My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Indiana
I live in a complex that is managed by an out-of-state property management group. The dwellings are town houses that are connected by each unit's garage. Each dwelling has it's own driveway, yard, and definitive property line. The driveway is not shared, and is not addressed in the lease as being communal property. The neighborhood has no street lights, only flood lights above each garage. The neighbors I'll be referring to have lived in the attached unit next to me for approximately 2 years. The family is a grandmother, a mother, and her two kids.
The problems began in July. The mother began cursing at my children, calling them f----- brats. This was completely unprovoked; my kids were just playing outside. My husband had words with the woman and I emailed property management just so they could be aware of the altercation. The neighbor also spoke to property management, giving them a completely fictitious variation of the event that transpired. Because of this, I installed security cameras so that I would no be subject to a "he said, she said" game.
The neighbor then told other tenants in the neighborhood that we were pedophiles and had installed security cameras to watch the children. The mother also told the other tenants we were taking lewd photos of her children in their bathing suits (not true) and began yelling at us about being "perverts" anytime we were outside. We had several neighbors approach us about it, and we had to explain the situation. Luckily (or maybe not so), we aren't the only ones who have had issues with these neighbors and everyone understood. We filed a police report and also emailed property management. Property management did nothing.
The harassment next door continued to escalate. They would throw trash in my driveway and at my car. They spit on my car. They constantly flipped my children off. The mother and grandmother would call my kids various names like "dumb-sses, retards, stupid, devil children". The mother encouraged her kids to play in my driveway and my yard which prevented my children from accessing the area. The kids purposefully threw balls directly at our cars. The young daughter threatened violence against my children. The mother would lay on her car horn anytime she entered or exited her driveway. The mother even went as far as to attempt to intimidate the other neighborhood children into not playing with my children or they would suffer consequences. All of this unprovoked.
I had told my children to ignore everything and that eventually the neighbors would get bored and stop. My husband and I had several verbal confrontations with this woman, which would always end in her flipping us off and going inside. I emailed property management several times about the harassment, citing Indiana state law regarding tenants' property rights and clauses in the lease that state we have right to quiet enjoyment of our home and that other tenants were not to intimidate, threaten, or harass the other tenants. I provided clear video evidence of the incidents. This fell on deaf ears and property management did nothing. In fact, they encouraged the behavior by telling the woman that our private property was actually community property and they had every right to play in our driveway and in our yard.
This went on until the beginning of October. I had had enough of this family's actions and would no longer allow my children to be victims of bullies who are grown adults. I told them I didn't care if they retaliated. This only escalated the situation, which I had anticipated, but I would not allow my children to be victims any longer. The family was now ridiculing my family for being atheists and leaving bibles on our porch. I continued to complain to property management, whose only response was that after talking to the woman next door, the entire thing has been mutual the entire time, and that they would allow me to vacate my lease without penalty if I responded within 30 days. So effectively, we won't deal with them problem but will allow you to leave if you'd like.
This brings us to the incident that occurred the other night. The neighbor had the maintenance man disable her floodlight in an attempt to circumvent our security cameras. LOL, because my cameras have night vision. It didn't bother me, it's her property to do with as she pleases. However, she then began moving my flood light and pointing it down so that it no longer illuminated my driveway and my cars. Each time, my husband would go back outside and reposition the light. This went on for several nights until we became irritated. We saw on the camera that she was attempting to move our light again, and my husband went outside with an air horn and told her to get her hands off our light. She screamed several obscenities at him, moved the light anyways, and then knocked our trash cans over, scratching my car. All of this was on video, and I promptly called the police. The police came out, we showed them the video, and she told them property management had told her she had the right to move our light. She apologized for the scratch, saying she didn't intend to hit our car, and agreed to pay damages. The police officer schooled her in Indiana State law, and reiterated the fact that this is our property, for all intents and purposes we own it, and she was not to trespass or vandalize our property. This incident hasn't been forwarded to property management yet because I'm unsure of my next actions.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. My question: Because of property management's failure to act, we are attempting to purchase a house and give property management our notice by the deadline (unbeknownst to them at this time). Do I have any legal recourse against the property management company for essentially forcing us to leave? The property management company provided false information to the family next door in regards to tenants' property rights and willfully allowed them to trespass and vandalize our property, as well as failed to provide our right to quiet enjoyment. They were provided clear, unaltered, video evidence of everything and refused to address the situation.
I welcome any input as I'm so close to the situation that I'm afraid I may not be able to accurately assess the severity of the situation from a court's POV.
Thanks again for reading.
I live in a complex that is managed by an out-of-state property management group. The dwellings are town houses that are connected by each unit's garage. Each dwelling has it's own driveway, yard, and definitive property line. The driveway is not shared, and is not addressed in the lease as being communal property. The neighborhood has no street lights, only flood lights above each garage. The neighbors I'll be referring to have lived in the attached unit next to me for approximately 2 years. The family is a grandmother, a mother, and her two kids.
The problems began in July. The mother began cursing at my children, calling them f----- brats. This was completely unprovoked; my kids were just playing outside. My husband had words with the woman and I emailed property management just so they could be aware of the altercation. The neighbor also spoke to property management, giving them a completely fictitious variation of the event that transpired. Because of this, I installed security cameras so that I would no be subject to a "he said, she said" game.
The neighbor then told other tenants in the neighborhood that we were pedophiles and had installed security cameras to watch the children. The mother also told the other tenants we were taking lewd photos of her children in their bathing suits (not true) and began yelling at us about being "perverts" anytime we were outside. We had several neighbors approach us about it, and we had to explain the situation. Luckily (or maybe not so), we aren't the only ones who have had issues with these neighbors and everyone understood. We filed a police report and also emailed property management. Property management did nothing.
The harassment next door continued to escalate. They would throw trash in my driveway and at my car. They spit on my car. They constantly flipped my children off. The mother and grandmother would call my kids various names like "dumb-sses, retards, stupid, devil children". The mother encouraged her kids to play in my driveway and my yard which prevented my children from accessing the area. The kids purposefully threw balls directly at our cars. The young daughter threatened violence against my children. The mother would lay on her car horn anytime she entered or exited her driveway. The mother even went as far as to attempt to intimidate the other neighborhood children into not playing with my children or they would suffer consequences. All of this unprovoked.
I had told my children to ignore everything and that eventually the neighbors would get bored and stop. My husband and I had several verbal confrontations with this woman, which would always end in her flipping us off and going inside. I emailed property management several times about the harassment, citing Indiana state law regarding tenants' property rights and clauses in the lease that state we have right to quiet enjoyment of our home and that other tenants were not to intimidate, threaten, or harass the other tenants. I provided clear video evidence of the incidents. This fell on deaf ears and property management did nothing. In fact, they encouraged the behavior by telling the woman that our private property was actually community property and they had every right to play in our driveway and in our yard.
This went on until the beginning of October. I had had enough of this family's actions and would no longer allow my children to be victims of bullies who are grown adults. I told them I didn't care if they retaliated. This only escalated the situation, which I had anticipated, but I would not allow my children to be victims any longer. The family was now ridiculing my family for being atheists and leaving bibles on our porch. I continued to complain to property management, whose only response was that after talking to the woman next door, the entire thing has been mutual the entire time, and that they would allow me to vacate my lease without penalty if I responded within 30 days. So effectively, we won't deal with them problem but will allow you to leave if you'd like.
This brings us to the incident that occurred the other night. The neighbor had the maintenance man disable her floodlight in an attempt to circumvent our security cameras. LOL, because my cameras have night vision. It didn't bother me, it's her property to do with as she pleases. However, she then began moving my flood light and pointing it down so that it no longer illuminated my driveway and my cars. Each time, my husband would go back outside and reposition the light. This went on for several nights until we became irritated. We saw on the camera that she was attempting to move our light again, and my husband went outside with an air horn and told her to get her hands off our light. She screamed several obscenities at him, moved the light anyways, and then knocked our trash cans over, scratching my car. All of this was on video, and I promptly called the police. The police came out, we showed them the video, and she told them property management had told her she had the right to move our light. She apologized for the scratch, saying she didn't intend to hit our car, and agreed to pay damages. The police officer schooled her in Indiana State law, and reiterated the fact that this is our property, for all intents and purposes we own it, and she was not to trespass or vandalize our property. This incident hasn't been forwarded to property management yet because I'm unsure of my next actions.
If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. My question: Because of property management's failure to act, we are attempting to purchase a house and give property management our notice by the deadline (unbeknownst to them at this time). Do I have any legal recourse against the property management company for essentially forcing us to leave? The property management company provided false information to the family next door in regards to tenants' property rights and willfully allowed them to trespass and vandalize our property, as well as failed to provide our right to quiet enjoyment. They were provided clear, unaltered, video evidence of everything and refused to address the situation.
I welcome any input as I'm so close to the situation that I'm afraid I may not be able to accurately assess the severity of the situation from a court's POV.
Thanks again for reading.
Quiet Enjoyment: Can You Claim Constructive Eviction Over a Failure to Remedy Issues with Neighbor
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