What are Some Ways to Deal with Noisy Neighbors?

@Post 264: If the guy is throwing rocks at your dogs, that is animal cruelty. If he is threatening you, that too is an arrestable offense. Have him arrested!

I live in an apartment and recently my white wannabe gangsta neighbor decided that he needs to listen to 2Pac and 50Cent every day. It's driving me insane. Common sounds of doors, footsteps, water taps, etc. are generally unavoidable and just common sounds of everyday functions of life and I don't mind them, but music has to have a limit, especially at early and late hours.

I'm rather surprised by the amount of stress it has caused me. I hate living next to this loser.

I have an issue with noisy neighbours. Now unlike most on this post, I work nights and therefore sleep most of the day.

To be honest, most of the noise comes from the son who insists on playing his music at a thumping level. Both I and my mum have asked him and his family nicely to turn it down, but it seems to have gotten worse. He plays even louder, and I get woken up every day like clockwork. Nothing seems to work and the mum doesn't seem to care at all.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm young and enjoy fun too, but I also have respect for others, so why can't these people? Some people just have no consideration for anyone other than themselves. How about we shove all these noisy people in one area and they can annoy each other?

I live in a unit with 3 tiers,the neighbors above me have a little girl who runs around all night until 12 a.m. or later and to boot, the parents chase her around the house after 10 p.m. Now, my son and I are up at 5:45 a.m. to go to school and work. The landlord says I can't prove the noise and the people upstairs say I'm crazy and they don't make noise and I'm stuck. What should I do?

I'm done trying to analyze why most people who rent are idiots. I am just going on every rental site and saying how it stinks here.

Get the complex in the wallet if they don't honor the lease.

I've been living in an apartment for 10 years. Recently, new neighbors moved in above me and it's a living hell! They have parties on weekdays and throw away cigarettes from their balcony down the stairs.

I reported it to the on-site manager, who then asked the new neighbors to turn down the volume, consider other tenants, etc. No change! They are now making much louder noises and purposely drop heavy objects on the floor, and stepped hard on the floor, etc.

Now I have cracks on my ceiling due to this dropping. They are crazy. Now I feel unsafe living in this apartment, wondering if the ceiling will fall down on me.

Before this idiot moved into the area, it was quiet. Now, it's music going full blast 24/7 every single day! Not even asking politely or the cops will get through this selfish jerk.

Now, I'm stuck slowly going insane and my health is suffering. Gah, nothing will work to get this guy to stop!

Our family lives in a subdivision that's really quiet. Unfortunately our house is situated right across from a neighbor who seems to relish inflicting noise at night, especially every time when there's birthdays and most especially when one of them goes back home straight from abroad.

I myself have no issue with drinking and having fun, but shouting and hooting while singing with a videoke at full blast is just too much to bear.

Last time when my father tried politely to inform them that they should tone the festivities down a bit, they did so. All we got was a drunken yes, but after an hour when my father and I went inside, we heard a rock flying into our terrace. That really did it, and my father ended up almost having a fight with our jerk of a neighbor. My mom and I had to pull dad out of the fight, while the neighbor's mother also mediated and tried to stop the fight.

I wish they would just move somewhere else, because honestly, sometimes all I can think of is doing away with them.

By the way, they're having one hell of a good time as of this moment. All I can do is stay locked up in my room and endure this torture.

Wouldn't it be great if all of us posters could buy an apartment complex and live together in our units, since we are courteous and respectful of others' rights to peace and quiet? What a great place that would be to live.

It would be so great if I could buy a house far away from noisy people but I can't. So I rent an apartment in a nice quiet area, and spend quite a bit of money every month.

The first year, I heard music occasionally that was a little loud, but that's okay with me. Everyone's entitled to what makes them happy, relax or whatever. But when I already signed a second year's lease and think it's all good, then the neighbors below me decide to all of a sudden start playing music every day from like 3 p.m.-9 p.m. straight, and loud enough that you can feel the bass and hear the music as if it was playing right in your own living room.

I began to get annoyed. I get home around 5 or 5:30 from a nine or ten hour shift. I just want to relax, maybe watch some TV. The music is so loud I have to raise the volume on the TV so I can hear what I'm watching and then I feel bad that maybe my TV is too loud for other neighbors around me.

Sometimes the music is so loud it literally shakes the floor, vibrates the furniture and me. Trying to relax while the floor is vibrating under your feet is anything but relaxing. I don't mind a little music but have some common courtesy.

I try to walk softly, put my music at a level that only I can hear, gently open up the futon so it doesn't slam on the floor and other common decency stuff. Is it so hard to ask for a little common decency and common sense from other people? If your floor is shaking from your music, it's most likely that your ceiling and our floors are also shaking. I'm not joking; they are literally shaking. If you want to play music, how about not playing it extremely loud every day.

I'm okay with twice a week and the weekends. even though I also work on Saturdays. Or even every day for like an hour or two, but five hours straight? Is that fair to the people who live around you, who pay just as much as you do for rent and were promised in the lease not to have to deal with excessive noise? I'm not asking for much -- just a little common courtesy.

I have lived at my current house in the suburbs of Dallas/Fort Worth for about six years now, and ever since I moved in, I have had to endure one annoyance after another from my next door neighbor. I work an overnight job out of my home and I sleep during the day, and I do realize that people aren't required to be quiet during the daytime, but they still don't have the right to be noisy on purpose just to make sure I can't sleep.

Let us just say that this neighbor is a Harley Davidson riding motorhead. That should tell you something right there. Every single day he sits out in the back of his house revving his engine, over and over and over, for sometimes up to two hours, and plays his horrible music so loud that I can hear it through the walls of my house.

A few times I tried to confront him about it, and he got super peed off and started threatening to beat the bleeping bleep out of me, and he would throw rocks at my dogs in the back yard because they were barking at him. I have since put up video and audio surveillance in my backyard, but that only stops him from trying to attack me, and the few times I called the cops on him he started screaming at me and telling me how he is going to beat the bleep out of me. About a year ago, I actually managed to talk to the guy in a civilized manner, but the noise and annoyances continue.

On top of all that, I have another neighbor who lives down the street and has a really, really loud car stereo that he blares all day and all night. His subwoofers are so big that they weigh down the back of his car, and the bass shakes pictures off the walls. It’s like a bomb goes off outside every time this guy drives by.

I am at my wits’ end. With apartment living, you accept that there are going to be some noises, but not when you live in a house. I shouldn't have to hear your noise when I am in my house, so loud that it actually drowns out my TV. What is wrong with people?

in regards to Post 250 "Noise happens..."

If it's your job, then rent a soundproof workspace and don't make noise in a residential area.

Your pursuit of happiness does not give you "rights" to rob people of their happiness. Clearly it's your activity that's causing an issue (noise), so it's your responsibility to make sure it doesn't affect others.

Last resort for dealing with sporadic, too-loud noise when being polite fails, and has worked for now:

Buy a flat piece of wood about 1 cm thick (not too heavy) and a hammer. Place piece of wood against offending wall (stand on a chair if it's from upstairs) and hit as hard as you can with the hammer until the noise next door stops. The wood stops you from damaging your wall or ceiling.

This is an extremely therapeutic method, since you are directing the anger and frustration you feel directly back at them.

It is extremely liberating to know that you are able to direct the stress the noise causes back at the source, when you feel like doing so and this increases your actual tolerance for it.

I don't know if anyone still reads this article/thread but in case they do, I wanted to share my experiences and hope someone will find it helpful.

I currently live under a wannabe guitarist college student in a four-story apartment complex. In the beginning of the year, he only played his music like twice a week at somewhat reasonable times.

The past couple of months, he loves to have back to back jamming sessions which are significantly louder than before. What I mean by back to back is he would start playing at 5 p.m. on say, Tuesday evening, stop at 1:30 a.m. (well past when I prefer to sleep) and resumes playing at 7:30 a.m.the next day.

I am a college student too, and I have a lot of loud music and speaker equipment, but I know how the walls of my apartment are really thin, so most of the time, I only listen to music/watch movies, etc. using headphones.

Though his guitar solos are really crappy and sound like nails on chalkboard, I restrain myself from knocking on the ceiling unless its past like 1 a.m. or he plays at 8 a.m. Despite giving him the courtesy of playing at basically any time that isn't the early morning, my breaking point was when he refused to stop playing despite my knocking at 8 a.m. on multiple days of the week right after playing until 2 a.m. the night before.

The landlord and courtesy patrol don't do a thing. I have not tried to talk to the guy because I don't think I can reason with someone who thinks they have the right to play loud guitar at 8 a.m. for half of the days of the week.

Today, after suffering from another 7 a.m. guitar solo session on a Sunday, I taped a set of speakers to my ceiling and blasted music from my computer on max volume for half an hour straight. He took the hint and stopped playing. I made sure to blast it for another half hour after he stopped to make sure he got the point.

I have a friend who is willing to let me crash at his dorm on campus if things get too rough in my apartment. If this creep guitarist starts up at 8 a.m. just one more time, I will live at my friend's place for a week while leaving my playlist on repeat with my speakers hooked to the ceiling nonstop for the entire week.

Moral of the story: If no one is willing to help you, you have to fight back. I hope this has helped some of you. Also to any jerk musicians reading this who think you can play at any time of the day, well if you think so, I do too, and I can afford more expensive speakers than you.

I live in a condo and in between two buildings is a small grass area. Well the genius who designed these condos put them facing each other, and a few months back some awful family moved in, and their balcony is across from my upstairs balcony.

They are so damn loud. They leave their windows open year round and scream and yell and their kid is always screaming, and they leave their dog alone from morning to late at night and it barks out the window. I've had to call the police a few times.

The guy next door to me can hear them too, so we decided to just keep writing complaints to the management and keep calling the police. I think they are probably on section 8 housing. Not saying anything bad about welfare -- I received aid when my husband got sick -- but this complex is full of just flat out white trash.

I sleep with fans running and air purifiers because the neighbors behind me smoke cigarettes and pot and I smell it. I need to get out of here. I don't want my two year old or my sick husband to have to deal with this nonsense. But I'm glad to know I'm not alone!

I have lived in this house (with a big back yard) for 50 years and watching the caliber of neighbors change in recent years. There is an apartment building behind my yard and three duplexes to the right. There is a street running behind my house between the apartments and duplexes so they aren't backed up to me.

Anyway, I've spent money building a fish pond with waterfall, gazebo, grill area and fire pit and spend a lot of time in my back yard - my oasis. Unfortunately, the people in the apartments and duplexes over the past few years are of lower character and manners. A very large couple in the duplexes sit out on their front porch when they want to fight and the screaming can be heard inside my house with the windows closed and the TV on. The cursing is truly offensive.

I once asked them to be quieter and the woman called me an obscene word and said she would "bleeping" come over here and break my "bleeping" back. The people in the apartment, instead of parking in their parking lot, have taken to parking at my back fence, many times inhibiting my usage of my back driveway. I asked one young lady to please make sure she parked further up and I got a hailstorm of f-bombs. When her mother came out, she pointed a finger in my face and threatened me, and the police were called. They didn't do much - because they can't or because they don't want to deal with it, I don't know.

I'd like to know where their rights stop and my rights begin. I'm on a fixed income so a wooden fence (my back yard is about 50x100 feet) would be too expensive. And, because it is limited to 6' in height, wouldn't help with the apartments. The waterfall doesn't make enough noise to cover up much of anything - no one talks or plays at a normal level anymore.

My backyard has become a stressful place and I'm fed up. America is famous for the majority having to make sacrifices for the few loud, rude and offensive people and it needs to end. It doesn't help that the cities/government spend so much time with ridiculous laws and don't put into place laws that allow for easier cohabitation. People don't consider their neighbors anymore and attempts to help yourself can result in vicious, threatening actions or just dismissal. We need laws that "help" make good neighbors.

As for the above, I was surprised at the number of people blaming the poster. There didn't seem to be a lot of people who understand that there are truly bad neighbors out there - people who will complain about anything. Some sort of screening would probably be best but again, we are having to spend money to make rude people feel better about their inconsiderate behavior.

As for the camera, we all know that this is a touchy subject and, just because it is "legal" doesn't mean we can't fight that. If the camera is pointed in such a way that the interior of the house can be viewed, why wouldn't that be treated as a "peeping tom" and be liable for legal action? Why can't you guys stand up for the person who seems to be getting the brunt of the rudeness (I'd say that the neighbors' reactions point toward a high level of inconsideration) and support each other and find a way to make it legally make it more difficult for bad neighbor's to ruin lives?

I'm working on getting the no parking extended past my yard to eliminate the confrontations with the neighbors and, after that, will be trying to figure out a campaign to force city hall to be more definitive regarding annoying neighbors. If more people would do that, maybe some positive changes could be made. If nothing else, it is much easier to fight something that has been defined.

You should try living where I live. It's full of young people around here who have no consideration for others when it comes to footballs being kicked at your wall – thud, thud, thud all day.

I have two young children, 21 months and 4 years old, and it's affecting their sleep patterns a lot. I tried telling these kids today for the first time and said please do not kick the ball at the outside wall, yet they carried on doing it louder, this time making sure it scared my 21 month old son.

I got a bit peed off and I told them off saying, “I've already told you once. Please do not kick the ball at the wall,” so they ran into their garden laughing. Next thing I know I have a mouthy chav of a mother on my doorstep shouting and swearing at me for telling them off.

I will not go around there to tell her to stop her kids from thudding on my wall with their damn ball, because I may get my head kicked in. I always throw the ball back when it lands in my garden every two minutes.

Some people are inconsiderate and don't realize what damage it can do, especially as these houses are still settling. Why can't they go and kick it against their own wall? Oh yeah, that's right. because it annoys their chest of a mother, yet it's fine to do it to my wall and scare my 21 month old son. Some people have no respect. I have a right to live happily and peacefully in my own property just raising my children. Annoyed much, yes. Try putting up with that every day.

What do you do when your neighbors are complete jerk? I banged on the wall to get my neighbors to shut up and they just bang back. If I talk to the leasing office, they say they want tenants to work it out among themselves. How do you work it out with someone who is totally unwilling to work it out?

I'm a 20-something and so are my neighbors and it just blows my mind how people in my age group can be so freaking inconsiderate.

On the weekends, it's fine. I don't like it, but I deal with it because I know people like to have fun on the weekends. But every night from 12 a.m.-2 a.m. I have to hear them giggling, wrestling, talking loudly, yelling at each other and their dog, and having relations. I am fed up!

For all you mad at your noisy neighbors, I have got some great advice that has worked wonders for me over the years. Get over it. Or move out of a close living environment.

It's so ironic that (almost) everyone posting is older and complaining about younger "kids".

I'm 20. And my across-the-hall neighbors are probably around 70. And all they do is make noise all of the time. Eight in the morning they're slamming their door and stomping down the stairs. Eleven at night, their friends are storming up the stairs, banging on their door, then noisily chatting right outside! Mind you, I can see their doorway from the side of my window..So there's barely walls between us.

Plus, they leave their towels all over the stairway balcony to dry, which makes us look like we're in some sort of lower class motel. I was told this is a "quiet community" and moved here because I am a quiet person who (as a junior in college) needs to get some serious studying in! The last thing I need is my sleep interrupted and my studying cut short!

@anon247760: You're right. Noise does happen. Yes, it's life. Yes, you have the right to play your music and earn a living, and to practice.

But see, I have a right to earn a living too, and I even though I work an establishment, nerd, square daytime job, that's what pays my rent and taxes, and I can't do my job if I'm kept awake half the night because that's when *you* want to practice! That's not fair, either. I'm a taxpaying citizen and I know my rights, too. And earplugs don't help, and I can't afford a motel every night.

What you don't understand is that individual rights are all well and good until they infringe on someone else. You know, your right to swing that ladder ends where my nose begins.

I've known a lot of musicians and most of them want to live peacefully with their neighbors, so they use some consideration when they practice.

And watch out about ticking off the wrong person. You could get hurt. It's happened.

Perhaps you need to consider buying a house or trailer or similar in the middle of nowhere so you can practice and your band can practice where no one can hear you, and no one will bother you. That's as fair as asking me to go to a motel.

Noise happens. It is life. I'm a musician -- that is how I make my money, by playing bass guitar. I have to practice and my band needs to practice, too. If we play loud and people don't like it, that's too bad. Go get some earplugs or stay in a motel.

I know my rights. I pay taxes and rent and work hard so don't tell me I can't make music when I want and where I want.

I live in an apartment, first floor. It was quiet until the demons from hell moved in upstairs. They have two children.

They come home about 6 p.m. every day and everyone knows when they come home. Their children run around the floor stomping. They sound like they are doing it on purpose, too. This continues from 6 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. almost every night. People have told them to please keep it down. They get louder.

I have reported this to management, and so have others. Nothing is being done. What should we do? All the cops will do is tell them to be quiet, just as we did.

So my neighbours aren't so much about the loud music. I'm 25 and they are in their 50s. I know, funny right? A young one going on about the old, but my neighbours are not right in the head. I'm not just saying that. They do have mental issues to the point where they're known really well by the police. We live in a three-bedroom house, so we should not be able to hear much, but god, can they fight. We have lived here for over a year when we first moved in I was nice to them, which led them to come over here and get me involved to the point where she was foaming out of her mouth and going on and standing outside my front door for two hours talking about her magic friend.

The only way we could get rid of her was by calling the police which they had to make her leave and all they told me to do was to close the door on her and turn our music up. Yeah, I know, right. The cops telling us to turn some music on, and if she keeps banging on the door to keep turning it up. I even turned around to the cops and said, then she will call you guys on us and we will get reprimanded for having loud music, but they said because she and her partner are that well known with police that we wouldn't get done. Fair enough, I suppose, but should we have to do that? Why should be have to keep our front door closed and hide inside from the neighbors?

Not only that, they are the first to call the cops on everyone in the street if other neighbors are partying or having a good time. They call the cops before 10 p.m. about other noise. I know the whole thing about noise times and all that, but I'm to the point where I'm having to yell and tell these nutty neighbors I'm calling the cops on them! I mean, I don't call the cops because I don't want to waste their time because I have before and the cops can't do anything but waste time standing around listening to her go on about things that happened 50 years ago.

I don't get this world. People like that should be in special homes but yet, the cops have said they can't move them there until they harm someone or themselves – that's when the cops can do something. Really, is this what the world has come to where someone has to get hurt before these insane people can get moved? I'd be happy even if the cops just charged them for disturbing the peace, just so that these neighbors get it in their head that the cops won't put up with it! It's even harder since they know my partner works night shift and they love to yell and scream at each other at 7 in the morning. They don't just keep inside their house she always has to go out to her mailbox and stand next to it and yell nasty things at him while he's inside telling her to bleep off!

We can't even stand on our driveway without them coming out and poking their heads over the fence and being noisy. My partner can't even go out on a Saturday afternoon and do a service on the car without one of them coming out and telling us to shut up. I mean they might not but they do some weird stuff, e.g. him standing on his back lawn with nothing on but a woman's bikini on, and it freaks me out.

I'm glad I don't have children yet, because I don't wish for them to have to see and hear the kind of things these neighbors do. I, for one, have had enough of their behavior! I'm to the point where I've had enough and want something done about it, but the only thing we can do to have a bit of peace around here is move, but why should we leave the place we call home? I wish I had a lawyer in the family! Ahh! These neighbors are going to end up giving me grey hair!

I wish I could move into a house but cannot afford to do so. I have constantly had to call the police and sent several complaints regarding noise on all of my upstairs neighbor but one.

I live in a first floor townhouse and my current upstairs neighbor likes to stomp, jump and pound on objects in the early hours of the morning. I have asked them nicely to stop but that didn't work. It seems like letters to the rental office are not working either. I have once again written a letter to the rental office stating my complaint.

If they can't find a remedy, then I will find one legally. I am usually a patient person but my patience has worn thin.

Best way I've found to deal with noisy neighbors who don't respond to polite requests to quiet down: there's an app called iMosquito - it's either free or cheap. You can set the mosquito noise so that only people under 20 / under 30 / under 40 / etc. can hear the noise. When the noisy neighbors started on their back porch at the top of their lungs at 1 a.m., I waited for an air conditioning unit to turn on and then switched on the iMosquito app (which is on my iPhone connected to speakers facing their property through an open bathroom window). They thought the air conditioning unit was messed up and the god-awful noise was coming from it, which made them move the party off of their back porch and inside.

When they get loud (about once every three weeks now versus every weekend before), I simply turn the volume all the way up on the iMosquito.

I used to be friendly -- even friends -- with my neighbor upstairs until I realized she was crazy. She is a drunk, delusional, and violent crazy person. All the people living in my apartment have called the cops at least three times, each time due to her loud, yelling, music or fist fights with her boyfriend. There have been several complaints to the office that I know of – at least 12 – and absolutely nothing has been done.

Now that we are not friends, she will get drunk and start yelling and talking crap through my floor and stomping. She does this at any given time if intoxicated, including midnight to 5 in the morning. The cops were just here tonight because one of the neighbors had called because of her radio, which shakes my ceiling.

As soon as the police leave, she starts screaming with her door open down at my door that I called the cops, along with a bunch of other obscene things. I opened my door and yelled at her she woke my 19 month old baby up and she ran down the stairs and put her fist up telling me to put the baby down.

Now, here is my problem: I will fight if I have to, although I am grown and my kids live here, if you catch my drift. The cops came back again and they saw me outside my door and her screaming and yelling. They asked me what happened and I told them. They say O.K., well, if she comes to your door, don't answer. Call us. Here's the deal: they don't do anything at all about her. She has tried to fight every tenant in this building, old ladies even, and nothing is being done at all. Like 50 times they have been out here for her, but nothing happens. On top of that, the landlord waives her rent secretly and tells her whoever calls and complains. One lady on the third floor says she is scared for her life.

What do I do? If I kick her drunk butt, do I go to jail? Will I get kicked out and lose my kids? I am grown and I think fighting is a little high school, but I've had it. Can I complain to the police that the police are not doing their job? I mean, the landlord won't do anything and the cops won't? Someone please help!

I am a 23 year old married woman with a child on the way, so I am already exhausted as it is, and my upstairs neighbor is probably in her 40s and so inconsiderate of our apartment's quiet hours (11 p.m. - 8 a.m.). She is a night owl I guess, seeing as she is always stomping around and banging her drawers shut constantly at all hours of the night. Her boyfriend, who lives a few doors down, comes and goes as he pleases, and they do not make any effort to shut doors quietly or walk quietly at such late hours. I could understand if it was just a stomp here or an occasional accidental banging noise there, but it is consistent for hours!

She and her boyfriend also like to have loud 'relations' that shake their headboard, therefore shaking my ceiling, and a constant creak, creak, creak of the bed. I didn't know that one woman could be so loud.

I thought when we moved in that I would not have to worry about this, but boy was I wrong. I have brought it up to her and her response was pretty much that I should just deal with it. She likes to make excuses but there is no excuse: just be quiet! My sleep schedule should not have to revolve around hers. I have complained to the office too, but they don't seem to do anything. Very frustrating!

I have an issue that some may fine annoying and others may find tolerable. I'm on the third floor (top) of a condo and the college girls who lease the condo below me always talk loud and never shut up. It's not loud music - thank God for that - but talking that's always going on in the background (these condos are void of insulation). It's like I have roommates. I've politely talked to them twice and both times they were sweet but the talking came back a few days later.

I was looking to sell about this time anyway so I'm searching for a house now but it is just aggravating as heck. Anyone else have this simple but bothersome issue?

@anon238611: I don't understand your rationale. Certainly in some areas, you can expect the nighttime noise to be louder than others, but screaming and loud music at 2 a.m. is ridiculous. You think that you only need to get sleep when you're 30 or over? I have a few years to go before I turn 30, and I would go insane if I had these types of neighbors. Instead, I have a whiny neighbor below me who writes bogus noise complaints about us. I only searched for this topic because it's 1:30 a.m. and I'd been hearing some lady screaming for the past 20 minutes, which is *very* unusual.

In case you haven't noticed, it's a pain in the butt to move, and a little ridiculous to do so just because you have certain types of neighbours. Unfortunately it's something you just have to do sometimes, but it's ridiculous to see people actually defending these thoughtless idiots.

If you live in the city, and especially in the area I do (on a busy nightlife street), you ave to expect loud noises, screaming, and music through about 2:30 a.m. Thursday through Sunday. If you can't handle that, and have little kids, move! It's not that hard!

There are plenty of quiet places for people over 30 to get their peaceful rest every single night. I don't understand people's rationale sometimes.

I am a 26 year old woman who lives with her fiance in a stand alone house that was made into two apartments. We moved in her about a year ago and the first neighbors we had were the best. We were all able to talk and voice our concerns and we compromise when issues came up. They moved out a couple of months ago.

Now we have these people who live here that sit and play their bass. Now mind you, we have a two floor apartment. Our bedroom is on the top floor and it still shakes from the stupid music. When we went down there to politely ask them about the music volume and how it knocks things over, he did nothing but yell at us and say "It's the middle of the day I can play my music as loud as I want." He's already told that to the people on the other side of us and across the street. They have only been here a month and have upset everyone in our area.

I'm to the point of wanting to rip my hair out because of this. The issue is that we can't fully prove the man does not belong there. We think that the woman lets him stay there with the two kids, but he is not on the lease. We are hoping to get that so we can kick them out.

We don't like parties though we have people over once in a while. It's just that we like our peace and it's like they do not care who they disturb. I find myself crying because the stress is so bad and we want to move into a full house not connected to anyone. I just needed to vent because if I didn't I might go insane.

It's annoying. My neighbor fights once a week. I don't know if they get physical, but I know for sure they cuss at each other and throw stuff. Whenever other neighbors or I call police, they would know police would come soon and stops fighting because we've been calling the police and have done so over seven times. When the police come and knocks on their door, she would just say "Why can't I raise my voice in my own damn house? It's not like we are getting physical or anything"

These people annoy the bleep out of me, seriously. Those two keep denying to police that they've been fighting so intensely. Should I start getting signed petitions by other neighbors to kick those guys out, since we live in an apartment?

But what about intolerant neighbours? For instance, I live in the UK in a terraced house. I sometimes speak to my partner in the back bedroom about 11 p.m. and my neighbor bangs on the wall, as if to say we are being too loud.

As my boyfriend has to be at work at 7:30 a.m., the conversation is 20 minutes, tops. Sometimes, neighbours can claim the other neighbor is too noisy, but they can be intolerant.

I have never had parties but with the strife I get, sometimes I think maybe I should.

Good luck to all who has to endure loud obnoxious neighbors and deal with stupid cops. I have been dealing with my noisy neighbors who like to play their really loud bass music for more than two years.

And it doesn't help when we have stupid cops who don't know how to set up a decibel meter for an accurate reading.

No one should have to put up with this abuse because we should be able to enjoy the peace and quiet in our own homes. Anyhow, it is worth a try. Speak to your city council and if you have to go to a meeting, then do so. Find out the allowable decibel level of the noise or music and then check it on your meters.

Furthermore, we shouldn't have to buy equipment, sometimes expensive, especially on a fixed income, so those jerks can make as much noise as they want.

Why should I have to move? I've been in my place for 30 years and those assholes across the street has been in their place for only four or five years. Unfortunately, most neighbors are too damn chicken to complain and would rather move than confront the nuisance.

My neighbor is a 20 year old student grant-leeching kid who is having parties every Thursday ever since his girlfriend dumped him. The parties go on until four in the morning. The third Thursday (today), I went to him and told him that he can't have that every Thursday to which he responded 'I am not going to agree to *bleep* with you" and then he called out his friends, looking for a fight. I got out of it and told him that I would notify the landlord if it happened again. Now it's a wait and see.

Last December, I finally decided it was time to move out of shared apartments and into my own place. I found a nice, one-bedroom apartment in a great area in my price range. It is, unfortunately, a ground floor apartment, but I figured that it would just be a bit of street noise and an occasional loud person or barking dog, no biggie. It is in a quiet street in a quiet neighborhood. Before I lived here, I lived in a top floor apartment on a busy street which produced quite a bit of noise, so I was used to it. I have a small dog who is very quiet and occasionally I have people over sometimes, but if it is more than two people and will go later than 10 p.m., I always let my neighbors know in advance by leaving a nice note near the mailboxes and sending them a thank you note afterward for being so tolerant. I like to think of myself as a good neighbor. Yes, sometimes I play my guitar or put together furniture during the day, but never after 8 p.m. or before 9 a.m., or on Sundays (those are the rules where I live).

My neighbors and the people who walk on the sidewalk outside my apartment are a different story. When I moved in, I had very little furniture so about two weeks after christmas, I was building some bookshelves in my kitchen. I had three of the four children I nanny regularly over at my place to help out with the building because I was on the clock and the parents need quiet at the house. They were being moderately loud, but it was also 3 p.m. on a Friday.

Two men knocked loudly on my door and, without introducing themselves, asked me all sorts of questions about the children, if they lived here, how old are they, why am I building bookshelves. I politely answered that I was sorry if the noise was too much, but the children don't live here and are only visiting and I would be finished with building furniture within the hour. I also let them know that I had just moved in and introduced myself. They were very unhappy and asked why a student (which I am; I am only 23) would want to move in their building and how could the landlord allow this and I was sure to make lots of noise. I responded, as politely as I could, that if there were any noise issues that were outside of the rules about noise (e.g., after 8 p.m. or before 9 a.m. or on Sundays, or just completely too loud) that they were welcome anytime to knock on my door and I would happily quiet down. I also let them know that I don't throw parties and if I planned to have people over on a weekend night, that I would let them know in advance and keep the volume down.

Then, they saw my dog and flipped out that my dog would bark all the time and said they wanted me to move out. I was upset but I responded that if they had a problem with the dog or noise or anything, that we could work it out together as neighbors when it occurred. I had only been there for a month, two weeks of which I wasn't even in the country! They then said well you better quiet down by 7 p.m. because we have a toddler living upstairs. I replied I would try to keep my noise under control and said I was sorry to have bothered them. I did my best to be polite and understanding, but at the same time I was fuming! I just moved in and so far had been extra careful about not making too much noise.

Then things started to get worse. Their toddler threw stuff all over the place upstairs at all hours of the day. During the day, kids will be kids, but at a certain hour, you stop the children from throwing objects on the floor, calm them and put them to bed. At 5 a.m. every morning, the child was screaming for three hours before anyone came to soothe it. I went up after about two weeks to follow up on the first time we talked and asked them if there were any issues with noise from my apartment. They said no, everything has been fine but didn't apologize for accosting me at our first encounter. I let this go as I wasn't expecting anything more. Then I asked them if they could try to keep their child from throwing things on the floor after 8 p.m., since I work two jobs and study full time and it was keeping me up. They were upset and said they can't stop their child from doing anything.

I then asked if they could please try to do something about the crying in the mornings. They said they are sleep training the toddler to stay in its bed until 8 a.m. and they refuse to go get him before then. I said that it is not fair to me or the other neighbors that your sleep training means that I have to be up at 5 a.m. even on Saturday and Sunday. They replied that I am the fifth neighbor to complain and they will call the police for harassment if anyone comes to ask them about it again. I promptly called the landlord and voiced my complaint, who then called the police and they were moved out within two months.

In the meantime, the children passing my windows, whose laughter and talking didn't bother me, had taken up a new hobby. My windows are outfitted with metal grating to keep people from breaking them and therefore being able to enter my apartment. Since there are three elementary schools near my apartment (great for me since I am studying to be an elementary school teacher and work as a nanny) many children pass my windows in the morning. They started to take plastic water bottles and run them down the grating in the mornings at around 7:30 a.m.! I opened my window while they were doing this to see their parents standing there watching! I calmly in my sleep haze asked the children who stopped to watch me open the window to please stop running the bottles down the grating and one mother came over and harassed me for speaking to her child! I said that if they could not keep their children away from my windows, that I will make a complaint with the police. They are responsible for keeping their own children in check while in public and that means not touching other people's property or doing things would generally be obnoxious to other people. The mother walked away in a huff.

Since then, I have had to ask children about 50 times to step away from my windows, stop running bottles or objects on the grating, not climb on my windowsills, not climb on the grating or not leave trash or food in the windowsills. I also get people looking in the windows and knocking on the glass to see if anyone lives here. Why must they even get near my windows? I know living on the ground floor is tough, but if people would just stop doing stuff that is rude and inconsiderate, it would be a lot easier! This is albeit a neighborhood issue, not a neighbor issue but I feel it still applies, as the same people walk past my windows on a regular basis.

Now I have new neighbors as of last week above me. In between the crazy men and their toddler and these new people, a nice young couple who were friendly, not noisy and who sometimes walked my dog for me when I had class for a long time lived above me. They had to move out because they were having a baby and the apartment was too small. The new people are a family of four (in a one bedroom apartment) with two teenagers. They have had two teeny parties in the last week, one Thursday and one Friday, where the kids are in the hallways and stairwells talking and yelling.

On Friday night, I smelled smoke in my apartment and began to freak out because I thought there was a fire. Then I heard loud talking and glass clinking right outside my door. My dog began to bark loudly and I was upset because it was late and I didn't want to cause problems with my neighbors. I looked out the peephole and saw four teenage boys. They were leaning on my apartment door having a smoke and drinking beer! When I opened it, they fell into my apartment! I told them that they are not allowed to smoke in the hallways or stairwell and that they are certainly not allowed to lean on my door and have a chat at anytime of day, much less at 11 p.m. They said that I should just talk to the parents running the party if I had a problem and refused to move. I took my keys, shut the door and went upstairs.

The parents were upset that I was at their door at 11 p.m. in my pajamas with house shoes on and told me to go away. I introduced myself as their downstairs neighbor. They then got white faced. I said look, this is the second party in the week since you moved in. I have tolerated the building noises and the party last night with the mindset that once you get settled, these things will go away. I get it, you have teenagers, I was a teenager once and I wish my parents had let me throw parties Thursday and Friday night until almost midnight. But there is no way your kids and their friends can hang around in the public spaces of the building smoking and drinking, particularly not in front of my apartment door at 11p.m.! They said the kids do what they want and they can't control them. My response was: Don't let them invite 20 friends over and supply alcohol (I live in Germany, drinking age for beer and wine is 16) if you can't keep them under control.

I told them that I will let things go this time, but the next time that 20 kids are yelling, drinking, smoking and music playing above my head and outside of my door to a point which is completely unacceptable, I am calling the landlord and the police. They looked shocked and upset. I said I was sorry to have this be my first encounter with new neighbors but they had really gone too far in letting their kids and their friends smoke in the stairwell in front of my door at 11 p.m. They apologized and said to stop by if there are any more issues. They sent all the kids home except theirs and it got quiet. I am hoping this weekend things will be quiet as well. I just do not want to deal with another crazy upstairs neighbor. Here's to hoping for an improvement. If they don't, the nice older lady living above them and the disabled older man living next to them are sure to call the police sooner than I will. I wouldn't be surprised if they have already made complaints without even talking to the family.

People can be really inconsiderate and if we all learned to respect others and do things as you wish they would do, then living in apartment buildings, condos, neighborhoods etc. would become a lot easier.

It's me from Hell again, I forgot to say that what you can do to effectively block out noise is get a good CD player and play white noise CDs. You can find white noise with rain or any nature sounds. I would suggest finding ones that don't have bird sounds, which are annoying. God bless you all.

I live in Hell, Florida- a college town where the average age of the entire population is 26.

You cannot escape from the humidity and there is no escaping from the noise.

Now, I'm at my studio apartment. It's a Saturday night in mid-October. The weather gives some relief, but the bass is still booming. It always does. I called the cops, who redirected me to their non-emergency number.

Anyway, my next door neighbor in this crappy studio apartment that affords no privacy finally moved out. He was an overweight, balding cook, a young man of course, who had his lonely drunken nights with the beers and the music and sometimes a screaming hooker as well.

I was so happy. I was so happy that nobody should ever be as happy as I was when he moved out. But a week later, there he is again in the form of a young moron girl. She plays the good girl but then the music comes on and the retard doesn't realize one may use earphones for music and it sounds like noise. She's trying to show off maybe.

Wow. An annoying situation. I am utterly surrounded. If it's not one it's the other.

It's my honor and pleasure to be a good neighbor. But these kids are making an ex-patriot out of me, my friends.

The moral of the story: If you ever live in a college town, you must find out where the medical students live: the Arabs, Indians and Asians. Those are your new best friends.

I just want to get it off my chest because the stress and strain has taken its toll on me. I am on my fourth loud neighbor in six years.

The first one, the husband and I called Stampy. She would arrive home at 10 p.m., and walk around in wooden clogs for hours. She must have been a night owl because the racket would go on sometimes until 3 a.m. That apartment was temporary, and we moved into our next place.

We were on the top flour of a fourplex. When we moved in, the professor below us was so quiet we didn't think he lived there. Turned out we were right because he quit his apartment to move in with his girlfriend, which was where he was spending all his time. Four young guys moved in, with their DJ equipment and proceeded to make our life hell. After one loud party, the next morning I went to get into my car only to find it blocked but another car. I had to call and have it towed away. One of the tenants left it there and the other tenants didn't know where he was and thought the whole thing was really funny.

These same tenants gave us another unwelcome gift: mice. The landlord said it took $2,000 to clean and repair the place after they moved out. I guess the landlord felt he would be safer renting to someone he knew because his niece moved in with her two kids. The son played his electric guitar at all hours of the day. When my husband confronted them, her boyfriend told him to bleep off and that was that. The landlord tried, but she really believed she had a right to let her son play that damned guitar whenever he wanted to, and let me tell you, all the practice wasn't improving his playing at all. That was the first time someone forced me out of my home before, and it was very unpleasant.

Now we own a home. We bought during the winter, and everyone was quiet and wonderful. Then the nice weather came along, and the neighbors across the street have shown themselves to be inconsiderate jerks. First, the band-saw. He literally brings his work home, which involves the band-saw, hammers beating on metal, welding, and all manner of power tools. This all happens in the front of the condo on the driveway. All day long, every day of the week. Then when he is through working, he likes to throw open all his windows and blast music with the bass thumping for blocks. Or just sit in his truck and let the music blast. Or work on his motorcycle for a few hours, constantly revving it. In all honesty, every day there is noise from that house and you have to wonder about a person who can't seem to contain his life and must have it overlap onto others. Wonder is too kind a word. You really have to hate someone that selfishly imposes on others, and I do hate him.

In regards to the bass music, the reason it makes you jumpy and agitated is that it is activating your fight/flight impulse. There is a reason jungle tribes used drums before raiding enemy tribes: it would unnerve the enemy. The blood surging, the sense of impending doom, the dizziness, are all symptoms of fight/flight response. Like me, you're in the jungle baby.

For me, the problem has escalated over the years. Each place, I get a worse offender. I am starting to feel jinxed.

I lost my home in Katrina, as well as most of my savings and have been trying in vain to reestablish myself. Last night I just sat and cried, with the thumping bass all around me, because nothing I do means anything to the jerk across the street.

I don't blame it on young people (he isn't that young), and I am not that old. It is selfish, inconsiderate people and the only way to deal with it is to make their lives as miserable as they are making your life.

I have started a log. Everything will go into it. Next, my husband and I plan on talking to the other neighbors. The police respond better when it is more than one person complaining. If he goes one minute past 9 p.m., I am calling the police and sending a letter to his landlord (found his name on the internet). If he pulls the band saw out again, I am calling the police (you can't use your home as a place of work/business). If one of his friends has their car hanging in the street, I will have it towed (this doesn't necessarily bother me, but the music does so, meh). And then I have my last resort. I have family who are lawyers and I will sue them if this continues. I was saving for a vacation, but I would much rather take him to court and get my home back.

Maybe no one will ever read this, but it feels better getting it out.

I live in Tucson, AZ out in the desert on land that my grandfather settled. You would think it would be quite and peaceful out here. Unfortunately, we have some very dumb neighbors. Although most of them have moved out, I thought I would share.

I had some who lived two houses down who were in a rap band. They would constantly play music. It was so loud I couldn't hear what was on my own tv. I called the cops and had to fight with these idiot cops who were on their side except for one of them who agreed with me. All they did was make them point their speakers the other way. I kept complaining just the same and complained to the cops' supervisors. I had almost the same amount of trouble with the cops as I did with these people. They also had friends in the neighborhood who would crank up their stereos to impress each other. They would even do it sometimes late at night. Again, I had a hard time getting the cops do their jobs.

Recently, I think they hired better cops so they respond a lot better. The only solution is to call the cops. I know this because I tried talking to them and they tried to physically attack me and to my surprise, they actually arrested one of them who later shot himself in the head. Normally, I'm not happy about something like that, but as they say, Karma.

We are on the second set of upstairs devil-neighbors. The upstairs is a two room, one bath apartment. The first set of neighbors were three young people living up there, with four vehicles among them. They drank, came in late at night and were loud, and the one whose name was on the lease and his girlfriend fought all the time. We asked them to try and cut back on the noise and the tenant threatened me in the shared front yard.

This tenant is a single female with two boyfriends, and she is very sexually active with both of them. How do I know? Because living beneath her is like having a porn soundtrack radiate through the floor. I am almost ready to confront her at the mailbox and tell her the boyfriend with the car sounds like the better lover because she is way louder with him. I wish we could afford to rent that apartment ourselves and just leave it empty.

I live in a condo next door to my jerk neighbors who practice piano every day. Notices sent to them by building management go unheeded. My solution? If they feel that it's perfectly okay for me to be forced to listen to their crappy piano, then it's also okay for me to blast my stereo with both speakers facing our common wall while they play. At least it blocks their piano noise, and if it makes their practice unproductive, well, it's a win-win.

I don't know about other states but in California children upstairs between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. are allowed to make noise, and that means running, jumping and playing. You cannot expect kids to be quiet then. Don't live in apartments if you don't like noise.

It isn't that undue noise is made; it is the acoustics of the building. It magnifies the sound of walking or anything else upstairs. I refuse to scold my grandkids all day long for being kids.

No one can expect four year olds to be quiet all day long day in and day out, and for one, it's against the law to threaten anyone about that and discrimination. They are no more noisy than any other kids. I watch TV a lot and all hours of the night and day. I have TV ears for late at night and I have ordered something else like that.

We don't play loud music and we put the kids most nights to be by 8:30. I get sick of reading things like kids should be quiet all the time. Anyone saying the parents are not good parents is stupid because they are little people with minds of their own and one can do only so much. You can't punish kids all day long for making some noise.

What can you do when your house is fairly well soundproofed, but because the neighbor's music is so loud you can feel it throughout your whole house? And they live across the street. It is extra annoying because it also triggers my migraines.

I see some people suggest talking to the person making the noise first before you do anything else. People are spiteful, they will make even more noise than before or extract some other revenge. I lived in an apartment building before and that's exactly what happened.

I loathe the flophouse dwellers in the house behind me (in a once very peaceful suburb) that blast music from their open cars constantly. The bass makes me feel sick, my windows rattle. Why won't I talk to them? I don't have a death wish. It's an ever changing cast of transients.

I found something called "Liquid A--." I may just try it on their yard and see what happens, if anything.

Best of luck everyone. I use earplugs and a noise machine, sometimes leave the headphones on and play white noise. Or just leave when it is so bad I can't take it. I will sleep in my car parked on a quiet street. Not exactly safe. I would love to move but can't afford to. Ideally I'd move to somewhere with lots of land around it!

On one side we have two beagles, on the other we have a pit bull. Every time we go outside, they all bark at us. Our house is $675,000. It doesn't matter if you living in apartment or rental, this world if filled with self-centered people, who just don't care if they bother others. Solution - do the same!

There is no justice. Record it and take it to the news and city/town council and make them listen to it in session and request updated laws on forcing people to be good neighbors. Just keep asking the council for remedy.

The only other option is to offer your neighbor money to behave and obey the law. Or offer the police money to do their job and enforce the law to protect your rights. Let us know if any of this works.

Most people who have kids and let them do whatever they want, are incompetent, unintelligent and uneducated idiots.

I'm 20 right now, and when my soon-to-be-wife and I have kids, they're going to get some serious education and manners. I cannot tolerate savages and disrespectful little jerks near me, and even less my own children.

If you're a parent and allow your kids to be loud and annoying brats, you should get sterilized immediately so you could stop breeding more incompetent living specimens into this world.

So please, future parents, for humanity's sake and sanity, educate your freaking child. Either that or move to the damn jungle and compete against the other animals.

I am so sick of these hoodrats next door. They rent -- well, the mother rents. She's on section 8 and all the daughters and cousins are homeless. We've called the police numerous times and told the landlord but it still continues. I guess it's time for me to resort to stooping to their ignorant level! How can I report the mother is committing fraud? She rents the place with her section 8 and doesn't even live there, her grown hoodrats daughters and 50 kids do!

Moving to the country doesn't work. These idiots are even worse because they think that they can do anything because they're " in the country".

Noise carries more and you can hear a mouse poop five acres away. My last neighbors gave white trash a bad name.

I periodically did some target practice in the back yard and one day when they became belligerent about moving their trucks that they had parked in my driveway, I told them that I'd blow a hole in them big enough to chuck a cat through with my .44. Figuring that I was crazy enough to do it, they complied. The "moral" to this is, scared neighbors are good neighbors. Sometimes that's all these jerks understand.

I can see everyone's point of view, but to be honest, there is only so much a tenant can take from noisy neighbors. I have a small child (18 months old) and so do my upstairs jerk neighbors. I am a very nice person and I have people living under me, so even though I don't restrict my child from playing during the day, I do not allow him to bang on things like the walls, floors, or throw toys or run back and forth because even that would annoy me, and I'm his mother!

My upstairs neighbors have no respect and are always stomping around, slamming things around, slamming doors, blaring their tv, and they even let their child run around and jump off of all the furniture (my assumption) until past two in the morning. I have banged on my ceiling, called courtesy patrol, made a log of when they are noisy, like dates and times. Courtesy patrol has done nothing to fix the problem. They do not seem like very nice people so I don't know if I should confront them. They might kick my butt!

Hating my life right now. I have to be at work at 6:30 a.m. every day and get woken up anywhere from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. when my upstairs neighbors get home. So frustrating! I bought expensive ear plugs, but she still wakes me up. She wears heels and walks back and forth for about an hour and her dog barks constantly. I asked her to please take off her heels on multiple occasions and now she gets home and stomps louder. So disrespectful and inconsiderate.

I have given up being polite after asking her nicely to take her heels off and be quiet when she gets home so late. I have spoken with the landlord and he hasn't done anything. I'm so over this, since it is now affecting my work, so I set my alarm (loudest and most annoying noise) underneath her bedroom at 6 and let it go off for 15 minutes. I try to be as loud as I possibly can in the morning, but it doesn't seem to faze her at all.

My lease is up in three months and I plan on making her life miserable. Karma is a you-know-what.

Start running your vacuum cleaner, every appliance you have (washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc) and blast your stereo as loud as you can when you know the neighbor next door who disturbs you all the time is sleeping. It works. They finally figured it out.

Just happened the other night and morning. After all the jerks came home and I finally got to sleep around 4:30 a.m., I set my car alarm off at 6 a.m. and woke them all up. And I will do that every time. My board of directors are the worst violators of all the rules.

We have nice neighbors, other than the stay at home mother doesn't want to watch her kids, so she thinks I should have no problem in watching them for her because "I don't do anything" while my kids are at school. She got a rude awakening.

I have no desire whatsoever in watching twin brat babies who never shut up. Thank you very much. Watch your own kids.

She never wants to take these twins with her anywhere. She is always borrowing food because, even though she leaves the house every day, she is obviously too lazy to go grocery shopping.

I have one better. I moved to my home over five and a half years ago. We purchased our home in say, suburbia USA. The place was nice and quiet, then the neighbor across from us started with us because my husband is spanish and I am white. That was the beginning of the tip of the iceberg.

Then they complained to the township about a fence we installed on our property that was legal with permits and all. After four years of legal battle, we had to take it down, and now they are just harassing me by throwing nails in my driveway, using listening devices and video cameras to watch us and record. And the best is reading our cell and text messages.

Just last night, he came out started a fight with my husband and the neighbor and my husband weren't going to back down when he started with me. Thank god my husband didn't touch him.

I went to the police and filed a report and told the cop I have a case with the prosecutor's office in regards to his using electronic equipment on my house. I also contacted the house's owner. Let's see what happens now. All the neighbors except for one who is his friend are for us getting them thrown out. Just as they were from their last neighborhood. Peace is needed here. We are tired of this crap.

You don't have to be "old" to be bothered by annoying neighbors. If you act like trash (loud, rowdy, many parties, etc.) then you should move to the country.

You are all old and should move somewhere quiet (like the country) if you want silence.

What do you do when it is several people in a complex making noise? We have a few young people (college age or a little older) who party all the time. They come and go all hours which is their prerogative but they make a lot of noise to (talking loud, drunk, having parties on the balconies).

The sound carries and there is one girl who is like a braying mule (her drunken laugh wakes me up at 3 a.m. several times a week). I have no clue where exactly the noise is coming from and do not want to sound like a crank. However, we have the right for quiet after midnight and pay our rent, too.

Yeah, I just moved into an old brick building with worn down hardwood floors. Although I swore off ever signing another lease again, I did so because I trusted the manager who is also a friend. Big mistake!

Things were OK for a week or two. I even introduced myself to the neighbors below who are an elderly couple and seemed OK. Well, they play their tv on loud as hell, 24 hours a day. They are constantly hitting their ceiling every time I walk on my floors because they creak. Plus, they have drinking binges and smoke weed! These are not spring chickens, either. We're talking 60 year olds acting like they are 20. I have never had good neighbors but in terms of bad neighbors and bad insulation, I think this is the worst place ever!

I don't want to start complaining to the manager but I don't know if I can do a year in this ghetto. I am fed up with ignorant, noisy neighbors -- so much so that I am ready to call it quits and go live in the wilderness somewhere.

I too, have annoying neighbors three floors down. They moved in a year ago and are quite found of loud music (Gangsta-style hip-hop with lots of bass). During the winter, it's tolerable since the windows are closed (yet the entire building shakes). But come summer time, I open my windows and the "dude" feels it's best to play his loud car system with doors and trunk open, yet he stays inside his apartment.

Having been very frequently exposed to loud music, the lovely couple's shouting matches until 3 a.m., I was getting somewhat edgy. So I finally blew a fuse and went down to ask the "gangsta-type" to turn down the music. He basically said "Bleep you" and I returned to my place. Then my gentle neighbor cranked the volume even higher as to "mark his territory.”

That really made me mad, so I returned to ask the volume be turned down a bit, since I was asking nicely. The guy kills the music and as I turn away he spits on the ground. Back in my apartment, he turns the music back on, but at 11 on a scale of 10.

Although the guy looks scary with all his tattoos and chains, I simply could not stand it anymore.

I grabbed a baseball glove, a baseball and a baseball bat and stood in the alley where "Mr. Nice" was.

He noticed me and walked over, saying are you trying to scare me? I just said “I love baseball more than hip-hop.” "Fake gansta" who was about 20 pounds lighter than me and six inches smaller, said "You know I come from the street?", trying to suggest he was a street gang member.

So I called his bluff and said that full-patch Hell's Angels (which obviously I am not) are all avid baseball players. And I was going to play baseball now, so I walked away in the ballpark direction.

Moral to the story: "the tough guy" was a wimp but all the other neighbors where scared because he "claimed the territory".

Never had to complain after that short episode.

Whatever you do, it's not enough; trust me. Just sit back and think.

I too am thoroughly bothered by the inconsiderate neighbours on our left. They own a corner-unit townhouse and simply love banging on doors of all kinds every single morning, including weekends. Our bedroom shares a wall with their bathroom and each time someone takes a shower in the morning, the sliding shower door causes our bed to vibrate! I have been vibrated straight out of deep sleep many times now! After the vibration, there will be doors banging. This will all continue until that person leaves the house.

Each time they bang a door, our bedroom wall vibrates and our bed vibrates. I'm a home maker and am home most of the time. I can excuse the weekday vibration in a panic to get out of the house to work or something but on weekends, my hubby and I are unable to sleep past 9 a.m. There is no such thing as being able to enjoy sleeping in on a weekend anymore. We moved into this wood-frame townhouse four months ago from a concrete high-rise apartment and my sleep has deteriorated so much since moving here. I heard way less noise in the concrete apartment. It makes me think that perhaps there is no soundproofing at all in the common walls shared between us and the unit next to ours.

I am tired of the inconsiderate idiots next to us. I am so on edge these days because I never know when to expect a door to bang on their side. Once I was deeply concentrating on a book and literally jumped out of my skin due to a loud bang that sounded like an explosion coming from their unit. How could a person in their right mind bang so hard and inconsiderately on their home and furniture? I'm afraid that our pictures and frames might be vibrated right off our wall due to their banging!

Isn't there any kind of soundproofing material we can purchase to add to the wall in our bedroom to allow us to have a good night's sleep instead of being woken up by their banging on a regular basis? Where is the justice in all of this?

Ah, the joys of apartment living. Here's one for you. An older couple moved into the downstairs apartment below us. Their grandchildren were holy terrors. They were bouncing a basketball in the stairwell, against our wall!

I stepped out on to the landing and one of the little devils looked at me and said, "Who are you?" I said, "I live here. Please stop bouncing that ball against the wall. That's the wall to our living room." He said, "I don't have to." I said, "Well then, I'll just walk downstairs with you and talk to your mom and dad about it." He left, but ten minutes later, it had started up again. Then there were all the yellow paintballs they exploded on the sidewalk and in the grass. Maintenance was so happy about that.

The old man who lived there was on disability and to pass the time, did woodworking. Which would be fine, except he picked the front entrance to set up his electric saw and had all of his lumber, cords and crap strewn all across where you went into the apartments. And it wasn't like any woodworking I ever saw, either. I think he bought the saw at a flea market or something, but had no idea how to use it. And he would crank it up early on Saturday mornings, so the noise was right under our bedroom window. Management talked to them about the saw, saying (and rightly so) that it was a safety hazard to the other residents. The wife was just indignant about it. She acted like her husband had every right to completely block the apartment entrance with his stuff. Unreal. Fortunately, they moved.

Now we have a nice little house in a quiet neighborhood and are eternally grateful for the quiet!

I have some noisy neighbors who have kids- thankfully, one set has been evicted (don't know why, don't care, at least they're not screaming under my window all hours anymore), another set, of course, is still there.

Now I know kids will make noise, but seriously? after 9:30/10 p.m. and before 10 a.m., your kids need to be quiet. I mean, honestly, why should I have to buy expensive equipment or wear earplugs or move to a senior community just because you're unable to teach your children to be quiet?

By the way, I'm only 31, and I wouldn't even be able to move to a senior community for about 24 years, and even then, you've got loud, annoying children 'visiting' their grandparents and running around. Believe me, I've seen it.

Whew. I found this website last night when I couldn't sleep, thanks to the meth heads upstairs.

My boyfriend and I are both 20, and I moved in with him a couple of weeks ago. The plan was for me to live there for a month before we move into our new apartment.

Let me start out by describing this place: ghetto. The actual location isn't bad but the residents are what make it awful. These people all are on public housing and in their late 30's early 40's. None of them have jobs and most are on some sort of drug. People living here get their kids taken away by CPS on a regular basis. Everyone living there has kids. These kids run wild. I don't get mad at the kids because its apparent their parents don't care what they do. Little kids, about four years old, are free to roam outside until the late night. The kids love to play with rocks and throw them at each other or at our windows. Another favorite pastime is taking their bikes and throwing them down the stairs.

Before I moved in, my boyfriend put us garden fencing around our patio area to keep the kids out because the kids would get in there and leave garbage or pee down there because they thought it was their fort. Upon my moving in, I caught some kids on our patio and said, "Hey can you please not come down here anymore? Ahanks." One of the kids has his meth head father living a couple floors above us and he came flying down and started banging on the door like he was going to break it. When I answered the door he proceeded to scream at me about not talking to his kid like that. Ironic because the whole complex can hear his constant screaming at his kids calling them names like "dumb bleep" and "little piece of bleep."

After this incident, things seemed to get worse. I've only lived there a couple of weeks but I can barely sleep. Last night was my breaking point. The people who live above us are literally – literally -- awake all hours of the day and night. I mean constantly moving around. Moving furniture, running up and down the halls, listening to music, dropping heavy things and the thing that really gets me: pacing back and forth. Mind you, I work two jobs. I get home late and just want to relax before going to bed. My boyfriend works very early so he's in bed and asleep by the time I am home. He sleeps through anything.

I got home at 9:45 last night and the moment I walk in the door I can hear them. I tried to go to bed but kept hearing them through my fan and earplugs. So I got up and watched tv until 12:30. They kept up with noise that whole time. When I finally was exhausted and just wanted to sleep, I decided I would go to my dad's house. I woke my boyfriend to tell him and he got out of bed and before I could stop him, started slamming on the ceiling. It got quiet for a minute but then boom! Boom! Boom! It shook the walls! It was hilarious to me because it was a 12:30 a.m. on a week night and they were acting like "how dare you tell us to be quiet!" The noise, of course, kept up all night long until finally at 5:30 a.m., I left and went to my dad's where I will be staying until we get the new apartment. I can't take it. I thank God we are moving out so soon.

Reading these stories makes me thankful we can move. You guys are so strong to put up with this kind of torture and I hope each and every one of you gets out of the loud neighbor situation! Not only is this a health problem due to stress and lack of sleep, but it also makes you uncomfortable in your own home! You almost don't want to go home after work just to avoid the annoyance. What really gets me is how inconsiderate people are!

I lost my job last year and now I consult. I commute monthly by plane to another city. I spend up two weeks a month away from my home and family. Where I work is two hours ahead of where I live during daylight savings time. The company I consult with leases a condo for me. I work long hours and then go out and eat. When I get back to the condo around 9 p.m., I just want to relax and play my guitar and watch TV.

I bought a TV, DVD player and streaming video box, and a travel guitar for use at the condo. My neighbors below me called the police one night because my acoustic guitar playing and singing was bothering them at 9:30 p.m. I talked to them the next day and was told I could play my guitar on weekends. We exchanged phone numbers. Then last week I was watching TV at 12:30 a.m., I got a phone call from the husband, and instead of asking me to turn it down please, he ordered me to turn it off because they have a baby now. My experience is that babies sleep at all times of the day. So does that mean I can’t watch TV anytime or play guitar any time of day?

Also, at least one of them gets up early around 5 a.m. every morning and bangs closet doors, drawers, generally normal noises one makes when getting ready for work, but it does wake me up. I haven’t complained about it. Should I complain to them? I have stopped playing guitar when I’m at the condo and watch movies on my laptop with ear plugs. I feel I am going out my way to accommodate them but they are not giving me any consideration.

I have these terrible neighbors who play music every night until 3 a.m. I think my landlord feels bad for the guy because he has an artificial leg. Doesn't mean he isn't a jerk. I hate my apartment place.

I am a single mother with a 9 year old autistic boy who will be turning 10 soon. i live in a condo complex with a gentleman who is below me who is quiet but the opposite is for above me. there is a man 200 pounds and more a woman with two kids and one of the kids is well over 80 pounds and other adults in this one unit. they make a racket from 9 a.m. to about 2 a.m. every night. i have called 311 numerous times, wrote letters to management. management wants to resolve this on a nice basis but it is not stopping the noise from the unit above us. the noise is only from one room right above our living room, they drag furniture constantly, running around, pacing around with purposeful heavy footsteps, purposely drop heavy objects on floor, purposely drop balls and marble hard purposely very noisily on floors. They do not follow any rules. They are not considerate of others and only care about themselves. Thy never discipline their big son about making a lot of noise.

I have copies of 311 reports that have complaint numbers. I have copies of emails sent and received from management and copies of letters sent to management. I am keeping a paper trail for a future lawsuit.

I'm a 23 year old single mother of a 3, almost 4 year old boy. I don't party and have very few friends who come to visit, aside from my own parents. I live in a string of apartment complexes, each three stories. Upon signing my lease for my mid-level apartment I was advised the neighbor upstairs had two kids. Fine by me. I have a child so I know how it is.

The children were never an issue. I'm no racist, but the woman upstairs was Hispanic. I knew the lease for her only included herself and her two children. But there were easily eight people there at all times,music blasting constantly until 10, sometimes 11 at night, stomping, yelling in Spanish (mostly in the hallway outside of my door).

My "backyard" is located directly next to an on ramp for an expressway. I put backyard in quotations because it's a small patch of grass separating the rear of the building from a parking lot for 12 cars and the dumpster. In summer, they ran a hose from the top story, past my window to fill an inflatable pool. Never once did I see the kids in this pool! It was always four to six adults sitting in the pool, next to the on ramp where all traffic passing by could see them sitting in it drinking beer with a boombox blasting music.

I'm a very non-confrontational person. I never spoke with them about this, nor did I even call the police or spoke with my landlord. I accepted it as part of living in a complex close to the city. However a line was finally crossed.

My son has very rare night terrors. And anyone that knows anything about it knows you cannot wake a person experiencing a night terror. You have to let them wake on their own. One morning, at about 6 a.m. (they wake up at 5 a.m.. I know because they wake me up with them getting ready), my son was sitting in his bed screaming and crying hysterically with his eyes still shut. All I could do was hold him until he woke up. The woman came downstairs and pounded on my door like she was going to break it in, which woke him up and he got even more hysterical. Then she proceeded to yell at me saying she had a baby upstairs sleeping and blah, blah, blah. I called her out on it and told her I knew just how many people were on her lease and if there were any more then I would report her to the landlord (who does increase rent for extra tenants in excess of the original signed lease). She called me a see you next Tuesday and went back upstairs.

I went to the landlord immediately and reported the incident and before mentioning anything about the supposed "baby.” I was asked how many people I thought were living there. I was honest and said easily six, if not eight. The landlord told me they had received several complaints about the number of people there but I was the first for harassment. They advised me to call the police about the noise every time it went past 9 p.m.

I never did call the police on them, but the neighbor across from them ended up doing it several times. A month later, they were moving out. Evicted.

I managed to enjoy a solid three months of peace on my side of the building (the one bedroom below me had been vacant since I loved in and still is).

Four days ago new neighbors moved in upstairs. I didn't even know they had moved in because they're so quiet! However, just this evening the police were in my building and pulled one of my new neighbors out in cuffs. Good Lord. Not again.

It is now June and my lease doesn't expire until March 2012. When it does, I'm moving out. My son doesn't need to be exposed to this crap, especially now that he's getting old enough to understand what's happening around him more.

The people next door are renting and they each night and day bring all sorts of horrible looking people with hoods, druggies and their language is obscene, they talk nearly every day until 6 a.m., and they don't work. they receive benefits from housing and child benefits and they live life like they are the owners. They have no respect and nothing to say that they are nice. The police never do anything about it. I may have to put an injunction or they're all out. They are horrible. I didn't know such worms existed in this society.

I found online do it yourself legal forms, etc. Yes, you can sue noisy neighbours. Suing a neighbor will take some effort (time I don't have). I printed out a copy of the page saying you can sue your neighbor and taped it to her door. I hope it works tonight.

I have a new bartender, a young wild girl, neighbor upstairs who comes in at 3:30 a.m., and is up for an hour or more. the squeaking wakes me up and I must get up early with my son.

I have complained to the landlord and called security, but all that is losing sleep. Sue 'em. Bartenders arrive late almost every night. I have three weeks, but that's too long. Also, the manager said there was no apartment for her which she wants. I also told the manager that they must either put me in a hotel to sleep or give me at least half or some off my rent. She said she will talk to head office in morning.

It was 11a.m. and I was with my niece 2and half years old in front of their apartment with the neighbor's child the same age. The neighbor's child took my niece's toy, she started to cry and all of a sudden another neighbor came and told me to control it, but I told her with all respect sometimes you can't control babies, that they need to cry.

After five minutes, I saw four police officers coming towards me and they were treating me as if I was a criminal. The officer was telling me I have to control her and if she cries, put her inside and close the windows. Is that a control or abuse? I told them she was crying because of the toy. If people they can't handle kid's or baby sounds, let them live in senior citizen housing.

This is what happened to us in our last apartment. We moved into a complex into one of the scummier units (dark and ground floor) that they were trying to get occupancy in. We had to move there because as many people know, it's difficult to find a dog friendly apartment.

Anyhow, the day we moved in, the woman above us tries to be friendly and mentions her son is a hockey player. Okay, well things are okay but my husband works nights and we notice this 17-year-old never seems to go to school. It gets worse after January. He suddenly never goes to school and makes a ton of noise. My husband cannot sleep for the noise.

Things escalate and the kid begins to smoke heavily and cough and cough all the time. Ignorant of all this we just try to deal with being on the bottom floor until we can move. You have to learn to be tolerant.

Well, the mother leaves on a Friday and that night the kid has a pot party till late in the morning. This goes on for two nights. He screams, "Dude, I cannot feel my (bleeping) legs!" because he is so wasted. They slam doors and party for a few nights until we cannot take it anymore and complain to my neighbor (a cop) and the management company. The management tried to blow us off but we get a lawyer who tells us they are violating the lease in several places.

My cop friend calls the kid's mother and she doesn't bother to come home (from 20 miles away) to do anything! The management co. tells us to hang on as they are moving in September (this happened in early August). We said no way and they moved us to another unit.

Point is, keep complaining, and get the law in if you have to. We all have to tolerate some noise but I draw the line at drugs. My son doesn't need that crap.

We have moved into White Trash Complex no. 1. Most of the people are okay but they are definitely trashy. Few people understand that you do not honk your horn at 4 a.m. or 5 a.m. You do not rev your motorcycles and race around the parking lot at all hours of the night. You don't flick off the F word as an adjective or scream it at the top of your lungs just because you are drunk or have to go to work at 5 a.m. (this is going on every morning now, with someone screaming "F" at 5 a.m. because he is angry he has to be up that early.

The management and repairman do not get along in this complex, so the guy comes over to my place (when I had a problem with an appliance) and acted like I was bothering him, then he spent the whole time complaining about management giving him too much work. Who cares? Do your job.

Don't get me started on how many morons smoke here. It's 2011. Cigarettes kill, yet these people must have plenty of money for cancer sticks. They smoke them constantly and in front of their little kids and it's horrible. We're out of here when the lease ends, for sure.

I don't think a noisy neighbor should be allowed to annoy at any time with loud music. What makes it so bad is they go from morning to night with their instruments as loud as they can. We have a right to have peace and quiet even during the daytime hours.

I've lived at my location for 31 years and these hillbillies who moved in across the street have only been there two or three years is all. These people are spiteful and hateful and our police department even turns a blind eye to the leash law we have. They won't do anything about their dogs running around, even though I see cops standing there talking to these rude idiots.

Polite and friendly no longer works!

I had neighbours from hell. On both sides of these young idiots the people had to sell house and move. I am two doors down and it got to the point where it was absolutely destroying my life. I hated coming home from work knowing I had to put up with their crap. The cops were around there and there was still noise.

In the end, I ran over there and confronted them swearing my head off. A few months later, they sold out and moved! Maybe they got scared of me and so they should.

Sometimes you just got to man up to these young, disrespectful jerks, if it's the last thing you ever do. What is there to lose if your life is already over because of them?

Laws should be more strict on noise. It is becoming a severe health risk to community. Idiots with loud car exhausts, idiots with loud music (bass) which is causing them tinnitus and they are too stupid to realize it, loud home theatre systems, etc., etc.

Kids are loud. That's what kids do. If you want quiet, then move to a retirement community or area with no kids whatsoever. Kids play, laugh, jump. Children with special needs cannot help it. So unless you understand the children and know if they have a disability or not you shouldn't bicker over children being children and having fun.

Kid noise during the day is better than the 11 p.m.-2 a.m. loud rap or polka music, adults yelling, drinking and knife slinging in the yards and homes.

Sorry some people expect children to just be quiet all the time. Kids have short attention spans. There is no way a child will not throw a fit, yell, cry or scream in an 24 hour period unless asleep. So unless you promoting the use of sleeping pills for all kids all the time to keep them quiet maybe those who obviously hate kids should move somewhere that accept ignorant, child hating people!

Same story, just different players. We are owners, quiet and respectful, they are renters, loud and disrespectful. Asked them nicely, didn't work. Called the police, didn't work. Kept calling the police department and kept asking questions to the police sergeant and chief of police, wouldn't give up until someone provided an answer. Answer: There is a Noise Violation Law, 317.7 Prohibited Acts A1, the fine is $600, the noisemaker and the property owner both get cited. The police that come to your house need to be made aware of this law. We are going to put this into action ASAP. Hope this information is helpful to someone else. AEW

Well as someone who lives in a townhome, I have 4 kids, 2 with special needs. They are up a 6:30 a.m. to get ready for school and home by 3 p.m. From 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., yes my kids are loud. They play. That is what kids do. I will not tape my children to a chair and tape their mouths shut just because the neighbors want it to be silent completely. Especially when my kids are asleep by 8 p.m. but then the neighbor blasts his bass so loud my walls vibrate at 10 p.m.-3 a.m. They allow their dog to bark right under my window in the middle of the night and run their mouths so I can hear their conversations.

They made a smart comment one time while i was outside saying maybe someone should call the cops on those heifer children she has for daytime noise. Um, heifer? Daytime noise? It's the day. If you want complete silence then go somewhere else. Kids play, kids laugh, kids run. I try to contain them as much as possible but unless you know how hard it is to do that will kids will mental issues then assume away.

Yes, I called the cops on them, after notifying the landlord. During the week my kids go to school. At 2 a.m., I wake up to his bass because he is a "supposed" songwriter is not cool. I don't care who does what during the day. Come 10 p.m.-6 a.m. I expect some quiet that can be managed like music, banging, etc.

I think some people just want their kids so proper with no fun. Life is too short to be stuck up. Let kids be kids. There is a difference between disturbing the peace and kids being kids. I beat my kids for being loud and acting like kids and it's called abuse by people.

I don't beat my kids and keep them extremely quiet then I am noisy and a bad neighbor. Nights are for sleeping for most people. I honor that. My lease says 9 p.m.-7 a.m. to be quiet. My kids are quiet by 8 p.m. I give others till 10 p.m. despite the lease. But yet I am the screw up because my kids play,run, hide and seek, balls bouncing etc.

All people think differently. I just think do what the hell you want during the day. No one should be complaining. But at night keep it quiet. And many may think I am the problem or whatever. I will not beat my kids to talk with a whisper and walk on tip toes so you can watch your days of our lives without hearing them walk. Sorry.

I've been dealing with loud neighbors for two years now. I've run the gamut in trying to get them out of there. They are in breach of the right to peace clause in our lease, but management isn't doing anything about it. They don't care. They just want the rent money from the three bedroom above us. I've called the cops. I've been harassed by the woman upstairs as a result of doing that. I've written management multiple times (to no real avail). I've even gone there in person (I was two weeks before my delivery date for my second child). Nothing has been done. Nothing will be done.

We're just going to have to continue living in this hell hole with neighbors who have no respect or consideration for the family living below them. So, their loud, demon-possessed sounding children will continue to wake up at 4:15 a.m. every single day until one of us can afford to move out.

Keep calling the cops and they'll eventually get tired of showing up and they will hopefully scorn the loud jerks.

You can always take it up with city hall.

The irony is Jesus said, "Love thy neighbor as much as you love yourself."

And here we are tying to deal with pathetic neighbors.

Even I have had a terrible ordeal with my neighbors living above me who i have been tolerating for 10 years. They make noise into the night. And it isn't music they blast. Its just running around, jumping and throwing heavy objects on the floor. there is even dragging of furniture at 2 a.m. On numerous occasions they have woken us from our deep sleep by their needless running. We have requested them to stop so many times but they are threatening and hostile. What can i do?

My steps to dealing with noise.

Start logging. Look up noise ordnance/bylaws. Talk to them (If you feel safe, or do not). Talk to other people besides them. Polite, friendly, nice note. City - bylaws or whatever. Owner/Manager note. Hire lawyer. Sue/court.

Good luck everyone! You're not alone. Fight them!

As one of those 20-somethings living in an apartment because I have not finished college and do not have a well-paying job yet. I have to say I really do not understand the inconsiderate idiots my age, and older, who seem to think that their right to enjoy their expensive AV equipment overrides the rights of the residents in every adjacent unit to the peaceful enjoyment of their own homes.

I chose the top floor apartment this time, as every lease I have been under has had at least one noisy neighbor blasting loud bass from 8 a.m. to midnight. Let me say there is nothing that can stop bass coming through the walls, and being above them does not help.

I've left notes as politely as possible asking them to simply turn down the bass. It's the only thing I can't drown out with headphones and it gives me a strong physical reaction of nausea and frustration, makes my heart race, makes me sweat, and generally panicky. It is a horrible feeling to feel like you are trapped in a torture box when in your own home, where you should be able to rest and recharge.

It took three letters to my landlord and a lengthy log of the issues just to get them to send a formal letter asking them to keep the noise down, and I think the only reason they listened was because they did not want me to call the cops. I think they have a marijuana grow-op in the bedroom, as there are other noises that also drive me nuts, such as a loud pump they use mornings and evenings in the bathroom that sounds like a truck idling under my bed. There is also a loud ventilation system in their bedroom that is erratic and I now sleep on my couch because it's not possible in the bedroom.

I just wanted to post my experiences because it's not just young people who are loud, and many young people are quiet and considerate. I would do anything to help anyone in a heartbeat and it crushes me that people in general cannot have the common courtesy or presence of mind to realize the value of peace and quiet.

There should be laws to deal with this kind of harassment because the physical and emotional damage caused to victims is terribly unrecognized,and for those who cannot afford to move or suffer from health or anxiety problems it can lead to suicide. I know this is something i have thought of as the only solution sometimes.

I know that next time i move out I will take out additional loans if I have to to afford a concrete building and I will insist on terms in my lease that I can break it if neighbours are disruptive. It will be worth the money to sleep at night.

We have been dealing with our noisy neighbors for about two years now.

Originally, we asked them to please turn it down, then they started to get hostile saying it's not loud and that we don't like their music (hip/hop). They have even accused us of being racist.

So we stopped asking and resorted to calling the police since they are somewhat hostile. The police would come out on a few calls, but never issued a citation.

We have called the landlord (we own, they rent) but he is completely useless. As long as he gets his rent check, he could care less.

And here we are almost in another summer, and it has already started all over again. The music will start at 2-3 p.m. and last all day.

So we are planning on moving by the end of the year if not earlier. If I could move tomorrow, I would.

Glad to see I am not alone! Last year, my boyfriend and I wanted to buy a condo. When we had taken our first look at the place, it was silent! For a while it was very quiet. Then a few months ago the horrible noise began.

The neighbors upstairs must have a lot of kids. From 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. every morning, I hear them banging around getting ready for school/daycare. Then it is quiet until 3 p.m. when they get home. That is when the real madness begins.

From 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. every night, it is nonstop banging and noise. They must be running around and jumping up and down, perhaps bouncing balls and dropping toys. Who knows? Sometimes it even sounds like they are doing drum rolls with their hands on the floor!

On top of that, the parents are heavy walkers. One Friday night at 2 a.m., I heard the mother walking circles above my bed when I was trying to fall asleep. I work Saturdays and to assume that it is OK to make noise on Friday nights because most people don't work is unacceptable.

A month ago, I could swear that the kid was running from one end of the unit to the other over and over again and I snapped. I had held my peace for so long and this was just grinding my gears. I was about to storm up there to tell them to shut up, but my boyfriend told me he would handle it because he didn't want me to say or do anything stupid.

He went upstairs to finally confront them after months of banging. A few minutes later, he came back down and told me that it is an Indian family with a few kids and they were very apologetic and told him that they would make sure the noise would stop.

Perhaps they only understood that it should stop for that night, because of course, the day after, it started up again. And they have been making their constant racket every day since. I even hear it right now as I am typing this.

Why, oh why, would you have tons of kids and live on the top floor of a building?

I am going to go up there myself some day soon. I have been holding it in for so long. But I can't take this anymore. I am waiting for just the right moment when the noise is at its peak! Then I will go up there and give them a piece of my mind!

Reading all these posts is making me feel a little bit better. My husband and I are recently married, moved in kind of in a hurry, and renting was the best idea for us at the moment. We moved to a small, cute, and historic town. The neighborhood looked adorable. Everyone was walking dogs, kids riding their bikes, perfect lawns, etc. Well, out of every townhouse available for rent, we chose the one that is attached to the one and only trashy, ignorant and disrespectful family that lives in the whole place!

We moved in at the end of October, just when the temps were starting to get cold, so everything was great for a few months. Now that the weather is warming up, they are constantly outside. The bad part is, there are seven adults and one child living in a two-bedroom townhouse, none of whom work. They sleep all afternoon, and by the time I arrive home from work, they are strolling outside in their pajamas to drink their 40 ounce beer and smoke cigars. They only start making noise at 11 p.m. and sometimes it goes on and on until 4 am.. I wake for work at 5 a.m.

I am really upset at the fact that I cannot keep my windows open on a beautiful spring night, all because of the unnecessary noise that they make. The sound of the air conditioner doesn't even drown them out! I had to listen to a four-hour screaming match because the baby daddy was talking to some other chick on facebook. Seriously?

I'm honestly starting to think there aren't any peaceful places to live anymore. Any advice would be appreciated!

Well Easter Sunday has just passed and the neighbors were at it again. They partied Friday night, all day Saturday and of course on Sunday was the icing on the cake. A large white Cadillac was parked in the back yard and had the doors open and the music at full blast from 1-9 p.m. I had to call the police twice. the first time they came out the music stopped but restarted again after about a hour.

Monday morning when I got up they had thrown trash in my front yard from the party the night before so at 6a.m., I am out front picking up trash! What a way to live.

Moved into that neighborhood 30 years ago and it was beautiful and quiet. Now I have the neighbors from hell staying next door. Had I known then what I know now I would have moved five years ago! I hate to give up to them and hoping they will move because they rent- ( I think).

I am ashamed to have family or friends over due to the caliber of my neighbors. It is embarrassing and I am losing all pride in my home and yard. I feel like what is the point? If there are any suggestions as to what I can do they would not involve massive amounts of money I would appreciate any help I can get. There has got to be justice in this world for quiet, decent, respectable people!

I have lived in my apartment for almost a year and during the summer last year, the people started to come out of the wood work and they sat on their front porch from the time the sun came up until 4 a.m. the next morning, yelling at each other and chasing each other around the house with baseball bats.

The police were there several times -- more than I can count -- to quiet them down just to be back the next night because they were fighting and being loud on the porch. This house is across the street and about five houses down and I can hear this clear as a bell. Then the house across from my apartment has cars pulling up in front of it honking and as soon as we had a nice warm night about a couple of weeks ago someone there plays their kind of music really loud.

Then the neighbor upstairs from me, who is a female, not just walks around in her apartment but more like stomps around and tonight I hear this lady having sex. I mean, I know she can hear me downstairs if I can hear her, but have some kind of respect if you're going to do that. And then the other night the guy who lives across the hall from me got his tires slashed by, I believe, his girlfriend.

A few months ago the several police officers were over at the apartment across from me looking for this lady's brother who is wanted and this brother would come into her apartment like he owned the place and the landlord had to replace the front door locks. I let my concern be known to the landlord and I hope to be out of the neighborhood that I'm in in a couple of months.

I too have been dealing with noisy neighbors now for months. When the problem with one of them goes away or subsides, someone moves into another apartment in the building and new sets of issues take place. Currently I am dealing with twentysomething losers living on the bottom floor that hang out until all hours of the night on the patio. Friends with motorcycles show up at 1, 2, 3am and I guess they take the party elsewhere. And this isn't a dump, it's a fairly nice place, yet losers seem to be moving in more and more.

What is it with people that now staying up until these hours is common? They do not seem to be going to or from work, they are just awake doing stuff. I am just over 40, and often am up past midnight but the hours that people come and go now is just ridiculous.

Anyway, I've had it with living in apartments altogether. When my lease expires this year, I am going to live in a small travel trailer and find a place out away from other people. Were pretty much hosed anyway with the economy; I figure we are not that far off from economic collapse. Get out of the cities now.

What amazes me is how many young people are up and about every night at 1, 2 and 3 a.m. and later. My initial thought regarding that is "irresponsibility"! I've lived in 12 apartment complexes since moving out of my parents house in 1980.

It seems as though this thing of loud music and people being rude and noisy has come about since the mid 90's. I don't know what has changed in society to cause such a vast and major problem but something has obviously happened.

The first time i remember having a real issue with rude and noisy neighbors was in 1996 and every complex I've lived in since then has been nothing but hell with the noise and neighbors up at all hours, and people who just don't care. What I've noticed is that young people especially seem to be awake all bleeping hours of the night and apparently now, it's so common to be up night just diddling around that it's viewed as being normal. I believe that volume (as in loudness) is looked at as being no different than it would be viewed in the daytime. For example, not too long ago i complained to my neighbors about them partying loudly at 3 a.m. When i mentioned what time of night it was, the reply was, "So? Not everybody works days, man!" By the looks on their faces they were really clueless.

Over time, I learned that a lot of people have the notion that as people who sleep days, they have to cope with noise and for some reason thy believe the same tolerance is expected of night sleepers as well, i.e., to cope or tolerate noise in the same manner that daytime sleepers do.

i believe that society is headed that direction generally and it's a disturbing thought. i moved into a retirement community recently, which is the best thing i ever would have done! While i don't particularly like the fact that I'm 56, I can at least get eight hours of sleep now on a daily basis without having to wear earplugs and it's always quiet and serene. Sad that i had to wait til in my mid 50's to be able to qualify to live in peaceful surroundings. I'll never move into another 'normal' complex again.

I recommend moving in to a retirement community if you're of the age that you're able to. if not then i recommend moving to a more rural location. the retirement community i live in is in a town with a population of 14,000, much unlike the town of over 222,000 i used to live in.

Come on soulstir 1 - some people cannot be talked to. I have tried talking to my neighbors but have gotten sworn at and if you live next door to a different race, the race card comes into play.

The neighborhood i moved into 30 years ago was white and now is it almost all black- also we do not have any trouble out of anyone else other than them. Also we do not have trouble out of owners, just renters. The man who now owns this place is also black and lives on the other side of town.

I am a single white female and i am not going over to a house filled with young black men at 3:00 a.m. to ask them to turn down the stereo. I might not make it back home!

Stumbled upon this site and it is great. I am not crazy nor alone! I live in attached apartment units and have upstairs tenants who moved in last summer and it has been hell ever since. The tenant is a single parent with a boyfriend both aging in early to mid 20’s with three children, 13, 10 and 3.

The children’s bedroom is above my sons room and due to it being an older building we hear everything! A couple of weeks after she moved in, I politely introduced myself and made her aware of the noise levels. She was not the friendliest but cordial and ever since then, it has gotten worse. I have more than several police reports/calls. The police have had lengthy conversations with her, even her children. Nothing has been resolved.

I had a meeting recently with the manager and her supervisor. The tenant lied through her teeth and both managers stated they are tired of me as well as the police! I sought legal advice and the outcome is give us a $20,000 retainer fee, move or file in small claims court. I am researching and looking into small claims court. I truly would like to know what excuses she will use in small claims court: I’m cleaning because my boyfriend is coming over. I have three kids. I just walked in the door. I can hear all the other tenants too. I can’t have company because she calls the police. My kids can’t even be comfortable because she calls the police. Officer, I don’t know what to do.

This girl is something else! Yet, the noise has not stopped in any fashion. Instead, it is getting worse. I pray for a resolution and miracle to be able to move myself out of here at some point.

I am glad to know I am not alone. I have lived in the same home for 30 years and moved there because the neighborhood was quite and well kept and most of the people were retired or semi-retired.

About two and a half years ago my neighbor moved to Texas and sold his home to a black man who lives in another part of town. The home is an old home and not insulted well. He has let a black woman and her brother move in the home and it has been a nightmare every since. They hold loud parties until all hours of the night, have multiple cars with slamming car doors and loud thumping music playing. On party nights, friday and saturday, they have as many as 15 cars in the yard. Needless to say, they park in the front yard and not the drive, so there is dirt and no grass, and the language is foul and they talk at such a high tone you can hear it in my home.

I am a quiet, keep-to-myself kind of person who keeps their home and yard nice, but since they have moved in, I no longer sleep at night due to the noise. I have been verbally screamed at from the fence between the yards, due to me cutting my grass and dust was getting in the bbq they were cooking (move the grill). I have been verbally yelled at from the thugs that come visit the brother at all hours of the day and night. They do not have jobs and where they get their money (drugs and stolen goods). I have seen this on more than one occasion so they sleep all day and party all night.

I have become a prisoner in my own home have to drive to my mailbox which is just across the street due to the fact I cannot get out in my yard. I lost all my family and friends who used to come visit but no longer do, because of the caliber of people who are next door. They have now gotten two of his kids from one of his girlfriends who just recently got put in jail so now that has complicated the problem due to the screaming of these brats.

I can hear the loud music in my bedroom which is on the same side as their living room. I have called the police numerous times over the last two years but this has yielded nothing. They now open the windows and put the stereo in the window so I will be sure to hear it. I cannot afford to move and have reached the end of my rope. The kids throw rocks at my house and terrorize my dogs to the point to where they have to be medicated. I have never in my life felt so frustrated and saddened that I can no longer enjoy my own home which I used to love to be in and now dread going home. Is there is any help or justice in this world?

As I read the post here I realize most young people are the cause of the issue, well surprise. I am 25 years old and my neighbor is well into their 40s and they are causing grief with me and my husband. We do not like loud music and we have had bad experiences with bad neighbours so we know how it feels to be on the receiving end and we do not want to inflict that on other people. Yet no matter how nice we are, we seem to be stuck with neighbours who are just plain rude.

We bought a townhouse condo (we can’t afford a house and rent is higher than the mortgage) and I only have one neighbor. The wife never works so she is always at home. She plays her music so loud that I can hear it on the second floor in the farthest room. I was taking a shower one time and I had music playing and I could hear her bass on top of it. We have a notebook with logs of all the noise they make.

My husband has politely tried talking to her many times and all we get was a nice bleep off. Then on top of the music there is always the constant yelling. She yells at her kids at the top of her lungs and I can again hear it on the second floor. We talked to the condo board and they cannot fine her. Apparently, a lot of people in the area have an issue with her, but because they own the house they cannot do anything about it. She also has a problem with her leg so I guess she is considered disabled and she uses it to her advantage (condo manager’s word and not mine). All they can do is write her a letter. That seems to have made it worse.

We have tried talking to the husband and he is worse. We are young and they seem to think because of it they can push us around. He doesn’t think there is a problem at all and they should be able to do as they please. We are out of options and everyone we talked to, including the police and condo board say there is nothing more we can do. We just have to take it. My husband and I decided to rip out the wall in our living room and actually put sound proof dry insulation and drywall but this did not help at all. The music continues and our stress levels are so high and because we couldn’t do anything we cry.

We are young and we cannot afford to buy another house, at least not until our term is up which is five years. Five years is a long time when you are dealing with difficult neighbours, especially if you have no options available. Our only hope is a miracle comes our way. Maybe they will move or us have enough money to be able to sell the place and move out. There should be a law regarding noise pollution as it is bothering a lot of people. I hope everyone around here gets their issues resolve one way or another. We are all in this together.

I have very loud neighbors. I live in a duplex and the walls are so thin you can hear everything. They vacuum at 9 p.m., babysit at all hours of the night and the kids run after 12 a.m. I can hear them having sex at all hours of the night and the bed shakes everywhere. I am tired of sleepless nights. The bedroom is next to my living room and I can't take it anymore. What can I do.

I have idiot neighbors. Their kid plays the drums (doesn't go to school or work) and they have band practice in their basement. We told them it's loud and we can hear it. So they turn it down a little. Then up again when they "think" we're not home but really we are. We're just low key.

The bass is so disturbing. We cannot have friends or family over for bbq because of the noise, or go outside. We're thinking of moving and selling our beautiful detached house to even bigger idiots than them. See how they like it.

I am going through the same thing primarily. My neighbor told me before she moved in that I wouldn't even know she's up there. Guess what, I know when she's up there. She says she didn't start walking heavily until she had gastric bypass surgery (I imagine the fat was transplanted to her feet!). She also told me to hit on the ceiling if she gets too loud, and like your neighbor, she only gets louder.

She brings her fat so-called doctor boyfriend over on the weekend and he joins in with her. He comes on Saturday and leaves around 4 a.m. on Monday morning to drive back to Chicago from Central Illinois. I get up at 5 a.m. every morning, while she doesn't get up until around 9 a.m.

What I have done is move my stereo speaker into my bedroom and place the front of the speaker against the wall with all the bass on and the volume set so as not to disturb the other neighbors, and then I leave. This past weekend, the boyfriend left on Sunday night because I turned on the bass at 11 p.m. and he knew he would not be getting any sleep. Complaints to her management co. nor my HOA helps. I am praying that this moron does not renew her lease next month.

I wish I could do something to help all of these posters. There should be a law that can be enforced! I too have obnoxious neighbors that blast death metal all day long.

My favorite thing in life is doing yardwork, but that ended two years ago when they moved in across the street. I have lived in my house for 13 years and don't want to move. I now dread summer because I know if I go outside I will have to put up with their horrid, ear busting "music". I cried yesterday because even with earplugs I can still hear it. I hear it in my house with windows closed.

I love nature and peace and quiet. It's so depressing that nothing can be done about it. I can totally understand people snapping and doing something they will regret! So glad I got to vent to people who understand.

I am so glad i found this site. Let me tell my story. When you think you have heard it all, let me tell you my story. I have been living in a apartment for seven months and just two months ago, new tenants moved in with three children. The first day they hammered until 1:30 a.m. I went upstairs and asked them to please tone down the noise because they woke my little 16-month old niece up whom i have custody of. They slammed the door in my face. The next night they were hammering and banging until 2:30 a.m. I went back up there again, very nice and calm like i did the first time. i said, “Ma'am, would you please stop all the noise? it is 2:30 a.m. in the morning and you woke my baby up again.” She said to me, “You have pictures on your wall and i am going to put some on my wall and i am going to hammer all day tomorrow" and she did just that. So, being nice turned it into a nightmare and being terrorized by her and her two boys.

The noise has gotten worse. i have had to go stay in motels, with friends and family. I have three stents in my heart and when the booming and slamming doors hammering started my heart racing, i was under so much stress after all the noise, that one saturday i had to be hospitalized for four days and had to have another heart cath done. my hospital bill was over $50,000.

I cannot move right now because of health issues and besides i was here first and why should i move? i am not the one keeping up the noise? it is so bad that just two days ago they knocked the air vent from out the ceiling and pictures from off the wall.

I have called the police out here 15 times (yes 15 times) and they have done nothing. I reported it to the landlord 15 times and still nothing. I got this baby from the courts because nobody wanted her. I am over 50 years old with a 17 month baby and she can't even sleep in her room because of the noise.

Now, here is the thing. when the tenant goes to work she sends her friend to the apartment to keep the noise going until she come from work, last night i heard them talking saying that (I) have called the police 20 times (a chuckle) and they have not done anything. i know they are tired of her calling them out here on us and they are not doing anything so we are going to keep it up until she moves. i cried like a baby when i heard that. my baby wakes up screaming when she hears the noise because she has heard and seen her parents fight and i was trying to keep her away from that.

How can a person or people be so cruel to subject an innocent baby to this with no concern for other people? As i type this, the friend is over there now, keeping up the noise, and the bad part about that is she is not even on the lease. She is stomping, running the vacuum cleaner and hitting the wall. If i call the police, the only thing she is going to do is stop until the police leave and as soon as they turn the corner it will start back up again.

I am concerned about my health and if I will live to see my baby turn 18 years old. People said move. I can't move. I have no money to move so that is not an option. I went to see a lawyer he wanted $500 up front and $100 an hour. Please tell me, what do poor people do when they don't have money to retain a lawyer? Should we just continue to suffer? it is not fair to us.

Two weeks ago, i was outside with my baby, riding her in her barbie jeep. Lo and behold, two pit bulls came to the window of an empty apartment and were hitting the window, as if they would attack at any moment. I reported that, but guess what? it was the manager's pit bulls and nothing was done about it. he and the tenant upstairs are in it together. she stated last night that the manager wanted me gone because i tried to report him for the pit bulls and he was mad at me, and for them to keep the noise going so i will finally have to give in and move.

I cry every day. my blood pressure had been 150/160 because of the stress. My heart doctor wrote them a letter saying that i cannot stand all the noise because of my health issues. do you think they have done anything? No, nothing. We have a noise ordinance in place in the state that i live in. i called the police last night and you will not believe what the police officer said to me he said and i quote. “There is nothing i can do about all the noise they are making up there. i hear it, but there's nothing i can do.” unquote.

Well, I found out this morning when i went to the police station and was told the office had lied to me. I was given a copy of the noise ordinance and was allowed to get three warrants on the tenants who live above me. They think it is a joke. Little does she know she is on her way to jail and doesn't know it. I will tell all of you: do not try to retaliate because they can us that in court against you, also. FYI: you can take them to small claims court and sue them for the max that your state allows. A lawyer gave me that free advice. You can sue. I ask you all to please pray for me and my baby that God will intervene. My court day is not until May, another month. I hope i live that long. If you all don't hear from me after my court date to give you an update, then i died. --gaston

My husband and I are seniors and we have a young couple that moved in next door to us in 2008 (fall) and have been very noisy, rude and disrespectful since day one. They are in and out of their driveway at all hours day and night, run the car motor for long periods of time and we have had to call the police on them along with them doing the same on us.

We have not had any pleasant words with them since they moved in. They are very noisy and rude to the point that I have had to put one of our dogs on special medication. I would like to have some advice other than talking to a attorney because I know that all an attorney will do is write a letter and possibly ask them to stop. I don't anything can except having them move.

I do not know if any of the other neighbors have a problem because our bedroom is basically in their driveway where most of the noise and activity is being done.

Well, the sweet elderly man that owned the townhouse next to me passed, and his drug addicted, manic-depressive son inherited the property.

Even though he's pushing 60, he's decided to start a new career (actually a first career) as a DJ and of course needs to practice in the middle of the night.

Obviously talking out the noise issue with him is a challenge. And the HOA is pretty useless. My only hope is that he OD's soon or gets arrested. Just venting.

Well jeez, I guess I must just be crazy. I have lived in apartments almost all my life and have usually lived on the top floor because I do not want people stomping around on my ceiling.

Well, when I moved into my newest apartment I had no choice but a bottom floor as the top floors were not available. The entire time I've lived here I have not had to complain about my neighbors because if (and it's only been about three times) I've had to complain about them I go and talk to them first and I am extremely polite in asking them to keep the noise down. Now with two months to go in my lease I have people living above me with a four year old child, who they let run stomping from one end of the apartment to the other. I have used my broom on my ceiling to let them know that I can hear them just as well as they can hear me but they don't seem to care.

When I went to talk to them about it this weekend and politely asked them to stop letting their child jump inside because it is an apartment and it is someone's ceiling they are jumping on, I was cussed out and pretty well told to go bleep myself. To which I responded with a letter to my management office and they talked to my neighbors who responded today with constant stomping most of the afternoon (since I have a job and am not home during the day to hear it).

I think that it is pretty much common sense to treat others how you would want to be treated. If you don't want someone stomping on your head don't do it to other people.

This has been an ongoing problem for the entire month that they've lived here. I just finally got fed up and went to ask and was told no. The things people teach their children. --Tacoma WA

I live in a dorm and the people below us are very loud at all times of day and night. We have gone down and spoken to them at least 15 times and then last Friday I called the police. I only called because my RA would not go down and talk to them. He told us to go to the front desk and talk to them, and they sent us somewhere else that told us to talk to our RA. And now they are already doing it again. It's only been like two and a half days!

to the person who said the neighbors aren't mind readers, that their noise is bothering anyone, it should be common sense.

I live next door to a single mom with teens. they gather outside the door talking loud, screaming etc until 1 or 2 a.m. and the mom is with them. I'm tired of it. I did yell shut up tonight. I am sure they heard me. I am sick of it. Next I will let the apartment manager know.

I live in a large block of apartments and have 2 apartments which are leased out by back packers through a dodgy rental agency. There are up to 3 people in each apartment at any one time. They tend to be young, singles and very noisy (cranking up the stereo at 2am after the pub closes as they have no where else to party, holding parties until midnight during the working week, etc). The building manager has spoken to them before and yet they continue to make themselves a nuisance.

Solution - jam their door locks with glue. They can get out, but can't get back in. They report it to their landlord who obviously gets annoyed as it costs them money to replace the lock. I'm not one for damaging other people's property, but 3 years of this and I've had enough!

I too have had to deal with noisy neighbors who live above me. If they are the kind who like to play loud music late at night, my advice is to go outside by the electric meters and turn off their power.

Okay people, I have some things to say. First, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I have a neighbor who likes loud engines - he especially likes to rev them loudly when no one else is around to witness him doing it. It comes through every wall in my house, and is louder than every noiseblocker I have. He will have his friends drive by and rev their engines in front of my house too. He has woken me from a dead sleep before. He has also cursed me out, harassed my dog (whom I believed scared him off my property one night; saved him from getting shot I guess), stolen stuff from me and cursed out visitors to my property in front of their children. I should note I am a single mom, and he only does things in front of other women, and only petite ones.

Well, after about six months, I was lying awake thinking about whether a molotov cocktail or a shotgun would best solve my problem, and at the same time trying to convince myself I really don't want to go to jail.

So, I booked an appointment with a shrink, and started taking antidepressants immediately. I hate those things, but I'm not going to have a heart attack or kill anyone, and I can function and even be happy most of time, in spite of my neighbor. However, I'm not done yet.

Most of the time, talking to the obnoxious either doesn't work, or works for a few days and they get mad because you dared to ask them to be civil. Getting the police involved doesn't help either, especially as now people can scan police channels with their phones and stop any sort of harassing behavior just before the cops show up. (And it is harassment, make no mistake, not just a nuisance.) If you go to court it will require a cash outlay most of us cannot afford, with no guarantee of winning.

So, on top of the antidepressants, here's what I did:

A) Figure out what upsets your neighbor. At some point in time, you have to stop giving them all the control and figure out how to gain it back. Luckily, I called the cops on him enough (which he hated) that I learned two very useful pieces of information: 1)in a non-golf course lawn section of town, he prides himself on his lawn, and 2) he apparently has the right, given by the 1st amendment, to express his dislike in whatever manner he wishes. (This he stated to the police officer and the officer agreed. Agreed!

B) Use it against him. Love your lawn? You would not believe how rocks and sticks in the lawn piss this guy off. I think it took him a month to catch on and then the harassment subsided a little - not completely, but a significant improvement. He can express his opinion? Well dude, so can I, and I can be a bleep when I want to. So I let him know. Every morning when he left and every night when he came home I let him know in about two short sentences what I thought of him, laughed and went in my house. I think he came close to crying. (Although, I will say I had been going through this ordeal with him almost two years by this time and just did not care anymore about trying to get him to grow up.) While not very nice of me, I chuckled.

C) Remember the things they tell you not to do. He told me at the beginning of all of this to never talk to his wife (the one time I spoke with her was just before all this started, I was super nice and just asked her to put out a fire that had been burning and smoldering in their backyard for 24 hours). So after I expressed my opinion, he decided that he was going to rev his engine again. That night, sweet as pie, I told him I should be more neighborly and say hi to his wife more often, and repay her all the kindnesses he has shown me over the last few years.

You guessed it, not a peep. Take the control away from them, if you can't leave, it's okay to defend yourself. However, I also have a big dog and several guns, so I'm not afraid of threatening people, and this guy does not hang out with the gangster type he's just an idiot. I would never advocate doing something that's going to get you hurt or killed.

If the officers won't do anything about the people who are disturbing you, they're not likely to do anything about you either. In fact, one officer told me he was surprised I hadn't slashed the guy's tires (I'm not into vandalism or permanent damage though, just a psychological turn the tables game). So the officers are also frustrated that their hands are tied.

No, two wrongs don't make a right, but if it's me or the other guy, well, I have no problem choosing to rectify a situation that's slowly killing me. At some point you do have to stand up for yourself, or you just have to move to the middle of nowhere and build a soundproofed house.

And one time, I cracked the window and sang opera to my neighbor while him and his buddies were outside in between engine revs. I sang it very badly. They went inside hahaha! So go ahead and play some Neil Diamond and Celine Dion; they'll go inside. Just make sure you turn in down in 5-10 in case someone has called the cops.

Has anyone else done anything like this? I wish the rest of you the best of luck.

Love this site! I live in Bucks County, PA in a great apartment complex. Great neighborhood, School District, not too far from Philly. I live on the bottom floor. There's three floors to each building, the bottom being less expensive. My neighbors above me removed their carpeting recently. How that's allowed I have no idea.

I can hear everything now, even when the guy uses the restroom.

My daughter's bedtime is 8:30 p.m., but my neighbor's kid must go to sleep later cause the radio goes till 10ish (teenager), right above my daughters room.

The entire family is on the "heavy" side, and don't get me wrong, so am I, but every foot step I can feel in my chest! Literally, the thumps are so loud! Is there any type of law that states if you live on floors above that you should have carpeting to reduce the noise levels?

We all run fans in our rooms to try and reduce the noise above. Funny, just received my renewal, they are charging me $50 more for rent.

I have moved many times in my life and experienced different types of neighbours, from jumping hippos, the 11 - 4:30am gamers to tub thumpers.

My current neighbor is Victor M. (one foot in the grave) UK Gold channel.

He was first to buy in a row of terrace buildings and clearly believes he is god and all around him should get up at 5 a.m. and be in bed by 9:30 p.m. I rent on the end, which I suspect niggles him.

The walls have breeze block, but under the new government legislation, it amends to nothing really as the cement mix is cheap.

I'm 30, by the way and he is approx 68. his wife is similar to him in age.

I moved in and from day one was given the omg! stare it's a 20 year old he's going to blast music, drink, swear, etc. basically what I have experienced is ageism which I will explain later.

It started one morning when I knocked some stuff off my bedside table at 5:30 a.m., just an accident, I was awoken at 7 a.m. with a crash.

While unpacking and setting up furniture, I could not help making a few sounds. As time went on, I started to get crashed awake multiple times a night. This was loud enough on the inner wall to make me wake up even with ear plugs in.

Since then, I have been greeted with thumps to the dividing wall when arriving back home from being out.

The estate is quiet in general without kids, so when my front doorbell and doorbell started to be used and no one was there or worse done at 5 in the morning I knew things were not going to resolve themselves.

About a month ago, he tried to push further and started knocking on the wall during midday. After having this behavior and ignoring it during other times, i.e., past 11 p.m., I flipped and hammered repeatedly back which led to an powerful yell from his side, which suggests he might be ex forces with a voice like that. Now I respect the forces but don't respect bullies.

So any advice? My landlord thinks a confrontation will make things worse, bearing in mind that I have had more than one scenario in the past where a neighbor has claimed everything to be OK then kicked off.

I have started using a Sony camcorder which records 12 hours on a 16GB SD card. Wish I could find a way to convert into wav format.

I have had a small amount of success. One night at 9:28 p.m., I decided to take my tray from dinner through to my kitchen. As I picked it up, the cutlery clanked on the plate. I walked through to my kitchen and started to wash up and was greeted with a crash to the dividing wall which I have recorded.

Its pathetic as I use headphones for my PC and TV, my PC uses liquid cooling so there is barely anything from it and everything is on the outside wall. I should add it's really quiet as if he sits there just listening. Guess he naps at strange times.

Despite various attempts in person, through the rental agent, and through handwritten notes on their door, my neighbors will not be courteous to their three neighbors. We are all in a two story unit and I'm below them, they are above. Each of us have a neighbor right beside us. They play their music so loud that I can hear it loud and clear no matter what I do. Mind you, I never hear them stomping or anything; I hear music at all hours.

There have been times that I can hear it loud and clear when I'm in the shower or even vacuuming. I've looked at buying some soundproofing materials but seeing the cost and coming to my senses, I believe I should not have to spend hundreds of dollars to have peace in a rental apartment when these guys are the only ones in the apartment building who are making me uncomfortable in my own home.

Despite me expressing my concerns, in person twice, through the rental agent twice, and via a handwritten plea for quiet on their door, they say "she's a b-word" and go inside. When I knock on their door now, they ignore it and do not answer.

The lack of courtesy and the seemingly antagonistic behavior is what really bothers me. They are both between 25 and 35 but are very selfish when it comes to consideration of their neighbors. One of the other neighbors has told me he hears the ruckus but doesn't want to get involved. He also said he bought $300 Bose headphones to wear around his apartment. How can anyone be comfortable doing that?

The noise bothers me. It goes from screeching guitars to all bass and then to thumping house music. My nerves are shot, I have felt my heartbeat start racing when they turn it up and I have lost much sleep. Lucky for me, I have a small business I run from home and can sometimes adjust the hours but I am miserable and stuck in a lease. There is only so much an egg can take before cracking.

this is in reply to -anon147644: Most of the posts I've read begin with the fact that the offendee has tried to talk to the offender first, sometimes repeatedly, before calling in the police. and just how many times do they need to have this talk with the offensive neighbor?

after a couple times, I think it would be very clear that the loud music is an issue. what do you and others like you think, that when you play your music super-loud and your neighbor doesn't come over or call to ask you, yet again, to turn it down that they have suddenly started to enjoy hearing, via music, your complete and utter lack of courtesy? Hello! At this point, your neighbor is calling the police.

I love this website. It’s so nice to feel like you’re not the only one being disturbed. I have lived in a house all of my life, first with my parents, then I rented a house in college and bought one upon graduation. Well, I got a job in Chicago and had to move, so I was forced to get an apartment (due to time constraints and not being able to sell my current place). It’s been a horrible experience.

I’m on the ground floor apartment and my neighbors upstairs are simply animals. The first month there they must not have realized someone had moved in, as they had parties on Thursday, Wednesday, Sunday nights until about 4 a.m. One time the music was so loud I could hear it in my basement (it’s a duplex apartment). The floors are all wood through the entire building and I can hear them so clearly when they walk. The other night one of the women decided to wear heels at 4 a.m.

I’m a bit of a night owl, always have been and understand other people are too. However, there’s a point where you have to shut up and let other people sleep. They don’t seem to get this. During the day their kid is the tasmanian devil, running around screaming and such. The dad (I hope he’s the dad) plays with the kid by jumping up and down and screaming. He also likes comedies, as he laughs extremely loud.

I can deal with the normal day noises, it’s annoying but expected. However, being woken up by sex noises and a bed pounding against the floor/ceiling is just way too much. I’ve left notes to let them know I can hear this, I’ve even called the cops, but nothing seems to be working. I’m running out of sleep and patience. Any suggestions would be great.

I appreciate all the diplomatic responses I've read here. However, this is war. I live in an "over 50's" complex which, theoretically. should be quiet.

The woman who lives over me was obviously raised in a barn, although not by wolves, who have the good sense to be stealthy. She goes barefoot, is on the hefty side, and stomps when she walks. I asked her nicely several times; she laughed at me. She told me to beat on the ceiling with a broom when I could hear her. When I did, she jumped up and down repeatedly with both feet.

Ever since, she's spent her evenings picking up the corner of her large couch and letting it drop on the floor, scraping furniture across the floor, jumping up and down and other things that frankly are harassment. Management does nothing.

Because she doesn't usually do it after 11 p.m., I can't get the police involved. She's just plain mean and possibly mentally ill. At this point, I want something that will not bother my other neighbors, who are nice people, but will wake her up in the middle of the night. Every night. Any suggestions for a noisemaker that will radiate noise only overhead and not to the sides or below would be appreciated. Eight months of this every single night is enough.

I am an introvert, and as such, have a congenital dislike of almost any "deviant" sound.

Living around/with the same nonsense as many of you, I have researched and discovered those earplugs composed of beeswax, lanolin, and cotton (much better noise attenuation than foam, but of course concern over hearing fire alarms, normal conversation, etc.).

I have also considered buying and wrapping a small shed with noise-absorbing or -blocking material, and yes, placing it inside my apartment.

Alternatively, one could either advertise in their local paper, an "apartment exchange" for a while (find someone who will be awake when the cretins go through their routine, and invite them to live in your place for a while -- on the condition that they "teach 'em a lesson with their own racket.")

Otherwise, find a friend or relative whose home you can stay in for awhile, and sleep there when you need to, returning to your apartment/flat during those times which you can awaken the vermin.

Fighting fire with fire is an unfortunate route, but maybe the only way some of them will get it! - benign bullet

There are at least six people living in the studio apartment on the first floor below me and my anxiety level is through the roof from their constant blasting music. The bass pulsates and permeates throughout my apartment and drives me crazy.

My nerves are shot and I can't do anything I need to at home, let alone function. My boyfriend and I have asked them very nicely to please lower their bass and they do one of two things or both: scream and curse or slam the door in our faces.

One night, we said "can you please lower your music? It's very loud upstairs" and they turned it up louder and called the police on *us* four times for "harassing" them.

The landlord doesn't care; he is friends with them. There is no one else to go to for help and financially we can not afford to move at all. It is maddening. I know if someone asked *me* to turn down my music I would do it instantly and it would never happen again! The people downstairs act like animals and it is really affecting me.

@anon147644: If you'll read the comments, most people call the cops *after* they've tried talking to the neighbors, then the apartment management, etc.

I agree that talking to the neighbors should be the first thing to do, but when you do it and you're cussed out and threatened, your options are limited.

At 3 a.m., when I have to work in the morning, I do not appreciate some drunk banging on the next door neighbor's apartment door for 30 minutes, and yelling. If the neighbors aren't home, I call the cops.

I didn't appreciate the slackers three doors down starting a drunken fight in the parking lot, taking it into my stairwell, leaving their blood smeared on the walls and on the sidewalk, and banging into my car! So I called the cops.

I thank God every day we now have a house in a quiet neighborhood.

Noisy neighbors are no fun, and I always say talk to them first, but the trouble is, often it doesn't work, and the cops are the only option left.

you know what? for every one of you people complaining about the noise, it sure would be a common courtesy to inform the disturbing neighbor that they are disturbing as no human being is psychic, nor can they physically be in two places at once.

Don't call the cops 50 times a week without informing the person that is bothering you that that they are.

I learned something of importance a long time ago regarding apartment living. Apartment complexes in general, almost anywhere, have been under siege by 20-somethings – the kind of youths who like their music loud and all bass.

Also, I've found out something else: the 20-somethings of today don't have the same view of night time and going to bed the same as say, a 40-plus year old does. The average young person today seems to prefer staying awake all night and sleeping days. I don't know why, but people in their 20s seem to prefer staying awake until 4 or 5 a.m., or as late as possible, and still go to work.

I've lived in apartments ever since i moved out of my parents' house in 1979. I'm 56 years old. I learned a long time ago that people in their 20's have some kind of attraction to being awake all night. This seems to have come about more in the 2000's for some reason. i have had so many problems with loud, obnoxious 20-somethings for this reason.

There are so many residents in one single complex who live this way that it's become the norm. they don't see it as being wrong, unusual or extreme, and being there's so many in one apartment complex, they aren't going to complain about one another as they all view it as being the norm and their volume or loud music is looked at as being part of this normalcy, i.e. s ince being up at 2 a.m. is normal, sleeping until 10 a.m. or later is normal. The loud music is viewed as being normal merely because they're awake.

Night has become their day, and when you live in a complex and this is the norm, then it's the person going to bed at night, expecting quiet, who stands out, he's not the norm, and in complexes the majority wins. This is why managers don't like confronting noise makers. They feel like it's the norm, and that it's the abnormal older guy who's complaining who should move.

The bottom line is that society is changing – or has changed. Actually, young people are typically night people now. It's the norm.

He is a student who seems to do nothing useful in his life. He plays music anytime in the night 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 5 a.m., it doesn't matter. I called the cops, but it didn't help. He even started using a noise-making device. I am looking for an apartment, so sad.

There are a few possible places you could live peacefully. One is in Baguio City. There its sun rises at 6:30 a.m. and sets about 5:30 p.m. in the evening over in the Philippines. I hear it really nice and quiet there.

The other places are in La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona, Charlotte, North Carolina, or you could move to a remote cabin somewhere near a placid lake.

That's if you're "really" looking for a peaceful place to live. Moreover, if you want peace that much,then you just have to go where it is, even if it means another zip code-about like someone would do if they were living next to an airport or railroad. It beats complaining to the landlord and ticking him or her off with frequent complaints or threats to go to to court for not

resolving your issues, which could result in increased rent or unexplained eviction, particularly if he thinks your grievances are unfounded.

So you'd better check your lease for quiet time and respect it. But if the tenants are frequently playing their music excessively loud and\or making unreasonably loud noises during that time, then ask your manager or landlord to come over to check the excessive noise level in your apartment. If he finds the noise is an issue, he can then immediately address the problem residence.

Also, calling the police can be a problem especially on nights when crime is high. But, there are other ways to deal with problem residents, however, it requires sociological skills.

If you don't have these skills and you're a hot head and impatient person, regardless of whether you want to or not, move on elsewhere and save yourself a lot of headache and reckless, foolish behavior and embarrassment. Hey! It is a whole big world out there, so look around.

Now, most people like to move into apartment that are close to their jobs and near schools if they have kids. And maybe, those things can be achieved but peace is not exactly a given -- it's something you have to make. So, if possible, take a moment and the initiative and amicably communicate with your neighbor and get mutually acquainted with each other. Who knows? You may gain a little insight and knowledge. It worked for me and others like myself.

Start with a warm hello and if there is time between you both,have a common chat with each other. This shows kind recognition and decent regard for your neighbor.

You'll find this attitude helps to develop a positive attitude between both of you. Hopefully, as result, it will help you to appreciate and respect each other. So try communicating with, understanding and respecting your neighbor and try showing some patience and tolerance to your neighbor as well. This will help to keep the quality of your residential living intact, as well as your integrity and well being.

Diplomacy is the key, not gridiron tactics. Really, who going to listen to you when you are acting like a nasty and selfish control freak? “Remember you get more with sugar than salt”. Life is too short to be living it in morbid conflict, grief and discontent, OK? Good luck.

I sympathize with all of your stories. I too am a university student but not the typical "party" type. I could care less what goes on in your apartment so long as it doesn't come in to mine.

So, the next door neighbor smokes like crazy in their apartment and it seeps into my place stinking everything up like cigarettes, and what's more, is they have their home entertainment unit along the shared wall so I hear everything clear as day because they play it at such an unreasonable level.

What's even worse is I have an idiot downstairs too, who thumps around so loudly that it vibrates my apartment, not to mention the insane level of bass that comes out of there.

One night I called the police and he didn't even answer the door when they knocked. Suffice it to say the cop was irate and the guy ended up with some kind of ticket, but it hasn't stopped there. I have to find time in my schedule to file the necessary papers on both these idiots.

I have a new neighbor who moved in this week. This second day, he started blasting his stereo through my bedroom wall and entire apartment. It got so bad yesterday that I called security here. But he seemed wise to when they were on duty and had turned it down by then, after destroying my life for three hours with blasting bass. He has also started bringing hookers in at two thirty in the morning.

I don't want to have to move. I love my place. I like living here. But I can't live with this. I have health problems and it's making me worse. And I've just wanted to cry all day and night now. I had tried asking him to turn it down and he wasn't nice to me. Instead, he turned it up much louder. He's evil.

I'll probably be the one to move. I do nothing wrong here and I'm being chased out by a lowlife like this. It's horrible.

I have a neighbor that plays loud music at all hours of the day and night. My other neighbor and I have tried to discuss the problem with the loud music player and even called the police. The property owners and managers say there is nothing they can do. I think not renewing their lease would be a good start but what do I know?

I have an 18 year old neighbor who feels the need to start drumming (he believes he and his punk friends are going to be a famous rock band) about 9:30 - 10:00 am. He continues til about 11 am, then will start up about 3 p.m. until 10 or 11 at night. If he isn't drumming, he is blasting rap music loud enough that we can just about hear every foul word in our house, with no windows open!

He has even started drumming at 2 in the bleeping morning! We have called the police many times, but they don't do much. We have contacted the community, but of course the punk and the manager are friends, so he gets to be as horrid as he wants.

The drumming is horrible on its own, but when he gets his "band" together, its noise pollution!

I have dreams of setting his house on fire or shoving his drum sticks up his you know what! I hate this kid! I wish he would move out with his stupid teen friends and be some other person's problem!

Our neighbours' behavior has got progressively worse over the 10 or so years since they've lived next door to us.

They must have some sort of surround sound/home cinema system going on because when they play music or watch TV we can hear it to the extent that it sounds as if it's playing in our house.

Although, we live in a terraced house, the music is often so loud that we can hear it in the room furthest away from our neighbours (where we don't share a party wall with them).

Now they've gotten into the habit of blasting out loud music at night - or the early hours of the morning to be precise. This morning, for instance, they started playing loud, booming music at 4.10 a.m. (yes, that's a.m.!) until about 5.30 a.m.

When they turned it on it was so loud that it rattled the window of my bedroom (which is the one room farthest away from them which is not a party wall).

I'm so glad I wasn't anywhere else in the house. otherwise I'm pretty sure that the initial 'explosion-like' sound when they turned it on would have ruptured my eardrums! (They do this - by the way - purely because they think it is 'funny'!)

After that, I presume, they either went to bed or crashed out stoned on the floor and by the sounds of it have just woken up again - time is now 4.00 p.m. Today is Saturday, so I dread what they'll be like today/tomorrow morning!

As you've probably gathered, I'm getting a little fed up with the situation as I see no way to ameliorate it, let alone end it. Sorry to be so pessimistic.

I live in college housing, so my neighbors are particularly stupid/loud/annoying. I too, attend college here, and yet my boyfriend and I can keep ourselves together. They are pretty nice people, and were really quiet at first.

Our apartment is between two units. They know each other and party every night. I've asked them to keep it down several times already, and I've just taken to stomping up and down the stairs like they do.

I am not sure why these frail girls who live next door sound like 500 pound hippos, but they do.

Our doors also face each other and share a small stoop. They're chain smokers and are pretty much out there smoking all day. I'm not even sure when these people have classes.

The smoke seeps in underneath our door and makes our living room stink like the cigarettes they smoke.

I also know that all three are underage, and stand outside drinking every weekend. This normally wouldn't bother me, but they just can't handle themselves.

The apartments I live in have floor to ceilings on the front (my bedroom), and they happen to have grown fond of standing underneath them and being rowdy.

I didn't want to be too rude, or call the cops on them, but I've had the urge to do so more than a few times. I've decided that I am going to call the office tomorrow, and we'll see where that goes.

I can totally relate to some of the stories posted on this site. Me and my roommate moved into a townhouse over a year ago and it was nice for the first month. After that, the noise began with the neighbors kids running up and down the stairs at all hours of the day and night. Then the idiots have football and hockey parties every weekend.

I've called the police several times and nothing was really done. But the last time I called, they made noise while the police were still in my house. The police heard the noise and agreed to write a report. I hope this can be used as evidence for management and the magistrate court.

I live in a West Phoenix neighborhood and have been here for about six months. The houses are older but mostly well maintained and occupied by families. I am not hispanic but all of my neighbors are and I found most do not speak English well enough carry a conversation.

My issue is that I hate their style of music and they blare it from the vehicles in their driveway (there are a combination of six at all times). But we understand it is part of the Mexican culture, with the accordion style music and mariachi, which gets louder as the night progresses until early morning hours. this is not a weekend thing. I find it's daily and in this neighborhood every Fri-Sun there are a few house parties very close by, and birthday celebrations, wedding parties, etc., all done outside and in driveways.

I went over to my most obnoxious neighbor many times and nicely requested for them to turn it down. I know his son understood me and kindly turned down the music at 2 a.m. on one particularly bad occasion. Two hours later at 4 a.m., yes 4 a.m., it was blaring again, so I went over there and asked him to turn it down. But it seems their memory is short and it won't stop.

It is 11 p.m. on a Wed and they are still blasting their music from a pickup truck parked in front of their house. Don't get me started on their friends pissing in my alleyway! I've had to shoo them away like alley cats.

Shall I call the police or would that cause a bad situation between us? What can I do?

Our drug addict-drinking neighbors play loud music throughout the day and into the wee hours of the night. We and other neighbors have called the police and noise control, but of course nothing is ever done about it. In fact, the last two times we called to complain, the wonderful working police officers never came.

We've even called the narcotics unit at the police station over two years ago to report the drug selling and usage going on, and yes you've guessed it, not a thing has been done about it.

It just ticks me off knowing that money is coming out of my paycheck every week to support these good-for-nothing losers.

I also fall into the trap that if I complain, I am labeled a stick in the mud fuddy-duddy killjoy.

My problem is my neighbor's kids bouncing basketballs from end of school at 3:30 until dark. It's now 8 p.m., but is only early spring. I did not like daylight saving before this, but now...

I work night shift and sometimes take a nap before work.

I start at 11 p.m., so can get an hour's sleep before driving an hour to work. I would like more.

Even if I did not need a nap, the noise is irritating. It thumps through the ground, so avoiding it is not the same as usual noise.

At least music has a regular beat but basketball playing has both the thump, rebound and clang of metal hoop.

One tip when dealing with loud music is to not muffle the noise, it makes it worse. Better to hear the music because then you can tune it out, like falling asleep in front of the TV.

Plus most of us are getting annoyed at the audacity of ignorance rather than the music itself. Often a change in our own thoughts helps.

Saying that, I realize many people have beyond-help neighbours (Australian). I am hoping my problem is seasonal, but still not looking forward to four months of ball bouncing.

Always reach out to the local laws, keep that previously suggested log and record the noise! If children or the 'spouse' are in danger, tell the police. Ask for a copy of your police inquiry.

Of course, if you want to step out of your comfort zone you might try to "party" when they sleep! And of course your choice of music is opposite of theirs. You'll enjoy classical and opera, and you'll love polka dance tunes.

Police will usually respond if there is fighting on public areas, or immediate danger to life. They do not like it when told that if they don't shut the neighbor up, you will. (sorry about that) But do remind them that you are a regular working stiff and if you lose your job, the judge will be hearing about everyone's response to your complaints, especially considering that you've made use of local laws and policies.

I have a solution that has worked rather well so far with various noisy neighbors: classical music. You don't need to blast it as loud as their racket, you just have to play it loud enough to hear, yet it does wonders.

Either the creeps move or start spending most of their time elsewhere. Guaranteed peace and quiet within a few days. If you are thinking, "but I don't like classical music", think again. You will be amazed at how it grows on you, even opera (I swear it). After using this trick a few times I've grown so fond of this music, I now have most of the cds I used to tame the wildebeests uploaded to my ipod- which I listen to with earphones.

How often do you get to solve a problem and expand your knowledge?

I think ultimately, we have to move to get away from it because society doesn't help us, councils or police don't help honest people just wanting basic rights. The noise makers making our lives a misery usually have the police on their side these days because its all a big joke.

I live in a shared house with two other women and the landlord.

For the last two and a half years the tenant who lives on the top floor has decided to become a pain in the arse. I understand that she works shifts and that she comes in late sometimes. However, there is no real need for her to cook food at midnight -- normally something with lots of garlic -- even when she has been in all evening. Then she will have a 20 minute shower.

I have asked her if she could please either cook when she comes in at 8 p.m. or have something pre-prepared. She will either laugh or tell me that she doesn't care when I try and talk to her.

So know I have spoken to the landlord and explained the situation to him and asked him to speak to her. A couple of days later he came back to me saying that she works shifts (I know) and that we (me and another house mate) have to be considerate towards her. I get the feeling that he either didn't speak to her or she told him some cock and bull story to make it sound like she is the victim.

I get annoyed when people tell me that if I don't like it then I should move, well sorry but why should I? I'm not breaking the tenancy agreement. She should bloody well move out!

I'm having a hard time with neighbors too, but the problem is they're not doing anything stupid or obnoxious, just -- loud. The guy's an auto mechanic, and repairs cars in his driveway/backyard in his spare time, and I mean every second of his spare time. He's got a garage full of really loud tools and machines and it's just like living next door to an auto repair shop.

He's a really nice guy, and just trying to eke out a living, but we can't open our windows or use our backyard ever.

The houses are really close together and our bedrooms and study are on that side of the house. This man practically lives in his driveway, and so do his two teenage sons. The older boy has a "pet" riding lawnmower that he will just sit on and I swear to god, just listen to for hours on end.

They have a trailer thing that they haul stuff in for people and are constantly throwing things in and out of it.

They own about six cars that they are continually moving around in the driveway, but of course the one that they use early in the morning is atrociously loud and they rev it and warm it up for ten minutes before finally roaring off down the street.

And on the rare occasions they're not outside making noise, they're inside with their windows all open (lucky people) and the tv blasting.

They are nice people and I haven't said a word to them because the man's just trying to earn money. But we came to look at this house four times at different times of the day before we bought it, deliberately to avoid this kind of thing, and the street was as silent as the grave each time. I would never have bought this house if I'd known.

Having read the comments here, I have realized I am lucky that they are decent hardworking folk and not animals like some of you must deal with. I wish for peace for all of you and us.

My noisy neighbors drink every day because they don't work and are just sit at home on taxpayer money. Things were good till he met her. She is so loud I think she want everyone to know her business.

They drink and do drugs. i called the police one time when they were on the deck having sex, and yes the police did nothing. The music is loud and talking and it gets louder as they drink throughout the day into the night, then people come over (Yeah). I can't even enjoy my backyard due to them being so loud.

Sometimes the t.v come out and they watch it on their deck. I need a 20 foot wall of cement to block them out. Someday all the disrespectful people will get paid back.

All right, well, after reading some of these comments, I can say 'I hear you, people! I have downstairs neighbors who don't work, and from what I can tell, sleep all day and area awake at night.

Their day starts at around noon or one pm, and it's non-stop music after that. Doesn't matter what day of the week it is. we've tried asking nicely, and they turn it down for that day, and next day is the same story. my children have more sense than those idiots.

So we've told the landlord, and she's really not done anything but make false threats of eviction. We've called the police, and hopefully, that will get us the sleep and rest we oh so strongly miss!

p.s. let's not let noisy, inconsiderate neighbors get the last laugh.

We've had this noisy, obnoxious family live across from our apartment for two years. All of their windows also face our apartment. From the first day they got here, throwing boxes around on their patio at 5:00 am and talking at a decibel level normally reserved for low-flying planes.

We figured they were just tired and delirious from moving (we all know how much fun that can be) and so said nothing. Later that day, we found we assumed much by doing that.

Before these people got here, this was a nice, quiet place where people used common sense. But these people - a father in his early 30's who must be having some sort of early midlife crisis, mother the same and two children about three and four only communicate one way. They yell everything. That's how I know their children's names. Because they yell them day and night and the children yell back. Every. Thing. They. Say.

Midlife crisis dad. I call him that because every day, he opens all of his windows wide and blasts this horrible R&B style music, with its pounding bass and wailing warblers as loud as he can. And guess what? He sings along at the top of his lungs. While his kids yell to be heard over it. They just yell in general but that is ridiculous. I can hear them right now and I'm in my apartment with the windows closed and the floor-type of portable air conditioner running. Anyone who has one can tell you that they don't make much noise outside but inside, you betcha. And I can still hear these people.

The mother is as bad as the dad and apparently thinks she lives in the middle of nowhere. She blasts the same bass-thumping, wailing warblers music starting at Friday 4:00 pm and it doesn't stop until her children go to sleep. Then we're treated to it all day Saturday, when she monopolizes the laundry, then finishes by starting a load and leaving it there for two days. The laundry room has one washer and one dryer and nowhere to put things when someone does this sort of thing. Then it starts up again Sunday. That will be compounded by the same music being played in their van with the windows wide open, as they come and go all day long.

To compound the problem, this place is not insulated. It's old like that. But overall, it's a nice place and management has made attempts, but they're weak at best. They put general noise letters on their door or post them in the laundry room. Pretty ineffectual.

So just now as I was on my way to get the mail, I went over there and knocked on the door, nice and loud to be heard over their racket. I said, 'Would you please turn that down!', also nice and loud to be heard over the racket. While his children yell. He looked surprised. Good.

You see, I'm a middle-aged, self-employed woman who works out of my home office and gets on well with people here. And we've lived here for 11 years. I've never yelled at anyone. Until now.

My husband comes home and hears all the noise. It is at a lower level when he gets home but it still drives him insane. He has dealt with the management here for years and prior to today, sent them a letter letting them know *tip* that if he loses his job because he is kept up all night, they will not be getting a cent from us with their usual lease buyout nonsense. Nor will they be garnishing our bank account or suing us because he will have all of that locked up faster than they can say, 'What just happened?'.

You didn't follow the terms of your company's own lease. That's what happened. Read it. You'll see. But before you do, do not offer these people another year's lease when theirs comes up. They blast their noise, then I have to play my audiobook, television, conference call, etc., at an unreasonable (I feel) level, just to hear it, then the people adjoining us have to do the same to hear theirs and on it goes.

Get a clue. Take complaints seriously. We pay you to sort them out, not ignore them while more people get fed up and are resigned to living in a cacophony of noise and clueless behavior in general. Because no one would have to do it in the first place if you would have handled this properly and as is outlined in your company's lease.

Don't want all of it to be our business then I suggest you take care of business. Or we will.

My idiot neighbours moved in about five months ago and my life as been pure hell ever since. We live in an upstairs/downstairs duplex. My family (husband, 14 year old, 11 year old and 15 month old) live upstairs. We have lived here for eight years and my children have more respect and common sense then the idiots that moved in.

They were told by the owner before she leased to them that drugs would not be tolerated. Within the first week the lovely smell was coming in through our windows and walls. Complaint number 1. An apology letter is left for us. It will never happen again. We are good people blah blah blah. Yeah. A week later, guess what? Same thing. Confronted them. Apology, it will never happen again. Guess what? It's still happening.

My husband confronted them about two weeks ago now, and the dad, as brilliant as he is got in his face screaming at him how they have gone out of their way to be nice to us and that it is none of our business what they do. My husband advised him next time I'm not going to the landlord, I'm going to the police, and a visit to the police station was indeed a great idea. I wish we had of thought of it sooner. Our lovely neighbours are now being investigated for prostitution, selling drugs, etc.

The only downfall is, since my husband confronted them, they have done everything they can to make our lives hell: loud music, slamming doors, stomping, screaming -- unbelievable.

I'm so sick and tired of it. I'm always telling my kids to keep it quiet, but why should they have to respect them when they are being kept up all night by people who should know better?

Hopefully, we won't have to deal with this much longer. I am so stressed out I can't handle it.

I'm going through a jerk neighbor right now. We live in a 100-year-old duplex, that wasn't originally supposed to be a duplex, so the walls a paper thin. He expects us to be completely silent, and have no visitors.

Yet he has no job, so he's home all day listening to his music so loud that it vibrates our floors and my two year old daughter is always restless. He has an old chevy nova that he starts up and revs the engine every time we have family over. Not to mention he throws parties every weekend that last through the night.

All of that and we are the ones making "him" miserable. He came over one day beating on our door one day to tell us to shut the hell up because our daughter was laughing an ten in the morning. We have taken note of everything.

Called the police, but they do nothing and he just gets louder as soon as they leave. The landlord has done nothing because she said she wants to stay out of personal disputes. What the hell do I do? We can't afford to move right now, but we can't raise our family with this.

i work at night, so i sleep during the day, Not since the people moved upstairs from me with their children that run across my ceiling from 7 in the morning till about 9 at night, all the while dragging toys and dropping god knows what on my bedroom ceiling. I used to love my apartment, but now i can't wait to move. Apparently i can sue them for my inconvenience. i think this is another inconvenience for me to file. Why can't you inconsiderate people act humanly towards your fellow man. You stink, noisy people!

We live in Victoria, Canada in an upper middle class neighbourhood. We paid a fair amount of money for our home nine years ago.

Two years ago, the people next door moved and it was purchased by a small house developer and his younger, mid-20's partner. They started to renovate and I knew we were in for trouble when the first weekend there was huge amount of screaming and swearing from inside, followed by kicking out of a window. It was the older developer, who was rip roaring drunk. Turns out he is a drunk - and an ugly one at that.

The recession hit and house prices have dropped and they can't sell it. And so the younger fellow has moved in, along with about six of his construction worker buddies. The street is filled with their dumpy old pickups. Every other evening they sit out on the lawn and drink beer and yell and scream and swear; and act like drunken louts.

It makes it very uncomfortable to walk past them for most of the neighbours, who, like us, are in their 50's and 60's. The lawn is littered many mornings with beer cans. At least three afternoons and evenings per week their music is so loud that the bass thumps in our house. Occasionally they light off fire crackers.

Most recently they have taken to playing football on the street in the evenings and, this past weekend, at 4 a.m., which woke us up. Our car has now been dented from their football. We have repeatedly asked them to tone it down; to no avail. The city officials indicate that there are noise bylaws, but they are entitled to sit out on their lawn in a very drunken state. And the police have been useless as well and have indicated the same.

We don't know what else to do; although we are contemplating hiring a lawyer to see if we can sue them for nuisance and obtain an injunction. We would like to move, but we can't easily show our home because the place beside us with these drunken louts looks pretty bad, with beer cans and pickup trucks.

I am a peaceful person, but I have come to hate the sight of young, drunken louts who don't give a crap about anyone else around them. Any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated.

ongoing post 111.

On Friday 10th I returned back to my rented flat and had just undone my shoe laces when I heard a top floor flat door go.

Stupidly, I waited and watched out of the flat's spyhole, yes sure enough it was him, the caveman.

Bang! He crashes the main building's fire door then stands outside my own door. I hear his breath as he starts to listen out for me.

Up the first flight of stairs he goes, waits not long enough for someone to do all three flights, comes down and bang! Does the fire door again. By now my heart has leaped into my throat and I can hear it in my own breathing, and to my horror though I bet he can hear it too.

A neighbor walks in and he acts normal as she goes upstairs, I hear her enter her own flat while meanwhile he is just standing there. after several more times of harassment he does one final crash and then I hear his tyres squeal as he shoots off in his car. feeling sickened I speak to a parent and some mates but no one comes up with anything new. Just move. That night I get awakened multiple times, yes sadly it seems that the best earplugs also hurt the ears and are not for prolonged use.

Today I got back from work to find that my neighbor was waiting to prey on me in the main hallway corridor. He had relocated his car further out of sight. I did not hesitate. First I snuck around the front to get a photo of his car registration plate and then after walking to an unused park further off the estate, I called the police but not on 999.

I noticed he has a son, and it's a shame if his son is going to grow up like this.

Also the police can't find him using the car's registration plate and no one under his name (found on a recorded delivery slip) lives at that address. So I am dealing with a ghost.

Every morning at around 6:00am, the business next door (a couple hundred feet away) starts up. They have a metal dumpster that they keep on the other side of a hedge (on my side of the hedge is my bedroom window). They *throw* stuff into this dumpster continuously!

Once was at 5:30 a.m., I went outside and took a look. They had moved this dumpster with a forklift to the front of their business and were rooting through it. I heard the one guy say "dig deep. there's usually something interesting!"

Earlier this year, I complained to the city about their extremely loud music that went on all day from there. It must have worked because that stopped.

But I think now they are paying us back (someone else from this apartment complained, too). Last night I shoved my couch cushions in my window. I also sleep with earplugs. At 6:30 this morning, "dumpster time!"

I have, out of desperation, thought of setting this dumpster on fire! And I'm usually a very quiet, peaceful do unto others kind of person! Do they have more rights than us in this apartment? I'm starting to believe it's "yes!"

Thank you for listening to my rant.

This is regarding post anon83597.

I have the same thing. I live among a group of six flats and don't have any problems with the immediate neighbours, although those above me were noisy at first, like your post, but after speaking to the young woman, she quieted down.

However, a guy on the top floor same side enjoys thumping my wall and taps the windows at silly times.

I challenged him after he did a silly thumping pattern in the flat's main corridor, but this was the wrong course of action and now he has gotten worse. Someone --not me -- has either glued his lock box or he's changed the lock through paranoia.

This guy does shift work so I wait for him to come and go, i.e. 5 p.m. On the odd occasion he has waited and we've had a stare down.

My landlord has handed me my notice as his son wants to move in.

It has been a miserable two years. The police don't want to know and say just move and anyway, this guy is built like the incredible hulk, is unshaven and wears wally clothes (personal view). I'm 30 and he's possibly 36 and doesn't exactly dress like it. Oh, and I hasten to add, is a boy racer, although he wrapped his car around a tree and now has a rover.

I can't even go to the toilet in peace as I caught sight of him hovering near the window a few times.

Although the temptation is strong to let the air out of his tires, I feel he has somehow won, don't know the guy and don't know why he has a personal vendetta against me. He doesn't have one against the other neighbours.

I also need to mention that because nothing was solid i.e., catching the sound and him passing by, even on video recording through the door spyhole the police literally need to have him on camera. fine but no can do with rented property.

I can only hope he gets caught out by my landlord's son, if I'm lucky enough to move without this guy being in.

@Anon 103884: As the saying goes "dog's tail cannot be straightened". our party maniac neighbours (10 p.m. to 4 a.m.) have started it all again. can anyone advise me what to do with these types of idiotic, psychotic, uneducated, illiterate brutes?

the distance between our bedroom and their balcony is just three feet. we live on the first floor of our building and the maniacs live on the first floor of the next building. Is there any way we can brush these bedbugs away from the colony?

@Anon106597: Well, let's see. It's 3 a.m. and I have to get up to start my day at 5:30 a.m. Instead of being able to sleep until 10 minutes before the alarm goes off, I am awakened by a distinct "Thump, thump, thump" *against my bedroom wall.* The guy in that apartment worked second shift, so I guess fun time for him and his lady generally started about 3 a.m. The thumping continued for an hour. I can't even begin to imagine what all they were doing. Something with handcuffs, perhaps.

I was not jealous; I was *sleepy*! I didn't care how often they were having sex. I just got tired of hearing their bed thumping up against the wall and waking me up between 3 and 4 a.m., every single night for two weeks. If it had been at 11 p.m., I'd have chuckled, said "Rabbits," to myself or my husband and gone on. 3 a.m., however, is right in the middle of my prime sleep zone and I seriously resent people thumping their bed against my bedroom wall!

I finally spoke to the apartment manager about it and she had a word with the couple. They finally moved their bed away from the wall. Their downstairs neighbors had also complained, because the thumping carried down to their bedroom, as well.

Yes, it's a perfectly natural thing to do, but if you get the urge at 3 a.m. and have sleeping neighbors, go in the den and do it on the sofa! Sheesh.

what is the fuss about? if you were to knock on the door during their sex sessions and tell them how loud they are and that the whole street can hear them, I'm sure that they will tone it down a bit. Of course, you may need to complain more than once. There is no need to act so stupid. after all, it is a natural thing and we all do it. Or are you just jealous?

I can't understand the mentality of anyone who thinks it's OK to force their noise on to other people, to invade someone's home - a private place - with noise that isn't welcome. What is someone in the other apartment is ill? What if there's an elderly person there who needs rest or a baby or toddler who needs sleep? What if someone needs to study for exams and needs peace and quiet to do so?

I wouldn't dream of forcing someone else to listen to my choice of music or my dog barking or any other noise from my apartment.

Forcing unwanted things on other people is bullying, plain and simple, and bullying is a vile thing to do.

I'm really sorry for anyone who's on the receiving end of this sort of noise, who has no choice but to live near these bullies, but rest assured that what goes around comes around and some day they'll face something horrible in their lives and feel the despair they now make others feel.

People hit it right on the button by pointing out that, more than anything else, a lot of people today are just downright inconsiderate and only care about themselves. They choose to annoy others because they simply do not care about seeing the world from anyone else's eyes but their own.

I'm a school teacher and a resident of a lower-unit condo long enough to know how selfish and uncaring people are. I mean, it's not rocket science here for people to think they can parade about during all hours of the night without anyone else hearing them and/or being adversely affected by it.

It's the "me" generation we're dealing with and the ways of the world, unfortunately, teach these jerks to have a false sense of entitlement. You can't put anyone in their place anymore because those at fault always seem to have the most rights.

I'm all for the showdown. I say, bring on the noise and, in turn, dish it out right back at them. If they're keeping you up at night, make sure as hell they wake up with you in the morning. Take a nice long vacation or go out for a morning run, but make sure your alarm clock volume is up to the max and set to go off twenty minutes after you've left.

I have no compassion for inconsiderate people.

Some people will not try to mend their ways.

I have some idiotic educated neighbours who party all night with some 10 to 15 people on fridays or saturdays and some times on sundays from 10 p.m. till 4 a.m. early morning. they laugh and talk to their highest decibels as if, they are living in their own palace and they are the sole owners of the whole place.

In spite of several requests not to disturb the peace and sleep of their neighbours and the whole lane at those wee hours, they party on all weekends.

When asked to cut down their voices or start the party early and end the party early by 10 p.m. so that everybody can have some good sleep at night, they shout and yell at us to their highest decibels saying "my house, my wish" and we are nobody to tell them.

Unable to bear their blunt and arrogant attitude, we were forced to call someone from the law dept to end this issue at once. they started shouting and yelling at us, creating a nasty scene in the middle of the night.

They forget that the earth is round and they will come to know the effects when they also face these types of problems. The whole hell will break open on them on that day. It's better to mend their ways now or else god also cannot help them.

And, last but the not least, the members of our building will always avoid getting involved in this issue and will not support us in time of need, but talk about the issue when our idiotic neighbours are away. Wow! what cooperation! Superb.

Last resort for dealing with sporadic too-loud noise when being polite fails - and has worked for now:

Buy a flat piece of wood about 1 cm thick (not too heavy) and a hammer. Place piece of wood against offending wall (stand on a chair if its from upstairs) and hit as hard as you can with the hammer until the noise next door stops. The wood stops you from damaging your wall or ceiling.

This is an extremely therapeutic method, as you are directing the anger and frustration you feel directly back at them.

It is extremely liberating to know that you are able to direct the stress the noise causes back at the source, when you feel like doing so and this increases your actual tolerance for it.

this page surely will help me and my husband to get rid of my noisy neighbours who party all night. They fight, shout and yell, talk and laugh loudly, and create a nuisance and disturb the peace and sleep of their neighbours.

So many times, we have explained the problems we are facing from them, but they say that it is their house and they have every right to do whatever they want nevertheless at times, it is very painful to see the members of our building not supporting us at the time of need, but talk about them when they (our noisy neighbours) are not there.

every friday or saturday, or sometimes sunday, they party from 10.00 pm to 04.00 am the next day. during partying the husband and wife act as if they are compatible, but on other days they start fighting in the middle of the night, creating a big nuisance.

It sounds like you people really have it bad. I wish my neighbor (neighbor spelled that way because I am Canadian) knew how bad she could have it!

My roommate and I live in a two bedroom condo. We both work professional jobs Monday - Friday. We never throw parties and once and a while have three or four friends over (always on the weekends) and they are usually gone by 11 p.m. You think this would be fine. Nope.

Our neighbor complains any time we make a small bit of noise. She's an old lady who loves her quiet time and says we keep her daughter awake. Her daughter, by the way, is at least 13, not two or three years old like we thought.

At this point she is affecting our quality of living. At the age of almost 30 years old I shouldn't have to worry about turning my music down at 9 p.m. or asking my guests (all three of them) to keep it down.

I pay to live where I live and I work hard during the week. If I want to unwind Saturday night by having a few friends over to play board games I should be able to without worrying.

I should print out your comments for my neighbor and show her how bad some people actually have it.

If someone else plays music, I'll play mine. If I want to play my guitar for an hour in the day then I will do so. I am quiet past 9 p.m. however, I do watch tv loud enough that I can hear it through the late night.

No one has complained to me, and people generally smoke in these apartments and they've lived here for years so I don't know if I'm being unreasonable. I never stop to listen to how loud my neighbours are. lol.

Guys, you are all complaining and this is really not going to change anything a bit! Inconsiderate people are just inconsiderate and will always remain so.

I'm facing the same problems but according to my experience with noisy neighbors, complaining, talking to them, police, nothing's going to change, at least it's not going to change for long.

I live in a condo and have an upstairs neighbor who is completely stupid. She has two kids with different men and has moved in another man to live with her. It seems like she cannot afford the mortgage without the help of child support or a companion.

She is constantly walking around like an elephant and throws things like she lives in a mansion. Our HOA has written to her regarding the noise issue, but she continues to yell and scream constantly and has completely failed to control her rowdy kids. she is just a neighbor from hell - and I'm wondering what kind of an idiot buys a condo without a playground or backyard while knowing that you have kids by different men? I can't wait for the market to recover so that I can get the hell out of here.

My father watches TV until late in the night and daily, I have to ask him to turn down the volume. When I do, he will make sarcastic remarks and act like a kid. At times, he will deliberately turn up the volume.

During work, i have this colleague who sits close to me because the space beside him is cluttered with useless junk which he does not bother to clear. He talks to himself, watches videos online, acts strangely, curses the boss and says a lot of negative things frequently.

I really hope God can do something to help this fellow and also my father as they are creating bad karma for themselves.

My wife and i live in an apartment with idiot people up above us. The mother walks like an elephant all day and night, slamming doors, fighting with the guy of the week, kids running, constantly dropping things, all this and the caretaker of our block says they have been a problem before and don't listen, so we have asked if she is afraid of them.

They don't rule the roost. The landlords don't seem to get it. My wife and I are going to call the city's noise bylaw dept and have these morons charged with disturbing the peace.

We have both had enough. This goes on all day and night. We also said that one of these times, one of us or both are going to go up and knock on that door, and whoever answers it gets a punch in face. We are not worried about charges laid against us because it will go nowhere.

It's sad that you can't live in peace. What gets me is how others don't complain; they don't want to get involved. Wow.

I have lived at this address for six years and my neighbor two houses up from mine is mentally ill and needs help. He had my home invaded by two men which I cannot prove. He also shoots his handgun and raises immortal hell any time he wants. Calls to CMPD go unheard. Sure they show up and say they have to witness this noise and when called for the shooting they handed me the spent cases from a 45 caliber handgun and chuckled like satan that it was celebratory gunfire. This is a city and no guns are allowed to be fired within the city limits.

My nerves are shot, and we can't afford to move so the police have pitted me against this jerk. It has escalated to me pulling a handgun on him but this did not deterred him. Crystal meth keeps him going like a robot all day, every day. He does have three small children and some sort of wife and I do fear they are being held hostage while he catches a wink during the day; you seldom hear or see them.

He plays off of his own brother's success as a heating and air company owner, like they are royalty. Well, I only rent and I have not had the means to move but one day as I have told him "I will be back," and when that day comes...

I moved into an apartment complex that is pricier than I can really afford but it promised to be a quiet environment (it even advertises that on the website!)

My neighbors across the hall from me live in a two-bedroom apartment. There are two adults and about five kids (ranging from toddler to young teenager). Now that it is summer they play outside but instead of in front of their parents' apartment, they play in front of mine.

It's a communal space but considering that every apartment has a green space in front of it, it's pretty much a given that each space is allocated to the apartment it's next to. Despite this, the kids will play in front of my window. They throw balls against the window and they stare in. They also run up and down the concrete stairs and constantly slam the door. This goes on from the time I get home from work at 5 until it gets dark. In the winter it's not so bad because they go inside earlier, but now that it doesn't get dark until past 10 p.m., they are out there constantly. I don't know what to do about it because I don't want to sound like an old grump ("get off my lawn"! etc). But they have no consideration! They also frequently block the breezeway so I can't get to my car. Sometimes they play directly behind my car so I can't even back out!

I'm pretty sure they are the reason why the previous tenants moved out and I wish management had told me that before I signed a year lease. I'm getting more and more tempted to call the police, hoping it will serve as a wake-up call to them.

I just called my attorney this morning to ask him about the next step to take regarding my noisy neighbors. There is a 10-year-old pest who does not know how to behave because his parents are some sort of idiots: in the heat of Houston!! They sit outside to smoke cigarettes and drink beer and talk out loud until midnight or so.

I live in an apartment complex and the walls are so thin you can hear anyone sneeze - this little brute plays with two little girls until one a.m., running, screaming, bouncing off the walls and dropping stuff on the floor that shakes the room!

My complaints to the manager are going nowhere. She insists that I should call her when they are making the noise, so she can verify it. I should be able to have a good night's sleep. I am 72 years old, but I get up at 4:00 am. These people do not get the idea that they are not living out in the field; they are among people who respect others' privacy and the right of peace and quiet. I do pay a high rent and I feel that these people should be made to move if they do not have control over their crazy kid.

I've lived in my apt. for almost 10 years now and have had nothing but bad neighbors one after another move in upstairs.

now i have a girl who was single and a jehovah's witness move in. i thought great -- a quiet little religious person, and everything was OK for the first few weeks and then it all started, walking like a horse, dropping things, thuds that rattle my walls and windows, having their jehovah meetings upstairs with 25 - 30 people at at time.

I talked to her in person and she said she would stop, that she knows how it is to live in an apartment setting. ha! what a liar!

after a few days of quiet, she starts again, same routine, and this time has a jehovah party with about the same number of people all walking around upstairs in dress and suits, talking loud, laughing, walking up and down the stairs.

i call the office, they come over and put a notice of compliance on her door, and after that things calm down for a week or so, then back to her routine. she constantly vacuums and cleans, banging around, thudding, walking like a horse.

Then one day, she has the nerve to come down and ask me for change for a dollar, that she needed quarters to finish her laundry. OK, great. i have a chance to say something, she apologized and says it will never happen again -- another lie!

And then she has two roommates move in. Mind you, this is a one bedroom apartment. one likes to do the same banging and whatnot and the other walks like a hippo in high heels.

now she finally got herself a jehovah boyfriend. she's about 32, and he's like 62, and they sit on the stairs that lead up to her place right next to my patio wall and talk loud and make out. i slam my sliding glass door to give them the hint and they still just sit there. he's not allowed to come upstairs inside her place because of religious beliefs, but I heard them talking about it sitting there and him moaning "oh baby! let me come upstairs!" these guys are freaks!

Now she has married this loser, she works all day and comes home, what does he do you ask? they both get up around 6 a.m. and stomp around getting ready for work, breakfast etc. and then he drives her to work, he leaves in a suit every day and goes and passes out those jehovah magazines in different locations (I see him carrying them to his car), and he also leaves them in the laundry room. If i see those mags in there they go in the circular file!

now it's two people walking with lead weights on their shoes and twice the thudding and banging.

They have no consideration for anything we have talked about in the past. i have since put up with the same problems and every once in a while they leave the window open upstairs when having sex, with her squealing like a pig and him moaning like he's having a heart attack. i yelled shut up you idiots! out my window and was laughing at them.

I called to complain to the apartment manager and since they are tired of me complaining, they have said that i am the problem and maybe i should find another place to live.

this dude has it made. He has a wife who works and he passes out mags for free for his church and stays home the rest of the time.

their car leaks major oil in the space next to mine, and is is a clunker, but they look like mild mannered reporters going to church every thursday, saturday and sunday coming down the stairs in their sunday best, carrying their bibles. pious little freaks!

My neighbours are insane. They have a ton of kids, yet they still have the music up way too loud where it shakes my whole living room floor, and when you ask them to turn it down, it doesn't faze them one bit.

I don't know what else to do.

All I know is that it shouldn't be us who have to move.

My neighbors are horrible. They are like 50-60 and they get so drunk that they move furniture around from 10 p.m.-12 a.m. They play their harmonica at 8 a.m. They turn up movie music every wednesday, thursday, friday from around 9 p.m.-12 a.m. They act like little kids and cry till they throw up.

They wear stupid costumes for no reason when they get drunk. They turn up music almost every night possible. They are the crappiest neighbors ever.

I recently moved into what I thought was a quieter neighborhood than my old one. The first two weeks were great, but then my next door neighbor began having parties with a D.J. in the backyard.

In the last one and a half months, they have had three parties. It is pissing me off that people can be so inconsiderate, but after reading everyone's posts, it seems to be going around. I will try to talk to them, but will call the police if I have to.

At least the weekdays are quiet, so I don't have it as bad as some of the other posters. I just bought ear plugs and am getting used to them. One day, I hope to have some peace and quiet, even if I have to move to the country in the middle of nowhere to get it. It's interesting how some of the posters live out in the country still get noise!

I appreciate everyone's comments as it helps to know how others are dealing with things.

My upstairs neighbor will bang his/her bedroom wardrobe door every 15 minutes. It will start about six in the morning, and only quiet down when both left the house. And it will start again about 8 p.m. until 11 p.m. at night.

It is not the noises that irritates me. It is the sudden banging that causes my heart to jump or skip a beat. I don't know how long my heart can take this kind of stress.

I thought of moving but I just bought this place with a bank loan and can't afford to move anymore. I tried talking to them but was shouted at and the banging becomes more frequent and fierce. God help me.

We used to live in a very quiet, rural neighborhood. Recently (six days ago) some new tenants came to replace our old neighbors in the house adjacent to us.

The first night they were up literally all night moving in, which I thought was normal. Day two came and the partying began, a.m. to p.m., nonstop yelling back and forth, spinning their car out in the driveway. Suffice it to say, it's now day six and I don't think they've slept a wink. Tweakers.

I'm not a mark. I saw them smoking a little pot, drinking a lot of beer, and they're already annoying the living hell out of me. But when I saw one get pulled over in the street, and arrested for amphetamines I drew the line.

I'm ready for a battle, as a guy who's just trying to protect his family, I don't want to live next door to tweakers (methamphetamine addicts).

So thanks for the article. I guess it's time to try and get rid of these people.

Some people here simply make me want to vomit with their cool gadgetry suggestions as a resolution to the problem.

Wake up! I am completely noise sensitive and I do not wish to plug in any device to filter out what, after all, is noise pollution.

People who make unnecessary noise are simply inconsiderate, dysfunctional clowns who have no appreciation of the need for peace and quiet.

Oh yes, they may be able to wash dishes faster while the bass is turned to the loudest, however, they have many other unresolved issues such as eating disorders and such. They certainly do not know how to make and/or maintain friendships.

We need moderate people to organize and simply refuse to tolerate noise coming through our walls at any hour of the day or night if we are ever going to tackle the fire-engines and motorbike noise pollution!

I live in a lovely apartment in Sacramento, CA (McKinley Park). I was so excited to finally move out of the fray of downtown after 20 years, and into a nice neighborhood with character and charm. All is wonderful right? Well. I live downstairs from a twenty-something couple with absolutely no respect for anyone or anything.

This couple only seems to enjoy having very loud 20-minute sex sometime between 2:30 and 4:00 in the morning on weeknights. Granted, the guy must work out of town (he is rarely home), but when he is there they act like they are offering an invitation to join them. The volume seems deliberate.

The girl does not appear to work, but everyone else (four apartment units)in the house does -- your basic 9-5 or swing shift and seems have more experience living in a dwelling with shared walls.

She starts playing catch in with her dog nightly about 2 a.m., tossing a ball back and forth to the dog across the hard wood floors (the ball is bouncing while I can hear dog running back and forth). Then the girl gets on the phone and has a marathon conversation, punctuating every sentence with a her psycho-nervous giggle. I wish I was exaggerating.

Typically the noise dies down about 4 a.m., just in time for me to get up at 5:45.

I am not a prude, a party-pooper, or someone who has forgotten what it is like to be young. But I can hardly stand it anymore. The young man has apologized, but the girl continues to be an obnoxious neighbor.

I literally pray daily for her to find some wonderful, luxury apartment elsewhere, and leave the rest of us to our humble little house. I am sure even someone raised in a barn would have more consideration for their neighbors. Signed Misery at 35th & J.

Interesting post. I've wanted to soundproof my home for years now.

I’ve heard that QuietRock is a good product for soundproofing walls. Saw it used on this show called Holmes on Homes.

What would you suggest that we do when the noisy neighbor is a city councilman? We have called the police repeatedly; they respond and talk to them, but nothing changes when the police leave.

Luckily i don't have very noisy neighbours, but my advice would be: you could just send a letter, phone call, email etc to your local council complaining about the loud noise.

I live in a house next door to church and this church is worse than any noisy neighbor I have ever had. They have some kids over there who they rent space to their parents for home schooling and these kids are constantly slamming a basketball against my house and always coming onto my property. I have spoken repeatedly to the pastor and he does nothing about it.

On sunday morning they start banging on drums at 7 a.m. I work nights and I sleep during the day, but not anymore since I am not allowed to sleep in my own house because of these people.

I can't understand how this is even legal since this area is zoned residential only (I checked with the city and looked up the zoning maps). Obviously the lady I rent from can't do anything about it and the police won't do anything about noise during the day though I can call them about the trespassing of the kids.

If anyone has any advice I would love to hear it.

I am so glad I am not the only one who is going through this dilemma! I am someone who works third shift and I have a 22 year old mother of 3 (Yes, 3!), ages 2, 3 and 4 months, and don't forget "babydaddy," who doesn't work, all living downstairs from me. I live in a duplex.

The reason why I moved in my place three years ago is because it was quiet! The previous tenant was an elderly woman, which was great! I never even knew she was home. Our schedules had worked out perfectly. She worked from 7-3:00 p.m. so when I came home in the mornings, she was leaving. She decided to move after 30 years of being there to go live with her daughter.

She helped out with her grandchildren, which is understandable. But I was hurt because who in the hell was my landlord going to rent to after all those years?

My landlord remodeled the downstairs after she left, and it looked like a brand new house. I just knew he was going to put some responsible tenants downstairs. Wrong! Right before completion of the house, I was told that no kids would be downstairs, due to my work schedule and the fact everything was new. So he told me.

Last year, around May, I was introduced to my "new neighbor." I looked at her right away, and red flags went up. I knew she would be a problem. And indeed she was.

In the first few weeks of her being there, she decided to throw a party on memorial day. Our front porch was crowded with her relatives who are heavy smokers. My thing is when you have a party, have food! I didn't smell a stench of barbecue. When I came downstairs to go to work that night, they were still crowded on the porch!

I had to say excuse me, bumping them as I walked past. They didn't want to move!

When I came home from work that morning, there were cigarette butts and beer cans all on the porch! The noise started briefly after that.

She was informed that I do work third shift and I do sleep in the daytime. I was then informed by my landlord, that she worked and her kids were in daycare. Not! She probably worked a couple of days to my knowledge and that was it. Daycare consists of the kids being at home making noise all day.

I'm just getting started! I brought things to her attention in the beginning and she seemed very apologetic. Such a con artist, too. The noise would subside for a few days, then start again!

Reading through everyone's comments is both heartening and disheartening - heartening because it proves to me that there are other people in the world who don't live to annoy other people, disheartening because it also proves that the problem of noisy neighbours isn't likely to ever stop.

My husband and I have been forced to move four times in the six years we've lived together, each time because of inconsiderate, noisy neighbours. The noise problems we've had range from stereo blaring to shouting/fighting to banging/thumping to parents who do nothing to control their children -- the list goes on.

When we moved into our current place, the upper part of a house with an older couple living downstairs, we thought for sure we had hit the jackpot. We even met the couple downstairs before we agreed to move in, just to discuss with them and the landlords that we are quiet and respectful and would expect the same if we were to live here. Things were great for a whole year, the longest we've lived anywhere without problems. After several months of waiting for something bad to happen, nothing did and we even got to be pretty friendly with the folks downstairs, but then, the woman's 30-something son lost his job and had to move in with them and everything went down hill from there.

He took over our shared parking lot with all his friends coming over, blocking our car and cramming three to five other cars in the lot.

He bangs and stomps around at all hours of the night and day and plays video games under our bedroom whenever he feels like it. After a few months of this, we tried talking to the couple, but they just apologized and said they were just trying to help the son out. Understandable, but there was no reduction whatsoever in the noise. If anything, it got worse when he started having his young daughter over regularly, a child who constantly runs up and down the length of the house pounding and screaming, because they can't be bothered to do anything about it.

Then suddenly, the woman's goddaughter started showing up regularly with her two kids and the noise got even worse. I understand that children make noise, but it's like they just sit there watching them do it and can't even be bothered to take them to the park that's three houses down.

When we've brought this to the landlords, they just say, "you'll understand when you have kids" but they clearly just don't want to get in the middle. It's now been a year and a half and the loser downstairs still lives here and the noise continues to get worse.

We're now expecting a child of our own, so at least I can look forward to our screaming newborn giving them some pay back, but what happens when the thumping and banging and screaming downstairs disturbs him? It's already more than a disturbance to us. I can't imagine how an infant will appreciate it.

Anyway, just wanted to rant. Other people just don't get it because I guess they're used to putting up with the crap and just accept it but I can't. We're trying to find a house to rent. At least there won't be shared walls/floors.

All the inconsiderate jerk neighbours should be forced to live together and see how they like it!

I just moved into a fourplex with three of the of the units occupied (including me).

I live on the top level and the landlord's stepson lives below me. I've met him before. He's got to be pushing 30 with no job and living there with three other guys: one that looks younger and another that looks way way older.

These guys are non stop party people. The music blasting at midnight on the weekend is OK (I'm 26) but what sounds like karaoke at 6 a.m. on a tuesday? Hell no! I'm not letting potheads ruin my sleep.

I consider myself as a nice guy so my brother (I live with him) told them to lower the noise at 3 a.m. tuesday. they did, only to raise it back up a few minutes before 6 a.m. I knocked on the door, they continue to sing. I knocked louder, they continued to ignore me. I called the non emergency police phone and gave them the address. Two hours of loud singing later (8 a.m.) the cops show up and I'm happy to see them.

They knock, the singing continues, the cops yell, the people ignore and continue to sing loudly, the cops yell louder and pound on the door louder. one cop even taps on their living room window. Nothing. The cops just give up and leave.

One of the officers calls me and says that the town ordinance is if the music can be heard at least 50 feet from the building and they didn't hear anything until they were closer to the building.

I'm thinking the cops pretty much told *me* to take care of it myself. So I call the landlord after texting him periodically starting at 6 a.m. of what I have done. He said he'll do something about it. I really hope he does because I've literally been there four days and I'm already dealing with crap.

I live in an apartment and my next door neighbor works at home. His work involves some sort of banging, which is surprising because he has a bath and body company and makes soaps and body sprays.

I would like to say something, but it's his job so how can I really ask him to stop? He's also the nighttime emergency resident manager of the building so I don't know if I don't want to piss him off. I'm just not sure if I should say something to him or speak to the office manager directly. It drives me crazy!

We live in a country area and our neighbours who are about 500 metres away have just got a dog and when they go to work it barks all day so I have to shut all the windows and doors, which I really hate. i have reported them to the local authorities and RSPCA but still it goes on. They are trying to force us out.

I just recently moved into an apartment complex in March, into a downstairs apartment and since we have moved in the first night, the tenants upstairs have continuously made noise and we have not had a good night's rest since we moved in and now it is the mid month of May.

The parents continue to let their children run, jump and play like they are at the zoo. So, throughout the night, at all hours of the night, and into the wee hours of the morning, you can hear the kids jumping, running and playing upstairs. This, of course, keeps us from getting any sleep or wakes us up when we are in a deep sleep.

I continually am calling the landlord and complaining because of the noise, because the quiet hours are supposed to be "quiet time," according to the manager. The manager told me finally that the situation had been taken care of and that they would be moving out at the end of this month (May), but since I found out that they are leaving and there are only two weeks left until they are moving out, they have done nothing but continuously let their kids make all of the noise that they want now, just to aggravate us more until they leave!

Does anyone have any advice on what to do until they leave? Should I keep complaining to the landlord or should I call the police?

I dealing again with an upstairs neighbor in the apartment building I live in. He likes to thump and throw objects on the floor.When I'm trying to sleep or asleep, he knocks bangs and thumps to wake me up, He is always home and whenever i come home it takes five minutes for him to start.

I'm being very quiet, I use headphones, don't listen to music or watch t.v. Although I would love to be able to listen to music, this would make it worse. I can't do anything without him getting annoyed.

Example: If I wash a dish he bangs and slams cupboard doors. If I use the bathroom, brush my teeth or shave, he bangs on the floor. I think it is the apartment; there seems to be no insulation.

I have complained multiple times to the manager and written letters but he doesn't care or doesn't believe me. The first time I told him he was deliberately waking me up, he said I know him. I don't think he would do that.

I have been recording it. I don't get why some people think its OK to harass other people by waking them up 2:00, 3:00, 4:00, 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning.

I have a nice place in the country with neighbors 100 to 200 yards away, but noise still travels -- especially bass notes! Young twenty-somethings, parties etc.

Let me share my long-term approach. Time is probably on your side. Kids age and mature. Groups break up. Situations change. In a year or two, maybe three, things will probably again be quiet. I must believe this too, in order to avoid going nuts.

go get a head set and dance in front of them. park your car in front of that neighbor's house, arrange your patio furniture on their side, put a sign on the door that says do not disturb. i am finally ticking off my neighbor, and she doesn't know what to do. I love it. She's yelled at me long enough, so hey neighbor, now it's your turn to be upset.

As many have posted, living in an apartment building puts you smack in the middle of social degenerates and other folks who really have no sense of common decency.

Granted, there are a handful of good people you run into every once in a while, but they are vastly outnumbered by the hordes of creeps and losers who occupy these living spaces.

My particular condition concerns some loner, perhaps a student, who makes a point of regularly exercising his sub woofer every day, so the coils don't become loose or rust or whatever the case may be.

All day long, a constant rumbling/thumping sound echoes through the side of the wall I share with this loser. My initial complaints to building management were met by skeptical looks (i.e., "Seriously? I'll talk to him if you want, but why don't you give it a day or two..."), but eventually, the conversation took place and things improved -- temporarily.

Now this jackass is back at it again, and I hear his tunes at 8 a.m. on the weekends now blaring through the wall, punctuated with the thumping sounds of bass for good measure. Really?

I'm looking to move out of this place and away from this riff-raff, but as other posters have commented, it will only be a geographical shift.

There are no guarantees that more bass hound scum won't be waiting at my next destination, ready to share their crappy music with me and the rest of the world.

Why are these people so inconsiderate? I consciously turn the TV down whenever it starts getting too loud. I don't play music at 2 a.m. (I don't even have a woofer!). I don't slam my door once I come home, despite what a horrible day I may have had at work.

Is it that people are just wired differently? I wish we all lived in huts miles from civilization as in days of old, but to be honest with you, those were the more civilized times.

I have a neighbor who lives above us.She is employed by the property management. She is a drunk and falls down all night long- through the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.She also pounds on the walls and drops heavy objects.

I have complained to property management twice. They responded: what should we do, send her a nasty letter, she is employed with us? I answered, I don't care if she owns the property, we have not had a good night's sleep in the two months we have been living here. They choose to do nothing as we suffer.

We expected to hear some noise, having to live in an apartment but this is intolerable. She also beats her dog, I have seen her hitting him. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I call the police for noise disturbance?

I have a dog and every time she falls or does whatever she is doing, my dog gets very excited and protective because he can't figure out what is happening. He barks loudly and is probably disturbing the other neighbors, which is so unfair.

She (neighbor) is unapproachable, we've tried talking to her, and she literally runs in the other direction to try to hide her guilt.

What are my legal rights? Thank you in advance. I am checking into a local hotel room today, just to get a good night sleep!

I live upstairs and we mostly work most of the day. I came home and the floor was shaking of the bass from the music downstairs. It was friday night and was past 12:00 in the morning. Not only was the floor shaking, but they are also screaming, singing Karaoke.

I'm having an anxiety attack that night and I was so pissed off I called security. So they got charged 25.00 added to their rent.

Last Friday they were making noise till 1:00 am and outside their apartment acting stupid and talking trash.

If they are going to do it again this weekend I am going to call security. So they have to pay more, three calls from security. They will kick them out of this apartment.

I been living in this apartment for five years now and they've only been here for two months. And I'm not moving out. If they get very noisy I will start vacuuming the floor while they are sleeping. Payback stinks.

From Bakersfield CA

Like a lot of you, I have a "pleasant" neighbor who likes to play music with a lot of bass!

He doesn't work and he's home at all hours. A bit of a loner, I suppose.

Anyway, he starts blaring the TV at noon. Then at 7 p.m., he puts on a DVD and the walls start to shake. When the film is over, the music starts!

And it doesn't let up until 6 o'clock the following morning!

Then, blissfully, he actually sleeps for 5 or 6 hours. After that, the routine starts over.

Why does everything have to be so loud?

And the worst part is that he is the son of my landlord, so there's not much I can do about this.

If I complain, I(!) may be evicted!

I am living in rent adjusted housing because of loss of income. It is a place to live and I thank God for that. But I have a downstairs neighbor that loves to crank her music and talk and laugh real loud at all hours.

It can start at 4 a.m. and go on and off all day or like today, start at 7 p.m. and stop and start all night.

I have reported it to management and the police. She stops for a few days or a week if I am lucky. The management office used to be in our building but moved out. She had been good for quite awhile and the day they moved out, at exactly 5 p.m. whoosh! The music went up. That was in October. It is now April.

I won't go down there because a lot of people here are not well emotionally and she gave the police a hard time the first time they had to go over. And now she bangs on her ceiling.

She was supposed to be told to move her speakers away from the heating vents because we can hear it. That lasted about one week and she started again.

Right now, my husband and I can't afford regular housing and it is giving me major anxiety. How can people be so disrespectful? Are they stupid, mentally ill and don't know any better, which she might be mentally ill but she knows better.

Earlier, it was norah jones which is at least mellow. But now I don't know who it is playing. It is usually lady ga ga or something like it. But I have concrete floors and vents or not, I should not be able to hear it enough so I can hear the words. Ugh!

Please pray that my husband and I will be able to move somewhere else soon that is better suited for us. Thank you everyone and God bless you all.

I live in an apartment building that has not one, but two marching bands who practice next door. They start on Fridays and do not stop until Monday! I called the police over eight times and also wrote the housing developer. No one is taking my problem seriously. It's awful.

I live two streets away from a couple who are deliberately blasting two sources of music to aggravate two old people next door. Old as in 80. One is crippled.

The lowlife music blasters have been asked to turn it down, and we, as neighbors are taking steps. The letter, threat of a lawsuit. We have the money to rake them over the coals.

The music is so loud, I can hear it all day, and hate even going outside. The bass is the worst part. We will beat the nasties.

When we moved here, you could hear a pin drop. Now you hear us pulling out our hair, and pounding our heads against the wall. The one lone sheriff sometimes helps us out. Sometimes.

I live in CA so of course it's very obnoxious to pay such a bloated rent yet still have to deal with a noisy home. I live on the second floor, and try to be mindful of the person underneath me. I remove my shoes, I tiptoe around after quiet time (10 p.m.), basically I'm thoughtful and she says I'm very quiet when I've asked.

Well, karma does not exist in this circumstance. I live underneath a couple that stomps around all day long. Normally I work, but on days that I'm sick, I can hear the wife stomping around and either exercising or moving furniture. When I get home from work, the noise increases, loud tv, sometimes arguing, more loud stomping, and sometimes they even run around in their home.

About once a week they have family over so I hear kids crying up there after midnight. I have to turn up the tv to hear it from the noise of just their basic 'living' noise. I've complained to them, but they haven't done anything.

I complained to the management and still no improvement and I'm a step away from calling the police. I hate coming home exhausted from a day of work and I can't relax because of all the racket. It actually scares my pets sometimes.

And don't even get me started on the times when she's made curry and the smell gets stuck in my apartment for the entire week (even with windows open and fans going). I am actually considering just changing units because aside from these stompy clowns, it's a great place to live.

I had lived next to noisy neighbors and the rental office did warn them. They complied for two days and started up again and the complaints started up again. This would be a vicious cycle so I finally moved out of there and then they got kicked out because they lost revenue from two apartments: me and my mother. Heh.

This person worked for them and felt he shouldn't have to follow the rules of the place. He would blast his television at all hours because it would put his child to sleep.

I told the office I did not give birth to their kids so therefore, I should not have to sacrifice sleep. I told them that I was sick for a month, I lost over $600 in overtime pay because of them, and the last apartment I moved from, they did nothing about.

These people fed ducks and I would have duck crap in my door jamb and all over the place. I injured my back because I could not just wheel stuff into my apartment.

I had broken vacuum cleaners because duck feathers clog them and eventually break the machine.

Now that I am in a town home, we have noisy kids here blasting music from their cars and kids coming from other developments using our pool area when they are not supposed to.

Some neighbors told them to leave because we don't have that many kids that live here. It's one kid trying to gain popularity so he or she could keep the friends. If they get hurt, they can't sue because they were trespassing. Sigh.

I had to confront high school aged kids several times and told them that people could hear them and they complied. People do complain to the homeowners association, but we have to call the police to get an actual police presence here.

It's never actually quiet anywhere because you will always get the one or two jerks who think the law ordinances don't apply to them.

anon 48983, i read your story and i know what you can do about the dog. I'm not sure what country you are in, but in but in the USA, there are laws against animal cruelty or neglect.

Take a good look at the dog and if you see that the dog has not food or water, you can just report this to ASPCA or humane society or animal control. I would try the other shelters first, but you can call and take pictures of the condition of the dog, the people with the dog will never know who reported them.

They (shelters) will ask you information about you but is only to make sure they got the right address, or directions, or information about the report. They will never tell who called them.

I live in Houston Tx and i had that problem with the bass boom, full blast and it was annoying. Here we have a homeowners association and what i did was, every time i would hear the boom in my house i would go look for the address of where it was coming from, and i would call the homeowners, give them the address of the problem and recorded it if possible. Also soon after, I called the police and gave them the address and kept calling to make sure the police are going to show.

You have rights and do not let anyone take them from you. Noe thank God all is very quiet around the hood, but now i have an issue with some woman that moved in next door to my house.

I live in a duplex (I own it) but she is leasing next door and houses are attached, and it seems like this person does not know how to close her door.

i asked very nicely but sadly this woman is antisocial, and is very rude and nasty.

what to do with noisy music neighbors? mainly because i hear the boom boom of the bass sound all day and a lot of time until morning, like midnight or 1 a.m.

i am so sick all day at work because of this.

i have complained to the block manager but it doesn't seem top be working. i work nights sometimes so I can't sleep during the day.

When i work during the day i can't sleep until about 1 a.m. so help!

i try using loud music too, but it doesn't work. i hate my stupid neighbors so help out!

I have had it with a group of boys who share a house down the street (four or five) houses away. First it was the incredibly awful garage band music. Now there are about three or four trying to restore some old cars.

Now I am not old nor am a prude. I love Metallica as much as the next girl and I also have a flavor for muscle cars. I assure you that neither of these things are taking place at this house. Spray painting from a can of spray paint does not qualify as restoration. They are loud and smelly. O.k. that is enough out of me for now. And yes, I do feel better!

Some twenty-somethings moved into the house across the street and haven't grown up yet. every weekend i feel like i live near a bar or college dorms. i don't want to hear their loud outdoor conversations any time of the day, but especially at 1 o'clock in the morning. they are disrespectful and annoying.

but now i call the cops every time after 10 p.m. {town ordinance}. i don't care if the cops or these inconsiderates hate me, just as long as i get the peace and quiet that i am entitled to!

I live in a brand new building and there is this guy that moved in a week after i did.

Ever since he moved he will turn up his music like he owns the building. We come home at 5 p.m. and he would have started his concert till 4 a.m. sometimes.

I reported him to building manager but all she does is pick up the phone call them and they say they are sorry.

Sorry is all have been getting for the past five months. Sometimes they even denied making any noise.

Now I'm trying to find the building's circuit breaker so i could turn off the power whenever i want to sleep.

For the past six-plus years, I have lived on the second floor of a two-story condo (that I own) and a little more than a week ago my new neighbors (who rent) moved in downstairs.

Since the first night, all they have done is blast their music. It doesn't matter the time—8 p.m., midnight, 3 a.m. I've heard their young kids blasting music until midnight! (How those kids sleep or function, I may never know.)

Now, I'm a 31-year-old, quiet, responsible and respectful person. I keep to myself, abide by the association rules, have never known any neighbors to complain about me but yet *I* get stuck with the loud neighbors! I don't like to be confrontational, but seeing as it was 2:30 a.m. on a Wednesday, well, I guess it would actually be Thursday then, and I work a job, I sucked up the courage, went downstairs and knocked on their door.

While they nicely complied and turned the music down (and it was quiet the night after), I thought that would be the end of it. Maybe they just weren't aware how really loud and disturbing it was? (Please, oh please let that be it!)

I should have known it seemed too easy because here I am. No matter what room I go into, hearing Lady Gaga or Black Eyed Peas or whatever else they're blasting.

When I can sing along with the lyrics, yeah, that's pretty loud. (Hey, wouldn't you know it's Lady Gaga again! Good thing I like that song...)

I think another neighbor may have already complained. I saw the police here a couple days ago. I can only assume it was about the noise. Anyway, I will be filing a complaint with my association, and then see what I can do from there. The earplugs I bought aren't exactly working miracles here.

I don't know how much longer I can take this. I feel like I'm being punished, and if I am, I am sorry! For whatever I may have done, I am sorry!

I'm an introvert - reclusive, bibliophilic, sensitive to nonsense going on around me, etc.

What I've been doing for about 15 years is wearing my Ruger brand shooting muffs over my ears - day or night, as I can't find decent neighbors.

Yes, they're uncomfortable at first; but soon, and in almost any situation but sleeping, you might not even notice what's doing the wonderful job of blocking out much of what the imbeciles are doing - high frequency, or low!

Otherwise, battery-operated (active) noise cancellation headphones.

I pray for all of you, in Jesus's name.

Tim --Fargo, ND

Maybe we need to box up all the loud people and send them somewhere they can all be loud together. :)

We've lived in our neighborhood for eight years now. The people next door moved out a few months back and rented the house. Unfortunately the people they rented to are loud and inconsiderate. They have the stereo up and sit out on their patio shouting, laughing and cussing like sailors (my family swears plenty and these people have foul mouths) for hours.

They play their radio so loud we can hear their house shaking and thumping and it permeates our walls, closed windows and doors. And if they have their windows or doors open, it's much worse.

The first time it happened we thought it was the neighbor kid with his drum set in the garage -- at 2 a.m.

They party two or three nights a week and often go until beyond 3 a.m. I'm not generally the type of person to complain. If they were pulling this once a month I'd live and let live; give them their day to party. Or even a couple of times a month. This is really getting old.

They keep us up at night. They've been asked to please keep it down that late and it doesn't seem to matter to them. We live in a neighborhood full of retirees and families with young kids. They're partying in the middle of the week when many of us have to get families going in the morning. Driving me nuts!

We finally called the cops on them and they were quick to shut down the stereo and go back in the house then. But next week, they were right back out there. It's also been 20 degrees at night and they are still out there. I'm afraid of what they are going to be like in the summer when it warms up. Hoping they will move. :{

i have a next door neighbor who is constantly playing loud, obnoxious music that bleeds through the walls.

A couple of weeks ago she had some friends over at about 12 o'clock in the morning and was blasting this music. Me and my husband have a two year old and a seven month old and this music actually started to wake my seven month old up. so my husband banged on the wall once (he did this because whenever we have tried to go over to talk to her she hides and doesn't answer the door), so he banged on the wall and she did the rudest thing -- she turned the music up even louder which did wake both my children up.

So naturally me and my husband are ticked off and we went to the office to complain. They sent her a complaint and then from then to now she has been out on her cell phone on the patio at all times complaining to all of her friends at the top of her voice how annoying we are and how she can be loud if she has a reason to be loud. when i was getting back from an outing one night i had both the kids and the neighbor had her friends over and one of her friends says, "ooh they have kids" and neighbor lady says "f* that b*."

Then yesterday afternoon she was blasting her music again. At first me and my husband were just kind of annoyed because it was the bass and it was pretty loud but not too loud for during the day. Well then she started turning it up slowly at first, but it got to the point where i could hear maybe some of the higher pitches in the song, then to where i could hear all the music in the song except the singing and then i was able to hear that, too.

so we called the complex and said hey we don't know if there is a noise ordinance during the day but the lady next to us is being extremely loud. they said they would check it out. so they came to our apartment and said yeah we can hear it from outside but we want to see if we can hear it from in here too. they did hear it and agreed with us that that was too loud even for the day time so they went over to neighbor lady's house and told her about it. she immediately asked them who complained and they said they weren't sure -- they only knew they got a complaint.

well she told them it was us and proceeded to say, i don't know why they are complaining because they are up until 5 in the morning every night (which is not true the latest we are up is two most nights). Of course my husband has a friend over once a week or so and they drink and have a good time but i have been coming back from friends' houses while they are drinking and they have never been overly loud and every time i notice that they are starting to get loud, i let them know to keep it down.

so she tells them this and they go and talk to the upstairs neighbors to see if they have any complaints about us and of course they don't and neighbor lady gets pissed again and starts talking to everyone who will listen out on the patio again at the top of her voice about whether or not she is too loud.

We had our door open at the time because we were smoking and don't like the smoke to fill up the house and when i went to shut the door because i was just tired of hearing it she was very rude about it.

I'm at my wits' end. I don't want to stay here but we have a lease for a year.

I have a neighbor who hires people to chainsaw his trees down for days. He has about 10 people working so there is at least two chainsaws going at once! Then comes the stump removal machines (ungodly noise). This went on for five days. After months of relative quiet it started up again. All day --the duet of chainsaws. Then a blizzard came. After a week or so another day of chainsawing then another day and a half of stump removal.

He does not respond to e-mails or phone calls. If you want to know how long the noise is going to go on for you have to ask the workers.

I did confront him face-to-face after the first two or three days. I told him my nerves were shot and when was the work going to be over. He claimed he had permission to cut the trees that were diseased.

He also has super bright lights on his house that shine into his other neighbor's bedroom window. Since they mentioned this politely. He has put a high fence around his yard only on their and my side.

I e-mailed him copies of Fairfax County, VA ordinances re: habitual noise that crosses property lines. I threatened to call in the tree conservation people.

One e-mail told him I was recuperating from surgery but he did not care.

During the fall he was leaf blowing all weekend. He spent three hours near my neighbors' windows. They went away for two weekends.

Even after I told him the chainsaws shot my nerves, he bought a loud backpack leaf blower that he wears huge earmuffs with. He also sits on the side where my neighbor's pool is and smokes a foul stogie.

He is Mr. Cigar Smoking Bigshot who obviously doesn't give a crap about anyone.

He has a commuter marriage and his wife hardly comes to visit--no wonder. One time she came out to visit and he had her sanding the deck for three days and throwing debris onto the woods next door to him. Nice guy, huh?

He has a half-acre lot so it seems he will be out of trees at some point. :-)

I have this 30 year old 'girl' who lives above me. I call her a girl because she hasn't grown out of that 'better then you' phase. She has hardwood floors, a dog, walks in her shoes, paces around the house, slams the door to come do laundry in the basement where I have my suite, slams the washer and dryer, and the basement door, then back to her house above me she goes.

She griped at me when I first moved in for some Techno I was playing. This was like three years ago when she got mad.

The initial volume wasn't loud at all. Like maybe two level; volume three max, but her beef was my sub woofer which I didn't really hear or notice. I politely killed the bass since then.

She then griped at my roommate about me talking one night and asked her to tell me to keep it down.

Yet, she has escalated her noise for no reason. When ever I disturbed her, I was kind. Yet she is very hypocritical to go on her noisy life not thinking that it is loud.

Now she has this new Romanian boy toy. He drives this brand new white Mercedes sports car and I bet is rich, and she is some high society wannabe who's just shallow and plastic, not to mention high maintenance, demanding, bossy, condescending, self righteous and very inconsiderate.

She moves her bedroom mattress from her room, right above my computer where I work from home and drills him.

Two thoughts run in my mind: grab my camera and voyeur her through her mail box slot and post it on the net, or play "The Tribute - Mushroom Jazz" by Mark Farina. That shut them up tonight. I think she realized, "Oh crap!"

Peace

I'm a law student, moved into an apartment close to campus. Visited in the summer, it was a lovely building, and as there are no students there was no noise. The landlord assured me in writing that there were noise controls in place and that he was quite scrupulous when processing tenants. Indeed even with clean credit, straight A's, a well paying job, and a future in law I had a hard time getting in. For the first few weeks everything was OK. Then all hell broke loose. The people across the hall smoke marijuana all day long. The halls, and more importantly my apartment have a constant odor of marijuana in them. I've called the super and the police, but no one can act on a smell. The person above me is just as bad. Constant stomping, moving furniture, different friends staying over all the time, loud bass filled music. I can't sleep, I can't concentrate, I can't do anything in this place and I have an excessive workload as it is. Moreover, the area is heavily desirable and finding a substitute apartment is next to impossible. Not to mention the minimum 1 year lease there is everywhere. My only option is to continue harassing the police and to file suit. Luckily as a future lawyer I have gathered piles of evidence. Wish me luck.

I got some loud upstairs neighbors about four or five months ago. From the time they moved in, they've been nothing but loud when walking around.

I kept a log of all the times they were loud and after about two weeks I turned it in to the apt manager. She said she would give them a notice. They were still loud, so I kept adding to the original log. I turned that in to the manager again, and she said she would evict them. They apparently said they never got the first notice. That was at the end of September.

It is now the beginning of January and they are still living there, and still being loud. I can't keep being kept up until 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.

I have a great deal of sympathy for those people here who have to endure the noise from thoughtless neighbours, as we've had to deal with noise from barking dogs, motorbikes, children playing football, neighbor's loud music, etc.

We politely asked the people making these noises to do something about it, but as almost always seems to happen with these types of people they just carried on as before.

Our solution was to use sound-masking machines, something already mentioned here but seemingly not acceptable or useful to some posters. But the best of these sound machines are very effective and can make all the difference between enjoying living in your home and dreading every day or night.

Someone said that noise of any kind is still noise, but the thing about sound machines is that if you play them for a while you cease to notice them after a time. Your ear gets used to the same sound, just as it does to the ticking of a clock, so you no longer hear it unless you deliberately listen for it. This is why so many people use these machines to get relief from intrusive noise in their neighbourhood.

The best of sound machines have a variety of different sounds so you can always find something you like, though as I've said, after a while you don't really hear it. Volume control is important, as is a timer to switch the machine off after a certain length of time, if this is what you want. Some of the machines have programmable sounds, where you can add in the sound of birds, foghorns, etc. if you wish.

I understand some people may object to having to buy a sound machine, but surely it's better to get some peace in your home and save your sanity than to refuse to do anything on the grounds that it's up to the noise-maker to stop? People who make a lot of noise often do some quite deliberately, getting pleasure from knowing they're annoying others.

I hope young people reading this won't get too mad at me saying that this attitude of wanting to annoy people by making unreasonable noise is very common among the young. To me it makes sense to do something to ensure your own comfort, rather than to fret and fume but refuse to help yourself.

By all means fret and fume and take legal action or whatever, but do it in comfort by using a sound machine which will put you in control of your environment, not your neighbor.

Just remember - after a while you won't even hear the sound from the sound machine and you won't hear the noisy neighbor either.

I built a house with extra insulation because of a previous neighbor with a howling dog.

Now, I have a neighbor who has a DJ system and plays his music for days on end.

It passes through his wall, through my detached garage and into the opposite end of my house. I put an insulated garage between us to hold down all the voices and music.

We have been to court once. The cops are tired of coming out, and when they leave he just stands outside my fence and calls me dirty names and flips me off for days afterwards.

We are going back to court.

This is the only way to get them, as our attorney and even some of the officers said. when it costs them money, they will stop.

I know it's a pain and costly, but your sanity is worth something. If they were good people it wouldn't have gone this far.

I"m a senior citizen living alone in my house and they have a steady stream of people living there, three or four families at a time. They have the parties right up against my fence and its horrible.

I just finished listening to 72 hours of loud bass filled music. We are going to court.

Record everything!

Document, document!

It's one thing to call and report them, but it's your word against theirs. Video tape or audio tape every incident. Then show it to the officer.

After awhile the scumbags will run after they know you have called the cops so you look like an idiot with no one next door. Taping is legal and holds up in court and with the police.

I live in a 2 bedroom flat(council). I've been here nearly three years, everything was fine, until they moved this NED (non-educational defect) :) young girl underneath me. She is an alcoholic/druggie and hasn't got custody of her two year old boy (whom she sees three times a week).

My life has just turned upside down. me amd my partner work, and this girl just plays loud bass music till all hours, also on the days she doesn't have her son. Yet she feels OK to play this music even though i have a little girl in the flat? I could go on and on, but nothing is being done at all, and yes she has won, as we're looking to move out now. I

will never rent or go in a council flat ever again! pray for me!

next door big party shaking the house. just got into massive argument but the police didn't want to know since it was inside their house when they made the noise but the thud vibrated the whole house. What can we do now?

we are at a loss here. The social officer said "things are in motion and they'll be gone soon," but that's not what asked for!

i asked for help, for someone to go round, but as usual nothing is done. my wife has been made ill by them and they abuse her. the police have done nothing -- just a slap on the wrist, like bad kids. What has government come to?

The noisy neighbors are still here and still make noise. Now they look up for a response. They started on my wife. We called the police, but all we get is, "it's in their own home." we had anti-social round telling us what they doing for them. What about the victims? They told the police I'm crazy and threatened the kids so i had the social doctor round about the state of my mind. It was so humiliating

They are evil animals and acting this way, so the above total rubbish doesn't work for evil beings like them next door.

Well it's loud party music *again* in the house behind where I rent. My house rattles from the bass. I am so tired of this- I swear the person who sold the house to them must have hated everyone in the neighborhood.

These parties go on all night, and tomorrow morning I am going to hit the panic button on my car to make sure they're all awake bright and early. :)

I am in the process of looking for a new condo or house to move into. Please give me some advice to keep from moving next to noisy neighbors.

i am seven and a half months pregnant in a downstairs flat. my upstairs neighbor stomps about all day and all night, so i don't sleep day or night.

i may get two hours of sleep a night, which isn't good, because not only am i pregnant but i have epilepsy as well.

I'm ill because of the constant noise 24/7, and also so stressed that i have panic attacks. i feel like there's nothing i can do, and I'm frightened that i will get so stressed i will lose my baby.

I'm sure that there's something wrong with my neighbor because who could say awake all day and night walking about? someone please help me.

I live in the apartment beneath a 300lb schizophrenic, alcoholic person with a learning disability. He is sadly without any friends so he is home 24/7 year after year. He is a stomper, doesn't just walk, he smashes his size thirteens into the floor each and every step. Morning, noon and night. He is a pacer, window to window all day and all night. No carpet of course, wears his boots in the home, stomp, stomp, stomp.

He is also a furniture arranger. I don't know if he builds barricades or what but he drags his furniture around daily like a kid with a wagon. Of course he lifts an end of it, drags, and has to drop it, not just gently let it down. Oh no, he has to move it and drop it at 3 a.m., 5 p.m., 11 p.m.

The alcohol just fires him up and makes him more restless. I would imagine his meds and booze are a great combination for the voices in his head.

The loud conversations he has by himself are just the most interesting thing to hear at 4 in the morning. The only people who will talk to him are the mental health professionals who do nothing but congratulate him for doing so well in the community. He doesn't go outside for God's sake!

I'm saving as hard as I can to be able to buy a home but Lord it's a nightmare of an existence in the meantime. Building management won't do anything. "Call the police," they say.

He's in his fifties, if he hasn't figured out how to walk in a normal fashion by now he ain't ever going to figure it out. I tried to talk to him a couple of times -- getting him to answer the door in the midst of a paranoid delusion is a trick in itself -- and risky for me. Someday I will be gone from this nightmare of an apartment and will laugh. Till then I will just go to work and lie in bed at night listening to him stomp, stomp, stomp. Idiot!

I agree with the person about ear plugs and fountains and such, irritating. When I go to bed what I want is peace and quiet. Is that too much to ask for?

This Christmas my super gets nada cash for allowing this problem to continue. Nothing!

i have noisy neighbors on both sides of me and one on top of me and it's driving me crazy! i have complained and complained and nothing gets done! all the landlord cares about is his rent!

when i complain they get more noisy. I play my tv and music loud just like them, but after a while, i just give up and do a lot of praying and remember that what goes around comes around and they'll get theirs in the end! we just have to hold on!

while visiting my baby sister, who is seven months pregnant, i heard some loud running back and forth. it was above my head. i said to her "what the hell is that?" and she nonchalantly says "oh, that's just my upstairs neighbors!"

This seemed to be a behavior she was used to but if you all could have heard this, it was like an exercise room up there. I am hard of hearing and had the t.v. up high and i could still hear those people.

i walked upstairs and knocked on the door, against my sister's request. she was afraid it would just get worse but i just knew in her condition that this was really a stressful issue for her. Anyway, i knocked and i hear someone walk up, look out the peephole and walk away. a second later the door swings open and it was a little girl, about eight years old. i asked for her mother and she says yes she is here, one minute.

the door again swings open and it's a little boy about five. i again ask if his mother is there and he says yes and stands there just staring at me. the little girl walks back and of course says to me "my mom is in the bath." i say to the kids "could you please stop running back and forth up here, it is really loud downstairs." they both say yes, slam the door and run through the apartment.

I just wanted to scream. the mom never comes down to talk to us. it seemed as though the kids ran harder, faster and more frequently than before i went upstairs. which as i said my sister was afraid! so to all you upstairs noisy neighbors and from all the downstairs pregnant and stressed neighbors. Be quiet, and get control of your kids, or I'm calling the police.

I have the neighbors from hell. One below me and one above me.

First the one below starts banging and making a hell of a lot of noise then comes to my door and starts screaming and throwing accusations at me and tried to come into my apartment when I tried to close the door and the cops did nothing. that was about seven months ago and since then the one above me started knocking and banging for several hours during the day and night and I've written letters, gotten doctors letters, called security numerous times and even called the police and still nothing has been done.

The landlord has also done nothing because the upstairs neighbor and the landlord are "friends" and refuses to do anything, despite all the appropriate steps taken.

I've tried everything and nothing is getting done.

Condominium, same problem, loud (I hesitate to call it) music, mostly the incessant booming of the bass, from stupid, young, uneducated, welfare parents.

Similar to #30, I just go to their circuit breaker box and throw the main switch, turning off the power entirely. They think that they have overloaded the system, and stop playing. For a while. It's not perfect, but it gives me peace.

My sympathies to all.

I wish #30 would at least let us know where to begin, if we are not electrical engineers. I want to tweak my neighbor's electric system too.

I know at first it may sound childish what I am about to tell you, but for those that suffer the same plights they understand my eventual actions.

About three months ago my neighbor in a town house complex bought what appears to be a brand new video game for his console. I am so happy for him, but he should have invested in headphones as well.

Anyway he uses a cheesy 5.1-in-a-box system to play the game's audio and I hear the bass over everything. Bass is non-directional and it permeates over my television, my family talking, everything. Plus he either works from home or does not work (or leave the place) and instead just plays the game all day, all night. He sleeps somewhere around 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then starts up again.

Requests directly to him go unanswered -- literally. He stares at me blankly when I say "Hey, how are you? Listen can you not play your game so loud and into the morning?"

The HOA has rules against this and have initiated three separate fines of $50 each for the incidents and though they get paid, he does not stop. The police have been out three times but their hands are tied to a certain level especially since the unit on his other side is currently empty.

So, as an engineer, I decided to tweak his home's electrical system. Nice to know he didn't invest in a surge suppressor or other protective device. Luckily it's been quiet now. :)

Of course I don't suggest this for anyone, but my God I was losing sleep, groggy at work and I make a good but each hour by contracting. I lose hours I lose money and frankly that gets me to action. So judge me if you will, but it is now peaceful in my town home.

I have a neighbor who lives just above me, who constantly stomps when she walks and lets her kids (yes plural) jump off of furniture. Did I happen to mention that it is a one bedroom apartment? My husband has to work nights and he cannot sleep when he needs to because of this. I have called and written letters to our property manager, who said he was going to personally talk to our neighbors. if he did, then they are not heeding any warning he might have given them. Worst part is, I can hear the couple arguing upstairs. Then the other day I think I finally figured out what the "heavy object" falling on the floor was. I heard it hit the floor in the bedroom, then I heard a baby crying, then footsteps sounding like they were running. I don't know who I feel worse for now, my husband being too tired to do anything other than barely make it though work, or the baby that sounds like it falls off the bed all the time.

I can honestly say i hate my neighbor. I've written letters, had talks with her and nothing has worked. She is so evil. I feel if you talk with them about the noise that they should pipe down. It's the other way around the noise get worse and louder. She even puts her kids up to making noise. I am about to explode. I can't take it! I'm ready to move and in a few more months i will be able too. Until then please pray for me!

Wow, I'm not alone. Any suggestions? I am a cardiac patient ready to pop an artery. My neighbor's kid jumping or inconsiderates are killing me with the constant thumping, slamming doors. The landlords, police are doing nothing. They are on my head 24 hours a day.

we live behind a two family apartment house. the upstairs neighbors constantly throw crap down their stairs and scream at each other at outlandish hours of the morning. i think they go scrounging for things on the side of the road just to throw them down their stairs. the downstairs neighbors haven't been bad, except they recently got a pitbull that they tie up and don't let in the house for long periods of time. this dog does not bark. it screams with a very high pitched, almost like a whistling sound. i work very long shifts and on my few days off i'm usually awake by 7 in the morning, just like on a normal day of work.

I hate my neighbors, my nerves are shot and I haven't slept in five months! I've written a million letters and I have not received a resoponse as of today. Wow!

I also feel everyone's pain. we moved into our upmarket complex and pay a fortune for our one bedroom flat just to be in a place with so called 'stricter rules'. Management here is quite good at fining people who arrive late drunk and shout in the parking lot. However, so far they have been unable to help with our problem. We have a single mom living with a 4 or 5 year old kid. She often has a moron coming to sleep over at her place. Their balcony is right next to our bedroom windows. Out of lack of space they turned into the kids playground as well as their living room. The kid seems to be a bit retarded as he is always compelled to make all kinds of animal noises. We can never have our window or balcony door open and we live in a really hot climate. If the kid is not there, the mom and her stupid boyfriend keep smoking out of their bedroom window which is literally two meters below ours so our bedroom is constantly filled with smoke. I feel so helpless as my complaints produce no results. Moving out is the only option and it sucks because we have changed flats four times in the last two years.

Hi me and my wife live in hastings, england. our neighbor moved and her dad rented the house to noisy neighbors. no one in the area has had a decent sleep since. the police are taking their time, we had words and now have been told not to interfere with them like we're bad. they move in with one mother and three kids, then the following week, another child turns up and the same next week, so now there are five in a noisy house with three bedrooms. the eldest son set fire to our garden and has been caught under age drinking and graffiting. the girl smokes late at night near our house and comes home at 2-3 in the morning and slams the door -- first the outer door then the inner. nothing is being done. they just brush it off and laugh at us. we don't know where to go or what to do. we spoke to them, brought the police in and child services. we are at a loss. will a petition work for other neighbors to sign?

I can't believe I found so many others in the same boat as me. I live in nyc where there are nothing but spanish people that blast music all night long at astronomical decibels and the nypd does nothing. I am this close to suing them, because I am now starting to get an ulcer from stress. I have fragile nerves and cannot take this anymore. I am hoping to leave nyc forever, but for right now I have to be able to do something to keep my sanity.

The sad fact is that there is nothing that can be done about these idiots. Calling the police is a joke because they really don't do anything and getting fancy machines and so on never works. I have a neighbor who constantly plays loud music (right now in fact) and the police just drove by and didn't even stop. The neighbor has been to court, been told by the township to shut up and they still don't do anything. It is pure crap.

I have a neighbor who slams heavy objects on the floor, lets her kids run and stomp on the floor at all hours of the night, ple she yells at the top of her lungs and slams her house door for no reason, I honestly think she has mental issues. Management is no help at all.

this sucks for me because i live in a rental property in a duplex. the people in the other half are wonderful neighbors. *But*, the neighbors on both sides of our house have either a stereo blaring, 12 kids yelling in the front yard, kids wandering through my yard who yell/swear at me when i ask them nicely to walk around (I've resorted to spraying them with the hose), fireworks going off year round at all hours of the night, a party with tons of people yelling and drunk, or their car stereos blaring with the trunk open while they sit on their front porch. there's a neighbor across the street that does the same thing. that's three houses that are all right by me! I'm going crazy! I've called the police, I've asked them to please turn it down, there's no one besides the police that will do anything, and all they do is tell them to be quiet. Grrr! i can't afford to move out because it's such cheap rent and a nice house with tons of space. it seems like all my complaints are falling on deaf ears. I'm about ready to get a paintball gun and start tagging the little creeps or their cars so when i call the cops they'll know exactly who I'm talking about. that sounds like a plan. maybe they'll get the point then.

Me and my family live next door to a bunch of redneck morons, who've just started building their dream-home. We suffer from the fact that they allow their kids to ride their four-wheelers up and down their driveway, quite often until midnight, while I pine a mere 20-feet away! Yesterday, our ears nearly met their demise when we heard them shooting fairly serious weapons out in their acre-long field. We've tried amiable discussion, but to no avail. It's becoming a strain to just wake up in the morning, knowing that everyday will be a mirror-image of the last. Any advice?

I feel the pain of everyone here. I too live next to (above actually) people who are stupid enough to believe they are the only ones living in this apartment complex. I chose the top floor so I didn't have to deal with noise but sure enough, my neighbors are loud enough that my two fans on high, dryer, AC, and aviation ear plugs can't drown them out. I have been dealing with this crap forever. Fortunately, it is their last month here (yes) My complaints got them evicted. Woo-hoo! I will be vacuuming, jumping rope, singing, and "accidentally" dropping heavy things for their remainder of time here. Ahhh! Revenge is so sweet.

This may sound silly to some of you but I spend a lot of time outside on my back porch and it is the neighbor's pool filter/waterfall that is driving me crazy. He runs it 24/7 and the sound of constantly running water is stressful, not relaxing. I would understand if they were outside and enjoying the sound, but they are never outside. My husband asked him to please run the filter under the water and he said that it makes the pool cleaner to run it like a waterfall. So my husband asked him if he would run it at night when we are all asleep. He runs it at night as well, not instead of during the day.

I don't know how long it will be before I put dish soap in his pool.

I've tried: pressuring the HOA management/Board to "enforce" the noise rules. No luck there.

Called the police a half dozen times. They have two warnings on file. Next warning they'll get fined.

Bought "masking" CDs. It's still noise to me.

"Water fountains". Waste of money.

Ear plugs. Hurt my ears.

Close my windows and doors. It's too damn hot.

Bought a fan. Fan noise is still noise to me.

Turn on my stereo or tv. It's still noise to me. All "background" noise is still *noise*.

Letters, "being nice."

Tape recorder. I have 16-plus hours of recorded noise abuse. Can be used in civil court if I go that route.

Feng Shui with mirrors.

Send "good vibes", "send thoughts of quiet."

Talked to an attorney. Don't have the money to go the distance. Am documenting on-going nuisance noise. Yeah, I have time for this.

There are only three things that work. Sell and move away. Or, sue their sorry butts. These two cost money and a huge time drain. The third, so easy and so hard: accept and forgive. I have nothing to lose in trying this angle. I so detest these idiots' behavior that it is very difficult. I am doing what I can to be willing to accept this difficult situation. I am accepting that I am in a very difficult situation and I need to be very good to myself, forgive myself for whatever part I've had in putting myself in this situation for now and do whatever I can to avoid being affected by their behavior. The fact is, even though I feel resentful for having to close my windows or not being able to sit out and enjoy my patio, I feel less angry when I close my windows and the noise is lessened. I resent having to curb my behavior because of their behavior. But I am trying to accept that I cannot change their behavior by the ways I've tried so far and that, with time, something may change in the outer world that will impact their world against their own noise.

I wish you all the best.

i live on the third floor of a lowrise the neighbor below me is an older, mentally disturbed person who bangs on my floor at 3 a.m. or anytime i'm sleeping. she runs from room to room hitting her ceiling with a broom or something. it wakes my wife and me up from a sound sleep. we approached her once and she screamed at us and called us liars. i guess w'ell have to call the police and get her charged under the mental health act.

I feel for everyone posting on this site. I am going through the same "hell" with a noisy, trashy, neighbor in the condo next door. In other words, he shares a wall. He plays the same man-boy games on his surround-sound stereo, plays loud music and loud videos at all times of day or night--usually up till 10 p.m. He has three barking yappers that bark at their own shadows. He has been approached three times telling him that his stereo is too loud and that we share a wall, so please be considerate. Gone ignored for the most part. The tenant's response, "well, this needs to be a give and take relationship". Yeah, he's giving and I do all the taking of loud and obnoxious noises.

The HOA has a representative who is very considerate and sympathetic to my plight, and is doing all she can to get the situation settled. At least I am not the only one making complaints. The landlord and protperty managers are now "slowly" getting involved and I hope for a resolution in the next 60 days --preferably an eviction notice, but I'll take a cease and desist threat, as well. Anyway, I am at the end of my rope here and have been putting up with this trashy behavior for the last 8 months. --angry in a condo

I have idiot neighbors, just out of college, who own the town home behind us. They play video games on their surround sound, and are doing so right now, after 11 pm, sometimes until 3 am in the morning. The sound is like a war zone in my home.

The HOA is of *no* help, and they insist that to do anything, I need other neighbors to complain too. And then, they give them several *months* to comply! I've never seen such idiots as the ones making up our HOA. I can't believe we even pay them dues!

I don't even know the neighbors! It's ridiculous. Now I'm suppose to believe that because there isn't more than one house complaining, it's not an issue? Our peace is disturbed constantly.

I have spoken to them several times, and written them as well. I could literally strangle those little SOBS. I'm going to call the cops. I've kept detailed records of every time they've blared that damn thing, shaking my walls. I'll ignore the HOA, who is of no help, start calling the cops, and threaten to take them to civil court. Ingrate little creeps! Luckily, I work with lawyers.

i live in a row home and my neighbors meet all the requirements for being a-holes! the music is blaring, the dog is wailing, the weights are dropping, and the doors are slamming 24/7. this has been going on for years and i've already asked them to shut up multiple times! but we can't just move away, besides the same might occur in the middle of a suburb.

I recently had new neighbors move next door. Now it's a living hell every day. 2 kids, one screams and the other yells. 2 dogs, barking and the parents are oblivious. People are ignorant! We've started building a fence out of cordwood to help block them out. Maybe, just maybe they'll get the hint. Doubt it!

Since I hate neighbors I moved to a very remote location. Just camps. Some moron moved up here 4 acres away from me but his nine kids, two yapping dogs, a goat and a cow and now he wants chickens. The people are very nice, the kids are *great* but they are all screamers and they have ruined my life. Anybody want 7000 sf half million dollar home with cherry hardwood thorughout, pool, spa, complete tavern and pool room on 8 acres for about $150,000??? Yup. They ruined my life. I think I will foul their water before I leave. People are ignorant animals.

A waterfall wouldn't drown out what we've had to endure for the past two nights in our neighborhood & it's not even the 4th of July. Neighbors next door have out-of-town company who brought with them loads of illegal fireworks. They begin drinking around noon and do it all day. The sound of clinking beer bottles as they put them in the trash, loud trash talk & F-word conversation that I wouldn't want my kids to hear, and the ever-present booming fireworks being shot over our roof well past midnight. It's a big joke to them and they feel the laws don't apply to them. My heart hasn't stopped pounding hard for the two days & nights we've had to deal with this continual stress. Talking with the people wouldn't do any good. They don't care about anyone but themselves. We pay taxes & for what??? We abide by the laws, live quietly, and do not retaliate, but it's pure hell living in fear in our own home, unable to live in peace. I'd move if I could, but with the economy the way it is, we'd never be able to sell our home at what we paid for it.

Hey. With my neighbor (in rural Mendocino cty) a little fountain won't cover the blast of the idiot's stereo. He's 5 houses away!

Maybe he's deaf. He definitely will soon be.

Storm windows? It's 90 degrees outside without an AC. Don't be a hippie.

Take action against your neighbor because no one will help you. *Ever*!

Why should I, the victim of a noisy neighbor, spend my hard-earned money buying noise machines and waterfalls to drown out someone else's noise?

Maybe, I should purchase the things suggested here and send the bill to my neighbor? After all, they're causing the problem. Therefore it's their responsibility to remedy it.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I'm going to go to my local stereo store and request the most sophisticated and expensive equipment known to man and install it. I'll just grab my neighbor's credit card first and use it to make my purchase.

C'mon, people! Think! Yes, two wrongs don't make a right, but maybe --just maybe-- two wrongs make a *point*.

Hey, have you heard about Soniscape? It's a sound masking track that will block out your neighbor's noise and make it sound like a waterfall in your place. Works great!

I guess I can't put a link in this post but you can always google Soniscape.

If you have a yard, you can mask the noise by installing a water fountain. Preferably one that really pours the water down.

Another method is to install a surround sound. Basically speakers are installed in all the rooms, including outdoors, like patio and yard. They are connected to a radio/CD player. You can play music, listen to radio, or listen to some soothing sounds of the sea, or singing birds. I have one in my house, and I love it.

Not only does the surround sound reduce the noise from your neighbors, but the sound follows you wherever you might be within the house.

In a free standing house, you might consider installing storm windows. It is a big expense but beneficial in many ways.