I forgot to mention that the man in the apt physically threatened me the last time we spoke. He's a big ugly guy and I'm only a petite woman. Believe me, that made me angry and a call to the police quickly followed but I think that only made him angrier.

Help! Would contacting an attorney prove my point? I would hate for the next tenant to have to go thru the same thing.

You call is on record ... and if the man harasses or intimidates the next tenant, that tenant can sue the landlord for negligence.

Landlords are supposed to make sure their tenants are safe from each other.

In the short term, would hanging a blanket over the door provide an extra level of noise blocking? To replace the layer that is the other tenants' door?

You might be able to apply weatherstripping to your door jamb, and lay a towel or something across the bottom, to prevent odors from entering.

In the long term, be glad you're leaving, I guess!

Maybe the next tenant won't care as much; if the next tenant DOES complain, maybe the landlord will figure out that it's not you, it's him. i don't think there's much you can do to make life better for the next person who lives in your apt.

My heart goes out to you. Bad neighbors can be a major source of frustration. Do you have alternative dispute resolution there? At least your efforts to settle with the fool next door could be a matter of record. Additionally, perhaps you could get a protective order. When all else fails, just keep wrapping up the creep in red tape ;-)

Suck it up until you move. On the last day revert to all of your old college pranks. Vaseline on the door knob, super glue in the lock etc. It will go a long way toward easing your frustration. I would advise doing this just before you leave for the last time though. People really are such hogs sometimes. Good luck.

I live on a suburban cul-de-sac in a gated community. Despite 2500 - 3000 SF houses, I have some neighbors who seem to spend as much time as possible on porches, in open garages, and in driveways.

This activity includes drinking and live music performance. As a fun form of revenge, I began recording their antics and share MP3's on my site and blog..

If anyone has similar neighbors, this is a lot of fun and very stress relieving!

Richard is this an apartment, condo or co-op?
Just wondering if you are posting a shameless plug or not.

I do live in a home, which in a strict sense is off-topic. In the long run that should not matter, as many move between single and multi-family housing, and are concerned about both.

I am an advocate of using the internet to creatively take a stand against bad neighbors and noise polluters. Part of the strategy is to get the word out and locate as many other sites as possible.

My site is 100% non-commercial, and free of banner and pop-up adds. I pay all costs myself. I do this to relieve stress and more importantly share what I have learned and the links I have collected with fellow "NFH" victims. The large number of links I have found to date indicate this is a big problem.

Some have accused me of using the site to secretly plug the garage musicians featured on the site. All I can say is that it is not true, and that I oppose the activity.

My site also has gardening and Houston Fall color pages.