Dealer neighbors in rental house - WWYD

[everafter07]

Thanks in advance for any advice, and sorry so long.

We're homeowners in a row of townhouses, and the property next door has had a string of renters over the years. This is the first time we've had any issues with anyone that has lived there.

New tenants have people coming by at all hours for a few min, then leaving. Man has offered drugs to DH before (at their first meeting). We can hear woman screaming at man at all hours about how he won't even give her a bag when all these crackheads owe him all this money, blah blah. The list goes on. These people never actually deal outside their house, so I don't know that the cops would be able to do much. Plus, the jerks have a really good front, with the yard all decorated for holidays and stuff. Doesn't look like a suspicious house.

We don't have any evidence, aside from what we've seen/heard. I am nervous about retaliation, since I feel like if we complained they'd know it was us. The house on the other side is vacant, and the across the street neighbors are far enough away that they wouldn't be able to hear the woman yelling, unless they were walking by.

We do have the homeowner's address/phone number. WWYD?

[Deleted]

Wow, I don't know what I'd do. Could you tip off the police at least, and let them know what's going on? Don't tell them you live next door or anything or make a complaint about people in and out (because the last thing you need is for them to tell the neighbors that they have a complaint from others in the neighborhood.) Just tell them you know of drug activity in the home and all that stuff? Do you know the landlord?

[pamela]

I would let the homeowner know and they can check in on the property.

[expatpumpkin]

At the very least, I would call the landlord and him/her know about the situation. Hopefully, the landlord won't renew their lease... I think there could be adverse consequences for the homeowner if a drug bust happens on the property. And if they're cooking meth, the house's value would plummet, wouldn't it?

I rent out a townhouse and if you called me and told me my renters were up to no good, I'd do something!

[mbandbud]

I would call the landlord first. The hope would be that the landlord has something in the lease where they can go and visit the property unannounced. He/she could chose to bring the cops. Not sure if they will do it - but would start there. If that does not work I would make an anonymous call to the police - you could do it from an outside line and give the perspective of someone that doesn't live next door. Indicate to the cops that you don't want any mention b/c you are afraid of retaliation. I'd go from there. I am sorry you have to deal with this. Not fun.

[agnes]

My first inclination is to call the police. I wouldn't have even thought to call the landlord/homeowner

[rfs13]

We had a very similar situation a couple years ago in our row of townhouses. They weren't directly next door but one door down and we could hear the yelling so I know exactly what you're going through. Several of us in our court wrote letters to the association (the unit was rented out by the association) complaining of the noise and random guests at all hours of the day/night. They were called in to the association office and reprimanded but nothing came of it. We also called the police because of the shady activity and they were already aware of what was potentially going on inside the home. There was never a drug bust before the tenants eventually moved out.
Don't be afraid to contact the local authorities!

[ssmjlm]

If I can hear someone screaming for hours on end or in the middle of the night, I'm calling 911 and giving them the address.

I would also contact the homeowners as a courtesy, but it wouldn't be my first call.

[vanillacourage]

I am a landlord. I am not allowed to let myself in for anything less than a legit emergency - anything else I have to give 24 hours' notice. I would call the cops, then let the landlord know you've done so. If they were my tenants I'd start compiling the info I needed for eviction or non-renewing their lease (you never know, maybe the term of their lease is about to expire).

[everafter07]

Thanks everyone. I think I will call the landlord first, since they most likely can actually go into the house, as opposed to the cops, who would need more evidence to go in. This is such a pain, and scary. I have wondered about meth, but I thought it was really hard to mask the smell of that, and our walls aren't very thick... I will probably tell the landlord I'm going to follow up with the police also. The issue with that is that we live in a city that is very high on the list for drugs/murder (not my neighborhood, but crappier ones to the west), and I don't know that the police will be able to do much with small time dealers...

[everafter07]

Thanks. I will most definitely call the police, but want to call the homeowner too, to let them know what's been going on. The feedback from the landlords is very helpful.

[sarahsas]

This exact thing happened to me when I lived in an apartment in grad school.

I did two things: I called the landlord and also the police.

The landlord found an excuse to enter the apartment. Looked around and didn't see anything (I think just looked at what was out - didn't go through stuff or anything).

The police connected me with a narcotics detective, who came to check things out. Turned out they were part of a bigger investigation. Luckily I moved soon thereafter. I read in the papers that the couple was arrested for coke after I moved.

[phunluvin82]

Ugh...we have a similar situation about 2 houses down. My H has called the police and let them know that there seems to be drug activity going on. I believe he did so annonymously. The police have not been able to do much...but they do seem to have increased patrols in the neighborhood after H has called. We have a lot of drug/violence problems in our city, so they mostly seem to have bigger fish to fry...but we will still continue to let the police know what is going on. Maybe they won't be able to do much, but if they don't know about it then they DEFINITElY won't be able to do anything, KWIM?

[statlerwaldorf]

A lot of towns have a anonymous drug tip line for a task force that handles drugs.

Our current house was a former drug house. When the police did their bust, it caused a lot of damage. They busted the entire front door and tore the trim around the door completely off. They threw in some sort of smoke grenades that completely ruined the carpet on the first floor. The police were aware of what was going on for a while before they had enough to go on to complete the bust.

On the other hand, in a different city we lived next to a crackhouse. Everyone knew it was a crackhouse and the police would often trail people leaving the house, pull them over, and bust them with possession. The police didn't do anything because they were more interested in trying to bust the supplier than distributor. A couple years after we moved, we found out there was a shooting at that house.

[LoveTrains]

Nov 27, 2012 11:05:51 GMT -5 mbandbud said:

I would call the landlord first. The hope would be that the landlord has something in the lease where they can go and visit the property unannounced. He/she could chose to bring the cops. Not sure if they will do it - but would start there. If that does not work I would make an anonymous call to the police - you could do it from an outside line and give the perspective of someone that doesn't live next door. Indicate to the cops that you don't want any mention b/c you are afraid of retaliation. I'd go from there. I am sorry you have to deal with this. Not fun.

It is illegal in most states for a landlord to just enter the premises without permission or some sort of notice, in most cases, 24-48 hours.

[ondaflipside]

Yikes. No suggestions here. Sorry you're dealing with this bs.

[Deleted]

I would call the cops as well. They may not be able to do anything right away but I've been surprised at what they will do if they can.

[littlemisssunshine]

I do property management and had tenants turn one of my rentals into a drug/safe house. Two young women with clean backgrounds rented it, and then turned it over to a boyfriend. The girls on the lease never lived there, only the guy. He lived there for a month before the US Marshals caught up with him and arrested him for murder, armed trafficking and a whole slew of charges. There was a shoot out in front of the house, and the Marshals kicked down all my doors. They found 20k in drugs, and about 10 firearms including a assault rifle.

I never knew because while the neighbors knew and had my phone number they never called me. I was ticked. The neighbors were mad at me the situation but never contacted me so I could do something. I found out by a reporter from the local news calling me for my 'reaction' to the story the day of the shoot out/arrest. I went in to clean and was wiping meth residue off everything and sweeping weed off the floor.

Definitely call the landlord and the police. The landlord will want to know, and can access the premises/evict them/coordinate with the police to get them out.

[imojoebunny]

We have had this problem two times. When I saw a cop in our area doing something else, I would mention my concerns. In one case, they were working on taking down the larger dealer and eventually took down all of them, including the crack dealing lovely family. In the other, they got tired of being hassled and moved. In the case of the second, all the good neighbors got together and agreed to call whenever they were violating any ordinance. Overtime the "harassment" worked.

[mae141]

We had a problem like this recently. We had the non emergency police number on speed dial. We called any time anything sketchy was going on and they came right out. They were trying to build a case against the guy, so and the detective on the case actually encouraged us to do this. The neighbors on the other side and across the street were calling also.

The landlord couldn't do anything until they weren't paying rent, then he kicked them out.

[gwynnetx]

We think the neighbors across the street are dealing. People sit in cars outside their house and then drive off. We're not even sure who actually lives there. The place is a dump. When those people moved in, we got a note on our door from the homeowner asking us to call him if anything happened, but we're not 100% sure he doesn't live there. So we don't know if we should text him or not. A couple of Fridays ago, I swear I heard gunshots, and the police were all over the yard. Not the first time. (For the police, not the gunshots. Never heard those in this neighborhood in the 14 years I've lived here.)

[everafter07]

This evening I called the landlord and let him know our concerns. He was taken aback and asked me why we thought they were dealers. Told him everything we'd seen and heard that I thought of at the time. He said there wasn't really anything he could do aside from calling the renters and telling them, with discretion, that someone in the neighborhood called and said there was suspicious activity noticed and the cops would be called. He hopes that will deter them from selling... He went on to say I should definitely call the cops, but that he was really shocked, that the family seemed great and the woman was some sort of gov't employee.

I called the non-emergency police line and though they documented the call, the most she said they could do at this point is have some cops drive by.

Here's hoping these people are small time and will get scared when the landlord calls them. I'm not optimistic, but would realllllly like it if that happened

Thanks again for the advice.

[Deleted]

I used to live in a duplex with the same issue. My surrounding neighbors actually contacted me about it since they were all homeowners who knew each other and I was just a renter. We had a bit of a phone tree and any time there was a party or suspicious activity, we'd all call the cops. Didn't take long and the cops started doing unmarked drive-bys and undercover walk-bys. They were actually very happy to work with us. One day the shady neighbors were just gone. No clue what happened, but they weren't in our neighborhood anymore and left no forwarding address. (because the mail carrier asked me if I knew anything)