This one goes out to the Neighbors living above me. Now I know living in an apartment there will be noise from neighbors etc, I knew this when I signed the lease. What I don’t appreciate is the constant running around and heel walking, all day everyday. Now we have a newborn, and your stomping and heel walking is very loud (I swear you have free weights in the room above our bedroom and drop them A LOT) last night at 8:30pm we had, had enough, went upstairs and asked you politely (didn’t go to the landlord or anything) to ask you to quiet down as it’s waking us up (I had to be up at 5am for work) the person that answered was apologetic. Went to bed thinking well that was easy! Fast forward to this morning, there is a note sticking out of my mailbox as I come home on my break from work, “don’t appreciate you asking us to be quiet etc, etc.” I really hope you enjoy the now offical noise complaint I filed with our landlord, I also hope you like when I call the police next time if the noise keeps up! —Exhausted and just want some sleep
This article appears in Sep 19-25, 2013.
These situations are unfortunate. Sometimes walking is not a matter of choice but a matter of a person’s anthropometric properties, and so adjusting walking patterns can cause pain over time. That said, maybe you can politely suggest that your neighbours wear soft-sole slippers when walking in doors. Of course, I’m assuming you mean heel walking as opposed to walking in high heels.
In general, I’m not sure contacting the police will accomplish anything, especially if it relates to how people are walking. Unless there is evidence of unreasonable, controllable noise (e.g. running around, bouncing stuff off the floor repeatedly, jumping up and down, operating a treadmill), the most you can do is try to mediate constructively (hint: instead of asking your neighbours to be less noisy, suggest an alternative such as the soft soled slippers).
I have the reverse problem, so I know how it feels to be on the other side of this coin. Our downstairs neighbour gets enraged when we walk in our apartment or even when our cats run around (they’re fat and lazy, so this is rare). He is so agitated that he thinks if something falls on the floor that we are deliberately throwing heavy objects on the floor just to antagonize him. Little does he know, the fact that we’re causing him stress causes us stress. So we’ve spent time and money attempting to sound proof our place. We’ve bought cupboard silencers, felt pads for all furniture, soft-soled slippers, limited our dog’s indoor toy play to times when the neighbour is gone, trained our dog to never bark indoors. Still, he hates us.
After all that, it’s my view that the neighbour is being unreasonable, as we’ve made reasonable steps to adjust our living arrangements. So, OB, my advice to you is to offer reasonable suggestions to improve your co-existence, recognize that your discomfort is likely a source of stress to your neighbours, and try to put yourself in their shoes. Do all of this before going crazy and causing a big controversy by calling the landlord or having your neighbour evicted.
First off, tiptoeing around a new baby so he/she will sleep is a no win situation. I taught my sprog from the start that noise was a normal part of the day. That included loud stereo music, noisy neighbours and two squawking Siamese cats that I still miss after 20 years.
By the time she was a toddler, she could sleep right through a bagpipe band at a parade, even when said band was ten feet away and just starting up.
In your case, I would suggest you give up apartment living.
You tried diplomacy and that didn’t work…you had no recourse but go to landlord.
by ‘heel walking’ do you mean when someone walks really heavily coming down on their heel? must be a tiny person. I used to work with a couple of tiny women, 98 pounds soaking wet and they both shook the walls when they tromped across the floor.
I would suggest moving to the top floor of any apt building. I doubt either landlord or police could do anything about heavy walking.
In the only apartment (I like flats more) I ever lived in, my nextdoor neighbours were like this.
So, I complained about their stupid baby crying.
Sorry OP, this is not a valid bitch. It sounds like you are the one with the problem, ie: a low noise tolerance. If your neighbours were operating loud machines, playing loud music or having a party at an unreasonable hour (by the way, 8:30 is far from quiet time in most people’s books) then you would have a valid bitch. Sometimes life is just noisy and your neighbours have every right to walk in their apartment, however they like to walk, at any time of the day, no matter how much that bothers you. I suggest you find a new place to live, preferably a top floor or house, as you are the one with the problem. Same thing goes for crying babies and smelly cooking – annoying to some, yes, but not really anything you can do about it but move, i’ve been there. (Memories of my Philipino neighbours frying dried sardines for breakfast at 6am, nice people, but not a smell I was ready to deal with and I had to move)
Most of the time, if you can hear people walking, it’s because the walls are thin and cheap.
After having a psychotic neighbour that called THE COPS when i was sweeping the floor at 3pm (and by the way, the cops laughed in his face) I can tell you right now that there is no law that will make them sit still at all hours so your infant can get its naps whenever it needs them.
Loud music at 4am? You’ve got a case. Don’t like hearing people walk? You’re screwed.
See, in an apartment building, errant sounds are perfectly normal, par for the course. Excessive noise is something you’ll need to complain about. Random noises whenever you don’t like it? Your problem.
I’m in a crisis situation; I gotta go find Bobby. You two take turns kicking each other’s asses.
You sound like one of those ppl who complain about every little sound. I’m not sure but by 10-11 you would have a right to complain but before that just suck it up. Even a cop tell you it was just living noise. We use to live above someone like you. We had a cop explain to them when they could complain. Never got another complaint after that.
people are allowed to walk. what do you expect them to do…fly? Why don’t you complain to your landlord about the paperthin walls. Like it’ll do any good. Your blame is misspent, you get what you paid for. And you paid to live in an eggshell. Deal.. Quiet enjoyment of the home is what you want, go buy a house. Call the cops so they can laugh at anal-retentive assholes like you.
People can walk, but people cannot stomp around all day, and as someone who works early morning (I start work at 4am) I am behind OP 100%, If it’s unreasonable noise (outside of normal walking around) go make the noise complaint, if the police won’t do anything make a complaint to their superior as the noise by-law states it doesn’t have to be 11pm to have a noise complaint made.
No grown human STOMPS. Why would they? What does stomping accomplish? Loud music is something people do because they want to listen to loud music. But stomping is not something grown adults do. They have no REASON to. It serves no purpose and consumes energy at the same time. It’s pointless. Therefore, nobody is up there jumping up and down or goose-stepping across the living room.
So given that, one of two scenarios is at work here.
Either your floors are thin (which means you, in turn are driving YOUR downstairs neighbours crazy too, princess periwinkle.)
OR.. the stomper is a small child. Small children DO stomp. It doesn’t accomplish anything but kids are retarded and like to do shit that has no purpose. It’s how they grow.
If it’s the former, I reiterate, you are up shit creek and your neighbours aren’t doing anything wrong. And if they’re wearing shoes in the house, the only law against that is a canadian cultural norm to remove them. Unless it specifically states that shoes cannot be worn in the house, they are allowed to wear shoes and you can’t do a damn thing about that.
If it’s the latter then op? Why does YOUR child take priority over the child above you?