would think you'd have a case against her.

[HardKnocks]

My downstairs neighbor (in my old building) came knocking on my door a few years ago at around 11:00pm. I had just fallen asleep and I woke up like "Is that the doorbell? It can't be. I must be dreaming." But it kept on ringing so I stumbled to the door.

This miserable woman looks at me and says "I KNOW what you're doing in there, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop." Still half-dazed, I said "I was SLEEPING." She goes "Oh, so what are you doing, jumping jacks in your sleep?" I KNOW what you're doing and it's ing. Please stop."

It took me a minute to realize what she was insinuating and I was furious. Even if I WAS having sex, do I not have a right to do so? And did she really have the right to tell me to stop?

The funniest thing was that as I was drifting off to sleep, I had heard "banging headboard" noises too. And I assumed it was HER! Yet it never occurred to me for a minute to go down there and ask her to stop. How absurd.

[too trusting]

Originally posted by Bleary-eyed tenant:
My downstairs neighbor (in my old building) came knocking on my door a few years ago at around 11:00pm. I had just fallen asleep and I woke up like "Is that the doorbell? It can't be. I must be dreaming." But it kept on ringing so I stumbled to the door.

This miserable woman looks at me and says "I KNOW what you're doing in there, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop." Still half-dazed, I said "I was SLEEPING." She goes "Oh, so what are you doing, jumping jacks in your sleep?" I KNOW what you're doing and it's ing. Please stop."

It took me a minute to realize what she was insinuating and I was furious. Even if I WAS having sex, do I not have a right to do so? And did she really have the right to tell me to stop?

The funniest thing was that as I was drifting off to sleep, I had heard "banging headboard" noises too. And I assumed it was HER! Yet it never occurred to me for a minute to go down there and ask her to stop. How absurd.

What a nutcase. You know you don't have to talk to her and if she does that again tell her you will call the police if she harasses you again.

Maybe the headboard banging was coming from another apt. how funny.

[loggia]

Ask the police if you can file harassment charges against her. If they've come to your apt and didn't hear any noise and obviously woke you up I would think you'd have a case against her.

Yeah, I have filed multiple harassment complaints against her. The precinct immediately "closes them out." Read: they do not do anything. I even filed an aggravated harassment complaint since they must follow this up. The detective called me, yelled at me and said he was not going to do anything. Apparently it is such a minor offense they do not want to waste their time on it.

[Cranky Tenant]

Originally posted by Bleary-eyed tenant:
My downstairs neighbor (in my old building) came knocking on my door a few years ago at around 11:00pm. I had just fallen asleep and I woke up like "Is that the doorbell? It can't be. I must be dreaming." But it kept on ringing so I stumbled to the door.

This miserable woman looks at me and says "I KNOW what you're doing in there, and I'd appreciate it if you'd stop." Still half-dazed, I said "I was SLEEPING." She goes "Oh, so what are you doing, jumping jacks in your sleep?" I KNOW what you're doing and it's ing. Please stop."

It took me a minute to realize what she was insinuating and I was furious. Even if I WAS having sex, do I not have a right to do so? And did she really have the right to tell me to stop?

The funniest thing was that as I was drifting off to sleep, I had heard "banging headboard" noises too. And I assumed it was HER! Yet it never occurred to me for a minute to go down there and ask her to stop. How absurd.

I also have a neighbor who has extremely loud sex in the afternoon. It's not too bad during the winter, when the windows are closed but, there's noting like having guests over on summer Sunday afternoon and having your conversations inturupted by somebody else's orgasm.

Yeah I think we all have the right to have sex in the privacy of our own homes, as long as we keep it private.