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Noise disturbance from my rented apartment neighbors?
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Thanks for your replies to my thread.
I am living in apartment (rented) community for a while in Maryland. Our peaceful living is challenged by my apartment neighbors.
I find car alarm going off 1AM - 3AM bothering our night sleep causing sleep deprivation, that impact our health. Folks in our units goes in and out frequently and slam the main door with loud noise. This is happening in middle of the night. Folks using laundry do the same with slamming laudatory door with loud noise.
We added additional noise disturbances (thuds and crackling) as recorded files, which are coming from our roof by Apt ???? in their floor/living area. These noises are happening several times a day.
Many residents are also not being gentle with handling their front door, the laundry room door, and the main building (glass) door. They are going in and out many times and are slamming the door, which we can hear in our apartment.
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I find that many people who coming into our building to deliver food are able to handle the doors gently without slamming it.
Many people are also making their car alarm go off at 2AM, 3AM and 4 AM, and are slamming their car doors as well. This is disturbing our sleep, but we were not able to record this disturbance.
We recorded these noise and submitted our complaint to property manager.
Here is what we got from them:
What are the other steps to consider apart from moving out.
Thanks for your sharing/guidance.
No other steps really. Your complaints are way too various and coming from way too many angles.
Only solution is to wear earplugs until you find a new place to live that's not in a city (sounds like you need a single-family home in the suburbs or a rural area). Buy the dense foam kind not the fluffy ones 32rr. If they don't do it, you can cap them with silicone plugs, which drowns out pretty much all noise.
If you are going to live in an apartment building, or in any dense town environment, you are going to hear other people, doors, horns, motors, electronics, the noises and activities of people. If you are going to be happy, you have to learn to be comforted, entertained, or at least not bothered by these sounds.
It is part of living around people. I live out in the country on 19 acres, have only one neighbor I can see, and I still hear people.
My advice is, don't let it upset you. Accept it as part of your environment.
What are the other steps to consider apart from moving out.
Consider a private nuisance lawsuit:
A nuisance as defined in Maryland, is anything that unlawfully annoys or does damage to another. It is traditionally a condition on premises or adjacent thereto that is offensive or harmful to those who are off the premises.
In Maryland, a cause of action under a theory of private nuisance requires a showing (1) that the nuisance has diminished materially the value of the property as a dwelling and (2) that the nuisance has seriously interfered with the ordinary comfort and enjoyment of the property. Significant harm is necessary to establish liability for a private nuisance. Examples of the kinds of activities that have been recognized by Maryland courts as private nuisances include polluting smokestacks, corroded tanks leaking hazardous waste into groundwater, barking dogs, noisy trains, and malodorous hog farms.
Generally, in an action for nuisance, the measure of damages is compensation for the injury suffered by the plaintiff, taking into consideration all losses caused by the nuisance. The measure of damages in an action for private nuisance is the diminution of value of the use of the property as a home. Elements to be considered include recompense for sickness or ill health of those in the home caused by the nuisance.
I disagree about filing a lawsuit. Learn to adapt to other people making noises. Lower your expectations. It could be worse. You could be living next to a colicky baby that cries 24/7. Best of luck to you.
I had a similar issue. The apartment I lived in before had a couple that lived upstairs. They weren’t necessarily the issue but when they remodeled the apartments, they took out carpeting and put hardwood floors. So now I heard every foot steps. I had two years of that. I used to wear those sponge ear plugs when I slept. They worked pretty good. I just ended up deciding to move when my lease was up.
I had a similar issue. The apartment I lived in before had a couple that lived upstairs. They weren’t necessarily the issue but when they remodeled the apartments, they took out carpeting and put hardwood floors. So now I heard every foot steps. I had two years of that. I used to wear those sponge ear plugs when I slept. They worked pretty good. I just ended up deciding to move when my lease was up.
I am sure it was not deliberate. I use a white noise machine at night. It drowns out traffic noise, dogs barking, etc., whilst I sleep. This is the one I bought, and it has helped me drown out a lot of truly inconsiderate neighbour noises. Unfortunately for me, the one thing it has no effect on is my own dog who for want of a better description, "huffs" any time he is bored or hungry or wants to go out. I still have not figured out how he can do it as loudly as he does. His huffs are so loud that they will literally jolt you out of a deep sleep two rooms away from him.
This is a very helpful product, though. I would purchase it again once mine dies. I tried earplugs before purchasing the white noise machine, and they did not work nearly as well, plus I had trouble finding any that were a good fit. Some were actually painful to use. The price on this unit will fluctuate over time, but if you want to purchase and have time to wait and watch for a good price on it, I recommend it. If you can afford the $40+ usual price on it, I still recommend it.
There isn't really much you can do about normal urban living noise when you live in an apartment. We all wish the people around us would be hyper aware and walk super quietly on sock feet, shut doors like they were spies, never have a loud conversation, never play the TV, video games or music without using headphones, never have sex, that you would never hear highway or car alarm noise, barking dogs, crying babies, etc, but this just isn't realistic.
An apartment is going to be the loudest possible setting you can get because you are sharing walls and ceilings and you have so many people condensed into a very small area. If you cannot afford to live in a single family home, then the reality is you are going to hear your neighbors.
Instead of focusing on taping your neighbors and filing complaints, I would focus on what steps you can take to block the sound in your own unit so it doesn't bother you so much. They make noise canceling earbuds you can use when you are awake. There are soft earplugs you can wear overnight. A white noise machine may help as well if you have trouble sleeping with earplugs in overnight.
There isn't really much you can do about normal urban living noise when you live in an apartment. We all wish the people around us would be hyper aware and walk super quietly on sock feet, shut doors like they were spies, never have a loud conversation, never play the TV, video games or music without using headphones, never have sex, that you would never hear highway or car alarm noise, barking dogs, crying babies, etc, but this just isn't realistic.
An apartment is going to be the loudest possible setting you can get because you are sharing walls and ceilings and you have so many people condensed into a very small area. If you cannot afford to live in a single family home, then the reality is you are going to hear your neighbors.
Instead of focusing on taping your neighbors and filing complaints, I would focus on what steps you can take to block the sound in your own unit so it doesn't bother you so much. They make noise canceling earbuds you can use when you are awake. There are soft earplugs you can wear overnight. A white noise machine may help as well if you have trouble sleeping with earplugs in overnight.
I think it depends on the apartment really. My very first apartment in an apartment complex could be pretty loud, and there were worse things. As soon as my lease was up, I moved to my first choice apartment. I was unable to lease there the first time around because they did not like the fact that a chunk of my income was based on tips. Now, with a set salary, I was approved. I lived there 2-3 years before marrying. It was EXTREMELY peaceful even though it was not a tiny complex. It was how the property was managed and who they chose to lease to that made the difference.
I recently moved from a 2/1 duplex with a garage. I had a lot of loud, low-rent people living around me. If not for those neighbours, my 9.5 years there would have been a lot happier. Now, I am in a small apartment building with perhaps 9-10 units. It did get loud here on Thanksgiving night, but before that and after that, i have had no problems with noise. My neighbours all seem to be pretty considerate as am I. The day I came in to sign my lease, the owner/manager cautioned me that the car park was for tenants only, and all guests had to park on the street. He also said peace and quiet was a priority, and any tenant who disturbed the other tenants would not be allowed to stay. I could not have been more pleased.
So, you see, it is all about quality. You deal with low-rent properties and low-rent tenants, your life can be a misery. You deal with quality property owners/manager and decent tenants, and you do not have those problems.
To tolerate and endure ... or to leave.
be careful that the new location isn't also a problem in some way.
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