There goes the neighbourhood!!

20 years ago my family opened a restaurant on a busy road between two large cities, it was short lived. The road was bypassed by a major highway built parallel 5 miles north. I brought my girlfriend at the time (wife now) to see our old abandoned restaurant/hotel and we both fell in love with the house that sits behind it, and bought it the next day..
...8 years later... (2 months ago)
Two guys bought the motel with intentions of renting the 6 units of the cinder block strip motel. We laughed to ourselves thinking we knew it's destiny, at the same time cringing with the thoughts of actually having people close by.
So, it turns out the two guys who bought the place are Hell's Angles, their intention is to use the motel to rent to people who think living in a motel is a good thing.. 6 units are full, and the other two house strippers from a club 10 miles up the road (that will be another thread ).
My wife has lived in this village all of her 32 years, and my neighbours as distant as they are have lived here far longer.
Last weekend the only two houses visible from the dump of a motel besides mine were vandalized, each person got a note to the effect of "No open pit fires, and no loud music" tires were slashed and things were broken.. The notes looked like they were written by a 6 year old.
My house was oddly skipped, I live the closest. I have two fire pits used almost daily and my deck that faces the rear of the motel (but visually blocked by trees) has a Rotel 600 watt x 2 amplifier running 2 18" subs and lots of satellite speakers around the yard, I bought the system from a bar that was upgrading..
We are a bit set back as to what to do, it is not the owners causing the problems, it is the low life tenants.. I am hoping they keep their space from me, with my kids frequenting an acre of yard I fenced in for them last year my fears are leaning towards the worst.. My wife seems to think they avoided our house because my physical size may be intimidating to the cowards who vandalized by night, and I just may take a proactive approach and knock on their door with a pre emptive warning.
By lowlife, I am referring to people who don't work, start stacking their empty beer bottles at 9 am, and just plain old look nasty..
Both neighbours now have for sale signs on their yard, after about 20 years of comfortable country living.. They both live on the old busy highway, my house is around the corner, adjacent to the dive.
What to do, what to do, what to do..

good luck py.but it dont sound good.them hotels in the states are places id hate to live within 10 miles of.i feel bad for ya id first try to call the police and of course ad area lighting to make ya place less of a taget good luck to you

Sounds like it might be time for some serious outside lighting. A surveillance camera might not be bad either.

I'm sorry to hear about your vanishing peace. My grandfather had a farm north of where I grew up. I went by the area last Christmas and it's all just stuff. No more farm and open pasture, just houses and stores crammed next to each other. Some change is good, some not so.

-LT

Is moving an option you would consider? This sounds like endless headaches and I would probably want to cut my losses and move to a place where you can live happily.

I recommend the old standby threesome; guns, money and lawyers.

HayJab so states...

Fighting the hell's angels is a tough task, because while you might play fair they don't. If it is really a nuisance, get all the neighbors to file a class action suit in small claims court. If the fine gets big enough, the owners will have to do something or be shut down. Sounds like hell. You would rather live next to a college and have students up all night.

They finally got nabbed in SF.

I'd consider speaking to the owner, rather than tenants, and maybe seeking advice from RCMP and provincial police. The safest and least problematic solution, especially since family are involved, would be to move ASAP...without making any possible enemies that might want to seek you out for perceived 'revenge'. Any direct action, even lighting, will likely be seen as a declaration of war. Definitely not worth it in this case. Just get out now. I'll ask an ex-biker aquaintance for advice, if he shows up again...

Thanks guys..
Moving isn't an option just yet, this is our first home, both of my children we're born inside it.. I would make a small fortune selling this place due to a recent boom in real estate, but that means I would also have to pay that premium to re purchase.
The owner is not the problem, he seems pretty concerned about the issues arising, and I truly believe he will do his part to stop it, truth be told the place never looked better, once the tenants are out of site. The active owner does not live in the building, but he does live in this village.
I am not a "call the police" kind of person, but obviously the neighbours are, so it is being watched as close as it can be in a desolate area like this, one of the two patrolling cops is a friend of mine, so I am confident I will stay informed.
I like the idea of security cameras, I will have to learn more about that, I am open for suggestions. I have two street lights in my backyard, one over my deck that illuminates a good chunk of the back yard but misses my shop, and the other is above the horse shoe pits, revealing nothing but trees and some sand.. I don't want to run big lights all night, but I'll do what I have to..

A big, outside dog usually works well to deter vandals.

A few years ago, while working in my office in my home one morning, my dog began uncharacteristically barking. I checked the back yard, which footed a hill about 200 feet high, and saw nothing. Later, when I was leaving for lunch, I saw the Crime Scene Investigation van next door, and the driver (a friend of mine) just getting back in. I asked him what happened.

He said that the neighbor's house had been broken into and had a burglary. "Probably teenagers since they took liquor and CDs" he said. "Can I look in your back yard?"

We went in the back yard. As it was summer in California, the knee-high grass on the hill was brown and dry. You could clearly see the trodden grass in a path coming down the hill directly for my house...then abruptly turning and going to my neighbor's. No question that the barking dog changed their plans. Good thing too...Had they chosen my house, I would have hated to clean the crap off the carpet that they would have left after looking down the barrel of my shotgun.

While lights and a security camera may ID the culprit, a dog is a better deterrent and makes you feel a lot better when it licks your face!

Outdoor, motion activated lights sounds like a good start. They have timers to keep the lights on for 1, 2 or 10 minutes after being activated so it shouldn't run up your hydro bill too much. We had them installed and are convinient. How about a home security system with monitoring ? Magnetic contacts on doors and windows, interior motion sensors etc. If so, you can arm the system while you are in the home, particularly at night. You can bypass (shunt) motion detectors so you can get up during the night to use the can or midnight snacking, and, if you already have a dog/cat, they can roam freely without having to keep them in a room with the door closed. Vandals may tend to keep to the outside of a house, so try and keep stuff indoors or in the garage to keep others from being tempted. Shovels and ladders may be an invitation to be used for break-ins or be stolen.

I have a Shepard and Rottie, both sleep inside at night, I may have to change that.
I do have an alarm system, however it isn't monitored. I live so far from any dispatch it would be way too late by the time there was a response. I have my main siren in my shop gable vent aimed at the house, and there are several others mounted in various locations throughout my duct work to create a very uncomfortable atmosphere inside in the event of a trigger, downside is that it is hard to get your bearings at 3 am in the rare event it goes off.
I should slip up to Home Depot and invest in a few more motion lights..
Oddly, when I just got home all the owners are there and the closed sign is up, for the first time since opening day. I'm sure it's unrelated though..

One other suggestion, although I'll be the first to admit it may be impractical.

Buy the place...oo:


Don't know how inflated your local property values are, but perhaps you and/or your neighbors (if that's why they are selling) could jointly purchase the property...or even lease it from the existing owner.

Then you would have some level of control over the 'tenants' in question. You could either rent the units out yourself (after doing background checks on prospective renters of course), or try to find another buyer who will agree to a use change for the property (for instance, no long-term rentals.)

I know this is a stretch, but I always figure one should consider as many options as possible when it comes to making a forced move.

Especially if it's from someplace you love.

We almost did. It is a square acre of commercial/residential property, when we bought this place it was listed at 35k. My thought was to bulldoze the building and ad an extra acre to my land at the same time warding off potential neighbours. Two years later it sold for 65k, sat idle again. This last sale a few months ago landed 145k. The only difference in the property was the length of the grass. For a simple acre that is no longer an option for us. Now that it is proving to be an income property I would hate to see it's value..
I should have bought it when I bought this..

I'll snap a photo later to give some perspective..

Oh, and metal, sorry for hacking up your post :rock:

metalhed said:

One other suggestion, although I'll be the first to admit it may be impractical.

Buy the place...oo:

Especially if it's from someplace you love.

Click to expand...

Pydpiper said:

I have a Shepard and Rottie, both sleep inside at night, I may have to change that.
I do have an alarm system, however it isn't monitored. I live so far from any dispatch it would be way too late by the time there was a response. I have my main siren in my shop gable vent aimed at the house, and there are several others mounted in various locations throughout my duct work to create a very uncomfortable atmosphere inside in the event of a trigger, downside is that it is hard to get your bearings at 3 am in the rare event it goes off.
I should slip up to Home Depot and invest in a few more motion lights..
Oddly, when I just got home all the owners are there and the closed sign is up, for the first time since opening day. I'm sure it's unrelated though..

Click to expand...

Closed sign is up ??? Suddenly ? During the day ? Hmmm, that's like going to an Italian restaurant at 6pm for dinner and you are told "Justa nowa we closa". Meanwhile, the parking lot is full of big old Caddys...the ones with huge trunks......capish......

Go have a friendly chat with the owners. Bring a cake or whatever(40's and buffalo wings?) and discuss what's going on. Respect for respect goes a long way.

If you don't already, park your vehicles inside a fenced enclosure(driveway attached to your yard or whatever) and let your dogs out at night. Add some motion sensor lights. I'll admit, the first thing that came to mind, if voiced, would get this thread closed. Good luck.


Cheers. :buddies:

How coincidental that you should post this today. Last nights news mentioned something about how the Hells Angels are being investigated for their drug racketeering activities and how they had just finished building a network in Canada. I would presume that the DEA and the RCMP are in regular contact.

Pydpiper said:

So, it turns out the two guys who bought the place are Hell's Angles, their intention is to use the motel to rent to people who think living in a motel is a good thing.. 6 units are full, and the other two house strippers from a club 10 miles up the road (that will be another thread ).

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The owner is affiliated to the Angels, but again, he is certainly not behind the problems here. His stance is that he won't tolerate any nuisance people renting from him.
It's not a clubhouse or anything like that, just an investment..
Off topic slightly, a few of the Angels were arrested here (Canada) very recently on a multiple murder, around 8 people at one time..
The only reason I mention the affiliation to the Angels is to divert any thoughts of pounding on the owners door with demands. The tenants however I have no issues with approaching.
I learned that yesterday they may know which tenant is responsible for the damage to the property surrounding mine, and is being evicted. Apparently he has breathing issues and is protesting his right for clean air?? The part I don't understand is how he managed to run away from the guy who caught him in his driveway at 2 am, from a distance..

2dim said:

I'd consider speaking to the owner, rather than tenants, and maybe seeking advice from RCMP and provincial police. The safest and least problematic solution, especially since family are involved, would be to move ASAP...without making any possible enemies that might want to seek you out for perceived 'revenge'. Any direct action, even lighting, will likely be seen as a declaration of war. Definitely not worth it in this case. Just get out now. I'll ask an ex-biker aquaintance for advice, if he shows up again...

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Agreed. I'd move out right away. Dont risk it. Sorry to say, but neighborhoods come and go. Not much can be done. Like one of my previous neighborhoods. It was a really nice neighborhood when i first moved in. People had kept their yards up and the houses all looked like people had pride in what they lived in. Then a certain type of person moved in (i will keep race out of this). Then another, and another and another. All these people care about is saving money and earning money. Their yards all looked like crap and eventually all of the for sale signs started going up. Then the only people that wanted to move in were the people of said "race". Not that i have anything against any race. I dont care what race you are. But at least mow your lawn! Or pay a teenager some money to do it. It wont cost you that much to do once every 2 weeks.

If you don't already own a good pump action 12 gauge shotgun, this would be a good time to get one, along with some 00 buck shells. Learn to use it, and hope you don't have to....

Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it....

NOTHING is more intimidating than being faced with a 12 gauge shotgun, in the hands of a man who's not afraid to use it.

goldenlight said:

If you don't already own a good pump action 12 gauge shotgun, this would be a good time to get one, along with some 00 buck shells. Learn to use it, and hope you don't have to....

Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it....

NOTHING is more intimidating than being faced with a 12 gauge shotgun, in the hands of a man who's not afraid to use it.

Click to expand...

Self defense laws in canada are strange and confusing. One thing for sure though, using any sort of firearm to defend yourself might result in a situation that turns for the worst (both in legal and safety sense). On the other hand, you have kids, so...