I only moved into this large apartment building in April, after 5.5 years in a rental townhouse complex and having had my own house for 11 years before that.
I know there are noise issues in such places. I don’t sweat it when the downstairs neighbors practice their piano and tuba in the middle of the afternoon or the evening. I expect such things.
I complained about the previous residents of the apartment on the end, roughly 15 feet from my front door, only because they decided to move out in the dead of the night, over the course of three week nights, from 1am to about 3am each night. That was really obnoxious.
I called the police about two weeks ago for the first time because two women were standing in the back parking lot at roughly midnight, being very loud, with three toddler children who kept screaming and jamming on mommy’s car horn because they were bored and wanted to go. I had first stepped out on my deck, and the same time as the Indian couple downstairs, and heard someone down the way telling them to shut up. They ignored that person. After about another 10 minutes of it, I politely asked (not especially loudly, and I did say “please”) if they could keep it down, because some of us had to work in the morning. Their response was to scream at their kids, which was kinda counter productive.
They left about 5 minutes after I called the cops, long before they arrived, so I called and cancelled the complaint.
But the replacement neighbors in that apartment 15 feet away take the cake.
Back in mid-July, their roughly 9 year old daughter started running the halls late at night with a similar aged friend, screaming and yelling. Almost every night, from about 10:15 (when daddy left for work) until about midnight.
One night, they were leaning against my front door, occasionally absent mindedly banging on it (I don’t believe intentional) about 11:30pm. I got out of bed, got dressed and was just walking up to the door when mommy came out and started screaming at them. Yup, that helps.
Things got worse, with constant running up and down the halls and the stair well that is directly adjacent to my bedroom, yelling down the halls and screaming at the top of their lungs. NON STOP from about 10:15 to midnight every motherfucking night.
Finally, at 11:55pm on a Sunday night, I stepped out into the hall, standing directly in front of my door. Sure enough, only 10 seconds later the girls came charging up the stairs. I let them have it verbally, swearing a blue streak but being careful not to scream and disturb the neighbors. I told them that this shit ended right there, that I was going to talk to the office about them (didn’t intend to, never did) and that if they did this again, I would call the cops (bluff).
They were good for about a month and all was well. They were also absolutely terrified of me, turning and walking away from me when they saw me in the halls. Hey, no problem, I pose no danger to you, but I’m happy if it scares you into behaving like a civilized person.
Then it started up again, very slowly at first, and without all the yelling. But never so bad until the last week.
Last night, it was a constant revolving door from about 10:30pm on. Now, before 11pm, there’s really no issue even if I am trying to sleep, because of noise ordinances, so I can’t really complain about that time other than to mention when it started. But for that time, they were charging in and out of that apartment, slamming the door about every third time, screaming as they entered or exited the apartment about half the time. Every 2-3 minutes.
At 11:25pm, I got dressed and stood in front of my door again. It took about 30 seconds before the little girl threw open her door and started screaming back into the apartment to someone. Then she turned and saw me. She slammed her door shut, then opened it a crack to look at me and called her mother. I informed her, very quietly, that the halls were not her personal playground and that she was going to stop running up and down the halls at this time of night RIGHT NOW. There were a few profanities in there somewhere.
Then I walked back into my apartment. Seconds later I hear her mother screaming at her, and screaming about what happened. She walks out in the hall and screams “I’m going to find out what the fuck this is all about”. So I step back into the hall. Mom’s eyes go wide and her demeanor changes. I’m not overly large (5’11", 240), but I worked a variety of tough Security jobs for a while and I can cut an imposing figure without saying a word or even trying to look mean.
Mom introduced herself politely and then asks that I stop ‘cussing’ her child. I laughed inwardly, having just heard her swearing up a storm at the kid. She asked me what the problem was. I told her about the long term behavior and said that her child had no business running the complex at that time of night. She claimed that she had only just now gotten home and had NO IDEA that any such thing was going on. I said nothing, but both statements are false.
I went back to bed. Over the next 15 minutes, I counted their front door closing 14 times (loud enough to hear from my bed). Finally, at 11:45pm there was a very slow and deliberate STOMP STOMP STOMP up the stairs and a very loud slam of their front door. Then nothing more.
Today I came home during my lunch hour and spoke to the office about it. In all honesty, I don’t expect they’ll do a damned thing. They told me that no one else had complained. They said they’d talk to the mother about it.
Now seriously, it’s one thing to be charging in and out of an apartment every couple of minutes, slamming the door every now and then, yelling up and down the halls at 11-12pm every night. That alone would be obnoxious and complaint worthy.
But who the fuck allows their 9-10 year old child to do this, night after night?
Oh, and it’s 10:16pm as I finish this and it’s pretty much sounding like business as usual tonight.