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I need to know context. I try to be a good neighbor, but my ability to do so will be affected case-by-case.
Sometimes...even often times there are situations beyond control, where it's not simply someone being inconsiderate and unconcerned with (negatively) impacting everyone in proximity.

For the first half of this decade, the family upstairs had an autistic child at a difficult part of the spectrum.
The high maintenance, daily fits variety. Ofc this was in a converted building with paper-thin walls.
It was very uncomfortable downstairs, between the running, jumping and yelling and the father randomly pacing until 3am. Stillness was rare. It def grates on you and increases stress, creating a vibe of constant tension.

Never once complained; I get it. From the downstairs perspective, I can ultimately escape that situation. The people stuck in it aren't so fortunate. I tried to let them handle their biz to minimize fits. Similarly, they never complained when I would turn up to drown out the racket with...noise and droning nastiness (goodness) in attempt to finesse the vibe.

However...after sustained and/or extra early or late disturbances...I did begin to lose patience and vented--got a bit bass crazy a bunch of times

With that said, engaging in a passive-aggressive arms race (to the bottom) to see who can be more inconsiderate is a lose/lose endeavor. Esp someone with the upstairs advantage, where simple footsteps can be disruptive.

Neighbors live directly above us. A couple. One’s a rapper who practices with a sound system at home. She’s a cellist, and the sound travels straight through the endpin and into our apartment. They play rap music loud enough to wake us up, and it’s usually loud enough for us to Shazaam it. Yesterday they blasted music for nearly 12 hours straight (they took two one hour breaks, normally it’s only five hours of music a day). We’ve put in seven noise complaints at this point, and the landlord’s talked to them twice.

The walls aren’t super thick (they never are in apartment complexes). But the person who lived there before this couple wasn’t bad at all. They had a couple of dogs you could hear every now and again, but nothing terrible. And we hear our other neighbors occasionally as well. But the upstairs neighbors do this every day for hours on end.

I understand being a musician and practicing, but you have to be extremely considerate with that. And there’s no reason to listen to music at those volumes for that long and that often when you live in an apartment complex. They have no kids, and no pets. The only reason they’re loud is because they want to be.

We aren’t allowed to talk to them because we agreed not to when we signed the lease. Them trying to make us agree to talking to them, is a violation of that agreement. So, now we’re worried that they’ll try something if we put in another noise complaint. I don’t want to be afraid our neighbors are going to act out. I don’t want to be forced to wear two layers of noise isolating devices in order to comfortably be in my own home. The landlord needs to fix this NOW. We’ve been dealing with this for too long and put in too many complaints for him to do nothing.

01010111 wrote:

Jesus Was a Robot wrote:Do not fight fire with fire. That’s bad advice coming from a guy who is a landlord.

File a complaint with the police. You have zero obligation to them in regards to talking to them about it. They know obviously they are being obnoxious jackasses.

Contact the landlord in writing as stated. Text or email is ok.

If the landlord does not resolve the issue you can escalate it. There are online forms you can serve your landlord with much like they can serve you. There are quit notices that they legally have to adhere to.

I’ll even find you the forms.

I would contact the police first though.

I started keeping a log back in July. According to the Portland police’s website this kind of noise (apartment to apartment) isn’t something they’ll respond to unless it’s a case of harassment. Though they might send a letter if they feel like it: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/oni/63268

Where the police won’t take any enforcement action in this case, would it still be worth contacting them? Would it only be so we can say we’ve contacted them if we do have to escalate this further? I’ll look into those forms if it comes to it, I’ll probably reach out and take you up on that help if I do.

The link you posted is for May through October. But it also says they will apply limited resources for

Persistent noise issues that have been recorded with complaint logs and citizen noise readings with a signed out noise meter between 7 AM and 10 PM

Sign out a noise meter and use it with your log. Now that tourist season is over, maybe you can get some action out of the police.

If that doesn't work, talk to a lawyer. There is no way your neighbors and an unresponsive landlord should be able to make your life hell and hold you hostage financially.

What state do you live in? Let's start there. Also, read your lease very carefully and see if it highlights anything on noise complaints. Usually there is something in there unless their lease is written poorly.

The landlord has a duty to solve this issue.

They can, in most states, place a notice on the other persons door informing them that they are violating their leasing terms by having noise levels too loudly.

Now, the sticky spot is the police. That obnoxious. You ought to be able to file a fucking complaint. Your local police department sucks man. Not sure what you can do about that, but you may have to go over their heads and file a complaint with the city.

Yeah, your neighbors sound like selfish douchebaggers.
The whole "no contacting neighbors about noise" is a terrible policy made worse by an ineffective landlord.
Check your lease, it sounds like the landlord may be in violation, and I would def consult professional legal advice. It may be worth the expense to force [landlord's] hand with an "us or them" ultimatum.

I don't know the tenant laws [out there] but you may be protected by a slumlord clause where repeated complaints of inability or unwillingness to solve a fixable problem, can be lodged with local housing authority/building dept which will attract the interest and ire of every local governing body looking for excuses to fine owner of said premises for whatever violation sticks.

If your freestyle game is tight then consider battling to settle things & clown on that boy, preferably in front of the cellist.

Current plan is to force the landlord’s hand with the “us or them” thing, if that doesn’t push him into action then we’ll pursue legal action.

Update: he called me back, and he’s going to move us to an open unit in the complex!!

That's great to hear, W.

We’re so relieved! Hopefully the old neighbors don’t try to retaliate against us if they get some kind of disciplinary action from this, but the new unit’s closer to the landlord’s office and all his cameras

Well it would be quite obvious if you were to experience any retaliation who the perpetrators are... that's all fantastic news man. He will see you guys are good tenants and that'll be that.

Still though.. a freestyle battle could be interesting.

Victory! Congrats, man!

Definitely! I doubt he’ll be a very good reference for future rental applications, but at least he won’t be a black mark on our record.

I’m terrible at rapping, so, as long as I kept my confidence up they’d probably just think I was crazy: if some hipsterish-looking guy throws out some extremely bad and abstract raps and acts like he’s better than any rapper ever, that’s going to make you think that guy might be dangerously unhinged

Eff yeah.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIjPP0x0ulE[/youtube]