The Landlord & The Neighbor…

So I wish I could say that life is amazing right now but there are a few complications I need to get off my chest.  We moved into a rental house that is in Midtown Ruidoso right off the main drag.  Since we are in town now we feel safer from fires and the house is on a hill so we don’t have to worry about flooding.  The house is fine but very expensive.  We have not rented in 20 years so that has been a big adjustment.  We were here for about a month when we noticed that the hardwood floors in the hallway were seeping water, a lot of water, so we emailed the landlord which is Berkshire Hathaway. 

They sent over a plumber who determined that there were 2 large holes in a water pipe under the house that were spraying water up into the floor.  So they fixed the pipe.  Then he noticed that water was also seeping out of the hot water heater which is 25 years old.  He told us that it would need to be replaced.  The rental person at Berkshire is named Kylie and she is not pleasant to deal with.  I texted her what the plumber told me and she said that the water heater did not need to be replaced.  Confused, I texted her back and asked why we were getting different stories from her and the plumber.  I very obviously made her angry by saying that and I received a rude text back from her basically saying they determine what is fixed not me??  All I did was tell her what the plumber said.  They did end up replacing the water heater so the whole thing was ridiculous. 

Once that issue was fixed we noticed some mold growing in the bathroom and that the hardwood floors were damaged from the water.  So I texted her regarding these issues.  She then informed me that there is no mold in Ruidoso.  I told her that was not true and there was definitely mold in the bathroom.  I even checked with my coworkers who have lived here for years and was told there is mold in Ruidoso.  I called Kylie and she informed me that they will not be fixing the floors or doing any remediation for the mold.  I was pretty upset about that answer but what can you do?

Then we received “the letter” and what a letter it was!  Kylie wrote that we are just renters and that we do not determine what repairs are necessary.  Ok, we did not do that but whatever.  Then she wrote that if we attempted to make any repairs to the house she would sue us, evict us and take our deposit (which was $1700!).  Then she wrote that she hopes in the future that we would be polite and communicate in a professional manner.  I honestly thought that my head might explode when I read that letter.  Not only was she rude and difficult to deal with now she was accusing us of being rude.  The letter was really aggressive and a huge overreaction to what was a normal interaction.  We signed a year lease so we are stuck here.  We will never rent from Berkshire Hathaway again and the second we move out I will be telling Kylie exactly what I think about her management style.  The mold is still here so hopefully we don’t die from it. 

It turns out the landlord issues were the least of our problems.  Our neighbor on the right is named Javier.  His back fence is maybe 10 yards from the side of our house.  His home is right against the fence and his porch is elevated and overlooks our house.  He has 5 dogs.  We have 2.  Everytime we go outside he is there and the dogs are yard dogs, they dont go inside.  When we first moved in we had a normal conversation with him introducing ourselves.  Then the barking began.  I understand the dogs barking when we get in and out of our cars but they bark nonstop.  We can’t go outside because the won’t stop barking.  After weeks of this my husband talked to Javier after the dogs had been barking for 4 HOURS STRAIGHT NONSTOP.  It is 5 dogs and it sounds like they are in the house with us.  It is maddening.  After attempting to deal with him nicely we got frustrated.  Javier told me that dogs bark and that’s just what they do.  I have 2 dogs.  They bark when someone is at the door and that’s it because they are trained to not bark.  We asked him why he did not stop them and can’t he hear it when they’ve been barking for hours?  He says it’s normal.  Then we noticed that there are 2 more dogs over there on and off and they bark quite a lot as well.  That’s 7 dogs!  Brett works from home and the dogs were driving him nuts.  Also we can hear them over the fan and noise clock in our bedroom so no sleep!

Finally we had had enough.  We finally called the police at 11PM one night after hours of nonstop barking.  They came and heard the dogs, talked to the neighbor and then came to our house.  He told them our dogs also barked constantly which the police immediately knew was not true because they did not even bark when they came to the door.  They told us to call anytime it was an issue.  So for about a week the dogs were quiet which just shows he can keep them quiet if he wants to.  It was amazing!  Then it started again.  We bought 3 of those dog silencers and put them around the house.  It was hard to determine if it was helping or not.  We ended up having to call the police several times about the noise. 

Then one day Brett was leaving to go somewhere and when he walked out he told the dogs to shut up and got in his car.  He backed out of the driveway and was turning in front of the neighbors house when Javier came running out his front door and jumped in front of Brett’s truck screaming at him.  He told Brett to get out of the truck and fight him and Brett said no, that’s ridiculous, not happening.  He screamed obscenities, accused Brett of being racist against Mexicans and said that the neighbors hate us and we are just renters and he knows the owner of the house and is going to call him because we are so awful.  Brett said we just want your dogs to be quiet, that’s it and then we never have to talk to each other again.  A neighbor came out and was listening so great, the whole neighborhood knows.  Brett told him to get away from the car and drove off.  He called me at work and warned me since I was getting ready to come home.

When I was coming up the street Javier started yelling at me.  I stopped and told him that if he wanted to have a civil, adult conversation we could but I wasn’t sitting there and being screamed at.  That wasn’t happening so I went home.  20 minutes later the police are at the door.  Javier told them that Brett had threatened him and thrown a rock at his dogs.  We explained the situation.  We also pointed out that he has cameras and if Brett went over there and threatened him it was on video.  He refused to give them the footage because he was a fucking liar.  He wanted us trespassed from his property.  Cool, we never go on his property so while we’re at it we want to trespass him from our property as well.  The police advised us to get a camera and mentioned that they have had issues with our neighbor before.  Interesting.

So this ongoing fued has been going on for months.  When I go outside and he’s there I ignore him.  We rarely go outside because of the barking and honestly, we moved here to enjoy the forest and now we can’t.  But the damn dogs are still barking and I can’t help but feel he is letting them bark on purpose.  So we call the police quite a bit and its really annoying and I’m sure it’s making him angry but what else can we do?

So last Thursday Brett was trying to work and they had been barking for hours.  When he calls the police he stands in the window so they can hear the barking clearly.  They know us now.  So they came out, went to his house and left.  15 minutes later the police pull up in our driveway and knock.  Brett answers and the cop (whom we haven’t seen before) asks Brett if he has any weapons on him.  Brett says no, why?  He says Javier called and said that Brett went to his house and was pounding on the door with a knife in his hand threatening his family.  Brett was shocked and said of course I didn’t do that.  I have not left the house today.  He invites the cop in and I think the cop realized that he was telling the truth.  Brett explained the situation and pointed out that he has cameras.  So the cop asks for the footage and Javier won’t show it to him.  BECAUSE IT NEVER HAPPENED.  This is when we realized that Javier is literally crazy and we nesd to protect ourselves.

We bought cameras that are motion sensitive and put them around the house.  We have the front door and driveway covered so that if he makes any more accusations we can show whether we went over there or not.  We also have one that shows the entire fence we share with him as well as his back porch.  Is it an invasion of privacy?  Probably but he has multiple cameras pointing at our house so tough shit.  Ours also has a lovely bright light that turns on at night whenever there is movement.  We got that on purpose, we want him to know it’s on.  He retaliated by putting a speaker on his porch and blaring the same Mexican song over and over again.  So fun!

So my new start is more like a nightmare.  The lease is up in June.  Housing is very hard to find here so I am pretty worried about finding a place but we can’t stay here.  I’m actually pretty afraid of Javier at this point and I don’t want to be anywhere near him.  So believe me when I say that I will be looking at a new place differently and I will be checking the neighbors out before moving in.  Lesson learned.

2026 has to be better!!