Problems with the Neighbours - Need some advice

Can you give some advice, we moved into our rented apartment one year ago, so far this has happened.

• We have been asked not use our BBQ on the balcony due to the vegetarian upstairs.
• I am not allowed to smoke on the balcony as the lady upstairs leaves her windows open all year round.
• In our rental agreement we can park in the driveway, we have been told by the people downstairs that we can’t and they can not be held responsible for the children putting sand in our exhaust pipe.
• We have been asked by the people downstairs not to use the back garden even though it’s in our rental agreement. Even though the people above us held a party in it.

Till now we have said ok it doesn’t matter we are only here for 2 years and have been polite and done as the people have asked until now.

We got a dog around July (Also in rental agreement that we can have a small dog). Everyone in the building is ok with us having a dog, she isn’t a barker. The only problem is with the people that live over the road (that moved in 2 months ago). Our dog sometimes goes to the toilet on the balcony late at night or very early in the morning. We do pick up anything that is left behind and flush down the toilet and once a week disinfect the balcony and sweep and wash it all away down the drain. The people over the road have accused us of washing everything down the drain; also they say when we take the dog for a walk we don’t pick up after her (which we do). They say they can see her going to the toilet when they eat here dinner, well they must eat there dinner at really weird hours. They personally have not come over to talk to us about this, they have asked the people downstairs to talk to us, they did and we moved the BBQ so it would block there view of our balcony. Last night the Land lord called over saying he wanted to book an appointment with us to talk about the dog, saying that the people over the road have complained to them.

What can we do? I am so fed up with the people around this area, is it because we are not German (Although my husband is fluent in German plus his parents are German, and are actually from this area) Please can you give us some advice?

Oh dear, sounds like a nice lot round your way!,
Heres a link, its in german, but as you say your man speaks german, should`nt be a prob.
Its all about the laws of using your balcony as a rent paying tenant

rights

Hi

had a look at the website and translated it, I will pass it on to my husband. Thank you for your reply.

sorry the above was not the whole link, here is the whole link

rights

First of all...if none of the above is in your Rental contract then you can use the BBQ and smoke on the balcony for as long as you want.

Second...if the use of the garden is in your contract then go and use it. It´s not up to the neighbours to decide who uses it and who doesn´t.

Ref. the Dog doing the toilet on the Balcony...they might have a case there. I´m afraid you have to go GASSI instead from now on.

Might not be a bad Idea for the Landlord to come around to see you. Mention to him the other RESTRICTIONS that your Neighbours laid upon you. And agree to take the dog out from now on, at least that way you can keep him.

To be honest...dont let them mess you around like this. I think you went along with their wishes for long enough. Start telling them to sod off and you will find that they wont mess you around anymore.

If all fails...take the Rental agreement to a solicitor and tell him what´s going on...might be good for you to find out about your rights.

Oh my goodness, you poor things.

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice on what you can do legally from the others here - I just wanted to say I really sympathise and hope that things do work out ok. It does sound as though you've got every right to be doing what you do.

Our last flat, which we rented before buying this one, had tiny roads in front and behind it and the houses opposite our flat on both roads belonged to the same people. We only found out later, but it seemed they had made a bid for the house our flat was in and had not got it, and so they proceeded to make our life absolute hell. They did everything they could to make living there as unpleasant as possible - only small things, and we actually were in the "right" on all of them, but in the end we just hated living there and moved.

I hope you can resolve your problems without such drastic action, but at least as you're renting the option to move is there!

The best of luck to you.

Thank you again. Jaygee. I am so mad with the people around here, they have really made my experience here a bad one. I have only really tolld you half the story. We just got married in September and have been asked to not #### as our bed makes noises. I have been told off by the land lady for not washing the wood floors even though the carpenter who was putting them in told me to wash them once a year ( I do sweep and get rid of any noticable marks). I have been told of for the noise ofthe washing machine, I never put washing on after 3pm so it woud finsh around 5pm. And so on and so on!! aaaaaggghhh

I would love...just the once to live in a house like that

I´d have a field day with that lot...ask my last neighbour she can vouch for that.

OMG I think many of us have been there. One question I have are the other tennants renting or have they bought the flats they live in?

Me too Mickey, it came to the cops being called one day. The guy that always complained was an ex-copper. Veela came home one day and found me shouting at two coppers in MY flat trying to tell me to shut up.. hihi
It started the time we moved in, One weekend we were decorating and had a yellow rubbish bag on the balcony with wallpaper bits in, Veela even tied it so it couldnt blow away. Anyway we woke up the sunday morning to the noise of the guy upstairs shouting over the balcony. Well he called us every name under the sun because we 'collected' rubbish on our balcony.. hahaha

this went on and on and on. When we put our BBQ on the balcony i had to video it because he used to spit on it!

Bellesparkes I really feel for you and know what you are going through.

I think your right, we have just tried so hard to get along with everyone, i.e. inviting them to social events, when ever I have baked anything I will always bake extra for the kids downstairs. To be honest in away I hope they do ask us to leave as I just hate living here now, but also I don't want them to win. My husband deploys soon and I will be here on my own. I am so pissed off and fed up.

Everyone rents there apartments

Ok we had this trouble in a block of 12 flats where only two were rented (both to brit) the rest owned the flats. So they naturally thought they had more rights than us..

What a shame...maybe it would be a good idea to move. If you left on your own then it will be even harder to cope with these Ar@eholes.

On second thought...stay and show them what you made off.

not really much you can do, wait til the landlord comes round and see what he has to say..

The thing is our apartment is so perfect, we are near the centre of Heidelberg, we have a market outside our front door Mondays and Thursdays plus makes it even better 2 kebab shops. I think what would be an idea Mickey is to teach the dog to bark on command!!! and every time we see the people over the road at there window let the dog out and shout bark bark!!! Bastards

you hit the nail right on the head

When your landlord comes, go on the offensive. Tell him you feel "mobbed", that you are suffering psychologically because of it, and that if you get any more ridiculous complaints you will not pay all your rent. Tell him you are Jewish and get the impression that this is reason why they are all out to get you. That you are currently in contact with your solicitor to decide how to take the matter further. He'll soon be on your side...

And if that fails, give up, move out. Life is too short to spend it within the same building as a group of pig-headed, intolerant, self-important, miserable whinge-bags.

Where should you sleep then?

seriously though, DON`T GIVE UP! give as good as you get, everyone likes to pick on the weak (quiet ones) sort out legally and put into practice what you can and can`t do, and get that landlord round. be nice but prepared. ain`t that the cub scout motto?

As with the above quote, thats one problem solved when hubbie is deployed a?

I can't say I'm Jewish, but I will deffinatly take your other advice into account. On the positive side I am going back to England for 3 days, My house is next to a lovely old lady. So very excited! just not looking forward to coming back and dealing with them, but I will be full of proper bacon and lots of good old Flowers Ale. Ready for the attack Brits vs Germans!! a little mini world war 3

The other thing is I am really bad sleeper and I will get u at 3 -4 am and make something to eat, have a drink and maybe watch a little tv or read for anhour. The thing is all I think about is am i making to much noise, should I flush the toilet this late and so on. AAAaaaahhhhh bloody people we have not put our noses into there busiess, why put there little german noses into mine. I really can't wait to move and have a house where its only us. I will never ever again live in an apartment.

There does appear to be a bit of intolerance to Auslanders where we are. and our area is convenient, immediate neighbours are generally nice but .in the neighbourhood for instance.

German kids run around in little gangs till 11 at night, playing high IQ games such as "throw stones at the lamp post", blind eye turned, making a racket.

One of my kids seen bouncing a ball on a sunday on the way to tram stop, cue the zimmer powered stick waving regulation control and enforcement posse to intercept and demand an end to this affront to humanity.

German neighbours put bottles in bottlebank on saturday:

Wife seen on way to Bottlebank on saturday, cue the zimmer powered stick waving regulation control and enforcement posse to intercept and demand an end to this affront to humanity.

Sunday morning and saturday morning 7 a.m. some days, and its bash bash, drill drill, if there is an implement in their house which can make these sounds, then it is utilised.

Thursday night, 9 O clock, and had to bash a nail into a cupboard, 60 seconds and the front doors being bashed in from angry neighbours, open it to save it from more punishment and then came the question

"Why do you wait until we are watching t.v. and then start bashing things?, why do you do this to us?

From where we are there does seem to be two sets of rules, the police unfortuneately aint much better in being fair.

unfortuneately aint much better in being fair.

Rephrase that, unfortuneately are crap.

Sounds bloody horrible there, it really can be a pain in rented places here.


Be careful with quotes like that Mickey, as far as the law sees it you cannot BBQ on your balcony as much as you like, see previous links. (basically stating that you are very restricted to how often you can grill)

All this is one of the reasons we decided to get a place of our own, couldn't be doing with stress like this.
It turns out we now have far more stress with a place of our own, and who knows what the neighbours will be like here.

As for going to the toilet in the middle of the night, I seem to recall that that is also governed by law

They just truly and utterly suck. Next time you complain, the people above us, are the same they do washing on a Sunday and bang about, but we daren't as I am sure they would soon complain. It’s just not worth it.

ah yes washing,good reminder.

less lines than residents in the block, in an ideal world no-one would be so bloody rude as to use more than one would would they?

ahh not in our place, sometimes we find our washing has been moved up to one end, so some greedy git can have two and 1/2 lines.

Theres no point arguing with these people.

Just walk around with a big Grin on oyur face and high spirits whenever they get knocked out of a football tournament.
yeah i know, little things please ...

Could this help. I am not very good with this kind if stuff

http://europa.eu.int/youreurope/nav/en/cit...onality/en.html

from that mietrecht site from jaygee has lots of interesting info.

We've had similar problems and there are several ways of dealing with it.

First off, get a lawyer or join a renters association and find out what your rights are, if you have legal insurance it may be covered. If the neighbours are violating your rights stop or reduce the rent, that is your legal right. That should get your landlords attention very quickly

Secondly once you know your rights insist on enforcing them, Germans are very forth right and respect people with backbones! If your a wimp they will walk all over you!

Thirdly depending on your personality, Screw Them!. We had a neighbour that drove a huge Mercedes and insisted that no one park anywhere near his drive way, well I laughed and told him to buy a smart car, after that I parked were I felt like and if he knocked on the door I didn't answer, he got the message pretty quick. to be fair, if I could, I wouldn't park across from his driveway, but I wouldn't walk around the block.

We also have a dog and I am forever seeing this signs (as we travel allot) saying "KEIN HUNDE TOLIET", well I ignore them my rule is, if there is grass she can pee, if its where people walk I pick up. If they complain I say sorry nur English. I just don't care, its not my problem. I do make an effort to direct her to more suitable spots but I'm not going to walk 3 blocks to the woods cause the idoit neighbour doesn't like it.

Fourthly Ignore them, the lady below us complains every time we might the slightest noise, so I've made an effort to be quieter (I'm a bull in a china shop) and if she complains I ignore her, I refuse to answer the door etc.

Generally speaking where I can I will be respectfully of the neighbours, I have on occasion turned off the washing machine at night (choose the wrong setting) because someone complained, and but it it was 10 pm at night. So the clothes sat in water over night. If she had complained during the day I would have shurgged my shoulders and shut the door.

From what I've read you doing nothing wrong, if they don't like it they can move. If the neighbour knocks on your door to complain don't answer it. I got read the riot act by Wifey (who is very German) for answering the door every time the neighbour complained, now when she knocks I refuse to answer the door, and she got the message pretty quick.

If you get nothing else out of this get this, ignore them, they will eventually give up!

I wanted to add this as a separate post.

Since you are planning on moving in 2 years let me give you a word of advice, German landlords are Nestorius for taking advantage of Auslanders when they move out. When you give your notice tell him that he can keep the kaution in lieu of the last two or three months rent. Unless of course you feel like making a donation to his well being, because you won't get it back.

Secondly if you contract requires you to paint the place when you leave get legal advice as the rules have changed and you don't have to paint anymore.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

if you cant beat them join them, complain about everything they do wrong. make notes of dates and times.

not true i have always got mine back!!

We got ours back immediately last time, as soon as we had given the keys back, cash in hand.
Was well chuffed, as we didn't need any more stress at that point (Though neither did the landlord as he came out of hospital the week before)

just look at this 18 people here..

Exactly ... hit your landlord with that and get him on your side to shut the bastard neighbours up.

I noticed Bbulldog, I have never had so many people joining in on my little discussions. SO THANK YOU everyone for giving me advice and just bein so friendly. You have cheeered me up.

I am going to stand up for myself. I have decided I am going to start a little note book wth everything that happens so i can show the land lord or use if things get nasty. I am not going to be so bloody nice and polite.

when you move out, take pictures of all the rooms, all the fittings close up, get someone to go through with you. On the final date when you hand in your keys, ie. with the landlord get them to sign a chit to say that everything is ok. If he refuses then tell him it is ok by you as you have photo's of everything and that you had a witness with you.
I would also not let on that you are leaving the country.
and dont forget the big one, you get the Kaution plus interest back!!!

Just so I can get this of my chest, bastards, shitheads, f@@kfaces, and the bad one c u next Tuesday.
Much better

I agree most people get the deposit back, and you only hear about the ones that don't.


Not answering the door works wonders, if they catch outside, just walk away, if they are really serious about complaining they will have to get a lawyer involved and if its within your rights they can't do anything.

Also keep a record of what rules they violate so you can complain about them.

You don't want to get in a pissing match with the neighbours but at the same time you don't want to be walked all over, I find just ignoring them usually works best. Also perhaps make a few small changes like not smoking on the balcony or something like that. We used to feed birds but it shit up the peoples below balcony some awful, as much as I liked the birds, I did remove it. That was fair.

THM

BTW from some of the horror stories I've heard its no better in England even at times far worse because the rules aren't clear.

Will do, we did actually take photos of everything when we moved in, as they left loads of antique furniture. I wrote down on the back all watermarks, scratches and dents!. As my partner is in the forces we got the housing department on base to keep the documents and the landlord signed documents with all the details of the furniture.

he does only have to give the kaution back within 3 months usually

That is if the children cal leave their game boys alone for five minutes to go and play outside!

Hmm I am sure I woud have had more than a clip around the ear if I'd put sand in the neighbours exhaust pipe when I was a child! My parents could certainly make sure I didn't do it again!

I stopped smoking on the balcony as soon as they asked me. My husband is a non smoker and I hate it when I can smell smoke in the house, so I can understand that. So know I smoke in the conservatory and stand near the window and have hundreds of smelly crap in there.

True Purple Muffin, I picked some flowers of a neighbors front garden when I was 5 and my mum called the village policeman and that scared me enough.

we didn't get our Kaution back last move. We felt it looked really cool after we cleaned it up, spent a week each:

But...

Landlord cheated, he hired some staff from C.S.I. for a day, they turned the place over checking for damage which we caused.

Having seen Dallas so many years ago with relations turning you never knew you had, this was the sequel but with twist, the damage you caused which you did not know you had done.

Dents in walls,f...king oven tray was not clean enough, the cooker they got back was cleaner than we got it, but nope, not good enough.

So having being given a list of problems with more entries than Chins in a chinese telephone directory, we ended up paying more.

and then to top it all, we were sent a personal letter from them from their bottom of their heart at the end, ending in

"in spite of all the problems and damage we wish all the best in the future"

i was going to reply, but not prepared to pay 50 cent on a postage stamp just for two words "F...k y.."

this time round i got legal insurance, for close encounters

Would that be a good idea hiring someone to clean here. Has anyone ever done that? I do try my hardest to keep that place spotless, as i don't work i don't have much else to do

yeah but this sounds more like a threat!

Hire someone about 7 foot tall built like a brick ***** unshaven, machine gun in one hand, jungle knife in the other, chewing a cigar, with a nervous twitch and wearing a bullet belt (the big guy who was in the wild bunch would do) Have him there when the inspection comes.

Tell your landlord, any problems, speak to your cleaner.

@thm
Do I take it then that you would park across his drive if there was no other convenient place, saving you a few minutes walk ...

It gets worse

Here a response from a potential "idiot neighbour" ... next time I am caught short near your house, to save me walking too far, I'll crap on your garden .. not where you walk mind. How would you like that?

It's people like you that are the reason I am considering putting rat poison down on my garden to once and for all stop the c**ts letting their dogs sh1t on MY LAND!!!

Consider maaph's cage well and truly rattled!!!

I think that could work, I will keep it in mind @ Rustic_Cockney

Maaph, I already have done !!!
Before, all of the cats and dogs pissed on my fence. The smell just got awful. After one dog pissed on the fencepost, along came another and pissed on it again. A bit of Rat poisen or "Buttersäure" did the trick. now the dogs go and piss on someone elses Garden. They run up to "their" spot - stick their nose to it, and they are gone as quick as they came.
How would you like it if People would pee in front of your flat door all the time ??? Just because its a randy pooch, there is no difference. :excl:
Take doggy into the forest for GASSI or even better still: Toilet train it.
Maaph - Lets get together and have a good dump on his doorstep. Maybe he'll understand that ...That would be in plain english...