Right to Quiet Enjoyment (Received Noise Complaint)

[Malloric]

I wouldn't worry that much about it. I used to work nights, worked 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. Since it took me about five minutes to get to work, I usually showered around 10:30 or a bit before and left around 10:50. I got a few complaints from one neighbor that I was up stomping around late at night and slamming doors in the early morning and it they couldn't get any sleep. Uh, yeah. If anyone is respectful of others in regards to how much noise they make, it's day sleepers. Other people just like to complain about all the noise I somehow make during the 11 hours I'm not there because it annoys them that I use the shower at 10:30 or open my door at 8:10. Like with the carpets, something has annoyed them so they're perfectly happy to fabricate some story.

Current neighbor (now in a single-family home) I've had call the police on me several times. Usually it's because I'll have a few (as in about 6-10) friends over on a Saturday around 7-8 p.m. and we'll be BBQing in the backyard. I do this probably every other month when the weather is nice, so 3-4 times a year. Yes, there's some background music and people talking in normal conversational tones. Yes, you can hear it as we're on postage stamp lots. He wanted to open his windows to cool the house down but with the windows open then the sound of people invaded his privacy. Now, I probably would have told him to take a hike or join us for a beer and a steak if he came over but calling the cops is uncalled for. It's not like we were thumping some rap music with a ton of bass at high volume at 11 at night which would be unreasonable (something one of the neighbors behind me and FIVE houses down used to do, they've since stopped either because they moved or got enough noise violations). Time before that I'd borrowed a truck and had it parked in front of my house during the week. 72-hour ordinance, yeah, point. I took it to run an errand the next day and to be sure he knew I'd moved it left it in front of his house for a day. Had the truck parked in front of my house for a couple more weeks while I finished the project I was working on during the weekends without issue, so I guess he got the point. There's always "that" neighbor just as there's the ones that have loud parties every weekend that run until 1-2 a.m.

[zitsky]

Originally Posted by Malloric

I wouldn't worry that much about it. I used to work nights, worked 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. Since it took me about five minutes to get to work, I usually showered around 10:30 or a bit before and left around 10:50. I got a few complaints from one neighbor that I was up stomping around late at night and slamming doors in the early morning and it they couldn't get any sleep. Uh, yeah. Current neighbor (now in a single-family home) I've had call the police on me several times. Usually it's because I'll have a few (as in about 6-10) friends over on a Saturday around 7-8 p.m. and we'll be BBQing in the backyard. I do this probably every other month when the weather is nice, so 3-4 times a year. Yes, there's some background music and people talking in normal conversational tones. Yes, you can hear it as we're on postage stamp lots. He wanted to open his windows to cool the house down but with the windows open then the sound of people invaded his privacy. It's not like we were thumping some rap music with a ton of bass at high volume at 11 at night which would be unreasonable. Time before that I'd borrowed a truck and had it parked in front of my house during the week. 72-hour ordinance, yeah, point. I took it to run an errand the next day and to be sure he knew I'd moved it left it in front of his house for a day. Had the truck parked in front of my house for a couple more weeks while I finished the project I was working on during the weekends without issue, so I guess he got the point. There's always "that" neighbor just as there's the ones that have loud parties every weekend that run until 1-2 a.m.

I was with you until you said you needed to make a point with the neighbor by parking your truck in front of his house for a day. Why do you need to irritate him?

Edit: you said a day not a week like I thought. Not unreasonable, but it seems you like to tweak the neighbor unnecessarily.

[Malloric]

Originally Posted by zitsky

I was with you until you said you needed to make a point with the neighbor by parking your truck in front of his house for a day. Why do you need to irritate him?

Edit: you said a day not a week like I thought. Not unreasonable, but it seems you like to tweak the neighbor unnecessarily.

Yes and no.

The truck doesn't really fit in the driveway as in I can't open my garage door or it's sticking out into the sidewalk. So do I park it in front of his house or some other neighbor's house? Of course I could just drive it off and come back 30 minutes later and park it in the same place but then did it really move? Maybe. Maybe I just came out and took the notice off and left it right where it was. I'd rather park it in front of his house than someone else's as there's no reason to be parking my truck in front of their house. Suburbia can get possessive about the public street in front of its house. I get that. The rare times I have enough cars over, I'll usually ask them not to park in front of his house as I know it drives him batty. So yes and no. Yes, I knew it would **** him off. I purposely did park in front of his house. No in that if he's going to make the issue of it being parked in front of my house and it's got to be in front of someone else's house, then where it's going to be is in front of his.

[ambient]

I lived in one of those old piece of **** apartments in a good area of San Francisco for the then-cheap price of $2K a month. Damn walls were basically paper mache. I once went to the young woman downstairs who had a wild party through the night and asked her to keep it down... she proceeded to get wasted and come up to my apartment one evening, crying and screaming at me. Made up a bunch of lies about how I was the noisy one, etc. She moved out soon thereafter, but ***** of course keyed my car on the way out. What a miserable human. I hope she's face down in some ditch now.

[JennStar]

Originally Posted by djs15

Recently, my girlfriend and I were told by our landlord that she's received a noise complaint about us. From who, we are not positive. We've lived in 3 other apartments over the last 3 years and have never received one before. I'm fairly certain it was our downstairs neighbor who complained because we have a good relationship with our other two neighbors and we'd like to think they'd send us a text before going to the landlord. The downstairs neighbor is relatively new, and we didn't have a problem until they moved in.

I will say we tend to be night owls. On a typical work night, we can be up until 1-2 (I can be up even later on the weekends). That being said, we are very cognizant of our noise levels. We're not doing anything crazy this late. Just watching tv, getting work done on our laptops, studying, sometimes I play video games. The tv is at a very reasonable volume. We've asked the neighbor whose bedroom is adjacent to our living room if they ever hear our tv and they continually say "not at all". If anything, I think the issue may be us walking around, taking a shower, opening our closet doors, just normal things. We aren't running around or anything, just the occasional walk to the bathroom or kitchen.

My landlord mentioned something about us being up late (the complex is u-shaped and you can tell we're up by the light in our window). However, I feel like how late we're up watching tv or playing games is nobody's business but ours (again, with reasonable volume). After 10 or so, I try to tiptoe a little more, be more quiet about turning on the shower, etc. We have not heard anything from the landlord since, and we've been a lot more mindful of our noises. However, we are a little annoyed that the person went directly to the landlord rather than politely telling us first. We are very friendly and would have been happy to do what we could. That being said, I'm curious what our rights are as tenants in the event that we were to get more noise complaints. Can anyone help inform me a little more?

I live in an apartment complex and I can tell you that noise can happen. I am a night owl too, but never had anyone ever complain. I think it depends on the volume, and the construction of the building. Our building is mostly concrete walls. I can't put up any pictures, unless I want to drill holes in the wall. Your neighbors temperment can also be a factor. They can be nasty. Sometimes confrontation can lead to problems.
I do hear my neighbors above me, who take a shower. I an hear the water. I can hear them walking around also. I hear their little dog running around and humping something (at least I think it is the dog). Do you walk excessively? Do you have wood floors? I had one neighbor that would wear her high heels in her kitchen all the time and at night and I could hear that! It can be annoying.
It's nice that you can befriend your neighbors and they have your number and would text you if they hear you and it annoys them enough to text you. Sometimes I wish I could do that. I am not so close with my neighbors to give out my personal cell number. My direct neighbor can be very loud with his parties. I have banged on the door a couple of times to tel him to quite it down. I have called the security who went to his apartment and told him to turn it down. He would do that, then half an hour later, the volume was turned up. He would have his parties starting at 10 pm til 4 pm sometimes. My husband talked to him about it and he has been better since then.
However, some neighbors are not so nice. I have had this happen to me in a studio apartment I once lived in years ago. I had asked her to be more quiet at night. I could hear her shouting at someone and banging around her apartment. I would bang on the walls, and she would bang back. I left a note on her door before I went to work asking her nicely to be more quiet at night, as I get up early. She left me a nasty note saying something to the effect to stop being so nosy and leave her alone. She would continue to be noisy with her music. I felt that I did my due diligence and complained to the apartment manager, in writing.
However some neighbors are just being riduculous. I had one downstairs neighbor that would complain about the noise during the day. She stayed home all day, selling her Avon products, after she lost her job. She would bank the end of her broomstick (at least that is what I think it was) on the ceiling as soon as I came into my apartment after work, as a reminder to be quiet. I ignored it. There were times I was sitting in my bed at night, not asleep, and I would hear someone else banging around and she would be banging on the ceiling. One time I was carrying my laundry basket full of clothes back to my apartment and I lost my handling and it landed with a thump on the floor. She left a note on my door saying I should be more quite. I put a note on her door a little later saying that it is during the day and there will be some more noise naturally. I told her what happened. I then went in and proceeded to mop my kitchen floor. She left another note on my door saying I was being too loud in my kitchen walking around. I then went and knocked on her door and when she opened it I told her I was mopping my kitchen floor during day hours and there was nothing I could do to help the noise. She was nasty about it. I think it was because I wouldn't buy her Avon products.
As for your neighbor who you guess complained; They don't want confrontation, or want get up out of bed, knock on your door in the middle of the night to knock on your door to tell you to be quiet. You may feel you are being quiet, but some people are just more sensitive than others. If you are up late watching tv, get a pair of wireless headphones. You can take showers whenever you want, but don't be singing in the shower. People can hear that and when you drop the shampoo bottle.
As far as your rights, look at your lease. There will be a clause about the noise, being after a certain hour it should be reduced levels of noise. I know most people don't think about it that way. I have had someone next door hammering on the walls (trying to hang a picture?) at 11 pm, as they had just moved in, and it was really annoying. I left a note saying that after 10 pm noises like that should cease and to read their lease and welcome to the neighborhood.