On "24 hour call" after judgment against me. Neighbours claiming my tenants are noisy

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mark71

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I recently was brought to court over a noise issue regarding my tenants.

The full story is a bit long to go into here but I'll sum it up briefly.

My house is next to the neighbours from hell. Myself and my family were forced to leave the house 4 years ago for our sanity and can't sell it so I'm forced to let it to try and cover two mortgages.

No matter who goes into the house the neighbours are constantly ringing the Guards making complaints till the tenants get so fed up and leave.

Now they have brought me to court where the Judge ruled that I should give my phone numbers to the neighbours and to the Guards, being on 24hr call.

Only 2 days after handing over the number I had a call after midnight saying my neighbours were in trouble with my tenants.

They said the tenants were throwing things onto their roof! As per usual when the Guards called to my tenants they were found to be doing nothing wrong.

The thing is I know full well that if my tenants flush the toilet with the window open I'll be getting a call.

My question is, can the judge make such a ruling? Expecting me to be on 24hr call, 364 days a year? Even a doctor, Guard or Fireman isn't expected to do that. What about if I'm away? Am I expected to come running when I get another spurious call?

I looked at appealing the decision which would go to the Circuit Court but this would cost a minimum of €5,000! Which I don't have.
 
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It's quite obvious the tenants are at fault if a judge has ruled against you. You need to evict the tenant's it would seem.
 
Bronte said:
It's quite obvious the tenants are at fault if a judge has ruled against you.
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But is it quite obvious? If there is a regular turnover in the tenants they can't all be making noise as I learnt over a 14 year period living next door to a rented house. If the guards found in this instance that the tenants were not at fault surely there must also be a problem with the neighbours also?
 
The house the other side of these people is in the same situation he also can't sell or get tenants.

Since June 2007 I've had 5 sets of tenants with the house being empty up to 10 months at the longest stretch.

Not one set of tenants has seen out a year contract with the quickest leaving after only 6 weeks.

So no , not obviously the tenants.
 
Not doubting what you say at all mark71 but why did the judge rule on the side of the neighbours? Have you kept track of the number of complaints made by them and how many of them were unwarranted or rejected by the Gardai? You might need to start keeping a log if you haven't up until now as it sounds like the neighbours are being viewed by the courts as the victims in this, not the other way around.
 
If the neighbours are constantly ringing the guards when your tenants are doing nothing wrong, could the neighbours not be prosecuted for wasting police time? How did this manage to get to court if there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by your tenants?
 
Did the Judge just order that you give them your number? Just don't answer it at unreasonable hours.
 
In the court I had copies of the complaints made to the noise environment by my neighbours about my tenants and also complaints they made about two people living across the road from them. After my response to the noise environment there was no further investigation. On the two people across the road there was an investigator sent out who reported nothing going on to warrant complaints.

In the court my neighbour had copies of the Garda statements for each time they were called out. My solicitor ask to see them and on each one the Guards stated there was no excess noise! The neighbour countered this by saying they warned the tenants they would call the Guards she then said they'd turn the music down when they knew the Guards were on the way then turn it back up again when gone.

It seems it was my word against their word and I lost.

About the prosecuting for wasting police time. I asked about this and the Guards told me they have to respond to every call made. Even they are sick to death of them.

When I was living there myself a common why to get the Guards out was for them to ring saying they could hear a woman in distress.

The person I bought the house off back in 1999 was himself a Guard who I only learnt later had been trying to sell the house for 9 years! He and his wife were driven to breakdowns by these people.
 
Sunny said:
Did the Judge just order that you give them your number? Just don't answer it at unreasonable hours.
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He told me I was to be on 24hr call, ridiculous. I have to be up at 4.20am for work! I don't know is this for the length of this letting or for as long as I own the house. I'll have to try and get some clarification on this of my solicitor.
 
mark71 could you not approach the Gardai and ask them to make a representation on your behalf (to state that they have called out each time and on each occasion found nothing to warrant the call out)? And also could you ask the Garda you bought the house from to make a statement on your behalf? It sounds like you have more than just your word against your neighbours so this should help your case.
 
So the judge took the word of the neighbour over everyone, Guards, Landlord, Tenants, investigator. Thats hard to accept.

Could you install CCTV with sound recording. Then you have evidence that the sound didn't change when the Guards were called. Then sue the neighbor for harassment, loss of business, etc.
 

I asked about this and thought myself that statements from the previous owner and tenants would be good enough but I was told no, by my solicitor. He said I'd need concrete proof of what they were doing and would need to hire a private investigator to get this. All in all to go this route and try and get them through the courts would cost me about 8k!

A favorite trick of theirs is stabbing car tires in the sidewall. We had at least 6 done and various tenant's have had theirs also. Every one knows who's doing it , but no proof.
 
You need a camera. Even a hidden camera pointing at the first camera. They are bound to attack it.
 
Between this and the other Neighbours from hell thread, there really is something wrong in this country when it comes to protecting the innocent and prosecuting the guilty in cases like this! Crazy stuff, and no doubt a major headache and stressful situation for yourself Mark and the OP in the case of the other thread.
 

It's a catch22 situation. I have to get the tenants to help and there's only so much they'll put up with. With so many places available it's a wonder they're staying anyhow. Then when the place is empty of course there's no noise.


Yes, a Guard called to us last week ,the night after they had another spurious call out. He told us they couldn't believe they had got away with this kind of thing again. This family have been before this same judge countless times but of course he has to take each case as a separate episode.
 

It sure is stressful. Nearly 12 years of this for my family and I. The poor man and his family across the road have had it for 30 odd years and have spent thousand's in court to get nowhere.

The killing thing is this family have another house in the country about 2 miles from the one they are causing all the grief in. No one can understand, why, if they want to live with out anybody beside them they don't move out to the other house. Then everyone would be happy.
 
ajapale said:
What does your solicitor have to say about the ruling?
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I got a letter from him the end of last week for his fee and just a couple of lines instructing me what I had to do according to the Judge. I'll be writing to the solicitor tonight to see if I can get a better understanding of what is expected of me.
 
Mark I can see why you left the house. Have you any idea what is wrong with the neighbours that they need to be constantly complaining.

You can't do anything about the judge believing them instead of you which is what the case seems to have boiled down to. Why do you think the judge felt that way about them, were they very good in court. Were the tenants in court?

In relation to the phone, you could be a heavy sleeper and might miss the call etc.

Going back to the incident of the neighbours calling out the guards that the tenant's were throwing stuff on the roof, if there was no stuff on the roof what did the guards say?
 
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