Should I Blow the Whistle?

[TromboneAl]

I'm deciding whether or not to report a neighbor's code violation to the county. Here's the situation (see also http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/need-help-neighbor-dog-problem-50100.html and http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/dogs-power-outage-smoke-fire-grow-house-51237.html):

When we moved here 11 years ago, we had some nice, quiet, elderly neighbors. But they died a few years ago, and left their home to their four sons.




It turns out that they had built a mother-in-law house in the back without getting any permits. That fact scuttled a sale of the house that almost went through.

The son who lives in this area has been renting out the two houses, and has let them deteriorate. The roof leaks and the living room carpet has been removed, for example. It's a positive feedback situation, and the quality of the tenants has spiraled down, with the last crop being evicted after growing dope.

Here's the house in the back:




The son has been somewhat responsive to complaints by another neighbor and me.

I am considering calling the county code enforcement unit, and letting them know that the uninspected house is being rented out. I'd tell them that they have an opportunity to deal with it now before new tenants are found.

Advantages of Reporting It:

1. Neighbor might be forced to fix things up.
2. Neighbor might not be able to rent it, meaning 50% fewer [-]lowlifes[/-] people living next door.
3. House will be sellable if the situation is fixed.
4. It may help my other neighbor who is trying to sell his house.

Disadvantage of Reporting It:

Neighbor may realize that I reported him, and be less likely to cooperate with me if there are further problems.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Just wondering - would you think of buying it yourselves, either as an invest-repair-resell, or as a rental property? With mortgages in the 3.5% range it might be an opportunity for a definitive solution with you in the driver's seat.

 

[NW Landlady]

+1 - I agree with Rich!

I actually purchased the-house-next-door from a neighbor during a down market and it turned out to be a great investment/easily managed rental & the tenants couldn't misbehave, because I lived next door.

Personally, I wouldn't report a code violation unless it had gotten to a point of no return for me. I have reported drug activity in neighboring houses (to my rentals) before with good results. In our area you can give "anonymous" reports to police of Narcotics Activity and many times they will send in an undercover cop to purchase drugs & close the operation down. If I rent to a tenant who appears to be involved in such activity, I take a more direct approach...

I have had code violations called on rental houses in 2 separate unrelated properties and both times I knew EXACTLY who called it in and even told the code officer who it was. In one case it was a vindictive As*h*le who was just trying to harrass me because he did not like a neighboring rental property (Bonaparte Syndrome) that he himself had tried to purchase BTW. The "false" code violation report was easily disproved and dismissed. The guy also reported me to the state for L&I (workers compensation) violations (I had ad hoc workers fixing up the house). Such a nice person.

The other case happened just last month and was caused by my tenant, who is a nice hard working nuclear Samoan Family that has taken ownership of the house and planted flowers, trees, fencing & statuary...unfortunately they also put up a tent structure that attaches to the fence on the Property Line. Well the Neighborhood Ogre happens to live on the others side of the Line & since he is currently $$ broke and unemployed and unloved and has nothing better to do all day, it got reported.

Neither me or the Tenant are upset, but we definitely know who did it & maybe next time I will move the BIKER DEATH SQUAD DRUG DEALERS in so said Ogre/Neighbor will have something more constructive to worry about!

 

[TromboneAl]

Just wondering - would you think of buying it yourselves, either as an invest-repair-resell, or as a rental property? With mortgages in the 3.5% range it might be an opportunity for a definitive solution with you in the driver's seat.

Yes, that could be a good idea, but I don't want to add that kind of complexity into my life.

 

[Purron]

As you pointed out, it's likely your neighbor will know you called in the code violation. For this reason, I'd be inclined to talk to him about all the issues of concern to you and the neighborhood in general. You might even get some neighbors to talk to him too. I'd do it seperate though because otherwise it might seem like you're ganging up on him. He seemed responsive to the dog-barking, pot growing complaints, so you may get most positive results by being up front.

Plus, who wants the "biker death squad" moving in just because the owner is seeking relialiation to what they perceive to be harrasement

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I would let it go. Like NW Landlady says, he will know who turned him in. It is his property anyway.

If it really bothers you, confront him. Tell him your concerns and ask him what his plans are. Try to negotiate, but if you don't like those plans, tell him that you plan to turn him in. Why not be up front if he will know anyway?

 

[Nords]

I am considering calling the county code enforcement unit, and letting them know that the uninspected house is being rented out. I'd tell them that they have an opportunity to deal with it now before new tenants are found.

Disadvantage of Reporting It:
Neighbor may realize that I reported him, and be less likely to cooperate with me if there are further problems.

Thoughts?

You seem to be under the impression that the code cops are actually going to do something concrete and visible in response to your complaint.

The gulch behind our house is zoned agricultural. For the last 10 years, the owners have been operating (or leasing) activities like construction-equipment repairs & rentals as well as Oahu's largest [-]cockfighting[/-] rooster-breeding enthusiast's site. All of these have numerous code and permit violations, as well as criminal/drug activity. (It was interesting to watch the police chopper evade the power lines and other aerial obstacles to land the raid in the gulch's parking lot.) For the last four years the owners have been under "penalty" of $100/day and various other lien threats.

Other than a very sympathetic letter from the [-]wannabe governor[/-] mayor, it's hard to tell that anything has changed. We no longer expect the city/county authorities to be the agents of change. The gulch owners are able to figure out who complained in a heartbeat, but at least we used a petition containing over 80 signatures. Hopefully it's kinda hard to single out people for retribution from that document. I'm not sure you'd be able to use a similar tactic.

Now that your neighbor's property has been identified as a grow house, I think the better tactic would be anonymously keeping in touch with the police. But it's probably going to take a decade or more to achieve change. When I spoke to a local retired vice cop about our gulch he said the only thing likely to fix the problem was either forfeiture as a drug asset or purchase by the state as conservation land.

I can sympathize with buying the neighbor's houses just to eliminate the problems, let alone to profit from the rental income. But then I realized that the approach would not only tie up a lot of dead equity, it would also give me more neighbors...

 

[HarryL]

chill out

Forget about it and go for a nice long bike ride! You''ll feel much better.

 

[Bestwifeever]

I have an obnoxious neighbor who blames us for calling the city on his issues--and it was someone else who did it! So I say go ahead--maybe your neighbor will blame someone else.

 

[HFWR]

Forget about it and go for a nice long bike ride! You''ll feel much better.

Signed,

Your neighbor

 

[TromboneAl]

Oh, great, the poll stands at about 50/50 now. That's about where I stand as well.

I talked with the code person a few weeks ago, without identifying the property. He said that they wanted reports like this, because they wanted to avoid safety issues.

Perhaps I could call and say "Hi, this is the guy who just got evicted, and I'm blowing the whistle on the landlord..."

 

[Cattusbabe]

High fence? Worked for my parents trashy neighbor issue.

 

[Martha]

This is an interesting question.

The inability to know what will happen if you report makes me think reporting is too risky. Can they even resolve the permit issue? I'd try working with the neighbor first and reassess later.

 

[harley]

How about calling in from a pay phone (if they still have those where you are), and lying about your identity? I don't usually recommend lying, but this is the gov't we are talking about. What's good for the goose, and all that. If they ask why you are complaining, tell them the previous renter shorted you on your last ounce of weed, and you're pissed off.

 

[Purron]

Wow. It's now 50/50. Perhaps another strategy should be considered while the place is still vacant....

YouTube - Aliens Blow Up The White House

 

[KM]

Al,

I think your neighbor just voted a few times......

In all seriousness, though, I would say you should talk to him about your concerns and hear him out. Then tell him if you still have concerns at some point, you will have to call and report the property, as you feel it is impacting yours.

We have had a neighbor come over to yell at us because our dog got loose and scared his daughter. (Apparently said dog would jump over our fence and bark at his daughter when she got off the school bus. Then he would jump back over the fence and be sitting quietly in our back yard when we got home....)

We have had a neighbor call and report us anonymously (for our dog barking).

Needless to say we liked neighbor #1 a lot more....


(In other news, for obvious reasons, we also gave up on having dogs.)

 

[haha]

Al, your stories read like the "Perils of Pauline". Life is indeed hard out your way.

Ha

 

[audreyh1]

Al, your stories read like the "Perils of Pauline". Life is indeed hard out your way.

Ha

Yeah, but you should see the view! And it almost never gets hot.

Audrey

 

[Walt34]

How about calling in from a pay phone (if they still have those where you are), and lying about your identity? I don't usually recommend lying, but this is the gov't we are talking about. What's good for the goose, and all that. If they ask why you are complaining, tell them the previous renter shorted you on your last ounce of weed, and you're pissed off.

I like that idea. Nobody likes a dishonest thief.

 

[tryan]

Last time I got "dimed-out" by a neighbor I happened to be at the property when the inspector showed up. I happended to know the guy from 20 years of occupacy permit inspections.

I politely pointed out identical "issues" on the whisle blowers house (while addressing the issues on my own). Then asked the inspector to "return the favor" to my neighbor.

I received a VERY colorful phone message from my neighbor upon him receiving a ticket. I never received one (since I addressed it on the spot).

Never had another issue with that neighbor.

 

[TromboneAl]

Although the tenants were "out" and handed back the keys, they've been returning at night every few nights -- I think they are still getting stuff out. There was a LOT of pot growing things around. I stuck my head in the back house (the sliding door was open), and the smell was awful.

Anyway, I talked with the owner today as he was surveying the damage. He says that he is considering "giving it back to the bank." There was a reverse mortgage, and a lot is owed. It's a real mess, and hopefully it will be vacant for a while.

I'm not going to blow the whistle at this point based on the advice above. Thanks for the tips.

 

[Rambler]

High fence? Worked for my parents trashy neighbor issue.

There are regulations on fence height in most places in California...a high one would invite poor ol' T-Al's nasty neighbor to call the code cops on him...

R

 

[Emeritus]

I first taught Code enforcement in 1975 and wrote my first code manual in 1974. We trained people that if you get a report of a non life threatening violation e.g. unlawful MIL suite, you do an "eyeball check" of the whole neighborhood. You hand out a few flyers saying that a "periodic inspection" was coming. You then wait 3 days and send in the inspectors. You never say you got a report, its always a routine periodic check. You get much better cooperation. All violations you note go in the record and areused in the future to justify "periodic" inspections. Serious safety hazards, are of course a different item.
Oh, and you book "investigatory reports" not complaints.

 

[Orchidflower]

I would let it go. Like NW Landlady says, he will know who turned him in. It is his property anyway.

If it really bothers you, confront him. Tell him your concerns and ask him what his plans are. Try to negotiate, but if you don't like those plans, tell him that you plan to turn him in. Why not be up front if he will know anyway?

I have to ditto this by Ed the Gypsy. I tend to agree with his thinking here totally.
Thru life I've found it's just easier on my nerves if I don't avoid confrontations and am upfront about how I feel about issues. Just IMHO.