Neighbor with subwoofer nightmare (agreements, evictions, reasonable, money)

[Paperwork]

Originally Posted by Kim in FL

with or without an early termination fee? They can't deny you breaking your lease, but they can deny you doing it scot free.

Glad it worked for you in the end.

Yes, it was a mutual quit agreement. No penalty.

And thanks -- even though things got a little testy between us at the end, I can't deny some of your outstanding feedback in the thread.

That goes for STT Resident as well.

[Genghis]

Originally Posted by Paperwork

Nope. I proposed to break my lease with a 30 days notice, and they obliged, seemingly reluctantly. But maybe they wanted me to go as bad as I wanted to go at this point. That's 100% fine by me.

Since the day I moved in, it has been one issue after another anyway.

In these larger apartment complexes it's not as big an issue with them as you might think, to have someone leave with 30 days notice. A lot of places have like a 40 percent turnover rate per year and they're used to constantly finding new tenants. So if they're not glutted with empty units or people leaving, it would just mean another place to fill and they often know how to do this.

So are you going to actually stick out the full 30 days?

[jen5276]

That's why I told you originally to just ask. See how simple?

[ChicagoMeO]

Originally Posted by Paperwork

hallelujah!!!!!! Im free!!!!!!!!!!!!! I talked to management and they are letting me out of my lease with 30 days notice! what a monkey off my back!!

Congratulations - what was the thing that made it happen? I'm glad for you!

Would you like to share what happened? this is great news!

[Paperwork]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

Congratulations - what was the thing that made it happen? I'm glad for you!

Would you like to share what happened? this is great news!

I just followed most of the recommendations from the community here.

Also, this leads in well to a post I wanted to make, providing a consolidation of all the advice I got, for anybody else who finds themselves in a similar situation:

1. Document the first sound issue, and then try to get evidence of it (record it, etc.) before you bring it up to the offenders attention (especially when it comes to bass related sound disturbances). That way, if the offender continues to make sound disturbances, you have evidence of when it was most offensive/blatant.

My neighbor here for example, instead of killing the bass/subwoofer altogether (the walls are very thin here, this is the last place to run a subwoofer in), would use the subwoofer, but at lower levels, so it was harder to pinpoint/record/call the police, etc. but it was still heavy enough to be disturbing (kind of hard to explain, read ca_north's posts in this thread to get an idea of what I mean).

2. Notify the neighbor that you can hear their bass. I tried the direct approach, and it blew up in my face. You might want to educate yourself about what kind of person the neighbor appears to be first: Do they seem friendly, considerate, educated, professional? If so, a polite knock on the door and a friendly greeting/notification of their sound should be all that it takes.

If your neighbor appears to be a thug, then contact your landlord, and have them contact the sound offender. You should also let your landlord know that you have a recording of the sound disturbance, so that if the neighbor tries to deny it, or play dumb, or counter-blame you for sound, your neighbor will be stopped in his/her tracks.

You also want to try to keep as much contact between yourself and your landlord in writing (email is best) so that your on going dialogue is date stamped, and easily accessible. You will be glad you have this paper trail, in the event that you need to continue to escalate the issue, and/or end up having to defend yourself in court.

3. Document any on going sound disturbances, with date, time, duration... (and then let your landlord know about them, in writing, when they occur).

My spreadsheet is simple, and the columns look like this:
|Date | Time | Event | Action Taken | Result

Example:
9-30-2014 | 8:51a | In living room reading book, heard disruptive bass from unit xx for yy amount of time | Notified Mr. Landlord Johnson of disturbance | Mr. Landlord Johnson returned my call and sent unit xx a "formal warning"

4. If there's still sound disturbances at this point, find your local city ordinance laws, and if the neighbor is violating them--and in most cases they would be if their sound is coming into your residence--call the police. This will give you further documentation on the situation (police report), and a witness (the police).

Notify the landlord of the disturbance (in writing of course). Let them know you have a police report, a witness, and a recording of the sound. Also remind the landlord that the offender is violating not only the law, but the terms of the lease agreement (as most leases will have some language in them about disturbing neighbors, quiet times, etc.)

All of this should REALLY put pressure on the landlord to resolve the situation. The landlord, at this point, would also have all the evidence/documentation he possibly could need to legally evict the offending tenant.

And of course, add all of these events to your spreadsheet.

5. If after all of this, there's still sound disturbances, continue to call the police every time, continue to contact the landlord in writing and notify them, and continue to document.

Ask the landlord to let you out of your lease, or to evict the offending tenant. If they are uncooperative, threaten constructive eviction on the grounds of covenant of quiet/peaceful enjoyment.

You will have a ton of supportive documentation to make one hell of a case in court if they try to penalize you for breaking your lease, leaving without notice, etc. Obviously consult an attorney before making any drastic decisions (if at all possible), but it isn't necessarily required.

In most cases, the sound problem will be dead by the time you get to #4 ... but this is the best way, imo, to deal with an especially stubborn/inconsiderate/selfish neighbor, and to really escalate the situation, and get it resolved. Hopefully you won't find yourself having to resort to such drastic measures.

[Fran66]

Originally Posted by Paperwork

Yes, it was a mutual quit agreement. No penalty.

And thanks -- even though things got a little testy between us at the end, I can't deny some of your outstanding feedback in the thread.

That goes for STT Resident as well.

Yes, personally, I've found that STT does have good advice.

[ChicagoMeO]

Paperwork - man you are lucky. my last apartment really sucked and I asked to be let out, it was a slum and the landlord did not let me out until he found a person to take over the last year a two year lease. but I had to pay a concession, you were lucky getting out scot free and right away. I'm glad though for you, sounds like you had a more urgent need to.

[jaydarl]

This has been an informative thread. I also would like to thank the OP for the steady updates. I'm in the same boat, but as a single family home owner. it is not even a nearby neighbor, it is the neighbor on the block behind me across the street. It is not a bad as it used to be, but at one time it was darn close to driving me insane. I know it gave me a bit of PTSD, as I would hear bass even when it wasn't there. Like the OP, I do not expect my neighborhood to be a monastery. The neighbor across the street from me plays music when grilling and washing his car all the time and I enjoy for 1. it is good music and 2. it is not bass heavy so I do not hear it my house. Another neighbor had a crew working on his house for nearly three weeks playing very catchy salsa music, again no problem due to not having excessive bass.

Bass is a mf, and like others have stated I believe low-lifes do it for the sole purpose of spreading their misery.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by Paperwork

The first day I moved in, my living room and kitchen area were vibrating/rattling from the neighbor's subwoofer. I ignored it, hoping it was a one-off event, and went back to unpacking. This killed the whole "new apartment in a central location" excitement that I had about my move almost immediately. I went to bed with stress knowing this could be a longterm issue.

When I woke up, again, my walls/living room/kitchen area was inundated with low heavy bass sound (it's faint, but consistently there, and extremely intruding). This time, I went over to the neighbor to politely ask him to turn down the bass. He became belligerent, stepped up to my face like he wanted to fight, and it became immediately apparent that I was dealing with a mentally unstable aggressive individual. He said vile disgusting things, was intimidating, and generally told me to F*** off. His argument was that if I didn't want to hear the noise, then I should live in a house. His other argument was, that since he's on disability, this is the only enjoyment he gets, and he WILL never change the way he lives because of a neighbor. When I left, he told me to stop acting like a baby, and slammed the door hard as I walked away.

I did get the rest of the day with peace (I didn't hear the sub). The very next day (today), it's back on, and it's REALLY hard to drown out. I don't even want to set anything up in my living room, and I don't want to go into my kitchen. I don't want to talk to the neighbor about the issue anymore either, as I'm threatened for my safety due to his reaction on the first visit. I mentioned this ordeal to the property management company, but I got the vibe from them that they don't really care.

Anytime I'm in the kitchen, I'm constantly hearing this heavy drum-beat esque sound. And it makes my blood pressure go up. I can't put into words how heavy/disruptive this sound is (it's hard to describe -- it isn't loud, it's just there, and faintly consistent, off and on all day long). Normal apartment noise is fine to me. Train, local business/traffic, kids outside playing, random creaking from neighbors walking, etc. (All of this you get used to). I've been living in apartments my entire life...nothing compares to this sub/bass sound though.

And today, while in my bedroom, I heard loud bass coming from my downstairs neighbor (this was very temporary, but exacerbated the issue).

What are my options here as a tenant? I can't live like this for the next 11 months, I don't want to deceitfully market this place to prospective tenants (e.g. find somebody to take over my lease -- nobody will, if they know they are surrounded by 2 people who have sub woofers) and I'm on the hook for the rent until the lease expires with no buy out.

I've been here a total of 3 days!

The answer many people don't want to hear is that it takes raw courage to deal with these noisy dregs. They know full well what they're causing, and many of them are criminals in other areas. Otherwise you're stuck with a long slog of trying to pretend they aren't worthless people and trying to be polite when they don't deserve it.

Even something other than obnoxious bass can be bad enough. Headphones should be mandatory in all shared-wall settings. Good people use them voluntarily.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by rezfreak

Turn your music up louder? Ear plugs?

Mindless suggestions. You can't usually block bass with earplugs, anyhow. And nobody should be forced to compromise their hearing when it's needed for safety.