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Dear Carolyn: Self-admitted crabby old broad here. My newish next-door neighbors are 24/7 noise. While the apartment is a studio, I can hear at least two adults and two children — one infant, one toddler.
The kids are up at all hours — either screaming in delight and running around or wailing in misery. The adults yell all the time. Movies, TV and music all play at incredible volume, and now a dog was added to the mix. It howls and cries whenever they leave it alone.
I don’t want to be That Person, but I’m tired of asking them, at 1 a.m., to turn down the TV, music, etc. Do I report them to the condo board? They are tenants. I’m hesitant, as I worry this studio may be the only space they can afford, but also frustrated by the noise.
— Crabby Old Broad
Crabby Old Broad: I do feel for you, because noise invades your home and peace of mind. But there is no way two adults, an infant, a toddler and a dog in a studio apartment will ever be quiet. No way. So I think your hope they will ever be quiet is compounding your torment. It will never be quiet.
Your options now are whatever’s left after you accept that. Move? Complain to (or join) the condo board? Invest in soundproofing and noise remediation? Ride it out? (Since the chances they’re in this for the long haul seem slim.) If you stay, then you will probably want to use various options in combination — saving the condo-board complaints for the egregious things they can control, like music and adult-yelling volume at 1 a.m.
To report a noisy baby at 1 a.m. is just … crabby. Also — do you like dogs? Maybe there’s an opportunity for grace here. A crying dog is miserable, and you’re miserable from the dog’s crying, so maybe you two can quietly upgrade each other’s lives when your neighbors go out. None of these options are great, even stacked, but all of them seem better to me than the suspense of waiting in vain for the racket to stop.
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The kids are up at all hours — either screaming in delight and running around or wailing in misery. The adults yell all the time. Movies, TV and music all play at incredible volume, and now a dog was added to the mix. It howls and cries whenever they leave it alone.
I don’t want to be That Person, but I’m tired of asking them, at 1 a.m., to turn down the TV, music, etc. Do I report them to the condo board? They are tenants. I’m hesitant, as I worry this studio may be the only space they can afford, but also frustrated by the noise.
— Crabby Old Broad
Crabby Old Broad: I do feel for you, because noise invades your home and peace of mind. But there is no way two adults, an infant, a toddler and a dog in a studio apartment will ever be quiet. No way. So I think your hope they will ever be quiet is compounding your torment. It will never be quiet.
Your options now are whatever’s left after you accept that. Move? Complain to (or join) the condo board? Invest in soundproofing and noise remediation? Ride it out? (Since the chances they’re in this for the long haul seem slim.) If you stay, then you will probably want to use various options in combination — saving the condo-board complaints for the egregious things they can control, like music and adult-yelling volume at 1 a.m.
To report a noisy baby at 1 a.m. is just … crabby. Also — do you like dogs? Maybe there’s an opportunity for grace here. A crying dog is miserable, and you’re miserable from the dog’s crying, so maybe you two can quietly upgrade each other’s lives when your neighbors go out. None of these options are great, even stacked, but all of them seem better to me than the suspense of waiting in vain for the racket to stop.
Link
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2) If they didn’t have the dog when they moved in, which it sounds like they didn’t, they had no business adopting a dog.
3) Noise from the children is unavoidable and should not be reported. Noise from music and TV, especially late at night, absolutely is under the control of the tenants, and if they won’t be respectful about it, should be reported.
If the LW has spoken with their neighbors multiple times, and they won’t keep it down to a considerate level, then it’s time to escalate.
Again, if this were just an issue of the amount of noise that kids and a family in a small space can’t avoid making, that would be one thing — but nobody needs to blare loud TV and music at 1 AM.
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