Best way to deal with an unreasonable neighbor?
Dear Reasonable People, I live in a small 6-unit coop building in Carroll Gardens. Last winter we had some major issues with one resident repeatedly setting the common building thermostat to 78-80 degrees, so we replaced the thermostat with a Tekmar boiler control in the basement (which has the additional advantage of providing finer control…
Dear Reasonable People,
I live in a small 6-unit coop building in Carroll Gardens. Last winter we had some major issues with one resident repeatedly setting the common building thermostat to 78-80 degrees, so we replaced the thermostat with a Tekmar boiler control in the basement (which has the additional advantage of providing finer control over the building heat). Now, everyone in the building is much more comfortable, except for the same resident, who is throwing a fit that borders on psychotic.
She claims that it’s freezing cold in her apartment, when the rest of the building is 74 degrees or warmer. But she refuses to let anyone in to investigate the problem, and she refuses to put a thermometer on her wall to prove that it’s cold. At first, she acted out by leaving angry phone messages, yelling at us in the hallway, and stomping around in her bedroom (which is above my living room). But now we feel like she’s putting us in danger – she started leaving her oven on all day to add heat to the apartment.
I’ve been in her apartment before (when the situation wasn’t so hostile). It didn’t feel any different, temperature-wise, from the other units. She has working radiators and new well-insulated windows. And she now has two additional 1500W oil-filled electric space heaters (one of which I personally gave her). So her motivation must be a combination of her being naturally cold (possibly due to some medical condition?) and feeling like she has no control over the situation. But the fact is that her behavior was unreasonable before she started causing a fire hazard, and now we have a duty to ourselves to do something about the problem.
What do you Brownstoners think we should do? Do we have legal options? Should we talk to the city? Is there anything we can do without starting an all-out war between neighbors? Help!
Thanks for all of the helpful information. I’m not the original poster, but I’m dealing with a mentally ill neighbor and found this site via a Google search for mentally ill neighbor & co-op apartment. The mobile crisis intervention information is very helpful and I’ve found the one for my borough, which I’ll be printing out the contact info for & keeping on my refrigerator door.
if she’s really leaving the oven on all day/night then the buildup of carbon monoxide in her apartment (especially over a weekend) will soon resolve the situation for you 🙂
on a more serious note, contact your local fire department. there has to be some sort of fire code violation for having a combustible material based heater (i.e. oven) in a residential space
in the meantime make sure your carbon monoxide detector is working/has fresh batteries.
As a former 311-operator, I’d like to correct some misinformation. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development will not take action in a condo / coop unless the individual making the complaint is renting the unit from the owner.
Underactive thyroid can make someone feel colder than it actually is, but you usually have other things going on as well (ie the body slows down, so weight gain, lethargy, depression, etc). Could be mental illness, you can call a mobile crisis team to evaluate her (try Kings County or Woodhull), but she refuse them access. If she is leaving her oven on and creating a dangerous situation, that may be another story and they may be able to go in over her protests.
bren: A thyroid problem sounds like a good guess to me. What do most people do to cope? Put on more sweaters? Take medication?
I’ll keep you all posted on any success we have with the mental health angle. I’m not sure we have any contacts with her family.
Heatherie: great suggestion. We actually left the thermostat in the hall for just that reason, but she found out that it’s not working.
About the Tekmar: B&D Heating on Court St. (718-625-1396) did the installation. The electrician’s name was Chris. No plumbing necessary (they just install a sensor on an exterior wall and another sensor on the supply pipe coming out of the boiler; the rest is all wiring). We installed the Tekmar 256. Be prepared to fiddle with the settings for a while as you dial in the heating curve, but once you get it right, it’s much more comfortable than a thermostat. Proportional heating is a very good thing.
Our co-op had the same issue with one
complaining shareholder… she called the city, they came an inspected and found that our co-op was in total compliance with heat regulations ( actually much better than just “the letter of the law” )
Let her call the city…
Perhaps she has a thyroid problem… quite common … can make a person feel very cold.
I live in an 8-unit coop and we have always had trouble keeping everybody happy with the heat. The Tekmar boiler control sounds like a great solution – can you provide the plumber’s name who installed it? As far as your neighbor, it definitely sounds like she’s mentally unstable and the oven issue alone makes it worthy of calling a lawyer – she is putting your entire building in danger!
Assuming that there are no structural issues with her apartment — serious drafts, due to damaged masonry outside, broken windows, etc., it seems that the person is mentally ill; you also have a safety issue. You need to first see if someone can talk to her, if not, get help from a family person. If not you need to address it legally.