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Old 10-03-2015, 04:18 PM
 
11 posts, read 24,956 times
Reputation: 18

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Yes - another one of these, and yes, I have googled and read all of the other threads on this subject on this board and others, but I still hope to gain something from this one.

Background- we have lived in this apartment for 15+ years, the people upstairs slightly less than that, 10+ or so. the noise from upstairs has always been bad, but amongst the 4 of us in the apartment, we always had our own internal noise issues and therefore never bothered to deal with external noise issues. Fast forward to earlier this year, 2 people moved out, we signed a new lease and had a renovation done.

As part if that renovation, I paid completely out of pocket to have sheet rock with special noise isolation "green glue" applied to it installed on ceilings. I knew it wouldnt completely noise proof anything, but felt it would at least help.

Ever since we settled in after the long exhausting renovation (because the landlord and super who was doing it are careless jerks) the noise from upstsirs has been unbearable, and lately has been of colossal proportions. Imagine a dumbell being dropped on your ceiling consistently throughout the day. Apparantly these people (older couple, and 2 daughters) now have a baby grandchild living there, obviously adding to the ruckus.

this is how it goes: there will be banging thats CLEARLY not footsteps or common noise that I will tolerate. It gets excessive and I bang on the ceiling. They stomp back 100x harder. The first time this occured, I knew these are not reasonable people, so no point in talking to them. I've made countless 311 complaints. Sometimes I skip banging on my ceiling and go straight to 311. The first time they actually came out was this week and I happened to not be home.

Fast forward to last night - excessive non stop banging so I bang on my ceiling. It has never worked, yet I keep thinking the next time I do it will be effective. I get a ring on my doorbell and pretty much knew its them. I'm sort of happy because like I said, I wasnt going to go up there, but did want a chance to speak to them. I try to explain their banging makes our apartment shake. She (the older woman) shrugs it off. I tell her to wait so I can get my phone to show ger a recording of the noise. Its scary how loud the footage is. When i get back to the door, shes down the hall, probably because she already knows she has no answer for the footage. Tempers flared and a shouting match ensued. The husband comes downstairs saying "WE CAN DO WHAT WE WANT UNTIL 11 PM"...um, no. I close my door and keep listening. I hear him say "if he bangs on the ceiling again.." And I immediately run out ready to rip this guys head off. He charges at me violently (i only stepped out) and I record it while his wife holds him back. He only retrieved cause he saw the camera.

They stayed COMPLETELY (well, almost) quiet the rest of the night. Problem solved maybe? Wrong. Same old banging all day today.bI have been bed ridden the past few days because of this. I am a full time student and I work when I can. My job is studying. Try studying organic chemistry and physics with loud thumps coming from yoir ceiling constantly, its not possible.

Heres my plan of action from this point - number one, no more banging (although I already broke that rule today when it got so bad I just couldnt help it). Sending a letter via certified mail to the landlord (who as previously mentioned, is a jerk who doesnt care so this is pretty much just for documentation) along with an email with the video of the noise and of him charging at me. I'm thinking of sending a letter to them as well threatning a civil law suit but im not sure if i should cause it might make things even worse like the banging does. My mental health is non existsant right now.


Look, we live in a old, clearly crappily built building and I knew that before going through with the new lease. But that doesnt mean they can just bang on their floor at their will, whether its the adults, the child or a clmbination. The child lives there now I guess - I hear crying all the time. Is that part of my complaint? HELL NO. I could never expect someone to control how loud a baby is. We hear nearly every step they take. Is that part of my complaint? Hell no. I could never tell someone when or when not to walk. But the loud thumps all day are ridiculous. The stomping is excessive too, but again thats not part of my complaint.

Quick story- a few years ago, they woke me up at 1 AM with loud music and dancing. I banged on the ceiling, which was a rare occurence before this year.. I almost immediately get a ring at my door: "WE'RE CELEBRATIMG A WEDDING!", as if I was supposed to know. I actually aplogized and said if I knew I wouldnt have done that, after all weddings are once in a lifetime. But that pretty much sums up their chsracter and mine.


Thoughts? Specifically on where I go from here.
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Old 10-03-2015, 07:30 PM
 
Location: n/a
1,189 posts, read 1,152,776 times
Reputation: 1354


(at least until your lease is up)
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Old 10-03-2015, 07:33 PM
 
Location: West Harlem
6,885 posts, read 9,878,199 times
Reputation: 3060
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hadenough22 View Post
Yes - another one of these, and yes, I have googled and read all of the other threads on this subject on this board and others, but I still hope to gain something from this one.

Background- we have lived in this apartment for 15+ years, the people upstairs slightly less than that, 10+ or so. the noise from upstairs has always been bad, but amongst the 4 of us in the apartment, we always had our own internal noise issues and therefore never bothered to deal with external noise issues. Fast forward to earlier this year, 2 people moved out, we signed a new lease and had a renovation done.

As part if that renovation, I paid completely out of pocket to have sheet rock with special noise isolation "green glue" applied to it installed on ceilings. I knew it wouldnt completely noise proof anything, but felt it would at least help.

Ever since we settled in after the long exhausting renovation (because the landlord and super who was doing it are careless jerks) the noise from upstsirs has been unbearable, and lately has been of colossal proportions. Imagine a dumbell being dropped on your ceiling consistently throughout the day. Apparantly these people (older couple, and 2 daughters) now have a baby grandchild living there, obviously adding to the ruckus.

this is how it goes: there will be banging thats CLEARLY not footsteps or common noise that I will tolerate. It gets excessive and I bang on the ceiling. They stomp back 100x harder. The first time this occured, I knew these are not reasonable people, so no point in talking to them. I've made countless 311 complaints. Sometimes I skip banging on my ceiling and go straight to 311. The first time they actually came out was this week and I happened to not be home.

Fast forward to last night - excessive non stop banging so I bang on my ceiling. It has never worked, yet I keep thinking the next time I do it will be effective. I get a ring on my doorbell and pretty much knew its them. I'm sort of happy because like I said, I wasnt going to go up there, but did want a chance to speak to them. I try to explain their banging makes our apartment shake. She (the older woman) shrugs it off. I tell her to wait so I can get my phone to show ger a recording of the noise. Its scary how loud the footage is. When i get back to the door, shes down the hall, probably because she already knows she has no answer for the footage. Tempers flared and a shouting match ensued. The husband comes downstairs saying "WE CAN DO WHAT WE WANT UNTIL 11 PM"...um, no. I close my door and keep listening. I hear him say "if he bangs on the ceiling again.." And I immediately run out ready to rip this guys head off. He charges at me violently (i only stepped out) and I record it while his wife holds him back. He only retrieved cause he saw the camera.

They stayed COMPLETELY (well, almost) quiet the rest of the night. Problem solved maybe? Wrong. Same old banging all day today.bI have been bed ridden the past few days because of this. I am a full time student and I work when I can. My job is studying. Try studying organic chemistry and physics with loud thumps coming from yoir ceiling constantly, its not possible.

Heres my plan of action from this point - number one, no more banging (although I already broke that rule today when it got so bad I just couldnt help it). Sending a letter via certified mail to the landlord (who as previously mentioned, is a jerk who doesnt care so this is pretty much just for documentation) along with an email with the video of the noise and of him charging at me. I'm thinking of sending a letter to them as well threatning a civil law suit but im not sure if i should cause it might make things even worse like the banging does. My mental health is non existsant right now.


Look, we live in a old, clearly crappily built building and I knew that before going through with the new lease. But that doesnt mean they can just bang on their floor at their will, whether its the adults, the child or a clmbination. The child lives there now I guess - I hear crying all the time. Is that part of my complaint? HELL NO. I could never expect someone to control how loud a baby is. We hear nearly every step they take. Is that part of my complaint? Hell no. I could never tell someone when or when not to walk. But the loud thumps all day are ridiculous. The stomping is excessive too, but again thats not part of my complaint.

Quick story- a few years ago, they woke me up at 1 AM with loud music and dancing. I banged on the ceiling, which was a rare occurence before this year.. I almost immediately get a ring at my door: "WE'RE CELEBRATIMG A WEDDING!", as if I was supposed to know. I actually aplogized and said if I knew I wouldnt have done that, after all weddings are once in a lifetime. But that pretty much sums up their chsracter and mine.


Thoughts? Specifically on where I go from here.
Go to the library and study.
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Old 10-03-2015, 07:37 PM
 
33,327 posts, read 46,766,348 times
Reputation: 14019
So the "green glue" didn't work....
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Old 10-03-2015, 07:41 PM
 
15,444 posts, read 15,425,363 times
Reputation: 21704
Sorry, I'm in a rush, and regret that I don't have time to re-read this more thoroughly - but since you have no replies, I thought I'd start the ball rolling.

This perfectly illustrates the uselessness of 311 - but, excuse me, the banging on the ceiling was pretty stupid.

Your best route - which you missed - was to write, early on, a polite note as a first step. You've screwed up that possibility.

If you can figure out how to word a note at this point, that would be good. The note should rationally explain the problem AND suggest solutions. Like carpeting, which you don't mention.

Otherwise, you should start keeping a log, documenting everything. Check with their next-door neighbors, and yours. It's possible they're hearing noise, too, and if you can band together, it will strengthen your case. Since volume can be adjusted, you might want to see how much a decibel-counter costs.

And you write to the landlord. You have to sound stern and adult, with an undercurrent of indignation. Don't waste money on certified mail. If you get the feeling that your neighbor's place is uncarpeted, highlight that in your letter. A lot of leases have a clause requiring 80% carpeting. If yours does, great. If not, you can point out that it's the norm.

Don't threaten lawsuits. By the way, how big is this apartment with five people living in it?

Start with that, and see how far you get. Good luck.
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Old 10-03-2015, 08:05 PM
 
Location: Brooklyn New York
18,356 posts, read 31,429,080 times
Reputation: 27748
move.
life is too short to be aggravated, and live like that.
move.
best soultion
move, break the lease, too bad on the LL
move
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Old 10-03-2015, 09:01 PM
 
Location: New Jersey and hating it
12,148 posts, read 7,114,953 times
Reputation: 17303
Yeah, I suggest leaving too. Right now, you've got too much pent up frustration with these people that every single sound they make will aggravate you. Even when they are quiet, instead of enjoying it, you will be dreading when they will start up again. That's not anyway to live.

They will never turn quiet. You'll never get any peace and all you'll be doing by staying is just prolonging your misery until eventually, you'll move out anyway. Just do it sooner than later.

When the next people move in and have the same problem with them, they will complain on them to the landlord and eventually the landlord will tire of them as well.

Oh by the way, don't bother with 311 for these types of complaints. There is nothing the city can do in these type of civil matters.

Last edited by antinimby; 10-03-2015 at 09:10 PM..
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Old 10-04-2015, 12:44 AM
 
1,014 posts, read 1,561,382 times
Reputation: 2630
Apartment living in Manhattan = garbage.
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Old 10-04-2015, 01:28 AM
 
Location: New Jersey and hating it
12,148 posts, read 7,114,953 times
Reputation: 17303
^ Noisy neighbors can be found anywhere.
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Old 10-04-2015, 02:09 AM
 
11 posts, read 24,956 times
Reputation: 18
^I'm in brooklyn. Nothing wrong with apartment living. My friend lives in a million dollar condo and her neighbors complain of her boyfriend snoring at night, miillion dollar! So these things can happen to anyone.

thank you for the replies. I will respond to everyone instead of quoting individually:

Before I decided to sign a new lease, I looked for apartments, pretty thoroughly. For what I can afford, there wasn't much at all. I am locked into a pretty great price for a pretty good space for the next 2 years and I'm not giving that up because some people werent raised right.

I put literally blood sweat and tears into getting this apartment into proper shape over a period of 5 months. Also like I mentioned earlier, spent my own money to get it soundproofed. The soundproofing worked for what its supposed to, we don't hear tv or voices ever. Of course that was never the issue, but I thought it would at least help somewhat with the actual problematic noises - and maybe it has and it could be even worse than it is right now. No soundproofing short of maybe tens of thousands of dollars will do anything for banging and stomping, but I thought even a 1% improvement is something. Plus the placebo affect.

I 100% should've led off with a note months ago but in my mind, I felt direct communication like that or knocking on their door would be a bad idea and they would take it as me telling them what to do, which is not my intention. Now I realize if it was written right, it couldve maybe been a good idea. Heres the thing - the couple of times my downstairs neighbors banged on their ceiling in my 15+ years in this apt, every time because I was vacuuming past like 8 PM, I immediately ceased vacuuming because of course I understood it was wrong. So i thought if I banged on my ceiling, any reasonable person would think "let me alter what I'm doing, I'm disturbing my neighbors" skipping notes or anything like that. Clearly these arent reasonable people.

To the person who said I should move because everything they do will now bother me - thats partially true. Yeah, every sound I hear is now kind of annoying. But I can totally live with that. Its the specific clearly non common noise banging I have issues with. If that stopped, over time the common noise wouldnt affect me at all - like during that 2-3 day period.

As far as 311 - I know they cant take actual action, but at least their presence is something that may sway these peoples actions. If an officer came to my door and said stop blasting music or something, I certainly would even knowing they couldnt do much to enforce it (well, music they can potentially enforce - but you get my drift)

I didnt mention this yet, but about 2 weeks ago I got a call from a police officer who was parked outside the building. He called me because I made over 5 311 complaints the previous month. Heres the kicker - I told him not to come up because 2-3 days prior to that everything was fairly quiet aside from normal footsteps and pretty minimal pounding. I foolishly thought maybe the latest round of me ceiling banging made these people realize just how much they were bothering me. I explained the situation to him and he didnt say "well thats not something we can do anything about anyway" - he was ready to come up. But I told him I'd save his number in case it got bad again. Of course it did almost immediately, so I called him. He said he'd come 2 days after the phone call because he was on pope duty the next day. Never came and strangely doesnt answer his phone anymore. Telling him not to come up that first time was foolish but I truly thought we had a breakthrough and letting him come up would ruin the good will I thought was there. Also - a big part that played in telling him not to come up in the heat of the moment is embarrassment. I'm embarassed for everyone involved. But as soon as it got bad again - only then I realized extremes like involving police must occur.

Clearly theyre not carpeted up there because something is making direct contact with the floor to make these vibrating noises, and no there is no carpeting provision in the lease. I actually dont feel comfortable telling someone to get a carpet. Like I said, I in no way want to tell anyone what to do - more like what not to do - like dont do whatever the hell is making my heart jump out my chest throught the day.

As far as going to the library to study - no. This is my home. I am entitled to peace, as is everyone.

What can I say to my landlord so that he potentially contacts them, which I think would go a long way, probably more so than a cop? He's the one that actually miraculously agreed to help me put the sheetrock up (by telling the super to do it) so this topic is very familiar to him. He would know this issue didnt just spring up. But aside from collecting rent money he and his nasty secretaries dont like to be bothered. I did some digging on the building before I decided to stay here and noticed the upstairs people actually reported him to the city for undone repairs - so I'm sure hes not too fond of them as it is, but like I said, getting him to actually take action would be tough. Should I mention they potentially have a kid living there whos I'm sure not on the lease? Should I just send an email instead of letter, with a video of the noise and video of the man charging me attached?

I really hope next time we inevitably cross paths this guy doesn't try to lay a finger on me. If i have to defend myself someones grandfather is going to be laid up in a hospital, and although I've dreamt about doing just that; after the opportunity almost presented itself, I realized that would actually be an utterly embarrassing situation.

Also in a lot of the threads I read on this subject, a lot of people suggested playing fire with fire - ringing downstairs bells early in the morning (like, now), banging on their ceiling early in the morning, putting super glue in their key hole - but aside from them pretty much knowing it would be me, that seems really low, no matter how low they are in the first place.
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