Need advice. They smoke inside, leave dog shit, and talk shit!
I live in a house turned apartments (3). My first set of neighbors is fine, but the new neighbors aren’t and idk how to address it anymore.
We all share utility bills split in equal 4 parts (3 units and the landlord. Since we all share one meter, he charges a little extra in rent and uses that money for mostly the electricity bill, and to help cover whenever any of the tenants are short on money and need some time to pay for that month’s bill or we need emergency heating oil) and a heating system that is always between 60-65° (60 during the night, typically 63 during the day, and when it’s particularly cold outside, 65°. It helps us conserve oil, especially now that it’s so expensive).
Things were always great until the new neighbors moved in two months ago. First it was the smell of weed and we ignored it for a bit but brought it up a few weeks ago once we noticed it wasn’t getting any better. We let them know that the smell goes through the system and it bothers me and the other tenants who have asthma. They said they’d stop and put filters in their vents but the contract clearly states “no smoking, vaping, etc, indoors” or any drug for that matter. The it was dog shit! They have dogs that shit on a shared yard and both partners dragged shit in because we didn’t see the shit and expected them to pick it up as their contract states. The rest of us don’t have pets right now, but I had pets in the past and I would pick up their shit every time my dogs went out to poop. If they were out in the yard for a long time, I’d make sure I checked and picked up everything I saw before sundown. If I missed any, and anyone would bring it up, I never felt angry about it, I just apologized and picked it up. These guys get mad every time we tell them we dragged shit into our apartments or car because they didn’t pick it up. They told me and the other unit that they came out twice a day to pick up shit, and they told the landlord the picked it up two to three times a week, so which is it? And the other people that live here work and study from home and said they never saw them picking up dog shit until I put up cameras about two weeks ago (I had some animal eating my veggies last year and I want to know what it is if it happens again. I have ring censoring whatever area is close to their doors because idc what they do in there so I really don’t know if they come out unless they come anywhere near my door/veggies. It’s literally a black square on the live stream and recording). Then it was the electricity bill. It was $850 for las month!!! When the other unit and I were by ourselves, it came at $324 during winter months. We don’t use lights unless necessary and have done everything we can to lower the cost of our utilities over the last few years. We found out they have an electric heater set to 75° (that’s what they told me) because they have snakes and geckos, yet dared to complain to us and the landlord saying they were hot and had to open the windows and be shirtless inside their apartment. They even asked us to lower the temperature… but we kinda ignored it bc the rest of use use hoodies and blankets whenever we are home
The landlord came to address everything. He first yelled at me and the other people about the smell of weed when he came (we hadn’t told him bc we don’t want to be snitches) and we told them it’s not us, that it must be them. He also brought up the electricity bill with us and said he’s confused because it was never this expensive even when he had different people living in that third unit.
He talked to the new guys today and relayed information back to us.
They said they don’t smoke inside, just in the bedroom. I went to address the smell some days ago and they told me that they were going to get HEPA filters for the return vents to help with the smell. One of them told the other to start smoking inside the bedroom with the door closed so that it wouldn’t get to our side from the kitchen/living room vents (only vents we share with that apartment).
They said the bill must be high because of the people that work and study from home because they both work 8-9 hours a day, 5-6 days a week but that’s not true because one of them is always home (we either hear them, or see their car here)
They pick up dog shit every few days but it wasn’t until I put up cameras that they started coming out almost daily and they still miss a good part of it
The landlord is thinking about how to deal with it and catch them in the act. He knows that 2 of the units are in tough financial situations and always pay him on time but don’t have much to spare. He also has known us and trusted us for a while and we’ve never had issues with him. He also doesn’t want to have liars who don’t care about the contract or agreements causing problems. So how would you deal with this if you were the tenants?