Vindictive neighbor

Dawn680
Level 1
Stellenbosch, South Africa

Vindictive neighbor

Hi, I need some advise, I don’t know what to do anymore. He always waits till really late at night to complain and then he complains about noise from early in the evening. And if I don’t reply immediately, he lodged a complaint on Airbnb and mostly when I reply he does it anyway. The guests are always shocked and confused and says they weren’t noisy , so I feel like he lying. My other neighbors never have a issue or hear the noise when I ask them.  I can’t go to sleep when I have guests because I have to wait and see what he does. He swears all kind of profanities to the guests over the wall. When I am there myself and have guests over or my kids are loud he never complains. My property on Airbnb is a large property, and all of the neighbors are far from each other, noise or noise complaints has never been a issue for anyone. I have horrible neighbor that always tries to make life difficult and since he found out I am doing Airbnb, he has been trying to close me down. I am a single mom that is doing it to survive , so I can’t afford to  be closed down. 
He always waits till really late at night to complain and then he complains about noise from early in the evening. And if I don’t reply immediately, he lodged a complaint on Airbnb and mostly when I reply he does it anyway. The guests are always shocked and confused and says they weren’t noisy , so I feel like he lying. My other neighbors never have a issue or hear the noise when I ask them.  I can’t go to sleep when I have guests because I have to wait and see what he does. He swears all kind of profanities to the guests over the wall. When I am there myself and have guests over or my kids are loud he never complains. 
what can I do? Because it is very obvious that he is trying to close me down. 

1 Reply 1
Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Dawn680 I know that where I live, it's not permissible for someone to repeatedly make baseless noise complaints.  It is possible you can lodge a harassment complaint against him.  Make a log of the dates and times he's messaged you about noise and talk to your local law enforcement.  Bring a box of donuts and a file about your Airbnb listing and let them know what you're doing, what the neighborhood is like, what your other neighbors are like, etc.  I'm pretty sure they'll end up being on your side and will go have a chat with the neighbor.