Rude Neighbors Couldn't Stop Their Dog From Barking All the Time, So He Documented It All and Had Them Evicted » TwistedSifter

Better keep the receipts, guys!

This applies to work, school, and your personal life.

And, according to this Reddit story, it applies to your living situation as well.

Look what happened…and remember to be a good neighbor, okay?

“The story begins in summer.

My wife and I moved out of my mom’s basement to a fantastic apartment just down the street from my college.

The building is very well soundproofed, the neighbors give piano lessons, there are many people with children and dogs and you can’t hear anything… except a dog across the hall.

The neighbors across the street are retired, maybe their elderly father lived with them… I’m not sure about that detail.

But they enjoyed their retirement by going out all the time for hours, and every time they went out, their dog barked all the time.

Ugh…

A continuous barking session of 8 to 12 hours was not uncommon, usually 3 to 7 days a week.

Now a few details about me. I am a dog person, I love them and I understand that this little guy is probably just anxious without his owners.

I am a student, as I said before, and I didn’t mind listening to the dog during the summer holidays, but in the fall this problem had to be solved. And finally, I am incredibly patient and kind.

I also look like a weird combination of Dave Grohl and Hank Hill, but that’s more of a bonus fact.

Let’s see how it goes.

So after listening to this dog for two weeks, I put a post-it note on his door that said something like, “Hey, just so you know, your dog barks constantly when you’re not home.”

Of course, nothing changes, so two weeks later I filed a single formal complaint that said something like, “Hey, the last thing I want to do is cause trouble, but this dog has been barking for a month and it’s really annoying, I hope we can all find a peaceful solution.”

Over the next week we noticed a dramatic change: the dog no longer barks. He still whines loudly, which is still very annoying but an improvement. Also, the noise decreases to about 2-6 hours a day, maybe 3 days a week max. Turns out they have anxiety medication for the dog.

It’s a little better… until…

Anyway, I’m happy. The problem seems to be easing up and maybe he won’t be as loud at school anymore. A month and a half go by and I’m writing a timed online quiz for a homeschool class and this dog is barking like he did when we first moved in.

I can’t concentrate and it’s driving me crazy. I leave my questionnaire and leave another post-it, this one like: “This is not a complaint, I’m just letting you know that your dog was making a crazy noise tonight.”

I’m almost done with my quiz when there’s a knock on my door. I open it and there’s the lady across the hall holding my note, looking completely clueless. She asks me if I wrote the note. “Yes.”

Do I understand how frustrating this is? Well, I understand the frustration, so “yes.” She yells at this point. I ask her if she wants to have a quiet conversation. She cuts me off to tell me how unfair it is that I’m treating her dog this way.

I ask her again if she wants to have a quiet conversation. She talks to me at the same time as me to tell me how much anxiety pills cost. Do you want to have a quiet conversation? She talks to me again to tell me that her poor dog that she leaves at home for 8 hours a day has to wear a shock collar because of me.

Enough!

I decided we weren’t having a calm conversation. “Listen, you asshole, you started this, all I wanted was to live in peace.” I take a step into my apartment, she takes a step towards me as if she were entering.

I’m pretty sure I literally hit her with the door when I slammed the door in her face. All I know for sure is that something stopped her as she was yelling the word “******” at me.

I come back to my computer and see that the quiz expired while I was chatting with the neighbor. I failed to submit it and got a zero. **** that *****.

It’s Friday night and I’m exhausted, so I start to backtrack very meticulously. I start by complaining about her interrupting my homework late at night to yell at me. Then I move on to texting my wife.

The neighbors used to slam the door, which made me text that I could hear them. Check the time signature of the text messages, find the reference code of the hallway camera in question, hoping they slammed the door from outside, and email a single detailed noise complaint.

He kept track of everything.

The next message, which slams the door, was another separate email, regarding a noise complaint. I remember one time they parked in our spot as we were coming home from Costco. So I did what any sane and reasonable person would do and checked the timestamp of the credit card charge.

I sent a separate email for my parking complaint, stating the codes for the two cameras that can see our parking spot. I wasted so much time. I printed out my original complaint email, highlighted the words “peaceful resolution” and wrote the words “You screwed up” at the bottom.

The next day, the dog has been barking for an hour. So I record the noises coming from the bedroom, the kitchen and the hallway. In the hallway, I give the surveillance camera a thumbs up. I must have looked like a crazy person.

I do this every day, multiple times a day. I called the bylaw department after 10pm because there is a municipal noise law at that time. It turns out that my city’s bylaw has no authority in apartment buildings. However, the bylaw officer informed me that the RCMP can issue noise tickets.

Now she’s in trouble!

So I filed a complaint with the police. A police file is now open. By the end of the weekend, I had called the RCMP non-emergency line twice. I received a ticket and filed 17 individual complaints with my building manager.

And I kept going every day. Video recordings, audio recordings, witnesses in the hallway. The contractor comes in to fix something on the 3rd floor, he and I talk and he agrees to smile at the camera while I record the dog barking down the hall.

Today I was informed that they were evicted.

Here’s how people reacted on Reddit.

A person spoke.