Originally Posted by heather03
I just wanted to share my story with people to find advice on what to do next. I've been living in a duplex with my boyfriend for the past 6 years. Each side is split between a top apartment and a bottom apartment. It's a really nice place besides all the issues we've been having with our neighbours.
The first time we moved in, there was a group of young college students living downstairs and they were very respectful and kind. We never had any problems with them. They did drink and party but they did that outside and never at night. We lived with them for about 2 years and then they moved out.
The next tenants, the tenants that are currently our neighbours, have not been so kind. It was a father, a mother and their 3 or 4 kids. They were all our neighbours for about 2 years. At first, they seemed nice and we did try to get along with them. The father was injured at his workplace and we sent him a get-well card along with a $20 cherry cheese cake. He really liked it.
The problems started when he would get into screaming matches with his girlfriend/wife, I'm assuming girlfriend. We had to listen to that for a few hours every once in a while. And then their kids would constantly drum on the walls, stomp around loudly, and even bang on the roof (our floor). They seemed to have no concept of controlling their kids. They would also slam their door really hard, they slammed it so hard that it shook the whole apartment and made me jump out of bed.
We, at first, tried going downstairs and talk to them. We asked them to stop slamming the door so loud. The father made an excuse: "My arms are sore so I close harder than I mean to." We said that's fine and left it at that. Then the door slamming continued and continued... His sore arms seem to be lasting a long time. So we went downstairs a second time to ask him again to stop slamming the door. The father made a second excuse: "The door hinges are stiff so he needs to slam it in order to close the door." We just looked at him with perplexity but we let that one slide too. (Why not just oil the hinges?) And then the door slamming continued again. So, we went downstairs a third and final time to ask them to stop slamming the door. He made a different excuse this time: "My kids are slamming the door." Why not control them? And the door slamming continued, we just gave up at that point.
We finally decided to complain to the landlord. We didn't complain about the kids because you know... They're kids. The noise they made seemed reasonable. The landlord talked to the couple downstairs about the door slamming and he made the same excuse to him that it was just their kids. The door slamming did stop for a while but then it started up again and we finally just let it go. It's still occurring today. The primary reason we complained is on occasion we could hear them close their door quietly. So why not close it quietly all the time? Not to mention, the previous tenants never felt the need to slam their door that hard even when they were partying. They always closed it courteously.
One note I'd like to make about this is after we started complaining to the landlord, we suspect he was outside our door eavesdropping on us whenever we had a conversation about him. We suspected this because after every conversation we had, I could hear his door closing quietly. After EVERY conversation.
Now, after 2 years the couple split and the mother moved out with her kids. It's just been the guy downstairs for the past 3 years or so and he gets his kids seasonally. It's been downhill since then though.
He often got drunk and partied with his friends inside the apartment, it was loud and disruptive. We didn't complain about it because partying and getting drunk is certainly normal. There was one strange morning when police started banging on his door. He was arrested and taken away in the back of a police car. At this sight, we celebrated and thought for sure he was gone for good. But then the next day he was back. He was quiet for a few weeks, never got drunk, door slamming stopped and he didn't bang on our walls anymore. But it must've been just his guilt wearing off because it all started up again a few weeks later. We don't know why he was arrested but we were glad to have a few weeks of peace.
This is the scary part, there was one night when he got really drunk. He was alone and his kids weren't there (to my knowledge). He was outside at 3AM playing with his son's skateboard. We looked out the window to see what the noise was and he saw us. He immediately went inside and started banging and kicking on our door and yelling in-audibly. We barricaded ourselves in our bedroom out of fear for him breaking our door down. We left our phone in the living room through all the excitement so we never called the police. He finally settled down and we called the landlord in the morning about it. He had a very serious chat with him telling him if he did it again he would be evicted.
And after that, the drunk parties completely stopped but he took it very childishly because he started slamming the door more frequently and harder and he constantly banged on our walls.
There was one week when he got the bright idea to start blasting music all hours of the day. Starting from 10-12AM until between 5PM and 11PM it would be nothing but blaring music. We went downstairs twice during that week to ask him to turn down his music. He listened to us but then the music blasting started again the next day. After a week, we finally called the landlord and complained. The landlord had another talk with him and the music blasting stopped.
More recently, he had his kids downstairs. Sometime at 4AM, we heard his children screaming... These weren't normal "joyful kid's screams" these were really upset screams. It scared me half to death and me and my boyfriend jumped out of our beds. We heard the kids screaming and we heard a lot of banging and we could also hear him yelling at his kids at the top of his lungs. Then his family pulled up in 2 cars and they started banging on his door. I distinctly remember them saying, "What's going on in there?! Open the door! What's going on in there?!" Shortly after that, the police showed up. The police arrested him again and took him away. The family took the kids and they left. He was gone for about 3 days and then he was back. Just like last time, he was quiet for a few weeks but then went straight back to his door slamming and banging on our floor.
Now, I'd like to make a note here. We never once complained about the banging on the walls and the roof because we could never tell if it was him or his kids. But sometimes it would be sketchy because we'd see the kids driving away and then banging on the walls would mysteriously continue. So there's that. Recently, we finally got fed up with the banging on the walls after 5 years of putting up with it. We complained to the landlord. He did talk to him but he pinned the blame on his kids and the landlord couldn't do anything about that so... After our complaint, the banging continued more often and louder than before. Here's where our eavesdropping belief may have been confirmed. One day, I was talking to my boyfriend about recording the constant banging with a video camera and sending it to the landlord for him to see. After that conversation, I heard our neighbour's door closing quietly. And like magic, the daily bangings completely stopped. However, he started banging about once or twice a day. He bangs once on our floor very loud and very hard and he does that at random times during the day. It always makes me jump when he does that. He only does it once and at random times so I can't effectively record it without 24/7 recording equipment which we don't have.
We've tried complaining each time he does this but the landlord gave us a warning that we're complaining too much... So now, he's completely ignoring ALL our emails and phone calls. Our only interaction with him now is depositing the rent through the bank.
My opinions about the situation:
Those are all the major events among many smaller events that I've left out for post cleanliness. But this is the general idea of what we had to deal with and are currently still dealing with.
So, he got smart and is now avoiding being caught via recording. Without 24/7 recording equipment we can't do anything about his random fist smashing on our floor.
We also can't move, we can only afford a $750 apartment and we've only seen one at that price in the past 3 years and someone beat us to it. We live in a small town so housing is scarce.
The good news:
We're saving money for a move across Canada and away from this town. But we won't have enough money for the move until 2019.
So we need to put up with him for another 3 years.
I've been thinking this might be a good opportunity to square things off with our neighbour. See, every time he bangs on our wall or roof we've never banged back. But since the landlord is ignoring us and since we can't move and since we can't record him anymore. We might just have to start banging back just as hard. What do you think? Should we just weather it out for the next 3 years?
Thank you for reading my story and please let us know what you think. Share with us if you had any similar experiences with either your own tenants or neighbours. I would also like to hear from any landlords that may be on this forum. What would you have done in this situation?
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