KaleidoKleio

Sunday, February 12, 2006

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!!

8 Comments:

  • i have learned over the years there is only two ways to deal with noisy neighbors.

    1) Loud Sex
    2) Fire

    Both have been proven to quiet them, make them think of what they done, and how they can either match it or even attempt to accomplish it. At the end I have the joy of silence.

    By Blogger nibaq, at 2/12/2006 10:59 pm  

  • How am I supposed to set fire to them without setting fire to myself?? And no comment on the loud sex part... Besides, the noise doesn't seem to travel from one flat to the one above, it goes from one flat to the one below. Which means any action on my part to shock the bastards upstairs into silence (most probably by means other than loud sex!) will do nothing but scandalise sweet little old Maria downstairs.

    By Blogger Kleio, at 2/13/2006 3:47 am  

  • Fatnay 3alayhom! :oP

    Either that or let a friend do all the talking and confrontation!

    By Blogger The Stallion, at 2/13/2006 7:50 am  

  • You should talk to your landlord and you should definitely avoid any face-to-face confrontations. You should certainly NOT go up there at midnight alone to tell them off (or even with a friend). That will just lead to trouble. Keep copies of the notes you left them, just in case you need to show them to your landlord. Keep us updated, and remember, we're in the the same boat over here: nothing but screeches, doors slamming, thumps, running around, and then, at 3 or 4am, the aathan and all the roosters in the country to make absolutely certain that we don't get three full minutes of quiet rest!! It could be worse!!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 2/13/2006 10:15 am  

  • Well here I deal with the sound of garbage trucks at 1am, and again at around 3:30am, and sometimes they come again at around 4am but I think that one is recycling cos the third truck is not daily. But I've learned to sleep through those!

    I had to leave the house in a hurry this morning and forgot to take my landlord's number with me and by the time I got home it was too late, so I will give them another night's trial before calling my landlord tomorrow.

    By Blogger Kleio, at 2/13/2006 10:21 pm  

  • there must be a gadget out there that you can buy which you could fix to the ceiling and program to make knocking sounds!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10/31/2007 12:15 am  

  • I have the same problem with neighbours from the flat above mine.

    There is certainly a lack of consideration. Door slamming, washing machine, footsteps. I called my local council and they said that the deal with noise caused by washing machine, but not with noised caused by day-to-day activities. Well, the bastards do the day to day activities between 0:30 am and 4:15 am.

    I am thinking of selling my flat to get some peace.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5/06/2008 6:53 pm  

  • I have a speaker wedged against my ceiling, some loud music with full bass rattles thier floor :) I only do it in the day time, so I'm not breaking any laws, or tenancy agreements, they are up all night, so I presume they try and sleep during the day.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/27/2009 3:18 am  

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