Issues in flat.

[_Iain_]

Will try and break it up a bit, as this could get quite long winded.

My Situation;

I live in a flat above the shop where I work. There's two flats upstairs, a two bed & a single bed above it right up in the roof. Myself and my partner rent the very top floor. Theres a communal balcony area, with a table/chairs & a communal hallway with a flight of stairs leading to my flat right in the top of the place. Theres also a big set of stairs going externally up to the balcony which is communal space, as is the area under the stairs. I have two cats in said flat.

The guy underneath us has his daughter there half the time as he split up with the mother, he recently got a dog.

The problem;

Said dog basically.

The guy downstairs leaves his door open, leaves the door to the communal hallway open too so the dog has free roam of the hallway, and the stairs to my flat.

The dog now figured out it can climb stairs, and keeps running up to my front door. My partner opened it a few nights ago and the dog came bolting in our flat and chased my cats around our flat.

He lets the dog piss all over the balcony area. Occasionally I come home from work to find dogshit all over the communal balcony and the top of the main flight of stairs - I'll note that he does clean it up as soon as he realizes, but it's still fucking annoying after a hard days graft.

Every morning when I leave for work I have the dog jumping at me, yeah most of my jeans are covered in oil stains anyway, but it's not pleasant having to shoo the thing away constantly. As soon as he realizes then the guy will come out, pick the dog up and hold onto it till such times as I'm halfway downstairs and then let it go again. It does the same thing to my other half, even when she's been taking bin bags down and stuff!

He lets the kid sit there making barking noises at the dog till the dog starts yapping as early as 7.30 on a fecking Sunday (I only get Sunday off so it's not great being woken up by this)

I used to take my cats out on the balcony in the evening for 15 mins or so on a lead, just so they could get a little fresh air. However if I shut the door to the balcony so the dog cant get out either him or his kid just barges out without thinking, lets the dog out which has gone for one of my cats twice now, each time I've grabbed the cat off the floor who's panicked and clawed the fuck out of me. The cat now won't go on his lead and is shit scared of leaving the flat whereas he used to love wandering around & watching stuff going on downstairs. I now feel I can't risk this as it's unfair to them. One of the cats is a rescue cat who has a lot of bad history with dogs, but that's a different story.

We've even gone to have dinner out on the balcony, got halfway through a meal and had them open the door to let the dog out & had the thing yapping and trying to jump up and grab food off our plates before they've caught it and bundled it back inside. The other half feels uncomfortable eating outside now, and having the very very top flat we have all the heat from the shop and the flat below rising up into ours & cant open the windows much for fear of one of the cats falling out.

So why not say something then?

Because if I report it to the landlord he'll complain to the guy. The guy is then very unlikely to keep an eye on my bike, or pay any attention to the alarm going off. I now store it in communal space. - With that said, I got home today to find his kid had left the gate open and gone out to play, thus giving the entire world access to my bike!

One of the blokes I work with is married to his ex (mother of the kid?), and they've become quite good friends. So I feel it would cause tension at work. Especially given that if hes worked for my boss for a long time, so if I irritate him enough that he then starts grassing me up for all sorts of little things then it could affect my job.

The obvious tension at home. Awkwardness in stairway etc.

So....

The other half says I should just leave it. She doesn't think its any real issue, just a mild irritation & points out that he did get his kitchen flooded when one of the pipes in our bathtub split. I pointed out that the plumbing is down to the landlord, and

I think something needs to be done, but am unsure how to go about it to avoid causing shit at work, and at home as I'm not very good with words. I've tried making it very very obvious that I'm not pleased with the dog jumping at me and stuff when he's there & the guy always goes "oh i'm sorry" or similar then lets the dog do the same the next day!

Suggestions? Best I've got is to just put a stairgate at the bottom of the communal stairs to stop the mutt from getting near our front door, then ignoring the rest till I get my compo payout from the CR crash & can come up with a deposit to move elsewhere
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Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[Quornholio]

[The Artist]

https://www.sportsmk.co.uk/image/1/583/0/0/uploads/products-images/766-4f7506727064f.jpg

[CaNsA]

Have you avoided the "speak with the guy directly" thing on purpose?

[_Iain_]

True story.

He's not the average cat that's for sure...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmuqTUH73I4

(I'm still not sure what the fuck is wrong with him btw.)

[Quornholio]

[Ste]

https://www.gov.uk/control-dog-public/overview/

That and you could take the dog issue up with the landlord, I doubt they'll be too impressed to hear that the dog is pissing and shitting on the balcony or at the top of the stairs.

Talk to the owner, ask him to keep his dog under control as he is required to by law and ask him not to let the dog lay eggs on the balcony or anywhere in the building.

[Skudd]

Put the gate up and give the dog a swift kick up the arse or put your foot up as it approaches so it becomes scared of you. A stick is good too. It will soon learn. You don't want to batter or harm the dog, but it does need to learn and sometimes the hard way is the only way.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Ste]

Fuck sake, animal abuse isn't the way to solve the problem.

When a dog does something wrong, the owner is 100% to blame because they allowed it to happen. No ifs, no buts, they are responsible for everything their dog does.

[Thorn]

Kill him.
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[Andy_Pagin]

Popping a dog with a .22 air rifle is a horrible idea...

450 grain .45/70 Marlin on the other hand
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[Ste]

A bit of a tangent but ah well, this is bcf, the thread has stayed on topic for long enough.

[J4mes]

Are disabled people worth less or something?
You get 5 years for letting your child injure a normal person but only 3 for disabled folk?

[Clutchy]

Easy:


Blame the missus, hear me out



Go up to the guy saying it doesn't bother you too much as you know he keeps an eye on your bike but you've had it in the ear from the other half non stop, explain how she is doing your nut in keeps moaning about it etc and say for my sanity would you mind doing X as a compromise just so my mrs will stfu
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[Ste]

[swampy]

[dydey90]

Option A: Dish out some throat punches like a big man, sit back and have a beer.

Option B: Fit closing springs to all gates and doors so that they close themselves seeing as the child isn't capable of doing this small thing.

Option C: As Clutchy said, blame your missus.

Whichever option you choose, you should also knock the dog down a peg or two. I'm not saying drop kick it off the roof, but a dog is a pack animal and be submissive towards you as soon as it realises that you can hurt it, should it piss you off. Sometimes just a light tap on the nose is enough.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[Clanger]

[Marmalade]

but carry a knife, tap dog on nose, it might get really pissed off, go psycho and chew your face off.
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[Raffles]

[Rogerborg]

Can it fly?
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[GeorgeB.]

[blueglue]

buy some dog repellent spray and spray it all over the communal areas.
My old neighbour who lived below had a staffy who was lovely but kept trying to murder me on the stairs. went out in the middle of the night and sprayed the landing and it stopped lying up there.

had to reapply every couple of weeks.

Didnt solve it 100% but made it manageable.

Best advice is never live in places with communal areas with pets. Cheap = yes, Quality of life = No

[Baffler186]

Already been covered, but I must add a +1.

Some people genuinely don't know how much of a pain in the arse they are, or in this case, their dog and child are.

Speak franky and clearly, don't go into detail about unrelated things, just state the facts about the noise, the shit, the jumping up and in addition all the stuff the dog does as well (hoho).

If this doesn't work --> Landlord. Tell the bloke of course, just say something like "well I really do feel strongly about this so I'll have to take it up with the Landlord". Then he knows your not "going behind his back" about it. Make sure you put it in writing to the Landlord.

Whether he's best friends with your uncle's Stepmum or works with your Auntie Hilda's niece, doesn't matter. Being civil and responsible for your pet and for your kids is a big deal.

However, I would have to question whether keeping a cat in that environment is fair, especially as you said it was a rescue cat that had issues with dogs. It now has issues with dogs again, and is confined to a small flat with nowhere to chase mice. Is that correct?
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Current: 2009 SV650 S, 1990 Kawasaki GT550
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[Robby]

The cats will get used to being indoor cats. My two are also rescue cats, I live in a second floor flat. They used to be quite inquisitive and escape-focused, now they will only go out on the balcony if accompanied by a human, all the time with eyes like saucers, bolting back inside at the slightest provocation.

As for the man, dog, and child, talk to your neighbour. Communal areas are communal, not his. Tell him that the dog keeps going for you cats, and it's not on. At least he then can't complain when the dog tries to bite a cat, and he ends up with a dog bleeding profusely from 3 neat little gashes along its nose and eye.

As for keeping an eye on the bike, set up a webcam to watch it.