We received a letter earlier in the week from our letting agency (regie) concerning a complaint from a neighbour that we leave shoes and boots outside our front door (in an appartment complex).
We certainly don't make a habit of leaving shoes outside but it did happen a couple of times over the holiday period when we had guest who were polite enough not to leave their shoes on.
What is the correct way of replying; Ignore or fire away a letter stating our case? Will this be kept on file should they want to get rid of us? We've only been there for three months and obviously don't want to kick up a fuss.
The neighbour in question (we think) has repeadetly asked us if we have bought the apartment or are renting and is generally very nosey.
Has the neighbor talked to you before about the shoes, or was the letter the first contact? I assume they've at least mentioned it once in passing before going straight to the regie. Either way...
What to do? Stop leaving your shoes (or your guests' shoes) outside the door. Kick them off before you walk in, and then have a designated towel, mat or box to put them in once inside.
I don't think a reply is necessary, because as long as you start behaving the "correct" way, the neighbor won't complain anymore...at least not about the shoes. Sounds like this person might come up with other complaints in the future.
Agreed, just take note of the letter and be careful with the neighbour, and try and keep to the house rules, which were given to you, usually with the contract.
The copy of the letter will be kept on file: and you should object if you were behaving correctly, but in this case you were possibly making a fire escape dangerous. Look upon it as a final warning on this subject. You can still play the piano once at 9 pm and wash on Sunday once without being thrown out.
What would your "case" be in this situation? The hallway is a common area, and shoes lying about could potentially be a hazard to others, particularly if the hallway is narrow.
Purchase a shoe shelf for just inside your door, and a small washable rug of some sort to lay under it in case shoes have water or snow on them. Easy fix!
You can't really know yet if this neighbor is going to complain about every last tiny problem or issue, but you can be diligent going forward by not giving him/her any reason to complain when it comes to other hot-button issues such as trash disposal or shared laundry. Hopefully then no more letters in your file.
you don't need to reply and you don't need to worry, just correct the behaviour. You're very naughty leaving shoes outside your front door (and unlucky about the neighbour).
Switzerland at its very best. Even after being here so long I still can't for the life of me believe how such a small matter of a neighbour leaving shoes outside their door could bother someone so much that they would take their time to complain to their letting agency. Some people really have no life whatsoever. In my building half the families living there leave shoes outside their doors (I don't) and I can't say the thought ever crossed my mind that it was inconveniencing me in some way or another.
To the OP, best just not to leave any shoes outside in future. I wouldn't even respond as you will never understand the reasoning behind such complaints.
Sound advice from others. I think that this is a case of the complaint system. In my experience, the more efficient the complaints system, the more complaints it generates.
If there wasn't a letting agency etc. to handle this, the neighbour would probably have ignored the situation or mentioned it to you in passing.
If we all communicated more, many small issues would not develop into big issues.
Unfortunately it's true. In my old place I was living on the third floor. Below me was the caretaker and above me a family. The caretaker was always complaining that the ones above me kept leaving the top window in the stairway open. The ones above me complained that the caretakers family kept leaving their stinky shoes on the staircase. Both things didn't really bother me and I don't know what happened in the background but a few weeks later we got a letter saying shoes aren't allowed in the hallway due to it being an escape route and windows aren't allowed to be open all day.
Personally I would write a short email to whoever is responsible for the building apologising but at the same time relativising your 'offense' and explaining that you would've rectified the situation straight away had the person come straight to you as it is likely that the person went over the top in his complaint. If he turns into a serial complainer, it's probably better it the agency knows to take his complaints with a pinch of salt.
maybe Busby is the complainer the OP is referring too
Threads like this make me really happy I don't live in an apartment house! Although we did get a letter from the agency that runs the apartment across the street from us as I was putting our "green" waste in their green bins. I had no idea that in our town "green" waste wasn't a free pick up... (we are allowed to use the trash bins for our paid garbage bags, I guess to keep the neighborhood looking clean, and the green bins are right next to them, so I never thought that we weren't allowed to use those as well...)
Anyways, live and learn I guess. Some people just like to cause problems for others.
Thanks all for taking the time to reply. The general concensus seems to be not to reply other than a short email to the regie, perhaps.
There are only two apartments on the top floor (ours and the neighbour) with the elevator and stairs in the middle (so the shoes would not be blocking or causing a fire-hazard, so to speak). It was probably more a case of the shoes being unsightly for a few hours.
Anyway, I was surprised to receive the letter as the only interaction we had before was him asking if we had bought the place, how much it cost etc.
Perhaps we can conclude from all the neighbour-relations problems we read about on here that people in this country do not really have enough to do, whereas in other countries the fear of terrorism, human trafficking, child abuse, poor funding of healthcare and education and all the related charity work they bring keep us too busy to give a crap that Monty across the hallway wears a thong at the weekend and leaves his stilettos on his front mat.