conuly: (Default)
conuly ([personal profile] conuly) wrote in [community profile] agonyaunt2025-06-24 09:40 am

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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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lilysea: Serious (Default)

[personal profile] lilysea 2025-06-26 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
So, in Australia, there are dedicated housing complexes for people over 50. They're not retirement villages at all, they're groups of ordinary villas (2 bedrooms, shared walls - like a duplex but single storey) and the only way that they differ from regular housing is that you have to be over 50 to live there. I think developers get a bonus for them.

I think it would be a good idea if there were dedicated apartment buildings where ***you had to have a child under 18 living with you to live there*** - and the apartment complex could get a development concession or a tax concession.

It would mean more housing for families, and presumably people with children would be less bothered by/less likely to complain about the noise of other people's children.

Plus, built in playmates for the children!