So my fiancé and I recently moved from a "multifamily" housing complex (they called them townhomes, but they were basically small, 900sq ft, 2 story 2 bedroom apartments with no basement) to a homeowner townhome community in a better part of town.
The houses were built in the mid 90s, and they are typical wood frame construction townhomes. 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath. About double the sq footage we had at our old place. We are renting from the owner of the house who bought it in 2007 from the original owner. The landlord/owner is a young lady who recently moved in with her significant other and is renting out her house. The house is PERFECT for us, and we love pretty much everything about it. Before we moved in, we asked the landlord/owner if she ever hears the neighbors on either side. She said no, never. As a matter of fact, she said she doesn't think the (offending) neighbor ever even has any guests over.
We moved in on Saturday Sept 1. The following Saturday (Sept 8) I started hearing loud bass around 4pm from the offending neighbor. My fiance was out of town, so I dealt with the noise because I was busy unpacking and such. The bass stopped around 8pm. The next day (Sunday) at 9:30am I was awoken by what I thought was a thunderstorm. Upon further investigation, it was the bass from our the neighbor. The bass continued all day, literally. 9:30am until we went to bed at 10:30pm. My fiance was so upset and disgusted Sunday evening that we resorted to eating dinner and watching TV in our master bedroom, with the door closed, and the master bathroom sink running to try and drown out the bass.
I believe they were watching movies or football or video games. The bass is absolutely overwhelming and we can hear it in EVERY ROOM of our house, including in a RUNNING shower!
We emailed the owner/landlord asking her if this was common and if she had been dishonest with us. She assured us that this is a new thing and she has NEVER heard anything of the sorts in her 5 years of living there. She suggested we go next door and talk to them.
So Monday when I got home from work I was standing on my deck and noticed that said neighbor had an empty box for a new Harmon Kardon home theater near their trash.
The neighbors got home from work around 6:15pm and by 6:30 we could hear/feel the bass.
So my fiancé and I went next door and spoke to the girl. We were very polite and friendly. She said she just got the home theater system on Saturday because the neighbors on her other side party a lot and blast their music and she needed to drown them out. She told us that it used to be a young couple that lived there, they split up, and now the guy lives there by himself and is always partying with his buddies. So her problem is now my problem. She said she was clueless as to how to turn it down and had to wait for her boyfriend to get home from the Ravens game. Meanwhile we got to listen to the Ravens game from her home theater the rest of the night (delayed 5 mins, she must've been watching on DVR)
Tuesday night we heard more bass, and once again, we spent the evening in our bedroom with the door closed and TV turned up to try and drown out the bass.
We weren't home until late last night so I have no idea of the noise continued.
So today is our 13th day in the new place and we're really questioning wether we want to stay here or not.
Since these are all individually owned houses, I don't know how much pull/clout my landlord will have over their noise. She pretty much as nothing to threaten with other than calling the police, or contacting the homeowners association. I read the HOA by-laws and covenant and the only thing mentioned about noise is external (no speakers outside, or car stereo blasting) and the only thing mentioned about the shared/party wall is that if it's damaged, it's up to each side to repair said damages.
I understand in Maryland there's an implied covenant of quiet enjoyment, but in this situation the landlord cannot guarantee that since she has no power over the neighbors.
So my fiancé are starting to weigh our options.
#1. Continue to ask the neighbors to turn it down every time we hear it. I hate confrontation and this would drive us nuts. Hope and pray they are respectful people and turn off their subwoofer/home theater after we ask enough times.
#2. Bring my home theater home from my storage unit and blast it to drown out their noise (She thinks the bass is bad coming from 1 neighbor, imagine if she got it from both sides!)
#3. Ask the landlord if we can back out of the lease, pack up all the stuff we've unpacked and move.
I don't know what to do. My fiancé is in tears almost every evening because she is so upset. This is one of the main reasons we moved. In her mind we're better off living where we used to live, paying half as much, for the same quality of life (albeit with less space).
WHAT DO I DO?
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