“Need help with a Nuisance Property!”

“Dear PoPville,

We are at wits end with dealing with a nuisance property. For the past two years, we have tried first to be neighborly and also to deal with the landlord but to no avail. In fact, both landlord and tenants have asked us to “stop bothering them”.

The issues:

– Illegal drug use by the tenants with multiple underage children and infants around
– Distribution and selling of illegal drugs between 9am and 3am, causing
– Increased pedestrian and car traffic – side of house, rear of house, around the corner from the house.
– An unleashed pit bull they allow to pee and poop anywhere – you can smell the odor from their house while 20 ft away
– Sanitation concerns with trash bags piling up in the backyard, sitting for over 1 week at a time while rats and birds scatter trash. We now have rats that have chewed through our fence and chewed through another neighbor’s car wiring.
– Noise issues – loud music, shouting and screaming at all hours of the day and night, shouting from the side and rear of the house at 1-4am from people yelling to be let inside
– Most recently, the tenants are riding an unlicensed and very loud dirtbike in the alley, on the sidewalk and on the streets

What’s been done:
– We have notified the landlord of the property and he has been dismissive of our concerns, specifically asked me not to speak to police and asked us to mind our own business
– We have tried speaking with the tenants directly and the woman who lives there has told us “to stop hassling her”
– The neighbors have filed complaints with 311, with 911 and directly with the police at the Fourth District
– We have met with our ANC Commissioner and Janeese Lewis George and neither one seems to care and/or follow-up. We have numerous unanswered emails to Constituent Services
– We have numerous unanswered requests to Mayor Bowser’s office
– We have held a local neighborhood meeting
– We have written multiple times to the Office of the Attorney General and never received a response

Can you help us?
We need to speak with a DC Housing Authority investigator, someone from the OAG office, or a private attorney who specializes in Nuisance Properties. It’s been impossible to find anyone in the DC government who seems to care.”

Ed. Note: If you are, or know someone who is able to help please email me at [email protected] and I’ll put you in touch with OP.