you need to get a decibel meter and figure out if they are loud or you are sensitive.

Well I wear earplugs and have my tv on and they still have managed to wake me up.

The landlord can't control tenants noise if its only coming and going or snoring. Loud music, fighting, parties is another story. I'm a landlord and feel I have quiet buildings. Living in my apartments you can hear people coming and going, foot traffic, loud TV's etc. What you are describing I would consider normal apartment living in stick built structures. Your landlord has the right to hold you to your lease, make you pay rent untill its re-rented and pay the entire amount of the add. At least in my state. If you are moving out early I would make sure to still pay your rent to the courts in a rent escrow as you likely will need to sue your landlord to leave. This will avoid late fees and credit problems.

"even the bathroom vent" I have never been in a place where you cant hear neighbors vents. Sounds like you may be over sensitive.

Check your states laws but be prepared to full fill the lease. Quiet enjoyment is quite vague and probably wont allow you to get out of your lease.

she is not sensitive so stop that, this forum is to support people not turn around and use the same "it's you" tactic employed by the freaks who make noise.
Erin, consider threatening the LL with a law suit...it's time to explore the health angle maybe like calling 911 a couple of times and saying you're having seizures because of the noise. maybe when one of these a-holes finally gets to pay millions in compensation some of the other s-heads will get the message.

in the meantime, talk to your landlord again then the renters board or whatever stands for that in your neck of the woods. do not give up and don't listen to people telling you you're sensitive...loud TV's, wild sex etc are NOT normal...normal is respecting others and considering their well being. that's what separates humans from animals.

neoadorable thank you so much for your support! i have sent a formal letter to my landlord so hopefully in a few days i will get a response.
nfllifer as for the vent in the bathroom.. everyone who has come to my apartment can hear it to so i know i'm not just going crazy.. trust me i though i was for the first week till i had other people over.
neoadorable thanks again i really needed to hear something positive! i've lived in apartments and been in other and know what noise levels are.
I'll keep y'all posted!

right on, from my experience it's almost never the complainer that's exaggerating, but rather the perps and those who excuse them that have cause to underplay suffering.

don't let the bastards grind you down Erin!

I don't think you're being too sensitive--but I do think you need to be prepared for a similar response from other people.

Your landlord can't make your downstairs neighbor stop snoring, stop having sex, take a day job.

So you'll need to make it be about the quality of the apartment itself, and especially about his misrepresentation of the noise level in the structure.

Of course your landlord also probably can't' do much to change the structure itself; but he didn't have to lie to you. Therein lies the strength of your complaint.

Good luck!

yes, get decibel meter to test the noise level, see if it has exceeded the limitation as both the state and federal law specified.

also talk to other neighbors and see if they were disturbed, too, or invite them to your room (I did that) and ask them if these are excessive noises or just a part of daily life.

we all know excessive noises hazardous to our physical and mental health, so if you could, get a doctor's opinion/report about how your health has been damaged...

If you have all these info available, your landlord will have to take a second look at this case

I am going to throught the exact same thing and it is driving me crazy, on how much your landlord can not do!! I have complained for almost over three months now for the exception that in our shared laundry facility (which is in the basement, in her suite) my clothes, my hubby's clothes and my 8 month old son's clothes were thrown on the ground wet with bleach all over them, i actually bought my own apartment size washer and dryer so i would not haveot go downstairs anymore. But the noise has still continued and i am left feeling backed into a corner. My LL actually had the nerve to tell me to call 911..lol.. He is trying to tell me there is nothing he can do. But HE IS THE LANDLORD and if any one is able to do anything is should be him right?? But i have come to the realization that sometimes there are just things that you can not control along with poeple who are just idiots. As the noise continues i get more and more irratated, sometimes i feel like turning my stereo on full blast at 1:30 in the morning and let is play a scratched cd all night while i go sleep at a friends house..lol but i dont want to sink to there level. I just dont get how people who live in a building that has more than just themselves living there, can be so ignorant!! I am dealing with my landlord anymore!!! He cant do anything anyways, i have called the landlord and tenancy act advisory number to see exactly what my options are, if i feel that my landlord has not done his "LANDLORD JOB" then i legal have the right to pursue it. I have also been informed that since day one when this started happenening i should be writing everything down and every time the noise is loud call the landlord just so you can state that you did have this problem, you tried to get the landlord to do something but he has not.. i guess you need proof to back up the amount of effort you have put in to get this situation solved. Well, thats my two cents on the matter.
Good Luck

document, document, document! If landlords want to act like you are just overly sensitive then MAKE it his problem! Have your paperwork in order so if you leave you can show, without a doubt, that you tried to go about things in the proper manner but to no avail. Best of luck!

We have moved into a building with concrete walls. We are in an end unit and on the other side of us is the model apt so no neighbors on either side. Talk about bliss!!! I'll tell ya, when we sold our house to move to an apt, I had a list a mile long of "must haves"...... the end unit with the model next door was a stroke of luck, but it has been sheer heaven!

Let us know what happens

Acceptable noise levels, type of noise, duration of noise and time of noise are subjective.

Most sounds I hear in my own apartment houses and buildings are just typical sounds of apartment living.

Taking decibel readings sounds funny. I bought a couple decibel meters to take readings on processor fans, video card fans, and heating equipment, but haven't used them for tenant noise complaints.

I don't know what's worse, putting up with some noise, or having someone with a decibel meter taking a reading of another tenant having sex. Sounds pretty creepy.

Noise is subjective as markjames says. And how do the landlord bashers here know for sure the landlord has not dealt with the offending tenants to the best of their ability within the laws that bind landlords as well? There is something to keep in mind: without substantial documentation of some kind (such as a police report) it pretty much amounts to hearsay, and ones word against the other. I rent houses, at one point had a young guy living in one. Drunk neighbor drives over and shows up on doorstep to complain about the loud crazy parties taking place late at night at the house. I tell him call the police. He says everyone in the neighborhood has called the police after the recent holiday weekend, he claims police were there but the noise resumed after police left. I tell him I'll take care of it. Next day I call the non-emergency line, dispatcher checks back two years in her records, not a single call to police with a complaint about my tenant. So what I am to do? Tell my tenant he's getting kicked out because the drunk next door neighbor complained? I wouldn't have a leg to stand on legally. I did approach my tenant and warned him in no uncertain terms that I would not tolerate noise that is disruptive to the neighbors to the point the police are called, and it's in my leases that they will abide by city codes, not create a nuisance that disturbs neighbors, etc. So there, my tenant was warned and I did not make a spectacle of it for all the neighborhood to see. I did it quietly and discreetly. A landlord that looks like they're not doing anything might have well done all they could within the law and with what they had to work with and you just weren't made privy to it. Just as you want your space protected from offending noise, the allegedly offensive tenant's space is protected by law as well and in my situation, if I've got to evict someone out of their home for creating a noise/public nuisance, I better darn well have police reports or substantial documentation with me in court to back it up.

I am dealing with the other side in a way. I am a small business in a busy shopping district. I rented my store front to sell clothes and jewelry etc... I play music for the enjoyment of my customers between 11am and 7pm. We do not play rap or heavy metal music. (no heavy bass) I checked other stores to see how loud their music is and made sure we were lower. Well we have gotten a lot of calls from a tenant who lives above our store asking us to continually turn the music down. We have done it, but still he complains. I always thought that basic noise laws were in force. You know commonsense stuff like no loud music before 10am and after 10pm. Like I said we are only open 11-7 so what gives? I can't find a lot of concrete information from the cops or online so far. I think that he should understand that if you move into an apartment in a busy shopping district above a storefront that there will be noise during the day. We haven't gotten a decibel meter reading, but I feel sure that our music is well below the 50db level I have read about on some websites pertaining to noise laws. Why do people always think that the people who are being complained about are always at fault. Plus even if you want to be polite it's hard to find out what the guidelines are and if you are within them. We play the same music at our other store with tenants above and no complaints. What is a small business owner supposed to do to solve the problem in a way that pleases everyone including myself?

Your other store's upper floor may be a lot more solid than the one in this store and the tenant may have carpeting up there. You may be within your rights to play the music, but do consider how it might be for the guy/gal up there having to hear it all day long every day when they obviously didn't contract to have it when they signed on.

I am having a HORRIBLE time with my new downstairs neighbor. Since the day she moved in I have had to deal with her blaring her stereo (I can feel the base through the floor) And her annoying barking dog and screaming kids. I approached her about the dog situation on day 2 of her moving in. The dog was left out on the patio for over 30min barking the entire time. I went down and introduced myself and asked her very nicely if she could let her dog in or make it stop barking. The very next day I get home from work and hear her loud ridicuolsly annoying music AND her dog barking outside for over 20min. It was -12degrees outside, I went down again and asked her if she was aware her dog had been barking for over 20min she proceeded to scream at me. It was ridiculous. This was after our apartment office was closed so I stopped by the next day after work to explain what was going on. They said they would talk to her. A few days later, here we go again with the loud music. So I call the office, they call her, call me back and tell me they called her and I am not kidding, she turned the music up even louder knowing the office had just closed! So again I tell them what was going on and they gave me an after hours number to call. Then just yesterday I came home from work only to hear the loud music yet again! I called the office and made one of the employees come to my apartment to witness the noise, he agreed that it was too loud and went down to talk to her about it. Then I over hear this crazy woman shouting and making up lies about me! About how I run around at 1:30am with my dog and that I almost hit her car etc. All fabrications! I went down there and defended my self and proved to the apartment office employee that she was lying! I have all of these instances fully documented, dates, times, whom I spoke to, what the outcome was, phone records etc. I am sure she has none of this. So to her I say bring it on! I am going to go talk to my apartment manager tonight after work. And they damn well better resolve this situation!

And we all need to listen to this because...?

Hi everyone,
I have been reading everyone's posts on here seeing if anyone has had the same problem as me, but none have come close and I am looking for advise now. I live on the top floor. I am extremely considerate of the girl living below me. My apartment is all hardwood floors and it is a very old building. The floors move and creak all the time. Because of this I never,ever even wear my shoes in my place. I go to bed everynight between 9 and 10 pm. I am only awake and in my apartment for about 3 hours everyday. The rest of the time I am at work, then the gym, and then come home for dinner and go to bed. I live by myself and have even bought carpets to put all over the floors to try to help with the noise of walking around.

My issues come into play at around 3-4 am every night. The girl that lives below me must be up late, and also knows that I have been asleep for some time now. She thinks it is funny to throw a basketball into the ceiling at these very late hours. It scares me and wakes me up. It is done intentionally everynight around the same time. She will do it once, wait a few minutes, do it again. Sometimes she does it only a few times, sometimes it has lasted for about 15 min. To me this is unacceptable. I have contacted the management company and they said that they have talked to her, but it still continues. I am at a loss of words now. I email/call the management company the next day everytime it happens. Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

I really do make every effort to not make noise.

I have wanted to start calling the police, but as everyone says, it doesnt really seem to do a whole lot. If I try to talk to the girl below me, she does not answer the door. And hte management company seems to just not really care. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks for anyones advice or suggestions.

I have something similar to lucy_tenant's situation, but not quite as bad as hers. The person who lives below me complains that I'm being really loud, probably because it's an old apartment with hardwood floors. However, when she turns on the AC, it is equally loud, and I never complain. Anyways, I never wear shoes inside my apartment, and now I have to tip-toe across my own apartment. The thing is, I thought this type of noise levels were supposed to be within the limits for an apartment. I mean, if you can't stand even a little noise, why are you living in a city. Unfortunately, I don't have any good advice for you, Lucy, but I think when she throws her basketball at the ceiling, you could try banging on the floors. I don't know if that would work. Also, I think it's unfair for you to buy carpeting yourself, you should have tried to split the cost of the carpeting with the girl below you.

with my tinnitus I like to have white noise going all the time, so I always do, whether I'm in an apartment or an empty hotel room, or a quiet house. That helps a lot.. it drowns out a lot more then you might thing... muttering of conversations and other things like cupboards being closed just disappear.

Consider having white noise on at all times. I wouldn't do without it especially in an apartment, where there will be noise, that's just a way of life. I feel sorry for my new neighbors when I move in with my bucking spring keyboard! Just kidding. I'll use the quiet cherry brown filco keyboard unless they start to annoy me.

Glad I found this site as I'm having issues with my downstairs neighbors. I moved into my apartment two years ago. It's the second floor apartment in an older house. The other apartment is on the first floor. The couple that live there are in their early 70's but the guy thinks he's still in his twenties. He spends all his free time working on his truck or washing it. Now I have no problem with someone taking care of their vehicle but what I do have is someone having no respect for someone else's property. This guy washes his and his wife's trucks EVERY day. I'm not kidding. When I'm not home, he'll park his truck in my spot and wash it so when I get home, my space is full of puddles that I have to walk through. If I am home, he pulls his truck up right along side mine and as he's hosing down his vehicle, the water is spraying all over mine. The sun dries the water spots and they're hard to remove, especially on the windshield. He also parks his truck so that the hitch ball hangs over onto my parking spot which is directly behind his. He has plenty of room to pull up and not be so close to my spot. It's hard enough squeezing into my space because there is a tree behind it and a wall along one side (part of a building).

The second issue I have is that he plays 60's music 24/7. I have gotten up at 2 or 3 in the morning to use the bathroom and the music is playing. It's loud enough that I can name every song and sometimes he turns it up loud enough that my coffee table vibrates. Asking him to lower it does no good because another neighbor told me that the guy that lived in my apartment before me went downstairs and knocked on the neighbor's door to ask him to lower the music. The neighbor wouldn't answer so he asked him from outside the door. When that didn't work, he went back downstairs and knocked again. This time, the neighbor opened the door, swore at him, and punched him in the face. In fact, the neighbor told me this himself. It was like he was giving me a warning not to complain about his music. My landlord is completely useless; he knows he plays the music and he can see him washing his car every day (the landlord has a business on the first floor opposite the neighbor's apt).

I'm a single girl living alone and I don't like confrontation, especially since this guy has a chip a mile long on his shoulder and is always ready for a fight. I have been living with it for two years and telling myself that maybe he doesn't realize he's spraying my car or that he's parking with part of his hitch in my spot (though he can easily see it when he sits on his deck every night) but it upsets me anyway. This past week I bought a new SUV. I went out early yesterday figuring he'll wash his truck while I'm gone. I got home and parked my car and a half hour later he came out and started washing his right next to mine and sprayed my new SUV all over except for the driver's side. I was furious. The only thing I can do to get some satisfaction is to wait until he washes his car and then go outside and wash mine next to his so that his vehicle will be sprayed. Then if he comes out and says something, I can explain that the same thing happens to my car when he washes his truck. If that doesn't work, then I have more vengeful ideas though he wouldn't know they came from me.

I never know what to make of posts like this. Why has no one called the police? Why does no one set precedent in their favor first? Why does everyone succumb to base instinct and react in way that sounds equally annoying or illegal? Why do the OPs never come back to say what happened? Is it because they feel purged by venting or b/c there's now evidence to prove vengeful intentions if he calls the police?

I guess what seems obvious to me is the obviously wrong thing to do for someone else.