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I am a 25 year old graduate student(cybersecurity), who has just moved out of his parent's house for the first time. I am situated in a two story apartment
with wooden floors in Port Washington, and have been for the last 2 months now. I would say I am a good tenant. I don't throw parties, I rarely have
people over, and if I do it is never more than two at a time. I am clean, and keep the apartment very clean and free of damages. I am also a 260 pound
powerlifter with allegedly a heavy footstep. I do not wear shoes in my apartment and try to to tip toe around at night. My buddy is a contractor and said
the floors were horribly insulated,the building is old) The floors are wooden, so after the
downstairs neighbor (a Jewish couple in their early 50's both going through a divorce apparently, they are only in the apartment 3 nights out of the week
as they use it to have the affair) complained to the landlord multiple times, I had to take action. I covered way more than 70 percent of my little studio
apartment in very nice area rugs. I am a semi broke grad student and that hurt, but I don't want to be a selfish noisy neighbor. I put carpeting under my couch, the foot of my bed, outside my bathroom, and ran runners that span the pathway of the highest traffic area(the path that takes you to my
kitchen, bed, or bathroom). I left some areas without carpet because I either don't walk in those areas....or there is furniture that doesn't move. Low and
behold.....more complaints. Every 3 days, the landlord blows my phone up. I let him come in, he says "not even close, you need more." The next week the
downstairs neighbors complain again of, "footsteps moving back and forth." It is important to note that they aren't complaining of banging, or parties, they
are legitimately having the landlord harass me over footsteps at hours past 12 am. Yes, I admit, I have a huge workload with work and school. As, a grad
student in computer security alot of nights I am up late and have to be at my apartment. I have a very large server in my apartment that I run algorithms
on. I got fed up last week and stopped answering the property manager of the complex. He left me voice-mails every day. Only saying, "Management, call me back." Very obscure messages and never any written notices. He sent maintenance men to my
apartment without giving me notice and they tried to enter. Is that trespassing? I had a secondary door lock on my door,and I believe they thought no on
was home. I woke up to them jiggling their keys in the door. I feel harassed , and I get anxiety that random workers are going to invade my privacy at any
time. I am a very large human being, sometimes I wear headphones in my apartment. I am nervous they are going to unlock my door and barge right in and
I will get startled put them through a wall and then get arrested.(I do have my front door under IP CAM surveillance, with alerts) Anyhow, the landlord
wants me to get wall to wall carpeting, he says it is in the lease. I read the lease and it does not say that at all. I can't afford this right now , but he calls
every day asking when it will be done, but I don't want to get evicted. These people won't communicate with me. I saw my neighbors 30 minutes ago in
the parking lot and(I wish I was making this up) they ran.....speed jogged away from me and squirried like chipmunks into the building. I tried to say Hello.. Do I bite the bullet and get wall to
wall? Do I fight back and say it is 70 percent covered now leave me be? Do I bring up the maintenance trespassing(they are trying to check on the status
of the carpet)? If I do get the carpet installed, and they still complain about footsteps....what do I do? Is there a noise ordinance I need to know about? Should I tell them to get a decibel reader and then shove the results up their hind? I don't want to get evicted over "annoying noises" as it is so nebulously defined in the lease. This sucks I'm getting anxiety over this stuff.Also, confused: other upstairs tenants don't have any carpeting or very little.....? Also, no cats in lease but one of the employees for the building management team has a cat and is also a tenant? wutmate, they don't seem to enforce the lease unequivocally. Sorry for the long message and I appreciate any replies.
Last edited by HEAVYSTEPPERLOL; 03-17-2015 at 08:33 PM..
You should call the local clerk of courts for further insight to landlord and tenant laws. If it isn't in your lease he cant make you put down carpet, and if he takes you to court you can actually obtain representation most likely through a legal aid system. I would document the harassment and contact the local police for further insight as well. You could also bargain with the landlord to move out...sounds like hell that no one should have to live through!
The apartment being "illegal" wouldn't really help here. Just because the landlord doesn't have the permits from the town that he's supposed to have doesn't necessarily mean the tenant has no obligations under the lease. If you're asking because you're going to suggest that OP threaten the landlord with that fact, I don't see how that would be productive - the landlord would likely then just evict the OP, which doesn't seem to be OP's goal here.
OP, read your lease. Read it really, really carefully. Make sure there's nothing in it that the landlord could possibly use to require you to carpet the apartment 100%. Then refuse to do so, in writing, on the basis that there's no requirement for you to carpet.
With regard to the maintenance guy trying to enter without notice, again, read your lease. Lots of leases allow the landlord to enter without prior notice or permission "for routine maintenance," for "emergencies," etc. It's uncomfortable for the tenant, absolutely, but not necessarily illegal or impermissible.
I would find out if the downstairs tenant had any issues with the prior occupant of your apartment. If you have tried all that you say, maybe there is just no pleasing these people.
Could there be someone else in an adjacent apartment who is noisy and the downstairs tenant believes it is you? This has happened to me.
Also curious why you would describe the tenant downstairs as "(a Jewish couple in their early 50's both going through a divorce apparently, they are only in the apartment 3 nights out of the week as they use it to have the affair)"
Could you communicate with them through a kind letter and ask them to keep track of when the noise is an issue so that maybe you could determine how to proceed. Perhaps the landlord would be willing to contribute to more carpeting being that you are unable to determine whether it is the footsteps (with no shoes) or the building's construction that is causing the problem.
If it was illegal I wouldn't pay another dime of rent. Then I would live free till the court order evicted me. Sometimes you have to play the way the dirtbag owner wants to play.
Unless there is a specific clause in your lease that states otherwise, the landlord has no leg to stand on.
There is no reason why you have to tiptoe around your apartment. Your quality of life is just as important as your PITA neighbors.
I wouldn't call the police, they won't do anything. As long as you're not having parties and not playing music (as you already stated) then you have nothing to worry about.
Document everything and then I'm with your "tell them to get a decibel meter and shove it up their hinds" plan. You have reasonable expectation to be able to walk around your apartment 24/7 if you like. They live underneath an apartment. They can always go move to a top floor where no one but seagulls will be walking above them.
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