Noisy neighbor (renter) (renters, record, noise, landlord)

[mkforu]

I own a condo and have a renter that lives next door. She is the only renter in this building. Unfortunately she plays her TV / stereo too loud and I had to leave a note on her doorstep 3 times asking to turn the noise down because it was too loud. This is common practice in this neighborhood - other owners leave notes because it alleviates confrontation. I personally do not like the confrontation but obviously the polite way hasn't worked either.

Also a few months ago I left a page of the C & Rs on her doorstep which states "loud noise that disturbs other owners is prohibited" in this neighborhood. Well here it is 5pm on a weekend and the TV is loud enough that it comes through my dining room wall. I have emailed the HOA for the first time today detailing this noise problem and asking the HOA to contact the Owner. In my HOA the owner gets fined if their renters get out of hand and don't follow the rules. I am thinking about calling the police at this point and have them give her a warning so I don't have to listen to the noise today. What do you think? Am I stirring the pot too much or would you call the police now and start getting the complaints on record?

[Me007gold]

Originally Posted by mkforu

I am thinking about calling the police at this point and have them give her a warning so I don't have to listen to the noise today. What do you think? Am I stirring the pot too much or would you call the police now and start getting the complaints on record?

Its 5pm, I dont think you could get them for a noise violation, you can ask them to turn it down, but unless its "after hours" i dont see much being done, this is comming from some one who lives in a condo as well. Some people are just inconsiderate of others.

[mkforu]

Originally Posted by Me007gold

Its 5pm, I dont think you could get them for a noise violation, you can ask them to turn it down, but unless its "after hours" i dont see much being done, this is comming from some one who lives in a condo as well. Some people are just inconsiderate of others.

They do get a lot of calls for noise in this neighborhood but I am not sure what the timeframe usually is. I thought of getting it "on record" since I've already asked several times to keep the noise down.

[Kim in FL]

Go ahead and call the police at 5pm for a loud TV...and let us know when they stop laughing at you.

There is no need to leave notes on their door...you need to contact the HOA and the owner/landlord and file a complaint with them.

[STT Resident]

Originally Posted by mkforu

This is common practice in this neighborhood - other owners leave notes because it alleviates confrontation. I personally do not like the confrontation but obviously the polite way hasn't worked either.

Also a few months ago I left a page of the C & Rs on her doorstep which states "loud noise that disturbs other owners is prohibited" in this neighborhood. What do you think?

It seems to be a common mistake these days to confuse a friendly chat with someone about noise issues with "confrontation", the classic definition of which is, "To come face to face with, especially with defiance or hostility".

If I'm unknowingly disturbing someone for any reason I would have absolutely no problem with someone coming to my door, politely introducing themselves with a smile and saying something along the lines of, "Sorry to bother you but do you think you could possibly turn down your TV a bit? The walls here are really thin and the sound really comes through", and go from there.

What would irk me is (a) someone leaving a note on my doorstep three times (what, you can't even bother to come over and talk to me, meet me as your neighbor?) and (b) follow it up with the relevant pages of the rules. Now you've really ticked me off. I'm playing my TV and stereo at perfectly normal volume during normal reasonable hours and the very fact that you couldn't be bothered to come and talk to me personally frankly made me leery about talking to YOU personally because you may well be a total nut job.

You see how this all escalates so completely unnecessarily?

Go ahead and call the police, complain to the HOA and anyone else. Unless your neighbor is blasting her TV or stereo at major decibels and between 10PM and 7AM, you don't have a leg to stand on. It might have been so easily dealt with if you'd paid less attention to what "other owners" do and used plain common sense. Let's hope you never go out and leave your water running one of these days. Your new neighbor might see it and ignore it instead of immediately alerting someone.