Advice on tenant rights please.

Submitted by Element_of_surprise t3_10uex9b in springfieldMO

I’ve lived in a pretty nice apartment complex for the last year, and it’s time to resign the lease. In that time, the manager who has been here for over a decade moved on to manage a new hotel that’s still under construction that will be owned by the same property owner. Since she left, we have had 2-3 people sending emails as the manager, so it’s hard to mail anyone down.

Overall, the property is very small (three buildings maybe 75 units) and we’ll kept. My neighbors have always been nice, but I’m fed up. The lease clearly states it’s a smoke free property apartments and no leaving trash on your balcony or outside your door.

The downstairs neighbor chainsmokes, usually inside. When it’s nice out she smokes on her porch with a fan pointed directly up at our balcony/windows and she doesn’t take breaks. Our closets and one bathroom are unusable from the smell. Our neighbor beside us smokes weed literally the entire time he’s not sleeping. He’s a sweet guy and I support his right to smoke, but with the nature of my partner’s job, they absolutely cannot smell like weed and the smell makes me nauseous.

The person across from us has trash piled outside her door nonstop. The second she throws it out, more appears. All I can tell is she has a cat and she scoops the litter and keeps it in Walmart bags out the door. We just had our yearly inspection, and she magically had no trash.

It took me months to get ahold of anyone, and they said they’d look into it. We should move, but financially idk if it’s an option. I just wanted to see if we had any rights. I can’t even open the windows to air out the apartment because cigarette smoke just wafts in.

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Use_the_Loofah t1_j7beul3 wrote

I don't have any advice, but I commiserate with you. I too live in a smoke-free building (under TLC Properties management) but one of my neighbors smokes all the time. Unfortunately they smoke in the evening when the management office is already closed, so there is very little that the property manager has been able to do. I'm counting down the months on my lease when I'll be looking to buy a house. I'm so done with being a renter.

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Big-Weed t1_j7bnvzs wrote

If every apartment manager was to evict every person that smokes weed in their apartment or cigs on their balcony, then the homeless population would increase by 10,000% within 60 days. Just rent a house or better yet buy one and have fewer low rent neighbors.

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OvFireandBlack t1_j7bv68m wrote

Honestly, there's not really much you can do in this situation. I know it sucks, I can't stand dealing with neighbors. You can either contact the property manager/management company and hope they take care of the situation, or you can move. Unfortunately, property managers only handle complaints and issues at their discretion and when it is convenient for them. Also, never assume your neighbors have the same lease as you. Some could be on older leases, etc. Either way, there is legally nothing you can do about it. Your lease is there to protect you and the property manager from each other, but moreso the property manager.

I used to work in property management. These kinds of things just come with poor management of a multi unit complex.

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eliwr t1_j7c3zt1 wrote

You described apartment living to a muffuckin T. I've lived in four different complexes and have ran into this continually. Good luck

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iced-macchiato t1_j7c4hgs wrote

Unfortunately Missouri has no laws for renters. It sucks. We were in a similar situation with awful neighbors but also had water damage in our apartment that became moldy. We also lived without hot water for 2 months. There was nothing we could do. I was so glad to get out of there and we had to pay to break our lease. Then they took over 2 months to process our move out. Still nothing we could do.

I would suggest getting a carbon filter for your furnace/ac. It helped a bit for the smoke smell in my case. We also ran an air purifier with carbon filters in those rooms that smelled strongly.

Edit: for spelling

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Stat_Sock t1_j7c4xen wrote

Asides from just living with it and getting a air purifier to combat lingering smoking and smell. Keep a record of every time you have notified the leasing office with smoking violations from your neighbors. That way, when you are able to move out you have some protection, if they try to fine you for smoke damage/cleaning.

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tmcgee417 t1_j7daz81 wrote

On the trash, take a picture every time you see it and include them in a Google review. Block out any apartment number that would narrow it down to JUST that apartment for privacy (it’s a terms and conditions thing).

If you want to be extra petty, take the trash bag and wrap the handle around their door handle.

Obviously not good advice, but it satisfies the petty part of me.

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sourdoughbreadlover t1_j7dk33z wrote

I would spray vinegar in the air on the balcony to get rid of the smoke smell. The vinegar will deodorize and the vinegar smell will go away as it dries.

Bonus it will probably annoy your neighbors.

I say this because tenants rights in this state are a joke.

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Consistent_Speech713 t1_j7ef3ws wrote

I deal with this all of the time myself. There isn’t anything that can be done. I just do extra deep cleaning, got an air purifier and a cool mist humidifier. I’m asthmatic so the smoke bothers me so damn much but the humidifier helps, especially when I put a few drops of essential oil in it. I hate the smell of smoke so much I can’t express it enough. It literally makes me sick. But there’s nothing we can do but try to get by financially and rent a house at some point in the future. Try to put your clothes in the room that smells the least like it and even spray essential oils in there every day

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