Neighbors + 311
Any advice out there for a homeowner who is going through ALL the necessary procedures for doing a big renovation: engineers, architects, dob filings, licensed and insured everything, permits displayed and STILL the neighbors are harassing us by constantly calling 311 just to try to stop us from working. We’ve tried to make nice with…
Any advice out there for a homeowner who is going through ALL the necessary procedures for doing a big renovation: engineers, architects, dob filings, licensed and insured everything, permits displayed and STILL the neighbors are harassing us by constantly calling 311 just to try to stop us from working. We’ve tried to make nice with these people, they have no complaint other than they told us that they preferred the quiet before the work started. All of our inspector visits have been totally fine. Inspectors are just laughing as they come in because they’ve been there so much. But I’m getting really upset because why should these people be allowed to harrass us all the time? Isn’t there some sort of limit to how many identical ridiculous complaints that DOB will accept? Any advice from those who’ve been through it? And please don’t start ranting about all those people who are taking dangerous shortcuts with their renovations. That’s not us. We are doing everything by the books and it takes a lot of time and money and why should we have to be harassed constantly??
These are all very intelligent and useful postings. Thank you to the people who have contributed. My mother is currently having a similar problem. She is disabled and uses a scooter, and so she is making some renovations to her house to make it more accessible to her. Her neighbor of 15+ years seems to be holding a grudge (we have no idea what it is) and has been calling Liscencing and Inspection at any chance she can get. My mother really needs these renovations in order to live her daily life. This neighbor has been deliberately causing us trouble and harassing us, and it has been slowing down the process of the renovations. To top it all, the stress of it has been making my mother sicker. This seems to be deliberate harassment of a disabled person. Is there anything we can do, or is our neighbor free and legal to keep calling for the rest of our lives?
genuinely sorry to hear about your being harrassed by your neighbors. I know this will be no solace to you, but, I just have to share anonymously how lucky I now realize I am! my wife and I just finished a 2.5 year renovation of an entire brownstone with less than 3 gentle complaints from our neighbors! and no calls to 311 the entire time. we were fortunate enough that they were both do-it-yourselfers and had been there done that.
I wish you all the strength to perservere. do the best you can to let it go when you are done and someday simply living there.
People who do that kind of thing deserve whatever you can give them. Play some loud metal for me. I have some stink bombs you can use if you’d like.
Signed,
Former resident of Albemarle Terrace landmark district
Believe me these neighbors are decent folks, at least in their own minds, and we’ve treated them that way. Given them plenty of notice for everything, given them our contact information, empathized with their annoyances over noise and messes and the like. But at some point it’s like come on folks you don’t get to control the entire world around you. There actually are other people on the planet. And dealing with them nicely and directly while they are calling 311 is getting pretty tired let me tell you. I have called an attny and I have called the DOB. The attny is all for letting people complain endlessly and ignoring it as long as possible, so that’s what we are going to do. The DOB is actually encouraging us to file a police report that these people are harassing us because they are sick of sending inspectors for no reason. But we’d rather not do that obviously. So we are hoping these people will tire themselves out. And believe me when they are concerned about noise now just wait until we move in and pump up the tunes. That’s where we will prevail.
Renovation is horrible for all. It’s better to call 311 when in doubt than to have to evacuate your home due to adjacent construction which seems to be happening way too often in Brooklyn these days.
Why don’t you just acknowledge that the experience probably isn’t much fun for your neighbors. Buy them a bottle of wine or a dinner. God forbid, even apologize. You will have to live next door to them. This is a city after all.
In the end you just have to grin and bear it. Having lived near constant construction for more than three years now I have made my share of 311 calls. Everyone a true complaint. I have 15 years in the construction trade working in Manhattan so I know that dusty foot prints in the condos common area does not rate a 311 call. Installing roofing at 11pm by moonlighting professionals, I’m going to make the call even when I know no one from the DoB will show up and my complaint will be
‘resolved’ the next day. Like they say “choose your battles..”
3:15 and 3:39 are telling the truth. My experience has been a little proactive communication prior to beginning your construction work goes a long way towards maintaing the peace.
We are experienced developers who have never damaged anything, or anyone, ever. I can tell you that you will get 311 calls on (almost) every project, regardless of the care you take. It is a fact of the business. People don’t like their quiet existence being disturbed. If you can’t deal with it, you are in the wrong business. As you are a homeowner, this is part of doing it yourself. Try not to let it bother you.
I have been on both sides of this. I renovated an apartment that I was living below and had a tenant living above. The tenant worked from home and thought the noise was unbearable. I lived through it and didn’t have much sympathy (especially since their rent was below market). Then I moved overseas for two years and ended up living next to a total gut job. The noise was horrible. There was no 311 to call and I took out my anger on my landlord. The moral of the story is that if you think you’re the offended party, the problem is gigantic. If you are the offending party, you think it is a lot of hot air. At the end of the day, you are making noise and destroying your neighbor’s quality of living by doing major work on your house. Either buy a house that doesn’t need work, figure out how to do it quietly (including reducing the scope of the work), make friends with them, or realize that you will be the subject of their rage. If you you opt to ignore the neighbors, then you’ll have to live with the consequences. Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself….
Talk to any lawyer, and they will tell you that you have a strong basis for a harassment lawsuit against your neighbor. Have a lawyer write your neighbor a letter indicating such, and most likely, your neighbor will think really hard about picking up the phone again.
I’m totally against sueing people, but if this is somehow consuming your time and becoming a real pain, and you are completely in the right, then they have nothing on you and you don’t deserve this grief.