Noisy Neighbor Refuses to be Quiet at Night (apartment, lease)

[LoveAlbuquerque]

Hi All,

I moved here not long ago and it seemed mostly fine until this past weekend. There is a couple downstairs and the guy talked loudly all night in the bedroom area until almost 4am and started to be loud again at around 7am. The constant noise kept me awake all night.

So I stopped by their apartment the following day and brought a gift with me. I asked them if they were aware of the noise all night long and if they knew where it was from. The wife told me it was from her husband.

The guy at first told me it was due to a situation he needed to handle. But soon he changed his tone and got upset. He asked me if I stopped by just to complain about the noise. He said it was his home and he should have freedom to do whatever at anytime. Since then he continues to be loud late at night.

What shall I do to handle this situation? FYI, this is a condominium community. The building was built of wood so sound transmits easily across the floors.

[lisag81]

I have no solution - just wanted to say I feel your pain. The man who lives below us is a chef and doesn't get home from work until 11pm-midnight most nights. Then he's blasting action movies, talking on the phone, basically up and making all kinds of noise until 4-5am sometimes. It's AWFUL. I've tried being nice and that backfired, then I tried reporting him to the building manager and that hasn't made any impact at all either. I think we're just stuck with lousy neighbors.

[CaliTerp07]

Option 1: Call the cops, and repeatedly report noise complaints. I assume this is more than just talking--more along the lines of shouting or yelling?

Option 2: $5 ear plugs and/or a white noise machine

[LoveAlbuquerque]

Originally Posted by CaliTerp07

Option 1: Call the cops, and repeatedly report noise complaints. I assume this is more than just talking--more along the lines of shouting or yelling?

They are from India. He probably makes international calls to India. He's consistently loud. If I call the cop, will the cop stop him from talking to people over the phone? He seems a little headstrong.

[LoveAlbuquerque]

Originally Posted by lisag81

I have no solution - just wanted to say I feel your pain. The man who lives below us is a chef and doesn't get home from work until 11pm-midnight most nights. Then he's blasting action movies, talking on the phone, basically up and making all kinds of noise until 4-5am sometimes. It's AWFUL. I've tried being nice and that backfired, then I tried reporting him to the building manager and that hasn't made any impact at all either. I think we're just stuck with lousy neighbors.

Did you ask the previous tenant about any noise issues in this apartment, before you moved here?

[snowdenscold]

Is this at a different place than the events described in http://www.city-data.com/forum/north...ight-11pm.html ? (since you said 7 weeks ago that you were considering moving out early in 6 weeks from then)

[springfieldva]

Have you tried sleeping with the t.v. on, low volume? That often drowns out any neighbor noise.

[LoveAlbuquerque]

Originally Posted by snowdenscold

Is this at a different place than the events described in http://www.city-data.com/forum/north...ight-11pm.html ? (since you said 7 weeks ago that you were considering moving out early in 6 weeks from then)

Snowdenscold: You are right. This is a difference place.

I broke my lease there because the neighbor there had a party every night. I was in a hurry to find another apartment due to being eager to get out of that place, and I found this place quickly.

Before I moved here, I talked to the departing tenant to make sure there was no major noise issue. She told me that she broke her lease here for job reason after living here for several months, and I trusted her.

To me, this is like out of the frying pan and into the fire.

[LoveAlbuquerque]

Originally Posted by springfieldva

Have you tried sleeping with the t.v. on, low volume? That often drowns out any neighbor noise.

You're probably right in that background noise helps one to sleep. For example, I was able to sleep last night due to the hurricane noise. However, having background noise lowers the quality of my sleep.

[Carlingtonian]

If the guy is just talking on the phone but is loud, I think you'll have better luck asking in a nice way. Try to find a way to run into him in the hallway, at the mailboxes, or some other public area. Then say how you don't want to get along and respect his right to make phone calls, etc., but that you would really appreciate it if he could help you out by trying to talk at lower volume. Give that a shot.

Shoot, if you really wanna try the "flies with honey" approach, bring over some small gift and then raise this issue. Maybe he could try talking on the phone in a different room of the house.

I think this would be a hard situation to bring in the noise law for, because in most places, there has to be some measurable high volume audible outside the residence. If he's just talking, it's likely it isn't really that loud--just loud enough to keep you awake.