Advice Needed - Apartment Building Issue

[frndshpcptn]

I'm in need of some advice on how to deal with a relatively new issue in my apartment building.

My dbf and I (and our 7 pound dog) have owned our apartment for about 2.5 years now. We live on the 3rd floor of a 4 floor building.

We have neighbors on one side and across the hall and below us.

Here's the issue:

The neighbors who live below us are somewhat new - they moved in about 4 months ago and are renting from the owner of that apartment.

About 2 months ago, they started complaining to the board that we were excessively noisy - at 3 AM! We aren't generally awake at that hour, but to be nice (and because the wife in the downstiars apartment is 7 months pregnant), we made an effort to walk more softly around the apartment at all times and be careful not to drop anything on the floor.

They complained again - only this time the night they complained we were too noisy was a night we were actually in another state at a friends' wedding - so clearly the noise wasn't coming from us.

We realized that perhaps they didn't understand that our building is pretty noisy all the time. The pipes bang and rattle pretty loudly when the heat is on, you can hear people in the apartments next door, you can hear people coming in and out of thier apartments on your floor - it's not that soundproof. We asked the Board to explain this to them and to let them know that some noise was a part of life in this building - for all of us.

For the past two weeks now, they have taken to banging on thier ceiling (our floor) everytime they think we are making too much noise. It's getting incredibly frustrating - as I don't how how else we can be any quieter at this point. They may in fact hear us walking around - or hear the dog running around - but I don't know how to handle it without perhaps installing thick, sound proof carpet (which seems pretty expensive).

I'm thinking of going downstairs to talk with them - but wanted advice on what I should say or if there is any other recourse. I really don't want to feel stressed and frightened to live normally in my home.

Thoughts?

 

[worm761]

Just a thought but I would NOT go talk to them. Your best recourse would be to either contact the board about their behavior or contact the owner of the apartment. I would not be happy if I knew I had renters banging on the ceiling.

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

If they bang on the ceiling, report them for being too noisy. If you can/have proved to this board that you were out of town the one day they complained it shouldn't be hard to get them to understand they have a problem and it isn't you but you're not going to sit back and do nothing. The board should take this up with the owner of the apartment.

 

[Duckfan-in-Chicago]

I agree with the post above me...and does the board seem glitchy to anyone else today??

 

[Imzadi]

You need to speak to the the real owner and let them handle their tenants. Especially if you can prove you were out of town on the day they complained. Surely they were living at one time in the place with you above them? They should know how noisy you were or not.

If that doesn't help, then move on and speak to the Board. Remember, YOU are owners, these are tenants and maybe they need to move. For all you know, the tenants may be doing this to get out of paying their rent before finally up & leaving.

 

[frndshpcptn]

Thanks!

We did get the Board to agree that we were out of town that weekend (we showed them the plane tickets to verify!).

Reporting them for banging is a good idea - I just hate the stress of this. I mean - it's an apartment building. There's noise. If they want complete silence they should have probably found a single family home. All of us that live in the building have to deal with it - this is just so annoying and makes me not want to be in my own home for fear of making any sounds.

I tiptoed to the bathroom last night after they banged on the floor at about 10 PM - I can't do this forever and I'm fearful that once the baby arrives they are going to be even worse!

And speaking to the apartment owners is another good idea! I hadn't thought of that at all!

 

[Imzadi]

I'm fearful that once the baby arrives they are going to be even worse!

Once the baby arrives, you have a right to bang on the floor when the baby starts crying for it's 2am feeding, it's 6am feeding, etc. Maybe then they will have a reality check. Turnabout is fair play.

 

[frndshpcptn]

Once the baby arrives, you have a right to bang on the floor when the baby starts crying for it's 2am feeding, it's 6am feeding, etc. Maybe then they will have a reality check. Turnabout is fair play.

that's very true

Ugh - this is just so annoying. We've lived there for 2.5 years and never had a problem before this. Home should be a place of no stress. I want to tell them if they can't handle living in an apartment building, then move!

I'm sure they feel stress too - but I don't know how to help them.

i can say this - the people in the apartment above me - the wife acutally moved into her daughter's place in another town for a while because the heat pipes have been so banging so loudly that it was waking her up at night. They super came to fix thier pipes on Monday night and they were so clogged that when he finally got the steam valve released all the water cascaded down through the walls into our living room!

I went upstairs to find out what happened and the super and tennant explained the situation.

this stuff happens - it's an old pre-war building (built in 1912). We all (well most of us) just deal with it.

Thanks, everyone, for your advice and input!

 

[arminnie]

Crazy neighbors and imagined noises!! BTDT

My neighbor above me - who never made a peep that I heard - was rudely awaked at 5 am one morning by the neighbor on the other side. DEMANDING that she turn off the music. She had a couple of friends from out of town visiting - all were asleep - NO music.

So then nutcase 2nd neighbor decided that I was the one making the noise. She wrote this long letter about how she had mistakenly accused the upstairs neighbor when all along it was ME!

I was out of the country when most of this was going on. The nut job claimed that it had been going on for weeks. I happened to wake up very early one morning and went outside to see if there was any noise maybe coming from across the water - NOTHING but dead silence.

She wasn't home when I got the letter. So I wrote one back to her telling her that there was NO MUSIC, and that she needed to see a psychatrist because she was CRAZY!!!

I just never spoke to her again - even though there were only 6 units in our building. And the 3 of us shared a common mailbox and trash area.

She either was certifiably nuts or maybe she had a small radio in the back of a closet in her own home that was coming on.

 

[KirstenB]

It's too bad the next time they hear these noises that they can't call the Board and have a board member come to their apartment so for once and all, the source of the noise can be sorted out. This situation just begs for a neutral 3rd party.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

It's too bad the next time they hear these noises that they can't call the Board and have a board member come to their apartment so for once and all, the source of the noise can be sorted out. This situation just begs for a neutral 3rd party.

I agree. I would ask them to let me knwo the next time they hear this noise so you could, together, work out it cause. That might convince them that it isn't you. Have them record it (so you know what to listen for), then switch apartments for the night. That is, of course, if they are reasonable (non-crazy ) people...

 

[frndshpcptn]

It's too bad the next time they hear these noises that they can't call the Board and have a board member come to their apartment so for once and all, the source of the noise can be sorted out. This situation just begs for a neutral 3rd party.

That would be a great idea, but unfortuantely the Board members don't live in the building. This particular Board is made up of people who own buinesses in the building on the ground floor, so don't really have any sense of what the building is like for those who live there as an actual home. Hopefully when we vote in the next Board in 2010 that will change - but for now it is what it is.

When we go the second complaint (for the time we were out of town) I asked the Board to have them give us a better explanation of the noise they are hearing (is it banging, stomping, shuffling, rattling, etc) and I offered to help them identify the source of it based on additional details, but they haven't taken me up on that yet.

It's a small building and all the owners pretty much know one another - we usually just talk to one another if there is a problem (which there usually isn't). Like when water came into my living room this week from the person's pipes upstairs. I went upstairs to see what was going on, and the neighbor even offered to come down and help me mop it up (I told him not to worry - that I would do it).

This situation is so out of the norm for us - I just want it to go away!

 

[Imzadi]

Is it the heater pipes and they are just not used to the rattling and banging it makes, so they think YOU are banging on the pipes or dropping stuff? My pipes tend to start banging at 3 am.

 

[frndshpcptn]

Is it the heater pipes and they are just not used to the rattling and banging it makes, so they think YOU are banging on the pipes or dropping stuff? My pipes tend to start banging at 3 am.

I kind of think thats how this all started. That's exactly what time they said we were being noisy AND it's the same issue (same time of the night too!) that the neighbor upstairs is having with thier heating pipes.

From that, they now seem to bang on the ceiling whenever we move off the couch...

 

[LMC]

Did the previous tenant (the actual apartment owner) ever have complaints about you making noise? I think you have lived there long enough that if you were true offenders of the "noise" clause or were habitually making excessive noise others would have complained about you before now. Tell the board that those people are nuts (if you have no previous complaints) and if they want to live in complete silence perhaps they should look for a single family dwelling.

 

[frndshpcptn]

Did the previous tenant (the actual apartment owner) ever have complaints about you making noise? I think you have lived there long enough that if you were true offenders of the "noise" clause or were habitually making excessive noise others would have complained about you before now. Tell the board that those people are nuts (if you have no previous complaints) and if they want to live in complete silence perhaps they should look for a single family dwelling.

Nope - no previous complaints from anyone!