What would you do in this situation?

[Mill]

Here is the situation I am facing right now. I will make this short and to the point. My cousin and I started renting a new home in August of last year. For the most part things have been ok. We have had a lot of problems that irritated us such as utilities being accidental cut by contractors(who are employed by our landlords). At one point and time we have had all utilities cut except for gas. Our electricity has been cut at LEAST 10 times since we have lived here. The phone line has been cut or damaged several times as well. Cable is constantly going out because our line gets cut or they run over the box that distributes cable.

Now all of those are problems that were taken care of eventually... but sometimes we lost those services for a good while and it was very aggravating. This brings us to our current problem. Trucks doing construction have completely destroyed our back yard. It is a literal mud pit and all the grass is gone. We have made several calls to our landlord to get it taken care of, but so far no action has been taken.

Now with this current construction that is building a house not three feet from our own house(garden homes) we cannot sleep. The contractors arrive at 5AM and leave at about 5PM. Both of our bedroom windows is right next to the construction site. You can clearly make out what the workers or saying as well as them using freaking chainsaws, cement trucks, hammers, nuclear devices, etc to build the house next door.

My cousin works nights so he does not get in until 9AM. He normally sleeps until 5 or 6PM and then gets up to take care of whatever and then goes to work at 11PM. I have school from 2:30PM to 9:00PM. I normally get to bed around 3-6AM and get up around Noon to get ready for classes. The PROBLEM is we CANNOT sleep with all the construction going on. It is almost as if they are in our bedrooms. We have tried everything to reduce the noise in our rooms but now we are fed up.

Would it even make any sense to complain to the landlords? I don't see how they would stop construction for us or help us in anyway. Our neighbors on the other side of us are already moving out at the end of this month and they have only lived here for 3 months. They hear the noise as well yet our house separates them from it. We bear the brunt of all this construction noise and inconvenience.

I am totally pissed right now because I could not sleep at all last night. I went to bed at 3 and the construction started at about 5. It was so loud that I stayed in the bed tossing and turning for hours. These past two weeks have been a literal hell with trying to sleep.

What would you do? Would you break your lease and pay a penalty? Would you tough it out? Would you try to get out of the lease without a penalty due the construction and aggravation?

 

[rgwalt]

Well, I would first try to get out of the lease w/o penalty, but I doubt that would happen. Next, I would see how much the penalty is, and if you and your cousin can afford to eat the penalty, then do so. Otherwise, I would either stick it out or try to sublease the place. I know how annoying construction can be. For the most part there is nothing you can do about it. Try wearing a good set of earplugs to bed at night.

Ryan

 

[Mill]

BTW, I forgot to mention that in addition to a penalty you have to give 60 days notice.

 

[Mill]

^
A begging bump.

 

[vi edit]

There's really not much you can do. It's just the penaly of living in an up and coming sub division/area. The payoff is that the people living there will probably see some nice increase in resale value. But, since you are renting, you won't see a dime.

Sorry

I had road construction in my back yard for close to 8 months. They worked 24 hours a day moving dirt, pouring concrete, and cutting concrete. I had the power cut out 2 or 3 days a week, for an hour or two at a time, for three months while they relocated the utility poles and underground utility lines.

Not fun, but what can you do?

 

[dxkj]

I dont think Im allowed to blast my radio loud out the window at the neighbors house at 5am in the morning, and I think that if my dog was barking from 5am to 5pm every night the cops would have something to say about this.

Isnt there something in the laws about making an obscene amount of noise, IE disturbing your neighbors when they are trying to sleep (regardless of the time?)


I would talk to the police and ask them about it, or even a lawyer *lets face it, lawyer fees is a lot cheaper than most penalties)

 

[notfred]

move. Seriously, it's a lot less of a pain in the ass than anything else you can do.

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
There's really not much you can do. It's just the penaly of living in an up and coming sub division/area. The payoff is that the people living there will probably see some nice increase in resale value. But, since you are renting, you won't see a dime.

Sorry

I had road construction in my back yard for close to 8 months. They worked 24 hours a day moving dirt, pouring concrete, and cutting concrete. I had the power cut out 2 or 3 days a week, for an hour or two at a time, for three months while they relocated the utility poles and underground utility lines.

Not fun, but what can you do?

Yeah. It is all rentals so basically the only people who are bothered are those who live close to the construction. I guess there isn ot much we can do but move and break the lease. The question that remains is how to break the lease without a penalty or having to stay for 60 more days.

Alabama state law is silent except for the most basic outlines concerning renting a dwelling. Basically in the research I have done you are bound by the terms of your lease because state law doesn't care to say much.

 

[vi edit]

Well, one thing you can do is at least talk to your landlord and see if you guys can come to an agreement. See if he/she will let you pay for the advertisement costs of putting the ad in the paper to find new renters. If he can get new renters without loosing any rental income then I don't see there being *that* much of a problem.

It's worth a call. I'd be very considerate and let them know that it has nothing to do with the house itself or the management of the landlord.