Bloody Neighbours

I just left my upstairs neighbours a second note complaining about all the noise from their flat late at night. I left a first note in November, to absolutely no avail. There are three people who live in the flat above me, and I think they are Korean. Anyway, they are so bloody loud. I live in a three-storey walk-up (one flat per floor), and as it is the floorboards in these buildings are very thin. You can hear every footstep coming through, so you get used to it. However, there are ways of making a conscious effort to be considerate. For example, I never wear shoes inside my flat, and when I walk around I literally always walk on my toes, because when you walk flat-footed or with your heals you make more noise. What I don't understand is how oblivious people can be to the noise they make with their own feet. Anyway, I never run my washing machine and dryer past like 8pm, and never shut doors late at night. If I come home late, I tip-toe up the stairwell in the commonparts. I have an old lady who lives under me on the first floor so I am uber-conscious not to make too much noise.

But those bastards above me...man! They make so much noise during the day and evening, but, as annoying as that is, I can accept it because it's when I'm awake. But then, the noises at night! And no, don't get all excited, it's nothing kinky. They just make no effort whatsoever to be quiet. From what I gather one of them leaves for work or whatever very early in the morning, at around 5am, so he is up-and-at-'em by like 3am. He thumps around the flat so loudly that sometimes I think he's doing it on purpose. Then there are these random bumps and bangs, and doors slamming shut, etc. Then on more than one occasion I have woken up to music suddenly coming through (and really cheesy music too, like soft rock ballads), and believe it or not more than once the bastard(s) has turned on the washing machine and dryer at like 3am! Do you have any idea how loud the machine is? My whole flat vibrates from their machine, so imagine it at 3am when you're asleep. Anyway, I have taken to banging on my ceiling with a large book, but to no avail. Then when the guy leaves the flat, he runs down the stairs in the commonparts and it is so loud it sounds like the building is coming down, and then he just slams the front door to the street shut without any thought to the fact that it is bloody 5am and the rest of us are asleep!

Anyway, I have wanted to go up at night and tell them to shut the fuck up but a part of me has always been a bit scared to go up by myself! But finally last night I said enough is enough. No, I didn't go up and confront them, but I did take the nerdy route and wrote them a second long note, quoting clauses from our tenancy agreement that they are in violation of (the landlord owns all three flats in the building). If I don't see a difference in the next couple of days I am gonna call and tattle to our landlord.

I wonder just how many people actually live up there. And not just because of the noise. We get our mail dropped through the slot in the front door so we see each other's mail, and I have seen letters for that flat addressed to at least 10 different names so far. All of whom are valid because they never get put in the "wrong mail" stack. So either they are letting their friends send their mail here, or they are running some sort of a sweatshop up there. Personally I suspect the latter.

Update: It is nearly 1am and the bastards have their washing machine and dryer on! After I specifically specified in the note that turning the machines on after midnight was unacceptable (I gave them an extra 1 1/2 hours, because our tenancy agreement says no loud equipment/machinery after 10:30pm). That's it, I'm calling the landlord tomorrow. This is just simply an act of defiance! THIS MEANS WAR!!