Noise complaint from nieghbors?! What!?

In My Humble Opinion
1

It is funny, because this is actually the icing on the cake for anyone following my previous thread, “why doesn’t my wife want a house?”

Today I got a call from our leasing office, saying that our neighbors below us have filed a noise complaint. Now, there aren’t any penalties for this, but I guess if it happened repeatedly they might fine us or something. What I find incredibly bizarre is that they have never tried to contact us (as far as we know) about the noise before. The office said we were being too loud last night, that it sounded like someone was walking around above them. :rolleyes: Welcome to apartment life. I talked to my wife, and neither of us could think of anything that would have made noise other than walking around. To be fair, sometimes I do have a heavy step, but I’m not causing any earthquakes.

I guess what gets me is that they make quite a bit of noise, with what sounds like 10 children running around constantly crying/screaming/whatever, and loud laughing in the middle of the night but we haven’t reported them, or even confronted them about it. We just chalked it up to apartment life. I don’t know why they couldn’t at least come to our door before reporting it and say “hey, we can hear you below, do you mind trying to be a little more quiet?” It seems silly to me, that they have only lived here for two-three weeks and are already reporting their neighbors, when previous neighbors have had no complaints.

We don’t live in a dangerous area, so it isn’t like there is a risk I would open the door and open fire. Maybe they are just afraid of confrontation, but it definitely isn’t a good way to make friendly neighbors.

I guess that brings me to the point of my thread. If your neighbors were loud/doing something disturbing, would you try to confront them before going directly to the leasing office?

2

I had a cranky tenant who complained about her upstairs neighbors walking around, a quiet Asian couple that didn’t even have shoes on the carpeted floor. I told both parties to be nice and they said they would. The next week the upstairs people said Ms Cranky was banging on their floor with a broom demanding they stop walking around, but they were already in bed. So I gave Ms Cranky a 3-day desist or get evicted notice.
She wanted to stay and so I let her move into an upstairs apartment on the other side. And then she had more trouble with those neighbors, fighting over parking too close to each other. Again with a letter. Then the people in the next building complained she had her TV on too loud and the could hear it across the parking lot at midnight. End of cranky tenant, sensitive to every one’s noise but her own.

3

That’s funny because I recently received a noise complaint myself! The asshole who is a big, fat baby and lives upstairs complained about my “TV”. I don’t own a TV. What I do do is watch stuff on my computer, which I will admit does have a kicking sound system. HOWEVER, I am always extraordinarily (life-long apartment dweller here) cognizant of the noise that I make and it is NEVER excessive. We tried to work it out between us via notes on doors, but he went ahead and made the complaint official. Not like I can’t hear almost every step he takes…

Thanks, dickhead. I now play NO music or watch anything without headphones. I cannot wait to move out of here.

4

I lived in an apartment for four years recently. It was hell. Now, no way would I ever go directly to the noise-makers to ask them to be quiet- I’ve had people straight flip their shit by an innocuous polite request to be quieter, and I would never speak to anyone but management by the end of my residence there. Now I’ve been in a house for almost 2 years and it’s waaaay better. Even not buying, just renting a house is so worth the extra money. I used to be a downstairs neighbor- now I can go to bed as early as I want, sleep in as late as I want, take naps, have people over peacefully, or not peacefully, if you know what I mean and I think you do, because, let’s face it, we’re all adults here- you name it, I can do it, in grand, gloooorious silence. Can you tell I like it? And I will never go back.

As my sweat, dear, departed great-grandma used to say, fuck a bunch of bullshit. Get the house. Let the wife know she can move in if she wants to.

5

My upstairs neighbor had a boyfr… thing. I don’t know what he was. Anyway, with the BOOMBOOMBOOM music… There had been complaints. They were aware, believe me. So, the first time I couldn’t take it anymore I went up there, knocked on the door. The punk boything answered, smirked at me, “It’s the music, right?”, laughed in my face.

Second time I full-on pounded on their door and bitched out the tenant and her friend. Told them I would no longer be coming up, but rather documenting dates and times and calling the prop. management.

Third time I called the prop. management and let them know I felt they were in violation of their lease. That I had complained to them twice in person already.

Never really saw boything again.

Now she’s got a new guy up there. He smokes in the bathroom and runs the vent which is really loud. (Sounds like someone running a very loud dustbuster on high.) He smokes ditch weed in the bathroom and runs the vent which is really loud. He leaves the vent on for hours upon hours. The vent goes on at 3 am and wakes me up. The vent goes on at 6 pm and runs til 9. He hoarks and spits constantly (which is really loud and gross).

I miss boything.

6

I won’t go into past apartments, I documented those on this board enough.

New building, moved in late April of this year. Close to 200 units in this sprawling 4 armed building.

Neighbors below me moved in a FUCKING PIANO, up the back stairs next to our apartments, AT MIDNIGHT ON A WEEK NIGHT.

Neighbors on the end moved out over the course of several nights, always between midnight and 3am.

The people who moved into that apartment: The husband works graveyard shift. They have two girls, in the 8-10 range. Back about two months ago, they would run up and down the halls, screaming and yelling, starting at 10:20pm every night (about 5 minutes after daddy leaves) until around midnight. One night they leaned against my front door, talking very loudly and occasionally bumping or pounding on it (I’m sure incidental, but still…FUCK OFF).

Finally, at 11:55pm on a Sunday night, I’d had enough. I got dressed and waited for them to come bounding and screaming up the back stairs, which come up right next to my bedroom. I stepped out in the hall and cursed them out, telling them that I was reporting them to the property management and the next time, I would call the cops (bluff, I did neither).

Hadn’t seen them since, but I’d occasionally hear them running (no screaming, thankfully) up and down the halls late at night. Last night they were running up and down the stairs at about 10:40pm. Ran off in the other direction when they heard my door open, and then I never heard them again.

Today when I came home after work, I was just letting myself in my door when they came down the hall. They visibly paused and even turned slightly in their paths when they saw me. Ten minutes later I had to leave again. As I closed my door to lock it, I heard one of them run up to their apartment door and ram home the deadbolt. Too funny.

Go ahead, fear me. Just knock off the late night shit. After all, who is stupid enough to allow their 8-10 year old daughters to freely roam their apartment complex that late at night? I should almost call CPS and have them check if there is even an adult home when they’re doing that shit.

A couple of days ago, two women were in the parking lot out back at 11pm, talking rather loudly. They had three small children, in the 2-3 range, who were bored. Consequently, we were repeatedly blessed with the wonderful toddler screech and them hitting the car horn. As I walked out, someone down the way was telling them to shut up. They ignored that person. The people below me walked out on their deck too and said something, also ignored. Finally, after about five minutes, I said (not very loud) “Could you keep it down? Some of us have to get up in the morning.” Their response was to start screaming at their kids. Yeah, don’t shut up, just make more noise. Thanks.

About 10 minutes later, still going at it, I called the police and filed a noise complaint. The first time I’ve called at this address. Five minutes later, they drove off. I called the police to cancel, so they wouldn’t waste their time.

The next night, we looked like we were in for a repeat, with even more car door slamming action, until several neighbors walked out and told them to knock it off. Hasn’t happened again.

7

… as long as she’s not too loud…

8

I feel pretty lucky. I’ve lived in this apartment for going on 8 years with very little problems. The studio next door has had a couple of losers, but the times they did make too much noise the on-site manager was quickly called and police were soon dispatched. That was 2 tenants in a row and neither was around for long. The rental agreement here is very specific about noise, and even restricts visitors to 2 at a time without written permission. The miscreants were soon evicted both times, and now a quiet dude who sweats a LOT lives there.

I specifically looked for a building with concrete between the floors when I found where I live now. Sometimes I can hear a muffled thump of footsteps, but not very often. The condos behind my building also have mature homeowner types who keep the noise down.

A couple of summers ago, a new couple moved into one of the condos that has decking all the way across the back, HUGE decks. They decided soon after that it would be a great place to play cornhole and got themselves a deluxe set.

THUNK…THUNK…WHAP…THUNK… for 2 to 3 hours at a time.

I think they played for maybe a month before they realized they were annoying everyone who was attached to the deckwork AND the 100 apartments facing them. Haven’t seen them play it since.

Those have been my only problems, in the most congested neighborhood in Chicago. I’m really gonna hate moving, I don’t think I’ll ever get this lucky again.

9

Well damn, I guess I feel fortunate. I guess it’s the opposite where we are. We live in BFE. I shoot a .50 BMG rifle in my backyard. My neighbor, who’s also a shooter, responds by bringing over his rifles. :cool:

10

On the extreme sensitivity side, my first downstairs neighbors in the last complex I lived in jumped up and started banging on their ceiling one night.

Because I had quietly walked across the living room, carefully set a glass in my kitchen sink, and run the water for all of 2 seconds. At 11pm. How Dare I!

The next day, they apparently complained to management and for their troubles (they’d been involved in a 3 way dispute with the people on either side of me), were offered their choice of moving to the other end of the complex or getting the hell out.

11

I’ve heard of a reproducing piano. Is this the same thing?

12

I’ve lived in this apartment 2 and 1/2 years and have never even met my “neighbors” above but they sure have complained to management about my “noise” before. It sort of irks me just because people are so terrified of confrontation that they don’t even attempt to talk to each other like reasonable adults.

13

The problem with speaking to your neighbors is that you usually get one of two responses;

1> Vacant eyed surprise. “What are you talking about? I swear we’re not playing our ultra-mongo drum set at 3am every week night. You’re making it up!”

or

2> “FUCK YOU ASSHOLE! IF YOU KNOCK ON MY DOOR AGAIN I’LL (SHOOT YOU/CALL THE COPS/SUE THE FUCK OUT OF YOU!!!)”

Most of the time it’s just not worth it.

My previous neighbors were generally nice, but I got damned tired of the old man working on craft/construction projects (lots of hammering) at 8am every Sunday morning when I worked 2nd or 3rd shift. Every time I’d complain about it, he’d deny that he was doing any such thing. Until management wandered by one morning and heard it for themselves.

14

Right out there in the open?!

15

Seriously, this must be a different meaning of cornhole from the one I know. Please to fight ignorance. In this context, what does cornhole mean?

16

It’s a game with two boards, each of which has a hole in it. Participants attempt to toss beanbags into the holes. The boards are set a predetermined distance apart to make it challenging, and really, the boards are more like ramps, with the holes towards the top of the apex of the ramp.

Points are awarded by getting more of your beanbags into the hole or near it. It’s a little like horseshoes.

It’s also HUUUUUUUUUGE in the midwest.

17

Huge in the Midwest? Never heard of it.

18

Cornhole (SFW ;)).

19

I can’t find it on YouTube, but there’s a great Kids in the Hall sketch where two stoned guys have this game where they bounce a superball in a metal shower and count the number of bounces, driving the neighbour nuts. The gag is, the neighbour only screams when the ball is making the noise, so the guys never actually hear her, they just look puzzled and say - “Did you hear something?” just after she stops. Then they do it again…

20

Thanks! I’ve played home made versions of that game. I never knew it had an official name. We midwesterners can be a little out of things.