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I am not sure the type of noise would qualify a call to the police. If the drunken, noisy arrival at 3:00 AM happens again, followed by loud crashes, yes, I am considering calling the police. However, scraping a chair back and forth just to be an ass isn't really a police call. I wish it were, but they will just laugh in my face.
New question: is it possible to hear a noise that sounds like it is directly above our heads, but it is actually in another apartment, not above us??
We really want to rent a house, but it's a lot more expensive and really not doable at our income right now. I wear earplugs to bed and run a fan. The earplugs drown out my boyfriend lightly snoring or a car driving by. They do nothing for drowning out the sound caused by dropping heavy objects on the floor above us. What does one do at 4:00 AM to cause such noise? It has to be intentional. We have rights, but no way of exercising them. If he keeps me up again tonight, I'm going to live with my parents. I simply can't function with this, it's ruining my life. The fact nothing is being done and that he can just easily "verify" his whereabouts makes me livid.
Anyone have success with calling the police?
About a year ago, I was at an apartment and the guy downstairs at a subwoofer hooked up to his tv/stereo. He would blast his music at all hours of the night.(I found it strange considering he had a baby there with him) One night, he was blasting his music and it was so loud, the frames on my wall were shaking, I had my tv full blast and still couldn’t hear it! I would always leave the sliding door open for my dog. Well apparently, someone called the cops on this guy. It wasn’t me but note, there were people living next to him downstairs and people living next to me as well. I was outside on the balcony getting something from the storage closet and I heard him arguing with the cop saying he knew it was me who called the cops. (He was yelling at the cop). He said “That midget girl upstairs is here during the day jumping up and down and doesn’t let me sleep when I work nights”.. (Im not a midget but I am short lol) and I wasn’t home during the day since I was at work. Eventually the cop yelled at him and told him to just turn it down. The cop left and this guy turned his music up even louder and began banging on the walls and his ceiling (my floor) and shouting but I couldn’t make out what he was saying due to the music.
I had to stay at my moms for a while because it honestly scared me. This guy went on a rampage just because someone asked him to turn down then noise. I didn’t know what he was capable of. The next day, I talked to the LL about switching apartments and she told me “well Im not supposed to give you this info but he’s moving out in about 2wks so if you wanna wait it out if not, you’ll still have to pay a deposit for the new apartment”. I just stayed at my moms for that time and would go check on my apartment during my lunch hour.
I’d try talking to the LL. You can involve cops but in my experience, it wasn’t much help. Guess it depends on the person youre dealing with.
I just want to say that I completely agree with Apartment Dweller, AppalachianGumbo and LadyGodiva32 on every point they've made.
There is a group of people on this board who get snarky and give the old "move" or "wear earplugs" responses to threads like this and try to say that people who live in apartments should be able to behave any way they want instead of having some courtesy and consideration for those who live around them. Living in an apartment does NOT give people free license to be jerks and in many of these situations it's been proven that the person causing the disruption is doing so on purpose.
Also, many people who come onto these boards just want to vent and hear any ideas that someone in a similar situation might have come up with, not the same old canned responses. If you have nothing new to add and just want to post to tell them to deal with it, you are NOT being helpful or constructive. For those who get tired of these types of threads, nobody is forcing you to read them.
/End Rant
I don't have much to add as you have done everything that I would have done, LadyGodiva32, but I will say you are not the only person who finds this type of thing incredibly frustrating. If you ever need to rant, feel free to send me a PM! We can trade off annoying neighbor stories!
Thank you, Melissa and Melodica. Sometimes just hearing other people's horror stories helps. It stinks that disrespectful neighbors seem to be a serious, ongoing problem, but it helps to know others understand. Someone else responded (I forget now who) with saying that despite us being apartment dwellers (and apparently cretins) that doesn't mean we don't form emotional connections to our homes. I used to love my home, it was my sanctuary. Now it's like a roller coaster ride of unknowns. The anxiety that comes with not getting enough sleep and knowing the people around you are creeps is anything but fun. Maybe I'm being melodramatic, but this is supposed to be my happy place. Now work is my happy place and that's just wrong.
There is a group of people on this board who get snarky and give the old "move" or "wear earplugs" responses to threads like this and try to say that people who live in apartments should be able to behave any way they want instead of having some courtesy and consideration for those who live around them. Living in an apartment does NOT give people free license to be jerks and in many of these situations it's been proven that the person causing the disruption is doing so on purpose.
Also, many people who come onto these boards just want to vent and hear any ideas that someone in a similar situation might have come up with, not the same old canned responses. If you have nothing new to add and just want to post to tell them to deal with it, you are NOT being helpful or constructive. For those who get tired of these types of threads, nobody is forcing you to read them.
I think that most posters recognize that some neighbors (people in general) are inconsiderate and are buttholes, make excessive noise out of retaliation and are just a menace. The point is that there are limited solutions to dealing with nightmare neighbors, and because there are so few options, they inevitably become "canned" responses.
Look at ApplachianGumbo's post (#29). He did everything he could conceivably think of over a 2-year period of time to resolve the noise issue with his nightmare neighbor. None of it worked. He eventually just had to move out.
There shouldn't be limited solutions, though! I gather most of the people with the annoyed responses are landlords who don't WANT to deal with noise complaints. I read on another thread about someone who lives somewhere where tenants get 3 strikes and they're out. If a tenant gets repeated complaints about them from more than one neighbor, they should be kicked to the curb. Period. Maybe if there were REAL consequences there wouldn't be so many inconsiderate people living in apartments, making other people's lives hell. Just a thought. Also, those who are still annoyed by this topic are STILL not getting why people still want to post and discuss this issue. For the 80th time, no one is making you read this thread!
Having been the unlucky person to deal with several noisy apartments, I can really relate to someone of the grief and anguish that many on these boards express. I remember dreading going home, it's an awful feeling! Your home is supposed to be a place where you can relax and unwind but when you are dealing with inconsiderate people and/or bad construction, it's just an awful experience.
That's why you have to be so careful when you apartment hunt. If you can't get a single family house and must share walls with others, then you have to be really, really picky. I was this last time around. I wore myself out looking at places because I was so picky. I now live in a concrete building which is quiet for the most part and any noise is NOTHING compared to the stomping, squeaky floored mess I was dealing with in my last place. I find myself so much more relaxed in general now, than I was four months ago living in that place.
I hope and pray my next rental will be with NO shared walls LOL.
It's awful when you live next to loud noise, you can want quiet, but sadly it doesn't happen most of the time. I honestly don't remember a single apartment I lived in that didn't have a lot of noise. One apartment we lived in the management would have leaf blowers every day starting at 7:00 am, I worked nights and was woken up daily. They refused to do anything about it, even though the lease stated no loud noises before 9:00 am.
Another apartment we had the couple above us fighting daily and then sex. You could hear everything.
Complaining never seems to do any good, sad to say but I agree with the others, move or earplugs. It sucks.
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