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Do you complain about neighbourly noise or just let it be?

F

formated4tv

Member
When I was 19-20 my next door apartment neighbor would blast their music at like 3-4AM (against my bedroom wall), so I would kick the wall to try to get them to shut the hell up.

Eventually the landlord came over, I said "They're loud as hell and it's obnoxious", she basically said "They said the same thing about you", and I thought about that might actually be a possibility (aside from the wall kicks).

Since then, I've tried to mellow out on the noise complaints since I'm sure I make as much noise (in my house now) that other people do in the houses next to me or across the street, and it doesn't seem worth the hassle.

Opening that can of worms seems like a dangerous game.
 
mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
My apartment complex has a 10PM-6AM no noise policy. If there's a bunch of people shouting outside or you can hear through the walls, fuck 'em. Fortunately, I have only had to call the police once, and that's because there was an argument right under my window in the middle of the night. The only thing that sucks is my bedroom window faces the parking lot, so cars have a tendency to wake me up.

I just bought a house and will be moving in next week, and I'm ecstatic not to be anywhere near a parking lot or road.
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
Depends. Once in a while a bit of noise? Whatever. Every week like clockwork in the middle of the night? I'm knocking on your door. And I expect them to do the same if I ever bother them. No reason to not discuss that, since we got to all live in the same building together.
 
C

Crankshaft

Member
I'm in an apartment and I think my neighbor has his sub woofer next to the wall that connects to my apartment. Can hear movie explosions late at night. It's annoying but I usually just put on headphones or go to another room.
 
xrnzaaas

xrnzaaas

Member
I have complained many times, but geez man, kicking the door? Are you insane? If you can't wait until the next day to talk to the neighbor in person you can just call the cops (assuming in your country no noises after 10pm rule does exist).
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
Don't kick their door like an asshole. That'll get you shot in some places. Just file a noise complaint.

I asked nicely more than once for my neighbor to turn their music down. She played the same country song over and over. I could hear it when I was in the bathroom at 6am getting ready for work. I could hear it at 10pm when I'm having sex. It was annoying as fuck.

Called the cops and it ain't been a problem since. She hates my guts but oh well.
 
B

boredandlazy

Member
I always speak to them face to face before I take it any further. Most of the time they're perfectly willing to tone it down. Being an introvert I really hate doing it, but it's the best way to do it without annoying them.
If they still cause issues or are assholes then I'll lodge a complaint.
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
Jindrax said:
Don't wake me up in the middle of the night with your damn TV so loud that you can't even hear your own doorbell.
Click to expand...

So then call the cops. I'm just saying you're making a mistake in handling that. It's not "intimidating" it just makes someone want to respond a different way.
 
W

Wiped89

Member
No never. A little bit of noise from time to time has to come under fair common sense acceptability.

The worst thing my neighbours do is hoover at like
7am on a Sunday morning (why?!).

But I'm the one with the bassy AF sound system cranked every evening *shrug*

I actually bought a semi detached house because that way I only had one set of adjoining neighbours, 50% less chance of them complaining about my noise.
 
J

Jindrax

Member
Mammoth Jones said:
So then call the cops. I'm just saying you're making a mistake in handling that. It's not "intimidating" it just makes someone want to respond a different way.
Click to expand...

I wasn't trying to intimidate anyone. I wanted him to open his door so I can tell him to turn it down. If knocking or the doorbell isn't loud enough. Kicking was.
 
M

Mammoth Jones

Member
Jindrax said:
I wasn't trying to intimidate anyone. I wanted him to open his door so I can tell him to turn it down. If knocking or the doorbell isn't loud enough. Kicking was.
Click to expand...

I mean OK. But just be aware that can make a bad situation worse. What happens when they call the cops and say "someone is trying to kick my door open?"

Or assuming you live in the US they just answer the door with a gun?

But hey if that's how you roll do you.
 
Gareth Bryne

Gareth Bryne

Member
This is a problem near and dear to me, sorry for wall of text.

Absolutely will and have said something.

I've been on both ends of accidentally being too loud for neighbors (apartment in college, very thin floors), as well as having a neighbor above me play loud music/movies at night. The former I'm happy they said something to me as I wasn't really aware it was so loud outside my place. The latter I ended up dealing with at the time as it was pretty infrequent and they weren't there for very long, and I wasn't much of a confrontational person.

Ever since both of these, I've been very conscientious of what I'm listening to and how loud it is, because I know how much it bothered me and how much anxiety it can give a person who doesn't want to 'rock the boat' and end up making things worse. I don't want to compare the anxiety to having bed bugs because that's even worse, but the constant worrying and being upset can drive you bonkers.

A few years after living in my condo I got new neighbors, who had either a surround system or a soundbar/subwoofer setup that put out some pretty serious low hz. I don't have to tell people who live next door to these things how badly low frequency noise permeates and booms into the next abode even if they're at a 'low' listening volume (i.e. at times being able to clearly hear dialog etc. from what they were watching, never mind the actual bass hits).

I put up with it for a while, but it was eventually like clockwork almost every day (music) and night (tv/movies) to the point where I could easily identify what they were listening to (mostly alternative 90s, so it wasn't all bad ;) ) over what I was doing.

It took a fair amount of back and forth at times, but I was very fortunate in having people who were understanding and ended up trying to keep it down (i.e. gave me cell # to let them know if anything was too loud at any point, etc.). So in my case it worked out for the better in talking to them.

I get that people shouldn't live like church mice and I don't expect silence all day (having people over and jamming out on the weekend, sure no problem), but I think everyone has a breaking point with noise disturbance and shouldn't have to put up with unreasonable (again, this is always relative) frequent issues.

I would also like to point out, there may be people who don't even realize how much they're affecting others around them (definitely me when I was in my apartment)...it can't hurt at least to check, you could very well have someone very unintentionally driving you nuts :).

Now I have my own house, I'm happy in my isolated cocoon and turn up the TV knowing I don't have a shared wall with someone next to me.
 
M

markofhavoc

Member
I will call the cops if it annoys me. But I live in a house so if I can hear your music at midnight on a weeknight from across the street, it's too damn loud
 
D

Darkwater

Member
EVOL 100% said:
I let it be. Then again I sing and play guitar, I'd have to be massively hypocritical to say anything.

It sure is a godsend living in a house and not have to deal with noise and feel like I'm walking in eggshells all the time myself.
Click to expand...

You'd only be a hypocrite if you played and sang at night.
 
B

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
I've written to the council about parties going on to 4/5am playing music way too loud, but it usually leads to nothing since the council is useless.

Oh, this wasn't a next door neighbour either, this was the house on the other side far down the street.
 
KarneeKarnay

KarneeKarnay

Member
I'll ignore it because there will be times I am going to be too loud and I'd rather not kick off an argument over noise. I live in a block of flats, so it comes with the territory.

However if it was a running thing. Like every night or one night where it was unbearably loud, I would go up and ask politely at first.

When I was growing up my neighbors got a dog. They didn't train it. At night they would let it out to use the garden and close the door. The dog would howl and bark the whole night. We tried to ignore it, but when summer came we had to have the windows open. Every night it was the same shit and we had enough problems sleeping with the heat.

My mum started politely, then less politely, then angrily. It got to the point that she would just ring the doorbell until they got up and dealt with it. One time their son came out and slapped her hand to stop the ringing. She came home, told me what happened. I threw some clothes on and was about to call the police when the little shit came up to the door.

I don't know what he was thinking would happen. It looked like he was about to yell at my mum for ringing the bell. Before he could get a word out i was verbally on him like a brick shit house. How dare he lay a hand on my mother, she wouldn't be there if you looked after your dog, you lazy pieces of shit. I think he visibly shrank.
 
K

Kilrogg

paid requisite penance
Gareth Bryne said:
I would also like to point out, there may be people who don't even realize how much they're affecting others around them (definitely me when I was in my apartment)...it can't hurt at least to check, you could very well have someone very unintentionally driving you nuts :).
Click to expand...

Very true. I keep worrying that I might be bothering some of my neighbors (from Skyping to sometimes doing some amateur voice acting), but at the same time I've never had a single complaint in over 2 years. Besides, I know for a fact that I'm very well isolated from outside noises. My neighbor's neighbor once told me I was lucky not to be hearing our mutual neighbor. That same neighbor once had her smoke alarm go off for no reason, and apparently I was none the wiser. Lastly, I can never hear the next door couple except when they get laid, and even then, I can barely hear the lady.

I like to think they can't hear me just as much as I can't hear them, but what am I gonna do? Pay all my neighbors a call and ask them if they can hear me sometimes? :/
 
cr0w

cr0w

Old Member
I usually just let it go unless it's a recurring, disruptive thing. Plus I sleep with earplugs anyway so I can't hear shit.

I did have a bout with some upstairs neighbors recently where it would sound like they were tumbling for hours on end across my ceiling from like 8pm onward. Just constant booming and banging, to the point where my hanging lights were shaking. I finally had to tell them that whatever they were doing needed to be fucking ceased or it'd be reported to the office. I think they had a big dog that was basically running the entire apartment, because I would hear the kennel shaking the entire fucking apartment when someone would get home and one night she was barking for about 4 hours straight, vicious barking like someone was being attacked. Had to call the courtesy officer on that one. Shit quieted down though after the boyfriend moved out. A little noise is fine, but when my apartment starts shaking something has to be said.

I find other shit more annoying, like people leaving their trash on their patios and attracting raccoons, or flicking their cigarette butts down onto mine. Just disrespectful. I think the thing I've had the biggest problem with so far was when this old Vietnamese couple came to visit and they did their laundry and hung it over their patio to dry, which caused all the water to drip down onto my patio and stunk up the place like crazy, since they didn't use soap. Just stinky, sweaty shirts dripping down onto my shit. You couldn't walk through my patio without getting a whiff of god-awful BO and sweat.
 
StreetDisciple

StreetDisciple

Member
Jindrax said:
I wasn't trying to intimidate anyone. I wanted him to open his door so I can tell him to turn it down. If knocking or the doorbell isn't loud enough. Kicking was.
Click to expand...

If you start kicking my door you will be met with a pistol to the face...honestly.

When I used to live in an apartment heavy walking/running upstairs was always my pet peeve. There were times I did go upstairs and let the neighbor know because honestly he probably didn't know he was "heavy Footed" and didn't realize he was disturbing me. I lived there for 8 years before buying a house and had multiple neighbors move in upstairs. I had to go let them know a few times but never in a disrespectful way.
 
G

Goofalo

Member
My neighbor AirBnB'd her place to Lolla attendees. They arrived Wednesday night, and decided that 3 AM was perfect for some form of EDM that I find infuriating at my age and at 3 AM. It did not stop. Disjointed beats until I returned from my run that morning.

I waited until Friday morning, and woke up to shower. Turned every single speaker/audiosystem in my home up to maximum and blasted NPR's Morning Edition while I was taking a shower.

Bumbumbumbum bum bum BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMM, motherfuckers.

They left a nice note about being sorry about the noise.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
When my neighbors get up to loud parties on the street on weekdays at 2am, yeah, I'm going to report them. Just because you don't have jobs to worry about doesn't mean you get to make life difficult for the people who do.

My downstairs neighbor finally stopped blasting his bass when the cops showed up. Even noise-cancelling earphones couldn't do shit about that, so with him not being a reasonable person that was the only other option.
 
G

Goofalo

Member
Jindrax said:
Well if I'd also live in the wild west I'd also own a gun.
Maybe then I could kick the door and when he opens with his gun I'd have mine and we'd have an interesting stand off.
Click to expand...

Most states, the armed homeowner could shoot and kill you legally, if you showed up at his door with a firearm.
 
D

dead souls

Member
markofhavoc said:
I will call the cops if it annoys me. But I live in a house so if I can hear your music at midnight on a weeknight from across the street, it's too damn loud
Click to expand...

Same here. I live in a house. If I can hear godawful shit at like 3 in the morning and it's not a holiday I'm calling in a noise complaint for sure.
 
S

shandy706

Member
This is why I will never ever live in an apartment or really close housing.

I'm a surround sound cranked kind of person LOL. I'd be the one bothering everybody.
 
A

Albino_Yeti

Member
Being in college, there's a lot of noise I just have to deal with. If I can hear a party when I'm trying to sleep, I usually just turn on the fan to help block the noise. I've never complained about noise before, but if I had a test the next day or something and people were partying until 4 in the morning, I would consider it.
 
hikarutilmitt

hikarutilmitt

Member
In the apartments it would escalate quickly, unfortunately. In the house, it's infrequent enough that I just let it be unless it's truly obnoxious.
 
M

Mascot

Member
The first property I owned was a nice flat in an old converted mansion. I loved living there but I sometimes wanted to kill a few of the fuckcunt tenants that rented around me due to noise issues like bass-heavy music, stomping across floors and slamming doors. I got those fuckers moved on as fast as I could.

Anti-social behaviour is one of my absolute pet hates.
 
A

Aiii

So not worth it
So you start shouting and what I'm assuming is loudly knocking on a door after midnight. When the guy didn't open his door (would you, after midnight, with someone like that at your door? Honestly?) you started kicking his door?

Your mom is right in telling you off, this is not a normal response to a loud TV.

When my new neighbour moved in he played his music loudly, I asked him to turn it down, he told me he came from a big standalone house and wasn't used to living in an apartment. He never bothered me again. That's how these things should go. Immediately making a scene when in all likelihood the guy just didn't realize it was so noisy, is a major overreaction.
 
P

PnCIa

Member
It depends on the situation. If someone would put his TV at full volume, at 11 pm on a monday evening, i would ask them to turn in down. If they keep doing whatever they want, i call the police.
Under no circumstances would i just try to get used to it. I pay good money for my place.
 
N

Nivash

Member
Never. I'm a thorough believer in live and let live. That said, I still try and look for apartments with good sound proofing. Push comes to shove, I'll just sleep with noise cancelling earphones.
 
B

Bladelaw

Member
Only time I ever complain is when some asshole decides a random Thursday is a good night for fireworks and wakes up my kids. 4th of July, Labor/Memorial Day is fine but just some random night? Fuck that. If it's past the noise curfew (11pm in my town) the cops get a call. Only had to do it twice in 5 years.
 
Q

Quikies83

Member
Kicking in the door is too much. You're lucky you didn't get taken to the cleaners.
Next time let your momma handle it.
 
J

Jindrax

Member
Aiii said:
So you start shouting and what I'm assuming is loudly knocking on a door after midnight. When the guy didn't open his door (would you, after midnight, with someone like that at your door? Honestly?) you started kicking his door?
Click to expand...

Well you assume wrong. I went up rang the doorbell and knocked. Thought that would be enough. Waited. Nothing. Went back down could still make out his entire movie through the bedroom ceiling. Went back up repeated. Three times. Then I kicked. I also didn't shout at the man he's in his forties he's not a child.... at least phisically.

When he finally opened I told him his tv is too loud it's passed 1 and people are trying to sleep. To which he said it's not me. To which I said you're the only person in the building, the others are on holiday. To which he said it must be another building then... (We live on corner my only connecting walls are him and two other neighbors on holiday). Then the only neighbor on the highest floor opened her door and yelled it is you I can hear it every night turn it down. To which he says you've got the wrong house and slams the door. I go back down all of a sudden no more TV but him pacing through his apartment.
 
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