Prior to moving into our new apartment, we were warned an adjacent building was occupied by a young ruffian who liked to occasionally dial his system up to "11" during the day. But from years living in the city, we knew such is the life of a renter, understanding living in a multi-unit building can mean hearing (or even feeling) the sounds in adjacent units or buildings.
But today we were faced with a perplexing, if not ongoing issue between us and a neighbor. Immediately upon moving in, a note was left on our door by our neighbor below notifying she was being prematurely awoken by my girlfriend's alarm; the iPhone was being left on the floor when we first moved in, as we didn't yet have all our furnishings at the time and the early morning noise was apparently vibrating loudly below. We were so embarrassed by the new neighbors faux pas; we immediately apologized and vowed to fix the situation, now realizing the 1917 building was broadcasting the alarm below.
Fast forward months later this morning and we receive another notice, this time via email, again complaining about the alarm. This time around, the issue wasn't so cut and dry, nor were we so quick to apologize considering we had made a slew of sound proofing/dampening changes to our apartment and our lifestyle in consideration for our noise-sensitive neighbor. FLOR carpet tiles were added throughout, the iPhone now sits ontop of a nearby dresser (and is set at a moderate-low volume), the volume of the television is kept low between all hours (stopped using the Yamaha soundbar speaker)...we even put Soft Paws onto our cats nails.
We think we had been quite reasonable and accommodating at this point, so we politely pointed out the various accommodations made and left it at that (we don't plan to do this...yet), knowing sometimes all you can do is try your best to be considerate, but there are limits one can expect when sharing walls and floors.
Have you experienced similar issues, from either side of the coin, in regards to audible noises from alarms, televisions, stereos or other tech appliances? How did you deal with the situation and was there a resolution?
(Image: Flickr member Cayusa licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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The WORST is my harder of hearing neighbor that cranks up the TV and keeps it on ALL NIGHT. It get particularly bad because he keeps normal TV loud, so when he falls asleep and the infomercials come on, it's really loud!
I tried buying him nifty headphones, but he chucked them straight into the Monday trash.
Le sigh.
yeah i have been able to hear alarms through walls. I can hear when the kids downstairs scream, or when daddy takes them out mommy likes to crank up the music....not cool.
we had some new neighbors on one side and right after they moved in the bass was out of control. I know they probably had it cranked up because they were unpacking everywhere, but i decided to nip it in the bud, and went over and talked to them. Much better then the previous tenet would would refuse to come to the door when i went over there because my walls and floors were vibrating at midnight.
I still hear they cupboard doors slamming though, i know ours are quite loud and wonder if they can hear them too, but i do have pretty sensitive hearing.
My next door neighbor plays some sort of first-person-shooter video game at 6:30 IN THE MORNING. The volume is turned up, and he screams profanities while playing! I have no idea what to do about it; he scares me, and I've never actually seen him (just hear him yelling all the time). The worst part is that we don't even live in the same building, so it's not like I can talk to a landlord or anything like that.
One of these days I'm just going to have to get some courage to talk to this guy and ask him to be a little quieter in the mornings... it's a freaky way to be awoken, and it's already happened 3 times this week!
I once had a downstairs neighbor who would leave her apartment overnight for parts unknown and then have an alarm go off at 2:30 a.m. that would then beep loudly (think car alarm-style beeping) the rest of the night. My apartment was a studio, so there was no place for me to go. So the second time this happened, I wrote her a nice, long note about it and slipped it under the door.
screaming kids, banging cupboards, elephant hoofed stompers upstairs, loud televisions next door. What's happened to consideration, and politeness........IF ONLY I COULD AFFORD A HOUSE!
My neighbor watches movies every single night that apparently feature 90 minutes or so of constant explosions. Seriously, it's like a continuous peal of rumbling thunder that ebbs and flows but quite literally doesn't stop for about 90 minutes to 2 hours. It has actually shaken my antenna from my wall a few times - a wall in my living area about 15 feet away from and not connected to the wall in m dining area that we share!
Meanwhile, a family lives across the lawn from me that is the loudest group of people I think I've ever heard. They spend hours every single day outside, and every conversation is just YELLED, and every other word is the f-bomb.
I'm not usually bothered by the usual life noises, but in my mind these situations cross the bounds of courtesy.
My neighbour has done most of the above or similar like cranking up the bass sub-woofer; video game explosions FROM 11pm; comes home 3am, drunk & deaf from clubbing, then turns on stereo; hard heels on wood floor; favorite music: techno! He just moved out after 3 yrs. I have 2 weeks of quiet until the next neighbour moves in.
Okay not a tech issue, but after I had been living in my apartment for a full year, my upstairs neighbor came down one Sunday morning in a fury -- clearly rage had been building -- to accuse me of being inconsiderate and noisy, which was a shock to me, I've never had anyone complain about my habits before!
Turns out, she thought my habit of showering every morning around 6:30 or 7 was horribly rude because she is semi-retired and doesn't have to get up that early! She went on to say that in her almost 20 years of living there, no-one else had ever showered as loudly as I do.
???
What?
Eventually this situation got resolved (after I endured her psycho "revenge phase" for a few days) when I had the management send out a repairperson to replace a couple of valves, which, I swear, did next to nothing to make the water flow quieter, but I guess the act of having it "fixed" was enough to soothe her.
You haven't been living in Mexico! There are no rules against making noise and the neighbors throw parties whenever they want (even during the weekdays) until 5 or 6 am of the following day! They throw things, move furniture, play soccer, run and hammer all day long; I have moved in and out 3 times and now, that I supposedly, live in a residential neighborhood (and building) the situation is worse! When I asked the young couple with 2 kids, living upstairs, to lower the terrible noise, they insulted me and my mother and they called the police telling them that we were bothering them. They threatened us if we did something or complained. And when we complained ... nobody did anything; they didn't care and now the situation is terrible and out of control. The neighbors said that they are in their "house" (although it is a rented apartment) and they can do whatever they want anytime in their place. Nobody can do anything in Mexico to stop the noise and it is anywhere.