I have received my second noise complaint today. I had a few neighbors over last friday night for a few drinks, it was a pretty good time. However, the cops showed up at 10:30 PM. One of my neighbors complained that there was loud music being played and lots of people loitering out in front of the building. There were a total of 7 people at my house and out of all of us only 2 individuals insisted on smoking outside. The officers did not think my get together was too rowdy so they said that a report was not even going to be filed for this and continue to have good night. They even walked past my windows and told me to turn the music, that I was playing on the computer, down just to further appease the neighbors.
Again despite everything we had a great time.
My wife on her way out the door found a note from our rental office staing that there were about 10 people loitering outside and the loud music caused the cops to show up. The letter went on to state that this is our second notice and we would be evicted upon third.
I am married with no children and live in a building with many family variety types, but I am the only one with the complaints. I respect all my neighbors but some how I am seriously pissing off my neighbors above me.
Help me? Give me some sort of advice. If you have any further questions to fill in any gaps to the story please ask?
I don’t suppose the police gave you any kind of documentation?
Is this an apartment complex?
Did the police ask you to turn down the music?
Find your lease and read the terms regarding this.
I did security work at the apartments where I lived while in Grad school. I’s not as easy to evict someone as your “manager” thinks. Where I live, it is actually amned hard to get someone physically evicted from a residence. Unless you are an obvious lease violator, past due several months, drugs, physical violence, or property damage. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Simply because another tenant makes complaints is no legal grounds for an eviction. They’d have to produce some evidence. We had a couple of tenants that just liked to bitch about their neighbors.
However, in defense of your neighbors…10:30 is considered too late for loud noise and disturbing the peace is an easy case to make. Especially if you’ve had several warnings. Do you know your neighbors?
Another note, it is very easy to get too loud real quick when there are several people involved. Add alcohol to the picture and things usually get multiplied a few times. I’ve been on both sides of this situation quite a few times.
Things to consider…which wall the TV/stereo is located. Open doors and windows that will help project sound away from the neighbors. Insist that people loitering outside keep the noise down. That is truly aggravating and is usually a lease violation. Cigarette butts gather quickly and should be disposed of properly, not thrown on the ground. They aren’t biodegradable and are considered litter. I know by Friday night most of us need to blow off some steam. That’s cool, but if you choose to live in a closed in community, then you gave up the right to simply party hardy whenever you feel like it. Sorry but that’s just the facts jack… 
If you want to dispute it, find out who the police on duty where and have them talk to your landlord. Of course you have to remember, it probably says somewhere in your lease contract, in better words then this, that no other neighbors should be able to hear you at any time for any reason, so even if you were’nt quite as loud as the letter states, and even if you did have less people over then it says…If other neigbors heard you, you technically are in the wrong. When we started having a lot of problems with our upstairs neighbors, EVERYtime we heard something through that ceiling, we called it in (actually, towards the end we just started writing it down so we had something to show in court, but that’s a whole 'nother story) and that was used to help evict them. Bunch a 'friggen morons they were. On the one hand it sucks that you can’t have a little fun, and that the neighbors can’t just deal with a little noise for a few hours once in a while (assuming it is just a little noise for a few hours once in a while) OTOH there’s no reason why they should have to listen to your party. Just remember this next time they have some relatives over for a nice dinner or birthday party…
Hey, thanks for the quick replies. You are right about about 10:30 being a tad late for this sort of thing, but please consider my first offence was based on a videogame tournament that was held at my place from 1PM to 8PM. That had no alcohol involved and was not let out too late but I got a complaint anyways.
The cigarette butts thing isn’t a problem either because my wife collects them after we smoke.
Now the TV thing I’m going to have to check into.
Please more comments.
JoeyP thanx man. That was stated in the lease. I just didn’t think that apartment life would be like this. I mean I was already prepared to hear other tenants noise because I always thought that was the nature of apartment life, but I didn’t think it would be like this. I feel like I have to tiptoe around in my own place, but I have to remember I am living on someone elses property and I have to strictly stay within the lease guidelines. I just thought most neighbors understand that every now and then people may like to play alittle music or look at a movie with the surround sound. (Every now and then IMHO is about once every month in my book) Hey, now I know.
TIME TO BUY THE HOUSE.
I found a neutral wall to put my TV against. I had it directed towards the front of the apartment, stereo too. I used to watch movies at night and when I did I had run my TV through the stereo and would wear my headphones. I actually was impressed at how much better the audio was when I listened to it this way.
We had some nice wall hangings…kinda like a blanket/rug/quilt…with prints that I would use on the walls behind the noise makers when I was young and we really partied.
Get a video camera and tripod setup for your parties. Record them, they are great fun to watch later and if ever needed in case of emergency. ie: but we weren’t that loud and the cops didn’t give me a ticket etc…
Plus if you’re neighbors EVER get too loud. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? 
10:30 on a Friday night is not too late for guests to still be at your home. Let me be the first to say this - your neighbors seem to be overly sensitive jerks. Part of living in a multi-family residence is recognizing that you will hear your neighbors at times. Other tenants are allowed to have gatherings and converse and play music.
Write a letter to your rental agent stating the particulars of the gathering and that the police determined noise levels were not excessive and refused to file a report. Insist it be attached to the complaint. You know the neighbors will be complaining about you in the future and want it on record that the last complaint was unfounded.
My downstairs neighbors complained to the landlord that I did not go to bed at 10 o’clock and would occasionally walk in my kitchen late at night. His response: if they wanted absolute quiet they should look into buying a house, soon, as he would not be renewing their lease.
I’m pretty lucky so far . . . I live in a four-family house, and on the rare occasions that the downstairs neighbors have a party, they come up and tell me, and say, “if we’re being too loud, please let us know,” which means I will give them a lot of leeway just for being polite.
When my new next-door neighbor moved in, I told him, “the walls here are very thin, so if you can hear my TV or radio, please don’t feel embarrassed to knock on my door and tell me to pipe down!” Hint, hint. I try to keep my TV and Victrola down, and so far, no really annoying noise from him, either.
The only real noise we get is the Kallikacks out back screaming and yelling at each other, but we look on that as soap opera.
[QUOTE=peri]
10:30 on a Friday night is not too late for guests to still be at your home. Let me be the first to say this - your neighbors seem to be overly sensitive jerks. Part of living in a multi-family residence is recognizing that you will hear your neighbors at times. Other tenants are allowed to have gatherings and converse and play music.
Write a letter to your rental agent stating the particulars of the gathering and that the police determined noise levels were not excessive and refused to file a report. Insist it be attached to the complaint. You know the neighbors will be complaining about you in the future and want it on record that the last complaint was unfounded.
[QUOTE=peri]
Peri, I agree 100% with you. What do you guys think about me typing up a letter of some sort letting the whole building know when I’ll be having another get together. Have everyone in the building sign it and take it to the rental office.
[QUOTE=Eve]
I’m pretty lucky so far . . .
[QUOTE=Eve]
I thought so too, hense the name
[QUOTE=Eve]
I live in a four-family house, and on the rare occasions that the downstairs neighbors have a party, they come up and tell me, and say, “if we’re being too loud, please let us know,” which means I will give them a lot of leeway just for being polite.
When my new next-door neighbor moved in, I told him, “the walls here are very thin, so if you can hear my TV or radio, please don’t feel embarrassed to knock on my door and tell me to pipe down!” Hint, hint. I try to keep my TV and Victrola down, and so far, no really annoying noise from him, either.
[QUOTE=Eve]
That definitely goes a long way. My next door neighbors are very cool with me. I think its because my next door neighbors and I have something in common…we both love to look at our movies cinema style.
I’ve lived on a farm for nearly 18 years. My closest neighbor is a block away. It is sheer heaven. I don’t know how I’d be able to function in civilized society after this much freedom. We even do yard work at 7:00 am without fear of upsetting anyone.
I feel for ya…There’s not much you can do if your neighbors aren’t the party types. But I think Eve’s solution is the best one…a polite approach is your best defense. Let them know your plans and keep the noise down as much as possible.
It may not sound loud to you, but depending on how your building is constructed, it may be annoying your neighbors. Where I live, the walls are fairly soundproof. The problems is the floors. Every time my upstairs neighbor walks across the floor, I can hear thump-creak, thump-creak, etc. This gets annoying when small children go into berserk mode, running back and forth until they wear themselves out. If they play music with loud bass content, the bass comes right through the ceiling, even if they have not turned up the volume to a high level.
If you want to party and play loud music, buy/rent a house.
Eve is right. This is the key to coexistence. If there is a next time you are having people over, go to each and every neighbor and make that offer. Give them your phone number and ask them to call if you and your friends are bothering them. Tell them that you will personally ascertain that any cig butts dropped on the property are cleaned up in the morning. If even marginally loud noise has been going on for several hours, and you have a child that can’t get to sleep, for example, and you don’t know how long it’s going to last, it’s easy to get really cranky about it.
Does your complex have a clubhouse or something that you can rent for the evening for a nominal price? That way you can have room to spread out, you can be less worried about noise and you don’t have to worry if your bed isn’t made. My sister ended up being the default party hostess for our family at holidays because we could rent her condo’s clubhouse, have a kitchen and plenty of room for the extended family (dinner for 30 can be hard to seat at any one home).
StG
Make sure you keep the bass down. I’ve had some people below me who were oblivious to the fact that their bass was vibrating my floor.
I’ve got some hard-partying neighbors, as well. I’m talking floor-shaking bass until 2 or 3 am. I cannot tell you how annoying it is when they have parties - I mean, I’m 27, single, this type of thing doesn’t really bother me within reason. But about a week and a half ago, I got home at about 11 on Saturday night and could hear the party from where I parked - I’d say …100 yards? (the main lot was full) And when I say I could hear it, it was loud and clear.
I actually did call the police twice that night - I can handle noise for the most part, but I get sick of actually feeling the bass of their music after about an hour. Hell, I can hear their music right now (and the only thing they listen to is 4/4 trance …24/7 … PLEASE buy a new cd!!).
That’s not to say that the OP is on par with the party animals downstairs, I’m just sharing
Some possibly related, possibly unrelated anecdotes:
Story the first, in which lno is the unwitting cause of an eviction
Several years ago, I was living by myself on a 3rd-floor corner apartment. I had one neighbor below me, one adjacent, and one across the hall. Halfway through my lease, a new tenant moved into the apartment next to mine and while I never had any complaints about the noise, he would frequently have guests over and smoke pot on his balcony. Due to the locations of our apartments, if I had any window open my apartment reeked of marijuana, and since one window AC unit wasn’t enough to cool my apartment in the summers, I often left windows open.
I knocked on their door one evening and expressed my concerns; that I really didn’t care what they smoked but I wasn’t a big fan of the fact that my apartment stank of it. They promised to keep it indoors and that it would never happen again.
Twice in the next week they lit up on the balcony, so I went to the landlord and politely complained. They promised to take care of it.
Two days later when I went to drop off my rent the landlord informed me that my neighbors had been evicted for violating the drug clause in their lease.
Oops.
Story the second, in which lno realizes that new neighbors aren’t always better
For the past two years, I’ve been living in a townhome in a quiet residential suburb. The walls are incredibly well insulated against sound; the neighbors on one side were three musicians and we never heard a noise from them. The neighbors on the other had a Weimaraner dog that howled like a tugboat when left alone. It was mildly annoying, but hard to hear unless you listened carefully, and eventually it became endearing.
They moved out, other tenants moved in, and two weeks later my wife and I were awoken at 2 am by pounding music from next door. I lay in bed and griped for about fifteen minutes, then went next door and rang the doorbell and pounded on their door until they heard me and turned the music down. That was their one free pass; you wake me up at 2 am with loud music and I am not happy.
I didn’t involve the police or landlord in that incident, but a few months later when they brought a bar brawl home with them at 1:30 am, fought in the street, and sicced their Doberman on the other brawlers, you can be sure I was on the phone to the police and in the morning to the landlord with a written complaint following.
It’s been quiet since then, but you can be sure that if they give me reason to complain, I will complain.
All that said, my advice to you, which repeats some of what other people have said:[ul][li]Apologize to your neighbors and warn them in advance if you are having a party. Ask them to call you, but expect that they won’t. Right now they’re angry enough to complain to the landlord. Hold the parties somewhere else for a while.[]Ask your landlord for advice on reducing noise. This is an issue that they deal with frequently and would be much happier if it didn’t come up. They’ll likely have a list of suggestions (don’t put speakers directly on the floor as bass travels pretty well, et cetera) and take those to heart.[]Make hard and fast rules for your guests. If they want to smoke outside, make sure they dispose of their butts immediately and properly. Don’t leave bottles on the step, don’t throw trash on the lawns, and be QUIET outside. If your guests won’t or don’t agree to that, then send them packing — remember, it’s your ass on the line if you get a complaint.[/ul]Most people are reasonable. Some people will hold a grudge. Keep things quiet, and when your lease is up, find a place to live with better soundproofing or fewer neighbors.[/li]
Best of luck.
I agree that your neighbors are a bit over sensitive. 7 people over at 10:30 on a Friday night doesn’t seem excessive. And if the music was too loud, why didn’t anyone knock on your door and ask you to turn it down? When I lived in an apartment, there were times when my neighbors had no clue how loud they were being. They were always very nice when I asked them to turn it down. I never considered filing a complaint before talking to them. Especially if there were only 7 people over (I may have been a bit intimidated if there had been a party of 50 or so).
Even so, you are stuck with them. So I like Eve’s suggestion. Let them know you’re having a get together and invite them if you can. Do stress that if it gets too loud, please let you know. You don’t intend to offend, but you can’t always tell what they’re hearing.
I think many of you are being far too kind: the neighbors aren’t oversensitive, they’re liars. They said there were 10 people outside; there were only 7 at the party. They’ve exaggerated their complaint against the OP in order to make themselves look much more victimized than they are, knowing that this would result in sanctions of some measure against him. Therefore, any rudeness on the part of the OP is, IMO, completely obliterated by their lack of veracity.
In addition, I can’t find any point in trying to seek a direct resolution with these whining, petty liars. The opportunity for a direct resolution existed before they lied to property management and the police. If they were interested in being neighborly, they would’ve knocked on the door or leaned out the window or called on the phone to ask the OP and his guests to turn down their music, tone down their outside conversation or whatever it was that was supposedly disturbing. At this point, this situation needs be handled directlly with the neutral parties: the police (by following up and getting a written report of the incident, there has to be something) and the property manager, to whom the credibility problem of the complainants needs to be made clear.
In my old apartment, I had a neighbor complain about noise exactly twice in three years. Once was when I was sitting at my computer, listening to music and reading The Dope, around 11:30 on a random weeknight (I had the muisc sorta loud, I had been cleaning the kitchen earlier in the night and hadn’t turned the music back down when I finished. Honestly, I had completely lost track of what time it was.) Luckily, he was understanding and talked to me before complaing to the landloard.
The seond time he complained was when I was cleaning my apartment, at 2:00 on a monday afternoon, as I was finishing up moving out and doing the super-duper-get-all-my-deposit-money-back cleaning. Again, I was listening to music on my computer. He might have complained to the landlord, I don’t know. And since I moved out for good 4 hours later, I don’t especially care.