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You cant just jump up and move. There are such things as leases,! Everyone has a right to peace without interruption from others. True you cant tell a person how to walk, but the other person should be courteous enough to think of the neighbor below. I'm going through the same thing and I can't simply ignore it when I am a quiet respectful considerate neighbor. When a person doesn't care enough to do things decent and in order they need to live in a cave. They dont belong in civilization. You dont know the degree of the stomping so you cant really have an opinion on the matter, until it truly happens to you,
ITA- Since the "family from hell" moved in upstairs sleep has become a thing of the past. Loud thumping, banging, and a sound akin to stampeding animals can be heard throughout the day and night. They claim it is their children, but unless their children never sleep, it's highly doubtful. Heavy walking would seem like a blessing compared to the level of noise we experience. They also have been known to throw loud parties, stomp the floor on purpose, and fight with her boyfriend without any thought of how it affects anyone else. The previous neighbors were whisper quiet, so it's not the structure of the building here, it's the attitude of the tenant. In all seriousness, when the noise is constantly happening, it begins to wear on your physically and mentally. Nobody wants to be "that neighbor" who calls the police and management constantly, but when someone's lack of decency begins to affect your life in a negative way, you have to stand up for yourself. I doubt we'll get much assistance from police or management, but we are going to keep trying. The person is very much aware that the noise level is an issue, but she just doesn't care. Instead of resting for a full work day tomorrow, I'm on here looking up noise ordinances in my city. FML
ITA- Since the "family from hell" moved in upstairs sleep has become a thing of the past. Loud thumping, banging, and a sound akin to stampeding animals can be heard throughout the day and night. They claim it is their children, but unless their children never sleep, it's highly doubtful. Heavy walking would seem like a blessing compared to the level of noise we experience. They also have been known to throw loud parties, stomp the floor on purpose, and fight with her boyfriend without any thought of how it affects anyone else. The previous neighbors were whisper quiet, so it's not the structure of the building here, it's the attitude of the tenant. In all seriousness, when the noise is constantly happening, it begins to wear on your physically and mentally. Nobody wants to be "that neighbor" who calls the police and management constantly, but when someone's lack of decency begins to affect your life in a negative way, you have to stand up for yourself. I doubt we'll get much assistance from police or management, but we are going to keep trying. The person is very much aware that the noise level is an issue, but she just doesn't care. Instead of resting for a full work day tomorrow, I'm on here looking up noise ordinances in my city. FML
Call your local police dept or city office...they can tell you what you need to know about noise ordinances.
those noise ordinances will cover the fighting and the partying, but the walking, thumping and banging are considered 'daily living noise' and you're going to have to live with it. You can't 'prove' they're doing on purpose, you feel that way, but you have no idea what's going on.
Call your local police dept or city office...they can tell you what you need to know about noise ordinances.
those noise ordinances will cover the fighting and the partying, but the walking, thumping and banging are considered 'daily living noise' and you're going to have to live with it. You can't 'prove' they're doing on purpose, you feel that way, but you have no idea what's going on.
I am living through this as well, so I can sympathize with those who complain about the upstairs noises. The people upstairs from me have awful squeaky floors and the noise really gets to us. Even my cat jumps sometimes! I have gotten more used to it than I was in the beginning, but I still hate it. LUCKILY, my lease is up at the end of the year, so I will be moving then.
I just chalk this up to a lesson. Never, ever live below someone. Unless, possibly, you are sure you are moving into a building or complex that has adequate soundproofing. Even then, after this experience, I would still insist on a top floor.
I had to join just to respond to this as someone with personal experience (six moves to find the right place), a dash of psychology education, and a family who raised her to have a little empathy. It's encouraging to see so many people banding together about this. Haven't seen a post like this reading through, so here's the deal specifically with footsteps/loud walking, something the cops and landlord really aren't obligated to help with by law:
1. Some people CANNOT just "get used to" the noise. Whether you were raised in a detached home, are losing a bit of lower-Hz hearing, or just fall into the personality (Myers-Briggs) category that can't handle excessive sensory stimulation, it might be impossible for you to get used to it. If you find the noise is bothering you more and more over time, you're not a fan of crowds, or you prefer to work in a quieter environment, you're probably one of these people. Conditions like chronic pain and PTSD contribute as well.
Don't let the shallow thinkers telling you to "get over it" get to you. Usually, the people who are being loud are not this type and can't understand why it bothers you so much, hence the too-often-seen flippant attitude. Your very best bet is to ensure you live on the top floor so that the only noises you hear are ones that take effort to make and can therefore easily be changed. Much more realistic than "just buy a house" - who the heck rents if they have the money to buy?
2. Earplugs and white noise won't usually help footsteps. Those deep, low vibrations will cut right into earplugs and in fact earplugs can make you more sensitive to noise overall or even make the footsteps sound louder because they silence everything but. Brown or **pink** noise (you can buy or download high-quality MP3s) or background MP3s with thunderstorms and the like (variant, lower Hz noises) will help to break up lower vibrations. My air purifier is my saving grace for this (normal fans don't work as well). Air conditioners can be wonderful as well. Not always allowed year-round, but of you sleep better with yours on you NEED a pink noise generator of some kind.
3. It doesn't matter how flat-footed/inelegant/heavy you are, anyone can walk quietly. Unless you've lived alone since you were born, you know how to pad quietly when everyone else in your dwelling is asleep. Do this in an apartment even if you live alone; just like family members sleeping in other rooms, you're in the same building and most are soundproofed to minimum and therefore cheaper standards. Being a landlord is damned expensive these days and unless they live there and own the building, trust me, they don't care as you're usually locked in to the lease.
However, you cannot expect someone to make an effort to walk quietly outside of noise law hours unless you think it's bad enough that the police would agree with you - sorry! If you work nights and sleep throughout the day, unfortunately it is up to your neighbours to be polite, and if you're up at night, too bad for you, you need to keep it down. ((EDIT: This goes for everyone, but YES, some people do walk louder than others and yes, it does sound like stomping - most people don't need to make an effort to walk quietly at night in a building with basic insulation. Weight doesn't usually affect this unless extreme. It takes less muscle control to "stomp" and you'll find the culprits are often short-legged (so have the space to make lazy strides) or not athletic. Most of us save this type of walking for long straightaways and outdoors. If you walk the same indoors and out, you're probably a "stomper".))
4. It's cliche, but getting regular exercise (more than walking the dog) and increasing your health helps in every way. Not with extreme noise, of course, but in terms of making sure you're the right amount of tired at the right time, lowering your stress level and chance of exacerbating health conditions, and increasing your confidence help with every aspect of this issue. I won't go on about this one.
Overall, footsteps and like noises are a whole other category unto themselves. It doesn't matter if the complainant doesn't wake up to squealing bus brakes or train whistles outside; they are NOT the same monster at all. Plus, other noise problems people mention here ARE actually the responsibility of landlords and law enforcement to deal with.
Apartment living usually sucks; fact is, us tenants are usually stressed enough with money issues and crappy buildings whose maintenance and quality we have no control over. We're often paying the price of a mortgage for no return. If noise machines, living on the top floor, asking nicely, and complaining to the landlord/police are not working, you have to move. Moving also sucks, and no, it's not fair, but the toll loud neighbours, and especially rude loud neighbours, can actually take on your health is well worth the temporary stress and cost if trying to get used to it just isn't cutting it. Although technically most place have by-laws against noise in apartments at all times, the landlord or building manager has to be there to hear it in order to give a noise complaint and if the person hasn't listened to you, they're probably an arse and you risk retaliation on their part - extra noise now that they know it bothers you, or even vandalism and things you can't prove or would be too costly to prove in court.
Your local landlord and tenant board can tell you how to get out of a lease if things are too bad to wait it out and the landlord won't offer a transfer. If it IS that bad, look into transferring your lease or subletting the unit with the option to take over. You can place an ad on Kijiji. Don't sit there and take it, for your sake and for that of future tenants if we're ever going to making better soundproofing a requirement. In a world where you can live in a corporate, inspected, to-code building and still hear someone pee through the walls (true story, as though you could doubt it after this thread), you gotta take a little action!
Sounds like you got my previous neighbor who lived above me.
She would stomp and throw her shoes once she got home, it also sounded like she was moving furniture on a daily basis.
Didn't help when she would come home stumbling drunk every friday-sunday, it felt like an elephant was living above me.
I came from a city of about 126 thousand people and was relocated to a city on the outskirts of a big city where I could still hear coyotes and see cattle roaming around. Well I was moved again now to a city of about 500 thousand and into my first apartment. What a change, the first night I was cold tired and just worn out and off to bed for some rest I thought! I started hearing some strange noises after things got settled down they got louder and louder, up one side of my apartment then down the other, by now I was ducking for cover footsteps! or rather an elephant herd. To me it was the most horrible noise I have ever heard and I have been around some noisy places, my dogs were trying to get under my bed it was so loud. The next morning I thought it was a fluke and people are more considerate than this or so I thought after I got up to make coffee I was greeted by that horrible stomping again. Man I was thinking of I already signed the lease and no way out and besides I couldn't afford to move again and I didn't have the time. After call after call to the main office and them having to go up there seems like they would evict them and them are a petite young lady her 3 year old and the brother that's never there! What to do. Aughhhhh. I don't like city's, apartments and herds of wild Elephants and like one story I want my sanity back.
Yeah, I've lived in apartments for the past 13 years and I've had my share of jerk neighbors. First apartment I ever lived in - had a guy living upstairs who got loud. Once he did something up there that cracked the ceiling and made popcorn from it fall all in the floor. Called the cops on that one because it was incredibly excessive. Didn't really stop him though. Finally he moved and I got some peace.
After that, I vowed NEVER to live below the top floor. However, there are plenty of ways for downstairs neighbors to be just as annoying. I had another neighbor downstairs who slammed her front door so hard (EVERY TIME she entered and left) that it would shake my entire apartment.
I have always been very considerate of my neighbors. It's become habit to walk on my toes so that I make as little noise as possible - course my husband is the exact opposite, which really bothers me. I tell him all the time to stop walking so loudly. It bothers me hearing the noise from his stomping around! Thankfully now we live in the 2nd floor unit (there is no 3rd floor) and have only garages below, so I don't have to worry about anything except the neighbors opening and closing their garage door at all hours.
I agree with the poster way back in this thread who said that if you have never dealt with annoying/noisy neighbors, you don't know what we go through. It's incredibly difficult for some people (like me) to just get over it.
I registered to this forum to tell my story, and maybe help. I am familiar with CA and CO renters rights.
I am 30 years old. I grew up in a middle class family who has always lived in detached houses of various sizes, so I have never experienced living in an apartment or community complex until I was older and eventually moved out.
I got married in 2007 and moved into a pretty nice 2 story unit in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Very nice apartment community, it reminded us of a vacation resort you would see at Hawaii. Problem with this place was that it was in a upper class neighborhood where mommy and daddy would kick their kids out at 18, and pay for all their living expenses. So you had these rich youngsters (with no boundaries or respect) driving 30-40 mph in 15 mph zones, throwing trash everywhere, parties every night at all hours, over populated pool area, etc...
Our apartment was a 2 level condo in a 3 story building with underground community parking garage. Our main living area (kitchen, living room, dining, entrance) were all upstairs on the middle floor (ground/entrance level), and both bathrooms and bedrooms downstairs on lower level. On top of us on the third floor was a 600sf studio. Of course one of those people I mentioned living on the 3rd floor studio above us.
This person had people over all the time, in and out. He would not work or go anywhere. Just stayed home all day and night with different people coming over, every which hour of every day. They would pound when they would walk, pound when opening closing the doors or sliding glass door to balcony, pound when doing anything. This neighbor also had subwoofer speakers setup and would have parties that would last from 8PM to 3-4AM, on any given night. He would also play shoot-em up video games and blast the volume so it would be like WWIII upstairs when he was playing. 9 times out of 10 when I would go on our balcony I would smell pot and the gurgling sound of a bong being used by him or his guests.
My main issue was with the way they would walk at all hours, and the music/sound FX they would produce. I never experienced any of that before in my whole life. So I was very annoyed.
After about a month of "trying to get used to it" one night at 1AM I decided to go up there and tell him personally to cut the music and pounding. Our room was on the lowest level and we would still hear the excessive pounding from walking around and bass from the music. I went up very politely and told the guy to keep it down. He was sorry and told the 15 or so people in his apt to "walk softly". I said thank you and went back down. About 10 minutes later the noises got even louder, with chants of "***** ass neighbor" coming from their balcony and echoing all around the courtyard of our building. I started video taping when this started. The party died down 2 hours later. The next morning I took the video to the property management office and told them about my encounter the night before. We came to the conclusion that it was harassment, but could not prove that it was me that the yelling was directed. I then mentioned they specifically said "neighbor" so they were harassing someone. Finally management told us they would talk to them about it. Later that day I received a call from property staff telling me they left a letter of noise complaint on the front door of the noisy neighbor and had warned them that their lease forbids excessive noise after 10PM, a maximum occupancy of people in the studio (fire emergency reasons), no smoking of any kind in the apartment, and no harassing neighbors. I was satisfied but reluctant to think that would help at all. Two days passed with the same noises and same amount of people going in and out at all hours. Then on the third day after management called about the letter, the person was throwing a huge party upstairs like I had never seen or heard from them before. His guests were all around the courtyard drinking, smoking, yelling, urinating, etc. Upstairs in the apt. was like a herd of elephants running non stop.
I knew things would get out of hand if I went up there, especially as mad as I was. I called the cops instead. About an hour after I called the police the music was off and the pounding subdued slightly. 5 minutes after everything calmed I got a knock from LAPD. At my door was the noisy tenant with two officers. One of the officers said "Good evening, this young man would like to tell you something". The noisy tenant then said "Sorry about the noise, I'm getting evicted tomorrow and threw one last party at my pad. I didn't mean to be disruptive". I told him to please keep it down for the remainder of the night (3AM or so at that point). The LAPD officers left and all the guests were mostly gone by that point.
It turned out that property management left the warning letter on his front door the day they said they would. Later that same day the tenant went to the management office with the note and slammed it on the managers desk demanding answers, yelling and spewing obscenities. Staff came to the conclusion that his behavior in the office was grounds for a 3 day notice to be evicted. The guy left a few days later, but not without throwing a rock into our sliding glass door while we were not there. No harm done though as maintenance replaced the sliding glass door that same day without any issue. No proof who done it, but it was obvious.
2 months later someone else moved in...Not as loud and inconsiderate, but still pounding when walking about. Nothing intentional or with malice, but obviously poor/cheap design in the building for upper and middle floors.
The property started construction/renovations outside with dust everywhere and elevators being out of service for some parts of the day. My wife was 1 month pregnant, and received orders from her doctor to avoid the construction dust and over-use of stairs. We were able to break our lease without penalty and move into a upper unit in a different complex close by. 2 years of peace and quiet there.
A job opportunity came up in Denver recently so we moved. Unfortunately we had to find a place right away without notice, so we rented a place in Denver on the first day of looking. This turned out to be another nightmare...Not as bad as before, but had to go through anxiety and stress all over again...This time with our 3 year old, and our new baby. Ill get to that story if anyone is interested another time but I will get to the point now...
Different states have different laws in regards to noise in rented dwellings. Every person should research what their rights are as a renter, in your respective state. Sometimes you can find loopholes where you can legally break your lease IE: health code violations, construction violations, neighbors breaking certain rules on their lease, exceeding max occupancy (common), etc. In CA you can find a way to break a lease if you truly are (and can prove) being harassed, or a victim of excessive noise after 10PM, but not in CO. For people who walk around upstairs loudly, or have loud children who run around...There isn't really much you can do in any state that I am aware of. If you believe the building is unstable causing the creaking and loud pounding, you can request for property management to provide paperwork showing their inspections all passed and their permits are all up to date. This might scare some landlords if they are unsure the building inspection is up to date, and you might get an offer for relocation, or lease break. Sometimes it's worth it to pay the penalty and move out, and into an upper unit in a different complex. Some apt complexes allow you to relocate in the same community, but sign a new 1 year lease. It's different everywhere. Do your research for your situation and see what might be your relief.
Everyone's situation is different. So some of this might not, and will not work in your specific situation. It might even make things worse...So please don't take this as instruction. Do your research and see what's applicable to your problem. I hope you all find solace as I finally have. Good luck!
I've lived in my share of noisy places too. It really can drive you mad. It's like someone is invading your space. Home is where you are supposed to go to unwind and relax and to have to dread going home because of noise is a very sad situation (and one I've been in).
Different states have different laws in regards to noise in rented dwellings. Every person should research what their rights are as a renter, in your respective state. Do your research for your situation and see what might be your relief.
Not to mention do your due diligence where the particular building is concerned and which point has been stressed over and over again on various forum threads here. Go and see the unit a couple of times and primarily in "prime times" such as evenings and weekends when residents are generally home. If you sign on the dotted line at 11AM when everyone is at work and you move in to find that the 9-5ers stomp around, blast their TV and stereo systems even if only until 10PM, you have only yourself to blame for the inevitable misery you're going to have to deal with for the term of your lease.
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Ranting helps, but please read this!
It's encouraging to see so many people banding together about this. Haven't seen a post like this reading through, so here's the deal specifically with footsteps/loud walking, something the cops and landlord really aren't obligated to help with by law:
I know what you are all going through...
