Get the lay of the land
What does renter harassment
look like? The techniques that are used to harass and expel renters vary based on locale and applicable law. The following kinds of events are often seen in cases of renter harassment. Note that anonymity and uncertainty or even confusion are major components of the techniques that are used to move you out of your home. Here is a short list. For a more detailed discussion of the tools of the trade and the countermeasures that renters have used, see Tools of the Trade. By all means, write us if you know of additional effective strategies tenants can use to keep their homes.
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Renter harassment attempts to create discomfort, to make you uncomfortable in your home. It is often an attempt to intimidate, even to frighten you out of your home.
Harassment expresses dynamics of power in a situation in which the harasser asserts his power over others he or she perceives as weak or vulnerable. Those who use harassment to gain their ends in the community often seem to believe, or at least to justify their wrongdoing based on the belief, that renters are part of an underclass not deserving of the rights enjoyed by those whose home is mediated by mortgage agreement. |
Tools of the Trade
Constant complaints to the landlord. Make no mistake, chronic complaints are intended to have an effect on your relationship with your landlord, in other words, on your tenancy. Constant complaints can also be a means of attempting to control you through threatening your relationship with your landlord, leveraging your landlord's desire to please the neighbors or, in some cases, wearying or harassing your landlords into tacit cooperation in your harassment or in, certain markets, into selling the house and forcing you to leave.
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Countermeasures
Know your rights.
Countermeasure: Document it. |
Constant complaints to Parking Enforcement. Complaints to Parking Enforcement in the many cities that accept them is a common and effective tool used by spiteful neighbors as well as by any and all contractors and realtors who seek to profit off of new development in or gentrification of a neighborhood.
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Document it.
Establish a relationship with Parking Enforcement. If you are working with a Parking Enforcement unit in a city that does not tolerate city services being used to harass and you suspect that those harassing you are making the marks themselves, call them to verify that the marks were made in response to a complaint or check any documents you've received based on your public disclosure requests to determine which marks were directly tied to documented complaints from those outside of the Parking Enforcement department. Do not discount the possibility of complaints made internally in a manner that is hidden, especially if your neighborhood includes city employees or people with connections to city administration. |
Complaints to the police about things you do that are not illegal, especially when no one seems to complain when others do them. Playing music within the limits of local codes is a common example here. Another might be attempting to draw the police into the situation by giving some extra attention to your parking practices, even in neighborhoods where home owners enjoy a more laissez-faire (relaxed) approach to enforcement. You should not be subject to a double-standard that is not supported by law.
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Know your rights.
You'll need to know your rights before you can protect them. What rights you have depend on any written lease that exists between your landlord and yourself. For example, signing some rental agreements in some places may constitute agreement to park only in a designated private zone. The terms of rental agreements are often mediated by local law, however. For example, in some cities any clause of your agreement that is not in accord with local law is invalid. In addition, some cities enforce codes in addition to state law. For these reasons, to assure that you're protecting yourself and advocating for yourself to the fullest extent possible, learn what rights you have under the following:
Document the complaints. |
Provocation. For some people, renter harassment is a way of doing business and they clear properties of renters the same way they clear properties of trees. If people like this are harassing you and you resist, you may need to watch out for some dirty tricks. Provocation is a technique that political and social activists are often familiar with but it's not a tactic that law-abiding renters expect so it tends to be confusing and difficult to detect. Renters who face provocation strategies must be able to critically evaluate what is happening and to make good judgments about how to document the situation and avoid giving harassers the reaction they seek.
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Don't fall for it. Don't engage. Those harassing you could be photographing your reaction and even calling the police in hopes that you'll lose it and cause a "disturbance," something that can lead to the city dubbing your residence a "nuisance house." If your home is deemed to be a "nuisance house," you will likely be kicked out of it and your landlords prohibited from renting it for some period of time, something that could force the owners to sell. In cases where you have been harassed because neighbors are interested in an adverse possession lawsuit or because real estate speculators want to build on the land, labeling your home as a "nuisance" means that you and your landlord both lose.
Photography is very useful in this situation. There are times when carrying a camera is a great deterrent, even if you don't get a useful shot. Provocation can be sort of like a "speak softly and carry a big stick" Teddy Roosevelt tactic. The camera is your stick. Just be sure you understand privacy laws and how they affect your use of the camera. Note that this is an especially dirty tactic in cases where you are under great strain from enduring harassment in your legal home for months and even years. It can be difficult to keep control over the strong emotions that anyone would have in such a situation, but your keeping your home requires that you keep your composure and stay in control. If you suspect you are being provoked, leave the situation. You can call the police later on. This is also a situation in which it's good to have cameras on your property, though those who use provocation usually don't if they cannot stay outside the range of the cameras. Besides, in these situations, it's less the provocation that matters than your response to it. Make sure you don't give them anything they can use against you. |