I don’t wanna be the “fun-killer guy”, but it’s pretty damn loud music right now. As in, I can feel the bass through my feet. Do I go down there now and ask if this is gonna be a nightly thing? Talk to my landlord? I work the swing shift, so I’ll tell you now it WILL NOT fly during the week. If they don’t seem reasonable, then it’s welcome to the world of Gorilla Glue on the doorknob, for example.
This is always a difficult situation and makes me so happy that I don’t live in an apartment any longer.
If you know the neighbor then a quick mention that the noise is getting a bit much and you need to work in the morning is appropriate. If you don’t know them, then a great time to introduce yourself. If they are unapproachable and or a known selfish idiot the next best thing is a call to the landlord and let him deal with it.
I had this problem when I lived in an apartment. Sounded like a live concert was going on nightly. I didn’t mind it so much on the weekends, but even then once it hit 2am enough was enough. After the above didn’t work I gave the police a call and reported a noise complaint. They came out, said something to the neighbors and the problem was solved. The cops didn’t tell them who called, so they were none the wiser.
I wouldn’t suggest an escalation to gluing door handles and such. While revenge of that type seems like a good idea if they were to find out who did it it could mean trouble. You wouldn’t want a retaliation against you in the form of your car keyed or them cranking up the music to 11 every night as payback.
The most important thing however is to take care of the problem quickly. Letting it continue will only encourage the behavior, for they will think if no one complains it is okay to do. Best of luck to you!
On second though, bugger diplomacy. It’s 3:00 AM. I’m going down there. Wish me luck.
But don’t they kinda guess who made the complaint if you came down and talked to them about it?
Ok, that went pretty well. I introduced myself to a shirtless man with a couple of little fluffy dogs, told him I’m the new neighbor upstairs and asked what their schedule was gonna be, if it was gonna be during the week. He said they’d turn it down, I thanked them. They can party till 1 AM, but I need me beauty sleep.
Do not do what my neighbor did when Mr. Athena’s bagpipe practice started to annoy her: she called me, completely out of the blue, and spent 20 minutes apologizing for the noise her husband was making while vacuuming caterpillars out of the trees. I’d never talked to this woman before in my life, and it was one of the strangest conversation I’ve ever had.
It was only until a week later, when we got a very nice letter in our mailbox asking him to not practice outside, that I realized that I was supposed to have figured out that because SHE was apologizing for being loud that WE were really the loud ones. Mind-reading is not my forte.
And, for the record, it did no good. Mr. Athena practices for maybe 30 minutes a day, between the hours of 10 and 4, and in the summer it’s much more pleasant to practice marching outside. He never plays early in the morning or later than late afternoon. We are all on lots of at least a few acres; we can’t even see our neighbor’s house. There is no noise ordinance in our area. Sorry, lady, you can put up with that amount of noise, especially when at least 2 other neighbors have gone out of their way to tell us how much they enjoy hearing him.
In my experience, that was your one freebie encounter with that neighbor over that issue. Subsequent encounters will become increasingly hostile, until one of you decides to move because of the problem. Management won’t help.
Have fun.
Very politely. If it’s late at night at they’re cranking party music, they are almost certainly drunk or high as well as bad neighbors – I’d get the authorities involved rather than risk getting into a fight or creating bad vibes between neighbors. Next day, if you see them, would be a good way to note to them verbally. You could phrase it almost as an apology (“You know, sorry to be a pain, but I have this new job where I have to get up really early – I’m sure you don’t realize it, but the music really does carry through the walls and I need this job. Can we figure something out?”) and if that doesn’t work, start calling the [strikethrough]pigs[/strikethrough] cops and your landlord, if your landlord is the type to do something about the problem.
Also, document in writing times when it’s a problem, and for sure call your landlord every time – you should be able to break any lease you may have without penalty if you need to.
Sounds like you handled it well.
My experience in life has been that if you (and I’m using the general ‘you’ here, not referring to the OP) approach them respectfully, chances are they’ll respond in kind. If you approach them in a hostile manner, even if they’re in the wrong (such as the OP’s example blasting bass at 3AM), they’ll never listen to a word you say.
It’s also important to note that just because people are loud once, it doesn’t mean they’e going to have loud raucus parties every night. Case in point: many years back, I had a pretty loud housewarming party upon moving into a small apartment building. We were definitely loud, but it was a Saturday night, and we left for the bar by 11:30 or so.
The next day, my neighbour waited until he heard me in the hall and then opened his door. He said it was to introduce me to the building, which was nice, but really all he wanted to talk about was how much he liked the building because it was quiet, a point he stressed several times. I got the hint. So I explained I’m not the type to have loud parties often, to which he pretended like he hadn’t been suggesting that at all.
Fast forward several months later when we had become neighbourly, he confessed that when I first moved in he thought I was going to “ruin his life”. That year for Christmas, I bought him ear plugs. 
Jame Gumb had a fluffy little dog.
Haha, being stuck myself with that kind of neighbours, I understand your pessimism.
Fortunately, not all sometimes-noisy neighbours happen to be repeating offenders. The thing is, people that have to be reminded that blasting uber loud music at 2 AM is not something “normal” usually dont have a clue about how loud they are, or more specifically can’t be bothered to give a shit about it.
And I never ever believed in the “I have some demanding work schedule” line. You dont have to to request that noisy neighbours that think they live in a castle instead of a building tone it down. But I also dont believe in apologizing when someone steps on my shoes.
Just tell them it’s loud and it’s night. End of it.
Well, you’re right – but sometimes it helps to swallow the ego and pride and try to get a good result, don’t you think? Nobody wants to be the cranky/bitchy neighbor – just want them to simmer down, and if you have to play dumb for a while, that seems a small price to pay IMO. Of course, you still don’t want to come off as some pussy – be firm, but fair, and extend a laurel and hearty handshake if appropriate.