This is what landlords are for.

mrsconn23

Dear Prudence,

I rent half of a duplex and never had a problem with my neighbors until now. The kids next door run wild from sun up until sun down screaming their heads off. Half the time they sound like someone is murdering them. I can hear them in every room of my house. Worse, they love to torment my dogs. They will come over and bang on the sliding glass door to get them barking. I work nights. I am losing sleep over this. I have already confronted their mother and asked politely to keep her kids on her side and for them to leave my dogs alone. First, she denied it was her kids, so I showed her the video from my security system. Then she made the excuse that her kids were just “playing.” I told her that the kids need to play in their yard, not mine, and to stop trespassing. Or I would go to the landlord. She started to scream at me. At this, I went back inside. I really don’t want to escalate or be a problem, but I don’t see any other way out.

—Losing Sleep

charlotte989875

Keep the video up and send it to the landlord. During the day you can’t expect it to be silent but you can expect reasonable noise levels and absolutely don’t need to tolerate them in your yard or terrorizing the dogs. Don’t engage with your neighbor but send everything to your landlord. 

banana468

I think it's why you go to the landlord.  Tell them that you're understanding that kids will be kids but if you're allowed to have your pets you trust that the tenants and their children will stick to their property without tormenting.

mrsconn23

The screaming bloody murder all day, every day, would send me to the landlord.  The rest of it is just ammo to put the nails in the coffin.  

LW has let this go on far too long and tried to go to the neighbor.  That crashed and burned. So off to the landlord, I say.  

This is also the second letter we've seen recently about single people that live in a duplex next to people with kids where there are major issues with boundaries.  Ugh.   

short+sassy

Whelp.  Unfortunately, I'm the landlady who has been there, done that.

The video evidence is key.  Get it for more multiple days.  If it doesn't have audio, get multiple days of audio evidence also.

However, here's the suck part.  Even in the best case scenario, there's nothing a landlord can do very quickly.  They can post a Cure or Quit notice on the door.  But people live the way they live.  It's exceedingly unlikely a piece of paper is going to correct a problem like this.

Now they need evidence AFTER the Cure or Quit notice as expired that the tenants are still not complying.  Great, the LW supplies the LL with that.

Next the LL needs to file for an eviction.  If the LW is super lucky and lives in place like NOLA, eviction cases are scheduled fairly quickly.  Only 4-6 WEEKS.  But in many places you are looking at 4-6 MONTHS.  And then the LL needs enough evidence to win and take back possession.

And that's the best case scenario, because the LL is trying to help and make it right.

But they don't have to.  It's expensive and a giant PITA to evict people.  No one is required to file an eviction because the other tenant is unhappy.

In that case, the LW could break their lease without penalty because they no longer have "quiet enjoyment" of the property.  Even safer if they at least give a 30-Day notice.  But to do it without penalty and not have a hassle, the LL would have to agree with them.  If not, then the LW would have to take them to small claims court and prove to a court that they had grounds to break their lease.

MyNameIsNot

I'd be more inclined to use the police non-emergency line if a bunch of unsupervised children were continually banging on my door after they'd been repeatedly asked to stay off my property. Or start raising honeybees.