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Loud Tenants Upstairs
Jeice
regular
regular
I'm living in the lower unit of a house and the tenants that live upstairs are really loud.
I'm actually not sure if they're loud or if the ceiling/floors are really thin. For example, if the tenants upstairs are talking, you can hear everything they are saying through the vents. And, if any of them are walking on their floors, it sounds as if they're moving furniture. This is a problem all the time, because well, they walk and talk all the time. I'm not 100% sure if they're walking/talking normally, they may actually be just walking/talking really loudly.
Times when they are actually loud:
They game all night, up until 2-3 am, and you can hear them talking, walking, and when something epic happens, you can hear them scream really loudly.
They play music/bass all night. And, bass, as you all know, even if it's really low, is still annoying when it's over you. I think it's especially worse for my case because I think at any volume, I'll be able to hear it's thumping.
Oh, they also smoke indoors, and we can smell it from our rooms. It's a real problem, especially for my roommate because she has asthma and the smoke that seeps into our rooms is like they were smoking 2 feet from us.
Besides telling my landlord, I'm not really sure what else to do. Can my landlord even do anything? Because I don't think he can tell them to stop walking or to whisper to each other all the time... Oh, and I'm not sure, but I think they're allowed to smoke indoors too... So yea, are we just screwed?
I'm actually not sure if they're loud or if the ceiling/floors are really thin. For example, if the tenants upstairs are talking, you can hear everything they are saying through the vents. And, if any of them are walking on their floors, it sounds as if they're moving furniture. This is a problem all the time, because well, they walk and talk all the time. I'm not 100% sure if they're walking/talking normally, they may actually be just walking/talking really loudly.
Times when they are actually loud:
They game all night, up until 2-3 am, and you can hear them talking, walking, and when something epic happens, you can hear them scream really loudly.
They play music/bass all night. And, bass, as you all know, even if it's really low, is still annoying when it's over you. I think it's especially worse for my case because I think at any volume, I'll be able to hear it's thumping.
Oh, they also smoke indoors, and we can smell it from our rooms. It's a real problem, especially for my roommate because she has asthma and the smoke that seeps into our rooms is like they were smoking 2 feet from us.
Besides telling my landlord, I'm not really sure what else to do. Can my landlord even do anything? Because I don't think he can tell them to stop walking or to whisper to each other all the time... Oh, and I'm not sure, but I think they're allowed to smoke indoors too... So yea, are we just screwed?
Jeice on
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That sounds very unliveable. Mostly the smoke. I abhor smoke.
Have you tried earplugs and white noise for the other stuff? You can drown out a lot.
Ear plugs only help a little bit. I can still hear the bass thumping and them walking.
Steam | Live
asking people to wear earplugs ALL THE TIME, even every night is an insane thing to ask of someone
talk to them first, a few times at least, before you start filing complaints
be nice and cordial and ask them to either take it somewhere else or be quieter. You might not be able to get them to do anything about the smoking legally if their lease allows them to smoke. They can also raise their speakers off the floor (if they're on the floor) and away from walls and vents which should also help a lot
Your want to sleep at 2 am trumps their want to game
If it's really an issue with how the building is made and the walking, and they're not just being loud, then talk to your place to find out if you're allowed to move inside the building/complex. It sucks if you have to move, and it's a hassle, but it's probably worth the peace and quiet
remember, no notes, go up and knock on their door and ask them to stop
Pretty much this. I mean, when you get a lower floor apt, you're pretty much agreeing to living with noise, but man, if my upstairs neighbor pulled that shit, I would be talking to them.
Which brings me to my point, have you tried talking to them? Sometimes people are incosiderate, but a lot of times they just don't realize they're being loud. Or just bang on the cealing whenever they make noise.
the dudes might get pissed at you for banging and NOT for not talking to them, I've had this neighbor
they might just label you as "the grump that lives downstairs and bangs on the ceiling"
As for the noise. Ive always taken the stance that if folks are not going out of their way to be noisy, and are simply living their life, you should find ways to cope with it without interfering with their lives. The apartment sucks, it sounds like, so in order to not make noise theyd have to probably stop all activities passed like 10pm. Which, isnt really a fair thing for you to ask of them.
You can let them know the floor sucks and you can hear everything and mention that sometimes at night it gets pretty bad when your trying to sleep. But id put it less on them and more on the apartment and hope they do whatever they can to keep it to a minmum. But I wouldn't expect them to stop playing games to like 3am or what not.
Calling the cops or doing anything about "curfew" seems a bit shitty. I mean if they were up all night partying and being ridiculous then yeah, but a few folks playing video games? Would you really want the cops called on you for that? Earplugs and what not can solve the problem without anyone having to reduce their lifestyle/fun.
My neighbors and I came to a great compromise on the same problem: Sunday through Thursday night, 11 pm noise cutoff. I will call in noise complaints after that. On Fridays and Saturdays, they can do whatever they want, scream bloody murder, and I'll never call the police. It's a good way to show them that I also like to have fun, and I want them to have their own fun, but getting up at 5am for work trumps that.
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
Luckily the guy upstairs was the landlord and he rented out rooms. If it was too loud, he told us to just come up and let them know. A lot of the time, they just dont' realize it.
Let the tenants know 2-3-4 times and if it keeps up, let the landlord know. If still not good, time to move.
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
And I said, "Oh, shit, yeah, terribly sorry about that."
And now I know the threshold of sound that my neighbor can hear, and keep it below that, except on Saturday afternoons.
On the other hand, if I lived in a place that just had shitty sound proofing, I'd probably just look to move out, because there's only so much you can ask of neighbors.
I have a more extreme version. I lived in London, where neighbours just don't seem to talk. Long story short, there was some dick head across the road with a problem about people parking outside his house (unfounded btw, it was a public parking spot). Anyway, he felt it was best to leave seriously angry letters son my car, and it even got to the point where his wife swore at me as I was crossing the road one day. It got to the point where I just said, fuck it, this is silly. I marched over to the house, my fiancé was freaking out, I knocked on the door and when they answered, I held out my hand, smiled and introduced myself. I said that were neighbours and that somehow things had gotten out of hand, if they'd just come and had a chat, i would have gladly parked elsewhere. They felt so bad that i was being so reasonable, they completely changed. In fact, ,when my fiancé was walking up the road one morning after shopping, the wife called out the window to suggest she use "her" park.
First. Talk to them.
If that doesn't work. Talk to your landlord.
If they keep it up, tell your landlord again to escalate the situation and start work on getting them evicted.
Though the fact that they just stomped back when you pounded on the ceiling makes me think that talking to them isn't going to do much good, but try it anyway.
Honestly, after going through what I did a year ago, that would have been my response to someone banging on their ceiling. Ceiling banging is pretty much more dickish than a rude note. But that's just like, my opinion, man.
Talk to them, and if they're jerks, odds are they have neighbors next to them that hear much of the same noise you do and you can get the landlord involved.
you're "the grump that bangs on the ceiling", and they're 20-somethings who drink and play games, so they stomped back
this fixed nothing
go up and talk
To add: if it's not just loud talking but sounds like fighting or a loud party and they don't quiet it down then feel free to call the police nonemergency line. That really helped us when our neighbors upstairs started parting hard. It also gave the landlord more ammunition to get an eviction with.
The two most obvious things are the police or landlord if there doing it after the noise curfews in your area. Or remember that if you hear them, they hear you and be equally load till they notice the same thing. Not blasting heavy metal and being obnoxious mind, just enough to make them notice. if you both go to the landlord with a problem that is to do with the house he may be more inclined to deal with it.
The closest fix ive seen with a neighbor that just did not care was a friend who bought a sheet of this sound canceling foam type stuff and just put it up the wall. said it looked bad but cancelled out there drum and bass at all hours. however on a floor above thats a tougher situation. Your best bet like that is look for any vents or anything that carries sound well and try to muffle it without covering it.
As for the smoking, something i abhor, your kind of out of luck on that. These folks are in there own home and if thats how they choose to relax even with a perfectly valid complaint its going to come of as rude to them. Which may only incline them to be louder on purpose. a problem ive had in the past at my last place.
Your best bet right now is just talk to the landlord about it, it doesnt hurt to ask.
A lease in Ontario which stipulates no smoking in the apartment is an illegal lease. You cannot (yet) bar people from smoking in their own homes in Ontario.
What the OP needs to do is talk to these guys. Just go up and tell them that you think the walls are paper thin and you can hear everything in their apartment. Most likely they dont realise and will be more considerate in the future. Or, they might be dicks about it, in which case, you can complain to the landlord. But either way it sounds like your building is just built horribly and you need to move, because even if theyre tiptoeing around, you will still be able to hear them, and smell the smoke, and hear the music.
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This. It doesn't sound like anything has been done directly malicious, or exceptionally out of the ordinary thus far, so just go up and meet them first.
Be very nice, and don't be accusatory. Talking about the noise, precede it with "I know you guys are probably walking and talking completely normally, but the walls here are paper thin. Would you be agreeable to setting a time where things get turned down?" Talking about the smoking, start that with "You guys have every right to smoke, but my roommate has asthma, and it's becoming really difficult for him down there. I hate to put you out, but for his health, could you guys please smoke outside?"
Most likely, unless they're raging assholes, they'll be happy to work things out with you. And if they forget a few times, that's perfectly normal, so mention it to them. Don't be passive aggressive, or snarky; just remind them of the agreement, and thank them again.
But, also start documenting this. Document when you talk to them. Document when they're loud. Document when your apartment becomes their ashtray. If they don't keep to the agreement, or if they just flat out refuse, then go to the landlord. He'll greatly appreciate you attempting to settle the matter yourselves first, and the documentation will be a help to him if he needs to escalate things with them.
Oh christ, don't do this. When you talk to them, apologize for this. This is the asshole thing to do, and is only going to make reasonable people angry and resentful. In my college apartment, we had people do this to us constantly, when we were walking normally, and watching the television at normal levels. To this day, I regard them as raging bitches.
If they're being loud, go up there and talk to them.
So last night, the person who lives below me was playing his guitar for his girlfriend at midnight. I walked down stairs, knocked on his door, and politely said, "Hey Eric, I'm sorry to bother you, but would you mind turning it down a bit since it's so late?" And he said, "Yeah, man, no problem." And I said, "Thanks, dude." And then I went back upstairs and got an uninterrupted 7 hours of sleep because I didn't hear a peep from him for the rest of the night. Now he knows that playing guitar at midnight isn't cool. Problem solved.
Living in an apartment requires a give and take attitude. For every taking you take, you're probably going to have to give up something. The same guy who lives below me has been building something in his loft for the last 4 months. It's really, really loud. But he only works on his project during the day, so I'm not going to complain about the noise. At the same time, my wife and I have pets who make a lot of noise. I'm sure he doesn't appreciate having to listen to our pets running around all day. We don't complain about his noise because we know we make just as much noise. Give and take, see?
Now, last night was obviously something that was outside the norm of acceptable noise, so I went and talked to him about it. He stopped, I was happy. Problem solved.
This is what you need to do.
"Times when they are actually loud:
They game all night, up until 2-3 am, and you can hear them talking, walking, and when something epic happens, you can hear them scream really loudly.
They play music/bass all night. And, bass, as you all know, even if it's really low, is still annoying when it's over you. I think it's especially worse for my case because I think at any volume, I'll be able to hear it's thumping."
This isn't really reasonable. It doesn't matter what they're trying to do, if it's past a certain time and the OP can hear them and it's keeping him up, they need to learn to tone it down. Way down. Just as the OP needs to learn to deal with it during normal hours, they need to learn to deal with it during the later hours.
I had a neighbor like this a long time ago, she would complain to the building manager about us walking all night long. At most we would walk to the bathroom, or perhaps the kitchen. She complained CONSTANTLY and we were doing nothing wrong. The apartment building was a shithole, so i'm sure the floor/ceiling was thin. I was getting ready to talk to a lawyer because the management company was threatening us with eviction. i said unless there was a police report against us, I would sue everyone (most likely an empty threat), so she called the cops next time. They came to my door, i was watching TV at a reasonable level, and my roommate was on his PC. They told her not to call them ever again, and that was the last i heard about the issue.
No, sorry. If the other tenants can hear you past say 10pm, then you need to tone it down, put on some headphones, whatever. Walking around, talking at a normal level, sure, but it's 3am and I can hear you playing some FPS, then it's you who needs to adjust and/or move out to an apartment with thicker walls. You as well made the choice to move into that apartment. It goes both ways. Bass is never questionable. That shit is annoying.
During daylight hours? Well, that's a different story.