r/NoisyNeighbours

I have new upstairs neighbors from hell. No amount of creative adjectives, metaphors, or hyperbole can explain how loud they are. I have lived in my building for \~6months with no noise issues (other than occasionally hearing people walk past in the hall or from W/Ds in nearby units). Then 1 month ago there was an extended weekend of slamming, banging, etc. I reached out to my property manager and she said new tenants had just moved it. That’s fine, move-in noise is to be expected and is perfectly reasonable. But it continued. And it’s gotten worse.
I left two notes asking them to keep it down or to lay down more carpeting. I filed a formal complaint with the PM since our lease states that tenants “shall not disturbed the peace and quiet of other neighbors or tenants”. Apparently they’re uncomfortable with notes being left (whereas I’m uncomfortable with knocking since I have no idea who lives there). Apparently they also have a kid who makes, as my PM put it “kid noise”, as if this excuses the volume and frequency. The noise issues mostly during the day and evening, but sometimes starts or extends into “quiet hours”.
I am a PhD student and have endless reading and studying (and can’t always stay long hours at the library), so I have to be able to work from home. I have no peace and no quiet. It’s sounding like the PM isn’t keen to enforce their own rules, so now I end up being the crazy one for complaining. Do I have any options? I’m assuming they can’t evict the other tenants even if they’re violating that rule?

Hello all!

I'm 35F living alone. I rent my apartment & my neighbor is a retired senior. Initially it was a friendly hi hello as we met in the common area or near the mail room.

But lately he is getting a bit more nosy all in the pretense of 'elderly' concern. I work in medical field & my work hours are rather irregular. Sometimes I have to pull graveyard shifts & sometimes regular.

As soon as he hears me at my door he comes out, starts small talk & wouldn't simply leave. When I come home from my shift, all I crave for is a hot water shower & sleep but he is relentless.

I tried politely telling him multiple times that I'm extremely exhausted and need to go. But he doesn't get a hint.

I don't wanna be rude either. How should I tell him to get lost???

I don't know if the chicken are free roaming (nobody's sheltering them) or if they belong to someone but most likely they're my neighbours pets. And they start making this horrible noise pollution at fucking dawn. I'm typing this right after I woke up because I can't fall back asleep. How to approach this with my neighbour? And what do I do if they don't agree to solve the problem? Or what if they agree but they just don't do it? Is there any legal action I can take?

Hi, I have a question as I'm not quite sure what to do.

I bought a house that I really wanted and still need to renovate. It's in the neighbourhood I wanted to live in, there is people nearby that I know, it has a little garden and enough space for a first home.

After I heard that my bid had been accepted, I started having doubts after a few days though. I knew that was normal, since it's a big decision. And most of the doubts I have been able to work my way through, such as the idea 'what have I got myself into?'

Yesterday though, I got the chance to look at the house again to do a check for the mortgage. I have been there three times for a short while now - about 20 minutes - and it has always been quiet. But this time, while I was there in the evening at around 7pm, there was a lot of noise from the upstairs neighbor's children. Running around and screaming. I could hear there footsteps and running, which you could easily hear even if you had music on and the flat would be filled with stuff. They were obviously playing and having fun, I think they were having a play date. I think they are nice people, as they've already said hello to me as the prospective new owner. So no hard feelings to them.

But the idea of having to deal with this noise on a regular basis sounds really intense to me and makes me seriously doubt whether this is the house for me. I don't want to be the downstairs neighbor who complains about children running around, as I think they should and I did when I was small - I just don't want to be the person living beneath it, especially since I'm q a sensitive person (to noise in particular)

On the other hand, I know this is part and parcel of living in a flat, and in other ways it could be all less intense than I imagine it currently, and I could end up really happy there and get used to the noise, or the noise could not be as bad as I have made it in my mind to be.

All in all, I have serious doubts about whether I want to follow through with the buying of the house, as I can still cancel without paying any major fines. Can someone advise me on what to do / any similar experiences?

TLDR: prospective buyer's remorse, can still cancel, noise upstairs neighbors's child

​

Hi! I live in a house with shared walls and I have new neighbors that keep playing music so loud I can hear it, is it normal that I get agitated by this? I have to have my noise canceling headphones on for hours a day and I feel like this isn't oké.

The reason I'm asking is because I'm sick and couchridden from a chronic illness, so I'm more sensitive to noise of all kinds, so I just wanted to check if I'm just being too sensitive.

So me and my family have been living in my village since birth. My so called neighbors have moved in since February 2025 and are down right harassing us since day 1. They are the neighbors from hell. The woman throwing all the floor cleaning water to blocking our drain with mud and cement blocking the entry. They have done it all . We have complained literally everywhere. But is it a shocker that everyone is corrupt and will take no action whatsoever. So 2 people live in the house opposite me . The male 67 y/o us a conartist and his partner who is a 60 y/o psycho. The conartist has left his first wife to live with this psycho.

The most disturbing part is that the psycho keeps troubling us even after we have confronted her. She says we can ask her nicely. She never stops. She cleans her garden throws rubbish in our plot. They dogs have no leash and poop and pee in our plot. First they were scared that we would found out about their relationship and she would fire badwords at my mother for no reason. We called police on her for that. She's so manipulative, she's telling the police office if we have so much problem with the badmouthing we should confront her then and there. We are busy people and do not have time to deal with hooligans who have too much time at their hands and go around fighting others.

I (20yo) just moved into my first apartment yesterday. My neighbors have been playing their music super loud and bass boosted all day and now well into the night. During the day I left it alone bc I didn't really mind. BUT now it's past midnight and it's still going just as loud. For context my bedroom shares a wall.

This isn't just slightly loud music. I can feel the bass through the floor. I don't want to make enemies right away but I also want to speak up about this now instead of letting the problem continue.

Advice on how to approach this?

Hello guys, I'll try and keep it short and to the point.

Just to preface. I live in the UK in a house that's owned outright.

So I am a medical cannabis patient and im having some serious issues with one side of my neighbours. He is constantly complaining that "his house absolutely stinks"..

Now I'm very very polite as to when I do go outside for a smoke, I do not smoke in the day or unsociable hours, I am as far as I possibly can be on my property away from the house. I will go out once in the evening before bed for a smoke a day that's it I don't smoke all day everyday and of recent he's complained that much that it's actually getting on my nerves, I'm a genuine medical patient used to treat my chronic insomnia and severe nerve damage.

Where do I stand with what rights he has? He has threatened to make a complaint to the police and write a letter to the council, he has also verbally abused me and made several violent threats whereas I've been nothing but apologetic and tired my best to reduce the chances of it actually "stinking out his house".

And it's not as if they are the perfect neighbours, they have 3 children which he treats like absolute dog shit, screaming and shouting at them day in day out (these kids are all young and well behaved in my eyes, they're not wild or anything) he comes across as an absolute control freak, everything in his household has to be on his terms (I know this as I can hear him inside and outside my house when he can't get his own way with both his wife and his kids). Like kids will be kids let them make a racket and enjoy it while they can buy constant crying screaming and shouting from all of them doesn't seem like a valid excuse for all the noise.

So to reiterate, where do I stand on using my prescribed medication on my own property and secondly where do I stand on the noise? Would it be worth logging noise complaints taking recordings and calling child protective services. As the language he uses towards his kids is disgusting and I just know that it's got physical a few times also borderline being "reasonable punishment" like a smack on the bumm, rather a proper slap.

Thanks guys looking forward to your input

Hello, I moved here to Milwaukee back in December 2025. We relocated from the south side to north side April 2026 due to new landlords selling the previous property. We got a new upstairs neighbor June, we thought he was cool at first. He introduced himself and we did as well, he kept repeating himself how there’s nothing to worry about and he wouldn’t bring anyone around here. Things like that, mind you it’s just my Bf and I along with our animals. We understood he had no fridge or stove to eat, so we kindly offered to help him with food til the landlord settles his fridge and stove situation. He also reassured us he had protection, which was a glock & a bigger gun. He also stated it wasn’t under his name it was under his mom, another thing. I thought was weird he willingly showed us he had 10k in cash and stated he does his dirty work on the streets and won’t bring anyone here.. that if we need any weed ask him, we didn’t think much of it. But Continuously stated he was a good dude, we could look him on CCAP. Therefore I did, my parents live nearby as well & I was telling them about this.. they also thought it was strange.. you don’t just go around telling everyone u got money. Weeks go by we realize he’s always up at night walking around til 4-5am. Maybe by the time I clock in for work he’s still up walking around. My mom decided to Ccap him and he’s a 2 time felon for possession of fire arm and shooting someone along with possession of drugs. So she got very concerned.

I’m a northerner from Wausau, my hospitality is endless and I always learned to be kind to anyone because you never know what someone is going through. One day I was woken up by a knock on my back door, it was just the neighbor yapping about a vacation and he has “connections” to get my bf off work for a couple days. I’m like sorry, it doesn’t work like that. We work & have to figure things out ahead of time. He then stated, your man doesn’t want guns in the house but I want you to be protected & you don’t even have to tell him. I said umm.. no thanks I have my baby siblings come here very often I don’t want them around that. He kept insisting and wanted to hide it in the basement.. I was like ummm ok… I just don’t want the kids around it that’s on you. - after that he tried to hit on me and i ran back inside called my friend until my bf got home from work. I was honestly weirded out. I told him don’t ever do that shit again, otherwise I will call the cops. My bf & i were not fw the neighbor after that-

Fast forward 2 months, my bf decided to talk to him before we left town Friday and say what u did was fucked up but let’s keep it peaceful. Neighbor apologized and admitted he was in the wrong and we’d be peaceful. We come back Sunday & we’re trying to check on him see how he was doing. He was not answering we’re like okay, weird we were just cool Friday. Sunday night- My bf takes out the dogs before bed, neighbors on the upper balcony talking shit “I should smack that n- he keeps harassing me.” I guess he had a friend up there as well trying to calm him down.

Next morning Monday- we had to drop off our in laws back up north. We see police at our ring camera for the neighbor, confused I’m 30 mins into our drive. I chime in & he’s pointing at our camera saying we’re “harassing him” “he’s the victim” “we’re flashing lights on him in the middle of the night” “we’re trying to set him up” “break in his back door”. That he is the “victim” in this situation. He also stated on the camera he is a bipolar man and has medications for his mental state. I was concerned because I’m not home to defend myself, so I have my mom call the police station nearby and see if they can reach the police that came. My aunt also works at this department, she called me to reassure me there was just a welfare check called in by the neighbors nurse and to just stay away from him and if anything call the cops. I believe he didn’t know it was his own nurse and accusing us of calling on him. We are truly the victims in this because he has the weapons here, not us. God forbid his bipolar paranoia gets worse and he gets wound up.

We really don’t bother this man nor do we know him like that, we don’t want nothing to do with him, we don’t want his money, we just want to be peaceful bc this is where I lay my head at. We’re just trying to be kind. If he continues to accuse us of breaking in to his home, what if he retaliates. I just want to be assured that what’s happening me right now is crazy. I tried to tell our landlords about it and they seem to not give a damn, they also had mentioned he’s been a good tenant for a while and can’t seem to verify the employment for him. How does that not raise a red flag- all they do is tell me to tell the cops.

It started with "just a few weekends," then summer, then "before Christmas." Now we're on our third Christmas.

I've heard the same drill at 7 am so many times I dream in power tool frequencies. His driveway has had a cement mixer on it longer than some relationships last.

I don't even want it to be done anymore. I've accepted it. The drilling is just weather now.

Have they any consideration for the 2nd storey occupants, especially for older blocks with very thin walls? A lot of frustration having to deal with noises from the water pump room, street carpark vehicle noises and now this 24hrs "advanced" coffeeshops with all its automated machineries, exhaust fans and whatnot. I have lived above a coffeeshop for many years without a problem - even with the 5am steel chain-gates opening n closes at 10pm sharp, the clanging of pots n pans - was quiet throughout the night when the buinesses of the day were done.

NOW with these 24hrs modern day coffeeshops - all the weird noises in the night were becoming impossible to tolerate - electronical buzzing, weird constant bass tones from some huge fridge or multitudes of machineries they need these days to run a coffeeshop, oversized Humongous Exhaust Fan slapped onto the side of the HDB block - anyone has any idea how much vibration and bass noise those things generate on the poor thin 30+ yrs old HDB walls - Those walls are simply not built for that. t's not just about the clanging of pots n pans or chopping noises anymore.

NEVER buy a resale unit above these coffeeshops - it's crazy - almost like the idiots who thought it was ok to have open air pickleball courts in the middle of a quiet neighborhood - pls all we want is a serene neighbourhood and peaceful nights and days for those who WFH.

Hi guys!
I’m a first time renter, and I wanted advice on the right way to do things.

The people above me are very loud at night, and someone I live with has called about twice to say something but they said that I should call(?) Despite the person I live with already calling.

However, I have been adamant in not calling but instead of emailing. I believe emailing gets me more of a paper trail in case of just simply calling. If something were to happen, I want proof that I said something.

Would that be the appropriate way of doing this instead always handling it face to face? I also don’t want to go down to property management for the same reasons. It doesn’t give ultimate proof that I said something.

I can’t figure out which neighbor though because I live in a densely populated area and I can’t see it. I don’t mind it during the day, but at night when I’m trying to sleep with windows open the sporadic chiming is maddening. Is there anything I can do?

I already have ear plugs. Looking for a solution to basically identify where the wind chime is short of knocking on everyone’s door in the city.

House is worth £550k. New neighbours are arseholes! Live in St John’s/Hanbury Park. Moved to Worcester 3 years ago and now it feels like I am back in Acocks Green, where do I move to? Thinking Hereford? Thoughts?

Are you on meth? Is there a violent chase or struggle happening? Are you wrestling with literal demons? Do you need a million steps a day? I have a genuine concern for you. Like... Why can you not sit still for more than 5 minutes? Why do you walk across your apartment 97 thousand times an hour? What are you running from? I know... "LET ME LIVE MY LIFE!" but like... What is your motivation?

Are you on meth? Is there a violent chase or struggle happening? Are you wrestling with literal demons? Do you need a million steps a day? I have a genuine concern for you. Like... Why can you not sit still for more than 5 minutes? Why do you walk across your apartment 97 thousand times an hour? What are you running from? I know... "LET ME LIVE MY LIFE!" but like... What is your motivation?

Hi everyone, first time posting on Reddit so excuse any errors. I'm currently in a strange situation I'm not sure what to make of, and someone suggested making a post here to see if anyone else had any suggestions. Fair warning that this may be a little long because I'm trying to include all the details I can.

I moved into a new apartment about 5 months ago. I like the area, it's close to my work, and the amenities are nice. However, there's one major issue: my downstairs neighbors will, at least once a week, blare the same shitty techno song on a loop. It's always the same song, no breaks, and has lasted for over 48 hours on more than one occasion.

I first noticed it the day I moved in. It was so loud it could be heard from the parking lot, and when I got into my new apartment the floors were shaking from it and I could feel the bassline through my furniture. I went to the ground floor to confirm it was coming from the unit directly below mine. I noticed a few people moving in or out that same day and the music stopped that night, so I figured they were just having a moving party and shrugged it off as a weird one-off event.

However, the music kept coming back. Again. And again. At least once a week but often more. It was always the same song (and before anyone asks no, I don't know what song it is. The beat goes OONTZ OONTZ OONTZ OONTZOONTZOONTZ OONTZ OONTZ and there are no lyrics. Sorry but it's just another piece of the mystery.) It would start at 5am on a Sunday, 11pm on a Wednesday, there was no regularity to it. It lasted for either minutes or hours, also no pattern that I could decipher. This complex is reasonably priced for where it's located but I live in what's considered an affluent area and the rest of the residents are families and/or business people, so this type of noise doesn't fit with what you'd expect to find here. I never saw or heard any guests coming and leaving downstairs, so it wasn't that there were parties going on. I also noticed an extremely potent weed smell when I went out onto my apartment balcony, and sometimes it would be so strong it would leak into my own apartment, even with all the doors and windows closed. Both of these were huge problems for obvious reasons, but made even worse by the fact that I have a hybrid job with long stretches of being fully remote, so I was hearing and smelling them all day while working. I was hesitant to go confront them myself because I'm a woman living alone and was worried about the situation turning ugly, since I had no idea who was living in that apartment or what their response would be. I did catch a glimpse here and there of the people I believed to be living in the unit. There was a man who appeared to be in his mid-20s and I heard a woman's voice coming from the balcony often enough that I assumed she lived there as well.

After a few weeks of this, I couldn't take it anymore and decided to go complain to the leasing office. I hated getting off to a bad start in my first month of living there, but this felt justified. They were sympathetic to the noise issue and agreed it was super weird that it was the same song on repeat, but they told me that since this was the first complaint the standard procedure was only to send the residents a letter. I'm pretty sure the units directly next to that one as well as the one across the hall were vacant at that time, so figured it made sense this was the first thing on file about them, especially if they were also new to the complex. The office took my alert about the smoking much more seriously and said a citation would be issued since no smoking is allowed anywhere in the complex. I walked away feeling more or less satisfied that management had been made aware and action would be taken. Over the following week I noticed the smell went away, but the music continued. I described it as water torture, since I had no idea when the next round was coming or when it would end. I went to the office to complain again (still feel a little Karen-y, but I think anyone might go a little crazy in this situation) and the desk there gave me the contact info for the senior business manager, since apparently the next step is that she'll reach out herself and give the neighbors a warning. I emailed her and we had a short conversation where she told me she'd speak to them, but nothing seemed to come of that either.

Shortly after, I met my next door neighbor as well as the neighbor one door down. They're both lovely people around my age, and we all made friends immediately. They invited me to hang out with them by the complex pool, and when I joined them there I asked if they'd been hearing the music. They told me no, that it hadn't reached them, but they'd definitely noticed the weed smell. After getting back to my apartment from the pool the music started up again, so I texted them both to come through my front door just to see. They did so and immediately understood what I'd been talking about, they felt the floors shaking and heard every beat. They offered to go down with me to knock on the neighbor's door and confront them, and I told them yes.

We all headed downstairs, I had to knock several times to be heard over the music, and a woman I'd also place in her mid-20s opened the door. I introduced myself and told her that I lived in the unit directly above her, and could she please turn the music down. She seemed shocked that it was loud enough to be heard, and deeply embarrassed when I told her it had been shaking my furniture and I couldn't sleep. She was very apologetic and seemed quite nice, and turned the music down right away. My neighbors and I headed back up, glad that the conversation had gone well. Just before I was about to go back inside she came running up, and told me she and her partner are DJs and were practicing a set. We exchanged numbers, she told me her name is Andrea (fake name for Reddit purposes) and to just text her if it ever got too loud again. My next door neighbors and I discussed it a bit later and we all concluded that something about her explanation had seemed fishy, but I was so thankful to see the situation resolved that I decided to leave it at that.

Since then it's been a slight improvement, but not by much and I still have questions. The music has gotten less frequent, but still starts at all hours at a volume loud enough to wake me out of a dead sleep. I've heard knocking on the door down there and the volume gets turned down afterward so I have reason to believe other neighbors have confronted them. Andrea remains very polite when I text her about it and will even occasionally give me a heads-up when she plans on starting it, but I'm still sick of hearing it and it disrupts my days and nights.

Once after she lowered it I requested they simply keep the music at that volume, which is still audible but doesn't shake my floor and I can play my own music or shows over it to drown it out, but that received no response. I've also asked since they're both DJs if perhaps they have headphones they can use, but that didn't get acknowledged either. It's also been 5 months and it's still the same song, I don't know much about DJing but wouldn't you rotate sets or have multiple songs you practice? The music has also played on weekend evenings/nights before which is when I'd assume they'd be at work? It all seems like the DJ story is made up to cover something else but I'm struggling to find any other explanation.

Last night I emailed the leasing agent that I couldn't take it anymore and asked if I could be moved to a different unit. I'll even pay a fee or sign a new lease if I have to, this is driving me crazy. While I wait for a response, does anyone here have any ideas on what the reason for their playing the same song on repeat could be? I'm just so baffled and haven't broached the question with Andrea yet, but I might. The only things I can think of are 1. She was telling the truth about her and her partner being DJs, but they're incredibly shitty ones. 2. Listening to the same song on repeat is a self-soothing tactic for neurodivergence, and she came up with a cover story since she didn't want to disclose that info to me. 3. This is drug-related and they play the music while they get high on whatever substance it is they're doing.

Any input here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!