Neighbor From Hell

[Difdi]

Nope. The old coot still wanted us to turn the music down so he can watch TV on the lowest volume setting like usual.

I have a neighbor like that in my current apartment complex. Directly below me in a three-storey building.

When I moved in, he was reporting me to management every other day for blasting loud music, constant blaring TV at all hours, stomping around the apartment, slamming doors, loud parties, and an assortment of noises he disliked, but could not identify...he complained about them anyway.

The manager's pretty cool though, and generally asks around among the other neighbors when a complaint is made. Turns out, the old guy was the only person complaining. Nobody else had a clue why he had it in for me. I watch TV maybe 1 night a week (and I keep it turned down), I use headphones when listening to music. Most of my friends and family have, at one time or another, clutched at their chest and demanded I start making a little noise when I walk! I live alone, and didn't even have a housewarming (apartmentwarming?) party when I moved in; I go out to restaurants on my birthday, and celebrate holidays like christmas and thanksgiving with my family...who live miles away.

Ever heard/seen the old tactic of pounding on a wall/ceiling/floor to signal a noisy neighbor to quiet down? The old guy did it frequently. But I hadn't connected the dots at that point, and had no idea what was causing this odd pounding noise every night as I was trying to fall asleep...but whatever it was, it was keeping me awake and ruining my sleep.

There I'd be, in bed, trying to fall asleep. My apartment completely silent save for the hum of the refrigerator. All the other apartments around me equally quiet. I'm just drifting off and BAM BAM BAM BAM!!! Then it stops, and all is quiet, and I'm just drifting off again, and then... BAM BAM BAM BAM!!! It finally occurred to me that the pounding must be someone in an adjacent apartment pounding on something. And I remembered the old tactic of pounding to tell a neighbor to quiet down...so I pounded back. And the pounding stopped, and I was able to sleep.

Bright and early the next morning, my elderly neighbor was standing outside the apartment complex office, waiting for it to open. When it did, he pitched a towering fit of rage and bile, ranted and raved, shouted and screamed, about how intolerable and unacceptable my constant noise and abuse (of him) was, and if the apartment manager didn't evict me, he'd sue!

Seems that when I pounded back at him, it was the final straw. The fact that only the old man could hear all these incredibly loud noises didn't matter to him. The fact that I made less noise than he did on a daily basis was irrelevant. He just knew it was the young guy who had just moved in that was the source of all his problems, and could not be convinced otherwise. But the noise complaint signed by me and all of his neighbors finally cowed him enough to at least stop pounding on the ceiling at 1 am.

We never did figure out where the noises he was hearing were coming from...the people on either side of me, of him, the person below him, the people on either side of the person below him (on all sides of the # shape of the apartment stack) could not hear any of these loud noises. But they could all hear him pounding away...

[IT Grunt]

I had some neighbors like that in an apartment complex we lived in before we bought our first house. We were in the middle floor of three. The first Sunday after we moved in, it was a quiet afternoon, the windows open, enjoying the breeze. My wife was putting the finishing touches on the apartment, just settling items in drawers and such. I was on my computer, playing a video game at a decent level. Next thing I know, my chair lifts 2 inches off the floor from the guy downstairs banging on the ceiling. I hate to imagine what damage he did, because it was hard. I turned it down some, and kept playing.

Well, that turned out to be just the first volley. The next day, the wife comes up and bangs on our apartment door, and basically reads my wife the riot act, telling her that she will under no circumstances make any noise until after 10:00 am because of her kids. A couple of weeks later, my wife is vacuuming when once again, they start banging on the ceiling. My wife's had enough, so she returns fire and bangs right back. Next thing you know, this neighbor comes storming up the stairs like a runaway locomotive and starts slamming the door, screaming at the top of her lungs. "I KNOW IT WAS YOU! I HEARD IT! OPEN THIS DAMN DOOR RIGHT NOW! OPEN IT!" Naturally, my wife was scared as hell and didn't open the door, and called me. So I got the landlord's wife on the phone.

During my conversation with the landlord's wife, I found out a few things. First off, these were problem people to begin with. They bitched and moaned about everything. Apparently, they'd already called the landlord once and bitched about my playing the computer that day, saying I was throwing a wild party! They whined about my wife vacuuming at 8 in the morning... uh... isn't that.. ya know... when your day usually starts? The landlord never called us because she knew they were full of shit, so that was that. She had a chat with them, and we didn't hear much after that....

...until the day the landlord called and asked if we'd be witnesses in a court case. It seems the landlord had finally had enough, so he went to serve them with an eviction notice. He holds it out towards the guy, the guy steps back to avoid it, and trips over his own kid. ASSAULT! I'll SUE! Off to the court they went to file assault charges, and the landlord actually got thrown in jail for a night because of it.

So, the day of the hearing. We arrive, meet the landlord's lawyer (he had a copy of the letter we sent detailing our experiences with them we'd been asked to provide), and meet some of the other neighbors who have also had complaints about them. The other family arrives, the wife goes up to the window to check in with the court clerk (we're all sitting outside the court room), and says, loud enough for us to hear, "Yes, we're here about an ASSAULT." Emphasis on assault. So, we get called in, we sit in the various chairs in the court room, and the magistrate looks at our side and asks the lawyer, "Just how many witnesses did you bring!?" So, she asks all of the witnesses to step outside until called.

About 15 minutes later, the wife comes storming out of the court room shouting at her other family members, "She threw out the case!!" We laugh a bit, and the landlord fills us in. Turns out they really screwed up on the stand. They couldn't get their times right, they had different stories, and just really flubbed it. The magistrate tossed the case immediately.

They were gone after that, and all was well for a while until I went to move out. That's when I found out the landlord was an asshole, but that's another story.

[CorDarei]

This is why I will never buy a condo or a house in a neighborhood with an association. I don't need some busybody telling me what color my house can be and the only people who have time to be on the committees are retirees and housewives, not the most imaginative people in the world.

i don't know... i'm kinda on the fence about it now that i live in a house that has an HOA. There are positive sides to them.

1. it forces people to take care of their lawn/house.
2. it forces people to not have junked up cars outside and parked everywhere
3. it forces people not to store recreational craft everywhere.
4. (and this point kind of sums it all up) HOAs can raise property values.

i live on a corner lot, and right now i got this jackass who has a souped up SUV, with a ski boat attached, parked right next to my house. I don't want to see that every time i come home. If i didn't live in an HOA, i wouldn't be able to do anything about it. And if we didn't have the HOA, then everyone could have a boat parked near there houses.... Would you like to come home to a neighborhood of that? I know i wouldn't.

and on the plus side of my HOA, the board members aren't some retirees or nitties that have nothing else to do. I know the pres, and he's a real estate agent, the other members seem nice too.

[Geek King]

i don't know... i'm kinda on the fence about it now that i live in a house that has an HOA. There are positive sides to them.

I will mention the main downside:

People who have no other power in their lives, and go on a power trip.

I lived in one where I was renting the condo, and I had to argue out of three seperate fines where they tried to charge us for trash that had blown onto our property while I was at work during the day. They seem to forget each time that they had to serve warning before fining.* And it seemed to irritate them something awful that I actually expected them to follow their own rules. I swear, there must have been one fellow who did nothing else in life except walk the property looking for the most minor infractions. I miss the condo, but not that HOA.

If you have to live with a HOA, be an owner, and try to get elected to the board. Have a say in what your HOA is trying to do.

*Yes, I did pick up around the condo when I noticed trash. I also complained mightily about the people who didn't have trash cans to keep the animals out of their kitchen leavings, causing the blown trash. That was another rule that didn't seem to get enforced evenly.

[draftermatt]

If you have to live with a HOA, be an owner, and try to get elected to the board. Have a say in what your HOA is trying to do.

I agree. We moved into our house in October, and I was elected to the board in May. Our board has 7 members and everything has to be approved by a majority of the board. No one walks around looking for things (we're all too busy) but when we see something or get a complaint we investigate.

Some HOA's have their downsides, but it all really depends on who's on the board.

[Misanthropical]

We live in a townhouse in a cul de sac. Anytime there is a noise problem, people screaming at 1 AM or loud bass music, it's always from the same neighbor directly across from us.

Every weekend his whole side of the family all pile in here and start cursing out anyone who even looks at them wrong. They cursed out an old lady, because she was doing yard work and they wanted to steal some stuff out of her yard. She wasn't about to let that happen, so she ignored them calling her every foul name in the book.

They all then go down to the pool and get all kinds of pissed off if anyone tells them there is a limit to how many guests a person can have and will go around threating people at the pool.

There have been notes sent out and signs in the parking lot about not playing in the parking lot, but that, of course, does not apply to them!

If it wasn't for them my neighborhood would be a very quiet area, which is one of the reasons we moved here, but they moved in year after us and the quiet is all gone now.

We don't bother to talk to them about the problems anymore, we just let the police handle it.

We have seen good neighbors move away because of them.

[CorDarei]

I lived in one where I was renting the condo, and I had to argue out of three seperate fines where they tried to charge us for trash that had blown onto our property while I was at work during the day. They seem to forget each time that they had to serve warning before fining...

A funny thing i was told about the hoa mgmt company when i went... (this is in Texas) they said that fines aren't binding, but services are. So most people scoff at fines. However, if they perform a service (as in pick up the trash or mow your lawn) and they bill you for it, they can get you in trouble for that.

[Lil Bunny]

Me personally I don't mind the boats but then again that's how we grew up. The thing that will prevent me from ever considering living in an HOA is the fact that I can't line dry. I'm sorry but I'm not wasting that much energy on drying every last cottin picking thing.

Which reminds me, DH owes me a line now. YAY!!! No more rows of clothing in the basement. Onto the cute cubical lines and the joy of sunlight!

[Rapscallion]

We never did figure out where the noises he was hearing were coming from...the people on either side of me, of him, the person below him, the people on either side of the person below him (on all sides of the # shape of the apartment stack) could not hear any of these loud noises. But they could all hear him pounding away...

Two options spring to mind. First one, he's crazy. Second one, he could be picking up radio waves on his hearing aid - such has been known to happen.

Rapscallion

[XCashier]

I have a neighbor like that in my current apartment complex. ...

:sigh: I do wish apartment dwellers would be considerate of each other. Think about it. You're either living above or below other people. People make noise. They're going to walk around their apartment, open and shut doors (and if it's an older building, the doors might not shut properly unless they're shut hard), play music, watch TV, etc. That's just how people live. If you want to live in a place with totally silent neighbors, go move to a mausoleum!

I can forgive my neighbors their footfalls, vacuuming and other household noises, for I do it too. Heck, if they're playing music I like, I'll tune my radio to the same station and we can hear it in stereo! As long as there aren't any raging fights, bloodcurdling screams or illegal activities going on, live and let live.

[Pagan]

:sigh: I do wish apartment dwellers would be considerate of each other.

I can forgive my neighbors their footfalls, vacuuming and other household noises, for I do it too. Heck, if they're playing music I like, I'll tune my radio to the same station and we can hear it in stereo! As long as there aren't any raging fights, bloodcurdling screams or illegal activities going on, live and let live.

I agree with the consideration. I have no problem with average noises, but my current upstairs neighbor, "Twinkle-Toes" (yes, that is sarcasm you sense) seems to have no concept that she lives on the second floor....despite the stairs she stomps up and down. Last night, around 12:30am, her and some friends come rolling in with something that sounded like a keg on wheels. They're out on their porch drinking, being loud, and smoking. We have "quiet hours" from, I think, 10pm to 7am to begin with. I have no problem with them drinking and smoking, but I do have a problem with going out this morning and find beer bottle caps and cigarette butts in front of my porch, and almost in my plants. Seriously, you don't have a trash can?

Three neighbors ago (I've been here 10 years), the second night after she moved in, I had to go up there at 3am and ask her to have her 8 year old son keep it down. He was jumping off the bed, I thought he was going to come through the ceiling a couple of times. She was an absolute bitch, too. And it got worse, she wound up working in the same store I did! Luckily, in another department.

I really miss my neighbors right before Twinkle-Toes. They were both pagan as well and just generally very considerate about noise. And very nice people.

Consideration is the main reason I don't want to live on the 2nd floor....I know what a klutz I can be. I don't want to put anyone through that!

[blas]

Someone please tell the old lady downstairs that living downstairs, you will hear walking......she's driving me nuts going on and on about how "noisy" I am......gotta love the neighborhood police.

[Geek King]

A funny thing i was told about the hoa mgmt company when i went... (this is in Texas) they said that fines aren't binding, but services are. So most people scoff at fines. However, if they perform a service (as in pick up the trash or mow your lawn) and they bill you for it, they can get you in trouble for that.

Two things:

1) A HOA lives and dies by the agreement you sign when you first move in. If it's not in there, they can't legally do it.

2) Providing a service would require the particular member complaining get out of her minivan and do something besides go into her house. It was never a danger.

[AnqeiicDemise]

Wow.. I'm surprised this thread is still going strong. xD i guess we've all had shitty neighbors at one time or another.


As some of you know, I just recently moved to another apartment across the complex in a shinnier place and larger unit. By the last two nights, I was GLAD to be gone from the old apartment.

See, the old neighbors had moved out and a young family moved in shortly befoer we signed our own lease. Whereas the couple previously had been formitably quiet (my only problem now and then was the thumping of their dog itching but that was only because he loved to do it over our bed... when we had insomnia. Never really complained about that, just when the dog snuck out and would claw the hell out of our door.)

THIS young family, though.. god.. I wanted to kill them.

There were four: a couple with their four month old baby and a pregnant roomate.

The guy would walk around like a giant -- surprised me how much noise a 120lb 5'7" man could make! One of the girls LOVED listening to music (some Russian or Turkish type of music) really loud and dance around. The baby would wake up in the middle of the night and they'd let her cry and cry and cry (her nursery was over our bed too). And all three adults liked to watch t.v. really loud.. in the middle of the night. The more explosions, the better.

I asked them to quiet it down once... and they stopped for a day.

-.-

My new neighbors are this nice bi-racial couple with three girls and a cat. The wife is really funny, the boyfriend's really nice and their kids are well behaved. The cat's a bitch but cats are normally fussy. If the boyfriend's walking too loud on the weekend (which we told them its our only request to keep it down on since we have to be up early for work on the weekend.), all we have to do is bang on the floor and they easily calm down.

Hell, we chat while standing on our perspective balconies. We're outside planting, and they're outside smoking. We'll chit-chat through the floor. Its awesome.

[Lachrymose]

Two options spring to mind. First one, he's crazy. Second one, he could be picking up radio waves on his hearing aid - such has been known to happen.

Rapscallion

There is a third option, which I happened to stumble across when I started hearing a low rumbling in my right ear. It sounded like a semi truck idling outside my window.

Once I realized it was a product of my own body, I started looking up some things online.

Some people experience a type of auditory hallucination known as Musical Ear Syndrome.

Check this out: http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles/mes.htm

Anyway, I never did find out what was wrong with my ear, if anything, even after a trip to the hospital. Eventually, the sound went away, though.