Neighbor complains about me being noisy when dogs play. (apartments, lease, tenant)
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My wife and I move to the area were in because she got a job here so we moved from our 1300 square foot house 12 hours away to the 900 square foot apartment till we find an area we would like to buy a house. Our lease is 7 months we have been here 2 months already. We have 2 dogs that also came with us. At our house we have half an acre of yard for them to play and run off energy. For the most part they have adapted well. We are in a second floor apartment and the people below us complain almost everyday that were being too loud and they are going to call the police if it doesnt stop. The first couple of times they told us that we were stomping our feet and sounded like elephants and that when we leave our dogs bark and howl for an hour. So i started tiptoeing around the house and we got bark collars for the dogs. Everything seemed to get better until this morning. My wife and i were getting ready for work and the dogs were full of enegery and wanted to go out. They jumped onto the bed and off immediately. A couple seconds following that the neighbors downstairs were banging on the ceiling. In their defense it was 7:30 a.m. We try as hard as we can to keep the dogs quiet but then the neighbors knocked on the door. We answered the door and he said his wife was about the call the police if this didnt stop. We told him we were sorry again and what had happend with the dogs. I dont know what else we can do to be more quiet without beeing prisoners in our own home which i already fee like i am. Dogs like to play and its hard to stop them. We take them out 5-6 times a day to the park just behind our house to run them but it doesnt always help. What should I do? Getting out of our lease early isnt really an option. We 5 months left and it cant come fast enough. We understand about hearing neighbors above you in aparments the people living above us sound like they run back and forth and jump all the time. We just let it slide because we know that the floors are thin. Are we just being too loud or are the downstairs neighbora being to sensitive?
If you live in a dog friendly community, and you obviously do, your neighbor needs to lighten up a bit.
Now, if your dogs are barking and howling non stop for hours on end, I'd call the police too and call the leasing agent. However, your dogs playing, jumping on and off the bed, and you walking isnt' something that you can't control nor is it something your leasing agent is going to expect you to control.
Just because they can hear you doesn't mean you're being noisy.
I would go and have a chat with the leasing agent and let them know what's going on.
My wife and I move to the area were in because she got a job here so we moved from our 1300 square foot house 12 hours away to the 900 square foot apartment till we find an area we would like to buy a house. Our lease is 7 months we have been here 2 months already. We have 2 dogs that also came with us. At our house we have half an acre of yard for them to play and run off energy. For the most part they have adapted well. We are in a second floor apartment and the people below us complain almost everyday that were being too loud and they are going to call the police if it doesnt stop. The first couple of times they told us that we were stomping our feet and sounded like elephants and that when we leave our dogs bark and howl for an hour. So i started tiptoeing around the house and we got bark collars for the dogs. Everything seemed to get better until this morning. My wife and i were getting ready for work and the dogs were full of enegery and wanted to go out. They jumped onto the bed and off immediately. A couple seconds following that the neighbors downstairs were banging on the ceiling. In their defense it was 7:30 a.m. We try as hard as we can to keep the dogs quiet but then the neighbors knocked on the door. We answered the door and he said his wife was about the call the police if this didnt stop. We told him we were sorry again and what had happend with the dogs. I dont know what else we can do to be more quiet without beeing prisoners in our own home which i already fee like i am. Dogs like to play and its hard to stop them. We take them out 5-6 times a day to the park just behind our house to run them but it doesnt always help. What should I do? Getting out of our lease early isnt really an option. We 5 months left and it cant come fast enough. We understand about hearing neighbors above you in aparments the people living above us sound like they run back and forth and jump all the time. We just let it slide because we know that the floors are thin. Are we just being too loud or are the downstairs neighbora being to sensitive?
Tell them to call the police, the police won't do anything but talk to you and you can explain the situation.
you don't have to tip toe in your own home. Just try to wear slippers while home, bare feet sometimes make noise on wood or tile or laminate floor when you walk. If you can hear it so can they.
You've done everything you can.
If it were me I would keep stomping. I'm sure you even aren't.
Noise complaints are usually for people playing loud music late at night.
Try to get some area rugs for the bed so when they jump off they don't make noise.
I would deny the noise and tell the to move if they don't like it.
You are allowed to have dogs,, they should move to an apartment that doesn't allow pets if dogs bother them.
If you live in a dog friendly community, and you obviously do, your neighbor needs to lighten up a bit.
Now, if your dogs are barking and howling non stop for hours on end, I'd call the police too and call the leasing agent. However, your dogs playing, jumping on and off the bed, and you walking isnt' something that you can't control nor is it something your leasing agent is going to expect you to control.
Just because they can hear you doesn't mean you're being noisy.
I would go and have a chat with the leasing agent and let them know what's going on.
Good points.
How big are your dogs? I had a friend who had a Saint Bernard and another large dog and when they bounded around her apartment, you could literally hear & feel things shaking (such as the pictures on the walls, dishes on the table, etc). She lived in an end unit two story townhouse apartment so it was not that bad, but if she had lived above someone I bet that they would have been upset all the time.
But, regular size dogs, even two of them, doing regular dog things shouldn't be a problem.
Dogs jumping off furniture can be pretty noisy. We lived briefly in a first floor apartment and the woman upstairs had two well behaved Shih-Tzus. But every afternoon when she was at work, they'd wake up from their naps, jump off the couch(BAM!) and just run around for five or ten minutes. You would not think two little dogs could make such a racket, but they did.
You could kennel your dogs overnight, and take them out immediately. Get up an hour earlier and run them around the neighborhood to help them burn energy. You need to live like you are in an apartment above neighbors.....which you are.
How big are your dogs? Do they have pets? I know it's extremely stressful, but try to not to let it get to you. From what you describe, your dogs are behaving fine. If the neighbors can hear your dogs getting offcthe furniture and can't understand or comprehend that dogs walk and sit and have the right to enjoy their furniture too, then that's absurd. If they are huge dogs, I understand how different the noise increase can be if the previous tenants from your apartment didn't have dogs.
And they can't just call the police because you're walking in your apartment. They CAN, but they will be cited if they call enough times, not you. ANd depending on where you live, tenants walking around upstairs are the LEAST of their worries, and might not even come.
Just live your life and don't answer the door to the neighbor. Next time they approach you, tell them to leave you alone and call the manager to deal with it.
The cops won't do anything. You aren't violating any noise ordinance.
You might want to go ahead and call your manager. Or write them an email. Just say you're trying to be as quiet as possible, but are making normal noise for a tenant with two dogs, which they knew you had before renting the unit to you. And ask them to please have the downstairs neighbor not harass you anymore by banging on the ceiling and confronting you in person.
You can do this in a nice, non-confrontational way. But, this landlord knew they were putting two dogs and two people in a small apartment above the complainers. I'd put it on them to deal with the neighbor, as the noise you are making is reasonable noise for the tenant they rented to.
It's a tough situation. Just avoid the temptation to escalate the situation or intentionally make noise. If the neighbor is the calm type just sit down with them apologize, and tell them you are going to do everything you can to make things better short of moving, getting rid of the dogs, or locking them up for 12 hours a day.
Ask your neighbor to show you where the bedrooms are below you and then try to keep the dogs away from being right above those areas during night hours.
I've been on both sides of this and with neighbors complaining about noise the real issue is often more about respect. It's just the idea that the "people above me don't even care about me and could care less". Thinking about this in this way and letting it go on often makes people reach a boiling point where they get really upset. So if you show that you aren't trying to be an ******* and you are doing all you reasonably can then this will often go a long way...
One good trick is to ask them for ideas about how to solve the situation (without being sarcastic or angry). This might help them to see that you are already trying all that you reasonably can.
But, they obviously aren't the calm type, or they wouldn't be threatening to call the cops.
I wouldn't be surprised if the management put these tenants in that unit deliberately, hoping to get these guys to just move out. There's a reason the unit is vacant above them. And it's quite likely it's because the last tenants also were harassed by the downstairs tenant.
The downstairs tenant is not in the right kind of rental for what they are looking for. I'm sure it's frustrating for them, but it is what it is. They live in a place that allows two dogs and two people in units above people who want peace and quiet on the first floor. It's a bad fit.
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