I mean really loud. They live directly above us, and choose the weirdest times to have friends over. For example, this morning at 10 am, or almost every weekday night until like 3 am or later. They sound like they have at least 6 guys in that little tiny apartment, which wouldn't be that many, but I have to say they're from a different country (I'll leave it at that), a country where people are known to talk very loudly normally (and no, they're not speaking English).

The reason I bring up the fact that they're non-native to where I live is the fact that the country that they're from does not have a high regard of women. In fact, when I went up there to ask them to keep it down a little, they practically spat in my face. We've told the landlord, but he can never catch them in the act, and every time we complain they say they're celebrating a religious holiday (I've checked, and most of the time, there's no holiday).


AAAAHHHH! I just wrote an email asking my landlord if we can move to a different apartment, that's how bad it is.
And one of them got in a fight with my boyfriend (starting yelling at him- "Its not us" about the noise), so the landlord has basically forbade us from asking them to be quiet.

Any ideas what I can do? Already bought ear plugs, but I can't wear them while I sleep or I won't hear my alarm.

I don't have exactly the same situation, but I do have a noise problem that's caused by inconsiderate people, so I so sympathize! Last night was bad. I wish I knew an answer for you.

They must be bugging other neighbors too. Maybe all get together, and formally send a complaint to management, not just the local office, every time for a while. Inundate them, and with lots of names signed to it, so they can't pick on one of you.

I remember a couple of years ago the people under us and above us jacked up the noise so we had it coming from both sides. It SUCKED. Now, the people above us were "running" their huge Boxer inside because they were too lazy to walk him. We could actually hear the ball bounce across the floor, followed by this massive beast chasing it down. It sounded like an army was storming a shore or something. We actually started bouncing a ball off the ceiling to mess with the dog and it confused him so much that they stopped doing that

Now, I tried not to get too upset with the people above us as they were just going about their routine and if I lived next to them, for instance, I wouldn't have heard a peep from them.

Now the people below us, that was a different story. Sketchy couple and LOUD music at ALL hours of the day and night, although they liked to start it after 11 pm a lot. Now, I know that you're going to pick up noise living in close quarters, but I knew this guy's music library inside and out- that's how loud it was. My last straw was Christmas night, so when it happened again I called the police. And you know what? No loud music anymore. All they did was tell him to turn it down (we had knocked several times on his door to ask him oursevles-kindly- but he never ever answered, so we thought maybe he would answer if it was a police officer knocking)

Lately, there have been a couple of cases here of people being shot or hurt for calling out a neighbor, so I'm going to say to just call the cops and ask them if they wouldn't mind dropping by their apartment on their patrol. That really is the best (and most effective) way to handle it. They don't even have to know it was you. ETA: This was also the advice from our police department (Denver), so I guess they aren't bothered by such requests.

And honestly, I think they would want to comply, especially if their legal status is in question. Don't want to ruffle feathers, you know?

That is hilarious.

ooh, I wish I could get their other neighbors to rally against them, but I'm not sure if it's possible. The actual walls of all the apartments have fireproofing in them- cinder blocks and stuff, and they're really really thick. So you can't really hear the people next to you, just above or below you. We have one neighbor to the side of us who blares his music all the time, but we can barely hear it (unless you're walking by the front door you don't realize just how loud it is).
Sigh*, we're the only ones below them, and no ones above them, so we are the only ones who get the full force of it.

I don't know if it would work with people, though I have a friend who has a neighbor who plays loud music, so she just turns hers up even more, which results in a stereo war.

They just put a theater in the ground level of our building and they have been doing a lot of hip-pop and flamenco shows lately, so now we're all screwed.

Call the police. Your local police station should have a non-emergency dispatch number you can call. Explain to the dispatcher the situation and tell her/him that you've been forbidden by the landlord to ask them to keep it down. Most city/municipal districts have noise ordinances that they can enforce.

At the very least they can show up and knock on the door and make an official request to keep it down. And your landlord cannot penalize you or make you move for calling the police.

.

Yup yup, here anyway, we have noise laws. After 11pm you cannot be noisy or play loud music, and 12am on weekends. If someone were the violate that and annoy me I would for sure call the po-po!

My husband (now late husband) gave me a pogo stick so I could annoy the neighbors below us when they started playing their music really loud. It worked.

I do agree with the others. Call the police. Also, you mentioned the landlord has forbidden you to talk with them. Is it a landlord or a manager? If it is a manager, then find out who the landlord is and contact that person. If it is a landlord, then show something to the police whereby the landlord has forbidden you to contact them. The police will get annoyed at having to come out there all the time - religious holiday or not. Maybe they will let the landlord know that it is unacceptable.

Good luck.

Ow, that's so irritating . I really feel for you. I live in what is probably the noisiest house in town, or something like that.

The walls are really thin, when my neighbour plugs in her phone battery it makes so much noise that I actually jump. And I have this neighbour who always has friends over, they even sleep here very often. He has an XboX and they often play football games *insert noise of cheering and a ball being kicked* or shooting games *war sounds*. Also, he's not exactly a polite person, I can often hear them swearing to each other, and even to his mother. Some time ago his parents were over and they were having a fit about money, I could hear all of it! So embarassing... But the worst is when they watch porn. I really don't want to hear them comment on the girl's bodies. I really don't!

We have this arrangement where I knock on the walls when the noise is too bad. But it doesn't work very well: if I'd knock every time I'd hear him I could knock every night, because it is just so noisy. So I knock when the sound is really bad. But that is usually when they're drunk or stoned, which means they don't listen very well. One time they even used cocain. They kept running around the house all night! I was ready to strangle him. The houselord knows about it, but he says he can't kick him out legally, and I don't think he wants to go through all the trouble.

My own little trick: I always sleep with earplugs, and remove them when I wake up in the middle of the night. I can imagine you don't trust that very well. So I use my phone with buzz function as an alarm, and put it against my body (in my Ipod running pouch, or in a pocket in my nightwear). The buzz will wake me up even when I can't hear the sound.

Good luck, I hope you'll find something else soon!

after asking them to keep it down, if it kept up, and yelled at you...you could try calling the cops?

I say call the police. I know that when i had rommies in our apt. we called the cops on our neighbors a few times. Where i live 'quiet' time starts at 11 so call non-emergency every night till they get the hint. And believe me they will. One time we were having a party and the police were called and we got a warning. The next time a $300 fine! Yep we learned our lesson quick.

I'm with PC - the police will file a report and with enough of those, the landlord should be willing to do something. Also, if there are enough complaints the police will start issuing tickets for disturbing the peace. It shouldn't take too many tickets before their religious holidays stop.

We live in a triplex with a small unit below us. The people that lived there just moved out, thank god. They had two huge dogs and three kids who loved to bark and run around all day and night long.

Oh man. Our neighborhood is small little clusters of 4 townhouses. Everyone in the complex is a grad/professor student, young professor, or some other just starting out post university.

Except my next door neighbors. I have 2 sophomore/junior stereotypes of rich sorority girls right there. For a while there they had people in and out all hours of the night, parties on their patio at 3 am on a weeknight, and my biggest pet peeve: visitors would randomly just walk into my front (or back!) door mistaking our place for theirs.

We're in a small town; I'm really close (having known for years) my other immediate neighbors next door and across the street. I previously did not lock my house while I'm still in it. It's easier for me to just yell come in when friends want to borrow a movie or sugar or whatever.

But to have someone not only randomly open the door and come in, but to go so far as to get to my kitchen and get something out of the icebox before they realise they're in the wrong place is just ridiculous.

Thankfully our landlord requires undergrads to give their parents contact info. They contacted parents who subsequently threatened. They have been model neighbors ever since aside from occasional friends not parking in visitor spots.

Ramble to the point: I also say the police can be effective, but be prepared for it to cause more problems. I have a friend who had a brick thrown through her car window after calling the police on next door apartment neighbors that the landlords refused to do anything about. If it's already angsty, it can turn worse if they are the right kind of crazy.

Zen's right. It could get nasty. Can you move?