r/Apartmentliving

I moved earlier this year and not everything has been smooth here, but my neighbors seem to be harassing me for reasons that aren't completely clear.

I keep to myself and I'm a quiet person. Some of my neighbors either have an issue with me, or are just trashy. Sometimes they fight and have yelling matches in the hallway, and they often spend hours hanging around in it every day, often late at night. Every time they do, it's on the other side of my bedroom wall and they bang on the wall loudly for hours while they're out there. I use noise cancelling headphones and thunderstorm audio tracks and it still doesn't cover it up.

It sounds like they are sometimes punching the wall, sometimes hitting it with a hard object, and they will do it over and over and over for multiple hours at a time. I have suspicions that it's an attempt to instigate me, especially since it has become a lot worse recently.

I've talked with property management and made noise complaints about other things I started to feel were becoming targeted, and after a few months things finally got better. That was with a completely different person/apartment than the people who are banging on my wall every day. Property management isn't very motivated or responsive, but I think they could be much worse.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm not a position where moving is at all an option, and these people are driving me insane. I'm not a confrontational person, and I don't feel comfortable or safe confronting a group of people that may be intentionally harassing me and regularly get violent with each other. I feel that a reaction is exactly what they want. What do I do??? It's driving me insane. It doesn't usually happen for very long outside of "quiet" hours, but they will push it right up to that point and sometimes when I'm up late I'll hear someone go up/down the stairs and hit the wall once very loudly in the middle of the night.

I'm pretty sure calling the cops won't accomplish anything positive. I'm afraid that it would be very, very obvious who called them and it would either worsen the harassment or escalate things. I'm the newest resident still as far as I know, and a lot of these people seem to know each other pretty well. I've recorded multiple videos of the noise and my complaints are also in writing/email to property management. I don't have good health or mental health and this is genuinely driving me insane.

edit: Feeling complete despair.

edit: Some people want to victim blame and gaslight me because this is the internet and sometimes you encounter shitty people. I guess there's very little I can do in this situation and being accused of lying here isn't going to make anything better. Thanks to those who suggested ideas or shared their own frustrating experiences. I'll just hope that shitty people stop being shitty... ha.

Downstairs neighbors like to hotbox their room and the stink rises into my place. When I say it stinks I mean it reaaaaally does. Its an old building with little to no insulation.

Air purifier on max all even with new filters and it still doesn't fully clear out.

Neighbor stated that they refuse to stop because they "need" to smoke. Landlord said they talked to the tenants and they are claiming they dont smoke inside the apartment (which is against the lease). Landlord stated they came by a few times and couldnt smell anything (they smoke in the night, not day). Landlord said theres nothing else that they can do so we have to deal with it.

I cant light a candle because I have a pet with a chronic lung issue so hes very sensitive. Realistically I think my only options are deal with the smell or move....

my property manager has ignored my message about a noise complaint from my upstairs neighbor. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else? i just don’t understand why they would not even reply at all

I’m just venting. The dog below me barks incessantly when the owner isn’t home. I can tell they are trying to mitigate it and have someone come over or watch after the dog. But, I still get woken up in the early morning and during the day a dog yapping constantly for even fifteen or more minutes personally is a lot of noise.

I just moved in. Life’s been chaotic. I’m all alone. Blah blah blah. Just the thought of having to break a lease, or bother management more and more is making me nervous beyond belief. I emailed management already about the early morning barking, I’m hoping the dog is a puppy and the owners manage to fix the issue. I’m hoping. Just need a win like this right now, after the energy I spent moving everything in I’m just so worried. I knew I should have rented a house, but it’s a lot of space I don’t need. Mistakes were made.

I live in a complex of townhome style apartments. Everyone who neighbors me has dogs so I’m assuming majority of the complex does from what I see going on outside. And yet… there is only one dog I ever hear.

In the building next to mine, there are tenants whose balcony is maybe 25ft away from my bedroom window. They frequently let this dog (don’t know the breed, it’s very small and very loud) out on the balcony during “quiet” hours. Around 11pm-12am and as early as 4am from anywhere from 5-30min. While it’s outside it barks nonstop.

I’ve been woken up out of my sleep numerous times.
I’m not THAT person. I would never complain about anybody unless there is a danger but man, I really can’t stand this dog and I don’t know if I’m overreacting. I’ve literally never heard any other dog barking except this one.

My partner and I recently signed on an apartment, and although we're still moving in, we have a neighbor who has us both a bit on edge, and we're not completely sure how to approach the situation.

Earlier this week, this neighbor (I'll call him John) spotted us moving furniture and helped us move a table. He's the neighbor directly next to us, our doors are about eight inches away from each other. He was very friendly and we really appreciated the help, but he was also odd, and although he came across as just a friendly special needs guy, he also came across as...a lot. Friendly in the "we're besties now and we're going to have long goodbye hugs about it" sort of way, which is fine. Not wildly handicapped, but big into oversharing and iffy on social cues. He insisted on showing us around our own apartment as if we weren't half moved in (he was already inside from helping with the table), but fine. Like clearly we'll need to set some boundaries, but again, awkward but harmless.

Fast forward to today, the first day I've been able to work on the apartment since meeting John. I'm trying to put together some furniture and I overhear John out in the hallway sounding very upset, apologizing for scaring the wife of my other new neighbor who'd moved in just that day. I didn't catch exactly what had happened, but apparently the on-site super had called John and reamed him out over the phone about it- it had something to do with a door. The other neighbor (Sean) said it was fine and his wife "hadn't taken it that way," and John cheered up and went into his apartment. Two minutes later, he's back outside knocking on my door. I didn't answer because I really didn't have time for another marathon conversation with John, and my partner and I had already agreed to try to keep our distance as much as possible because it'll be easier to maintain boundaries with him if we're strictly neighbors from the jump rather than friends (which is what he clearly wants). So I ignore the knocking, with the logic that hey, I have in earbuds, I'm home alone, and for all he knows I'm in the bathroom. Probably good to establish "just because I'm home doesn't mean I'm answering the door" anyway. At which point John starts trying to open the door, for about five full minutes (I'd locked it when I came in).

So I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I still suspect John is harmless, but scaring our other neighbor's wife and trying to get into my apartment uninvited just because someone was home both have me kind of on edge about him. My partner and I are both relatively petite women, and John made a point of bragging about breaking weightlifting records in the special olympics; he's a big, strong dude. I don't want to treat John like some scary guy when I suspect his issue he's extroverted and has a really poor grasp of boundaries, but if he's been living in that apartment for 8 years like he said, it seems like "don't invite yourself into the living space of a neighbor you've met once just because their light is on" would be one of those things he would have picked up by habit if nothing else. I can try to talk to him and I likely will, but how do you tell a guy who's not good with social cues that you need him to stay out of your space and that you want to be friendly but not friends, without it coming across horribly? And should I talk to the super about it? And where do I draw the like between "he's probably just awkward" and "it would have been actually terrifying if I'd not answered because I was in the shower and then came out to find John in my apartment because he let himself in the door"?

As the title mentions my neighbor has been pounding on my wall. Although I don’t believe my boyfriend and I are making much noise. I wanted other peoples advice to see if maybe we are able too loud.
It first started when we moved in a few months ago, we were putting stuff in our closet and she kept banging on the wall as we hung up our clothing. She sometimes still does this when we are grabbing clothing from the closet. Im unsure how that is loud since the rod is wood and our hangers are plastic. Shes recently been banging on the wall when we open the window which fairly I’ve opened it a little to loud sometimes but it’s in the middle of the day. The other instance is when my boyfriend took a shower after work, which to be fair he got home at 4:30am from his shift but he should be allowed to shower whenever in the apartment????
Ive confronted her about it once and she just said the walls are thin here but I’ve never banged even when our downstairs neighbors threw a party late into the night…..

Our friends have told us that she’s overreacting but wanted some unbiased opinions :)

My smoke alarm is a Kibbe smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector that also talks. It is wired and has a battery back up. My model seems quite sensitive to humidity, I take short but hot showers and so occasionally, if I haven't left the window open and fan on for long enough (my laundry room is connected to my bathroom and has windows, and there is a ventilation fan in my bathroom) the alarm will chirp until I press the button in the center. Today, I really did it. Not only did my shower seem to put too much humidity into the room, but I had cooked some pasta just before. This resulted in the same occasional maddening beeps, but I could not get it to stop. In a moment of desperation, I have turned the breaker off connecting it to the electricity. It took me a long time to figure out it was wired, since I originally thought the issue was battery when I first started encountering the chirping. Now that I have let my house 'dehumidify', which is to say get so dry my nose is cracking, I figured I would turn the breaker back on since its connected to the power in my bedroom and I'd like to have power back in there. Since the breaker box is in my laundry room, I couldn't exactly make this out, but there was a voice coming from the alarm. Is it going to trigger some apartment building wide event if I keep it turned on or is it just a testing voice for me to hear? Also, what can I do to prevent this nonsense in the future. I am a college student with no time and also cannot access the fire alarm unless I am standing on my bed on my tip toes, which means every time this happens I need to fold up my cot, drag it out of my room, and then balance on it. Please end my agony

Hey all,

Currently looking at renting an apartment with some friends in a college town, and we've found a listing we love to death and is exceptionally cheap.

Thus, we're a little worried that we're getting ripped off. The listing is on Zillow, what are some things we should be on the lookout for? Any advice would be appreciated