What can a living community do about a problematic neighbour?

Hi Copenhageners,

I am a international student, and me and my partner are living in a condo since last June in CPH. There are 18 studio apartments total in our building (most of our neighbour are students or in their early 30s). The vast majority of them are pretty chill and clean individual, but there's a couple who are just was can't behave.

The housing complexum has a shared kitchen and a shared washroom - which is not a big surprise, when you are living in a studio apartment I guess. The couple basicly don't give a damn about the other 17 "households". They are trashing our kitchen, corridors, gardens and the lift; one time they stopped my washing programm at the middle of it to put their clothes in and the whole washroom was flooded... (They are also not cleaning the dryer after themselfs).

They are leaving random Rema and Netto baskets (even a fucking Coop shopping cart - we don't have a coop in our ~1 km area xd) in the garden. They are also heavy drinkers, according to their next door neighbours they are fighting (verbally and physically too) quite much, but it was never that heavy that they could call the police on them. There are 1-2 night every 3 weeks when they get wasted and just shouting on the shared terrace (on weekdays ofc...).

On the other hand they are smoking in their apartment, and throwing the cig buds to the groundfloor's flats gardens. There's an urban legend too, that they are also using substances, but I don't have any evidence on that.

Our landlord tried to keep them out of the shared areas as a penalty, but with no luck. (They've been doing this for more then a year now..) He is involved in these issue quite much, but he told me that his hands are tied as he can't evict these people. Everything they do/done which is against our co-living community is documented in the communitie's Facebook group and also in e-mail sent to our landlord. The contract of the place has unlimited rental time.

I don't know if it's important to add, but the our community is ~50/50 internationals and danes.

Is there anything that we can do in this situation? Some of us already tried to reason with them, but with no luck at all - they keep denying everything, even when the situation is obviously happening rigth in the moment...

Ps.: sorry for complaining, but it really bugs me...

Edit: I meant studio apartments not condos

in copenhagenby mesayaa2

85%

10d

d_madacs

Amager Øst

10d

I'd gather all the people that are bothered by this and write an open letter or email (signed by everyone) to the landlord. You might as well want to ask for a meeting with all of the signed residents, the problematic couple, and the landlord. For you and the others it would be helpful to gather some evidence, like videos or photos of the stuff they're doing. Then show them these on the meeting, with the landlord present. It would be pretty difficult for them to argue against all that. After this, the landlord would have to do something. It's not fair towards you all.

Fingers crossed buddy, I hope it'll get solved as soon as possible.

Regular_Ad3866

10d

How come they cannot be evicted? They are not following the houserules (“husorden”) which they have signed when they moved in. Therefore according to lejeloven they can be evicted: https://www.legaldesk.dk/privat/lejekontrakt/lejeloven-paragraf-83 As they are already banned from using the areas it sounds like they have been given the first warning.

phozze

10d

Getting this to be a big enough problem for the Landlord is probably the key here.

Landlords tend to care about two things; money and time:

Did they wreck the apartment as well? If it is in bad shape, that might give the landlord an economic incentive to get rid of them. Be sure to document any physical damage that they might do, e.g. the potentially very expensive water damage in the washroom.

If you and the other renters can organize a pressure on the landlord by contacting him in writing and by phone several times a week for a sustained period of time, the situation might become as much of an annoyance for him as it is for you, prompting him to actually do something.

viking_nomad

10d

Our neighbor is in the process of being evicted as there has been a huge number of complains about noise and the police have been called from time to time as well to tell them to turn down the music. It’s a long process but it starts with ensuring these cases are documented.

Ultimately the landlord will have to send an eviction notice the neighbor can fight in court and having regular complaints helps make the case. Saying “we feel they don’t clean up after themselves” isn’t enough but saying “today on date XXX the couple did Y” will be when there’s enough dates and enough things they did.

PanzerReddit

10d

If everything else have been tried the polite way, gather a bunch of the biggest guys and knock on their door and politely tell them to behave according to the rules.

Give them a good hard look and walk away.

Still not helping.

Call police.

Still not helping.

Call police again.

Still not helping.

DO WHATEVER IT TAKES.

WHATEVER IT TAKES.

If you can’t do WHATEVER IT TAKES, my advice is to find another place to live.

DonRebellion

10d

Fill up their post box with all the trash they leave around.

deterbaremighej

10d

All of you harass them out

otherdsc

10d

Normally I'd say get the police involved as this sounds like anti social behaviour but then again it's DK...

As one user already said, there must be a way to evict them if they are breaking the contract rules and I'm sure the contract says that shared areas need to be left clean / ready for others to use etc. Is there no such thing as renewals in rental contracts? at which point the landlord can simply choose not to renew? Surely there's some way for the landlord to simply have his / hers property back if they choose to?

Leonidas_from_XIV

Nørrebro

10d

In most cases rentals are unlimited unless there's a specific reason not to, so you can't have a limited 2 year rental that needs to be renewed in most cases. I would guess this prevents situations of tenants being evicted if they don't want to agree to a 20% increase in rent on every renewal.

This is one of the ways the Danish rental law is very much pro-tenant. But if the tenant is breaking rules and not keeping common rental spaces in good condition, there might be a case for not keeping to the conditions of the rental contract.

otherdsc

10d

What if the landlord wants the property for themselves? to live in / due to other reasons, how does that happen?

Leonidas_from_XIV

Nørrebro

10d

If they want to live in a property, they have to give 12 (!) months notice, which is one of the few reasons they can use to get someone to move in. Notably, sale of the property does not qualify, you buy an apartment with the renter.

Of course if your landlord is a company, they company can't just decide it needs to move in, so this exception only really works for private landlords.

otherdsc

10d

Holy smokes that's a long notice 🫤 or you just need to plan well or have other places to live in I guess...

Anyways, if you break the rules of the contract you can still be removed right? I'm all for protecting tenants (I've been renting forever) but if it turns into taking a piss there should be some sort of mechanism to get shit done.

Leonidas_from_XIV

Nørrebro

Anyways, if you break the rules of the contract you can still be removed right

Yes, though as others write, a tenant can fight an eviction notice, hence why it is important to collect evidence.

AlberteMK

10d

“Who are just was can’t behave” 😂 I know it’s a mistake but it sounds funny

dyalikescratchin

Why can’t the landlord evict them?

Infinite_Big5

I heard a story once about a guy like that in another condo, that was such a douchebag that multiple people left the housing facility because of him, but nothing could be done to evict him because of some legal rights he had as a renter in one of those places. Sounds like a nightmare scenario.

Folketinget

Nørrebro

10d

I'm confused, you keep talking about condos but also a landlord. Are these condos or rentals?

Araia_

10d

you can rent condos.

jarmi24

10d

The condo usually refers to the whole building, but you can get what he’s trying to say. At least, I THINK I can haha

Then-Ad7196

-1

10d

Easy, you gather 5 men of your community and ring at the door. You explain you don’t want this shit to happen again and say politely but firmly this is not okay. I’d give 2 warning. After that I’ll call the police and warn them something bad is Gonna happen if nothing changes and if they don’t do something about it.

If nothing, well…it’s up to you to decide how much you want to be a carpet. People like them only understand one thing, unfortunately

phozze

10d

This might not be a good idea. Also, if you're threatening people, don't involve the Police.

What does this couple do for a living? What is their social context like and what might they do if they choose to escalate?

M0dnarDK

10d

Terminator terms 😂. Love it.

Then-Ad7196

10d

lol actually it’s a very diplomatic version of terminator. Arnold would have broke the door and asked for their keys, their jacket and their bike. At least I offered two warnings and the cops soliton, that’s something 🫡

StaringSnake

10d

I would try to gather all other renters and simply organize and propose this to the landlord. “Either you evict them for improper conduct and not following the “house rules” (all rentals have that), or we all stop paying rent until you deal with the problem.” In which universe is fair for people to pay rent and have to live in that hell?

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