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    starcecil88's Avatar
    starcecil88 Posts: 5, Reputation: 1
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    #1

    Sep 1, 2010, 10:36 PM
    Landlord violating privacy - What to do?
    It has come to my attention that another tenant above me who has done nothing but complain for the past month about my "noise" when they stomp around and make all kinds of commotion, is now saying that he knows I'm "getting evicted"

    It completely blew my mind, because for one I'm not getting evicted and second the only person that might say this to them is the landlord because we recently had a dispute about my supposed noise problem. The police have been here twice and agreed I was not making noise and the people upstairs are just over reacting about every little thing. The landlord even said they are "a handful."

    Now what do I do? I live in Iowa - are there any laws that would protect the landlord from spreading lies like this, and what actions should I take?
    AK lawyer's Avatar
    AK lawyer Posts: 12,592, Reputation: 977
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    #2

    Sep 1, 2010, 11:10 PM
    Quote Originally Posted by starcecil88 View Post
    It has come to my attention that another tenant above me ... is now saying that he knows I'm "getting evicted"
    The upstairs neighbors told you that? Do you trust what they say? Isn't one possibility that they made up this rumor out of whole cloth?

    And even if what they say is true (that the LL said he was evicting you), I don't consider this to be actionable defamation. Get a grip.
    starcecil88's Avatar
    starcecil88 Posts: 5, Reputation: 1
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    #3

    Sep 2, 2010, 10:16 AM
    Quote Originally Posted by AK lawyer View Post
    The upstairs neighbors told you that? Do you trust what they say? Isn't one possibility that they made up this rumor out of whole cloth?

    And even if what they say is true (that the LL said he was evicting you), I don't consider this to be actionable defamation. Get a grip.
    Well the whole ordeal is kind of a long story but let me try to explain.

    I've lived in this place about 2 months and never received any noise complaints.. I gave everyone in around my my number and said to call me if I was too loud and I'll fix the problem. A few weeks after I moved in some new people moved in above me and so I went to give them my number and they were complete jerks about the whole thing.

    Ok so longer story short on a Saturday afternoon I was listening to music at a moderate level at about 3pm when I hear a knock on my door. The lady upstairs had come down to tell me my bass was supposedly shaking her floor. I was shocked, considering the bass was off, and the music was at a comfortable volume, IDK if this means anything to you but on the receiver it was turned up to a -45 Db... from the source, which If you own any receiver you could probably go check and see that really isn't loud at all.

    About a week later a series of texts about her complaining some more saying its shaking the floor, by this point I'm quite irritated with her because I here nothing but stomping around, dogs barking, and they wake up the whole neighborhood revving up there Harley when they leave. I went around to every one of my neighbors and asked if my current volume was bothering them in anyway, the next door neighbor even came inside and said, "what really this is what she is complaining about" - point is it's not loud. I've since had the cops called on my and the police officer even told me flat out it's not loud. So really... *** is going on? These people are clearing just finding reasons to complain.

    Shortly after the cops were called our landlord sent us a notice saying if we don't pay our pet deposit they will have to evict us. When I went down there to talk to her about it she said we've had numerous complaints, all of which have been coming from the people above us. By this point I started doing research on how they illegally entered out apartment a few weeks before and found I was entitled to end the lease with everything that has been happening. I faxed them a 7 day notice to quit and on the following business day I received a return letter saying they don't normally allow this but because of the circumstances they would allow me to end my lease without penalties.

    I could see how maybe these people could have just been told I was moving out but still the whole situation seems ludicrous. We've told the landlord about them basically harassing us the whole time and they have done NOTHING. The police are already sick of coming out here for her petty noise complaints and they won't do anything.
    twinkiedooter's Avatar
    twinkiedooter Posts: 12,172, Reputation: 1054
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    #4

    Sep 2, 2010, 12:48 PM

    So, you're moving and the malicious upstairs tenants are spreading gossip about you supposedly getting evicted. So what? You're leaving and won't have to deal with these morons any longer.

    Good luck with your move.

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