u/Dostrazzz

We’ve been living in this apartment for almost two years now, and from the beginning we’ve been dealing with extreme disturbance from the downstairs neighbour.

She seems to be dealing with serious personal issues, including substance abuse (crack) , and her behaviour is completely unstable and unpredictable. What makes it worse is that she often acts like nothing is going on, while at the same time creating constant disturbance in ways that are hard to “prove” in a formal complaint.

The main issue is ongoing nighttime noise and chaos. Doors slammed violently, constant banging, sudden outbursts of noise throughout the night. It’s not occasional, it’s a pattern. Sleep is basically broken on a regular basis.

The impact on us has been severe. I’ve already lost two jobs partly due to exhaustion and sleep deprivation caused by this situation. We also have an 8-month-old baby in the house, which makes the lack of rest even more damaging and stressful.

We have contacted the police multiple times. They do come when we call, but most of the time they can’t really take action when they arrive, because there’s no loud music or clear violation happening at that exact moment. So it ends there.

We also contacted the housing association. Their response has been that they need to build a case file over time before they can take stronger steps. In practice, this means things are very slow, while the situation continues every night.

We are documenting everything we can (recordings, logs, timestamps), but we’re reaching a point of exhaustion. It feels like we’re stuck in a loop: disturbance happens, we report it, nothing immediate changes.

With a baby in the house and both of us completely drained, we honestly don’t know what else we can realistically do at this point.

If anyone has experience with similar situations in the Netherlands or elsewhere, or knows effective escalation routes, I’d appreciate practical advice.

We can’t move right now.