How to deal with neighbor's loud bass from videogames 24/7

[Anonymous]

I just moved into a very nice apartment building, and over the past couple weeks I have slowly begun to realize that the person next door loves to pick random nights where he (I'm assuming) plays video games either all day or all night long (till 6am) at incredibly loud levels. The apartments are relatively well sound proofed but his bass manages to vibrate my apartment walls all the way into my bedroom on the other side. His schedule seems to be unpredictable as sometimes he will do this all day, and sometimes all night. Sometimes he goes to work from normal hours, and the noises starts at 5 and ends at 10. but even that seems less than ideal and makes the apartment highly uncomfortable, although it's far preferable to the "all day/all night" random periods. It's also giving me low grade anxiety, as I never know what day he'll pick to blast the apartment with noise.

It seems to me that the guy doesnt have a lot going on in his life and his only hobby is playing video games, which is fine, I couldnt care less except for the fact that I have to hear/feel the rumblings of the bass from this while I'm trying to work from home/sleep. I actually passed a delivery man who was delivering 2 fast food bags and 2 bags from 7/11 and asking for directions to the guy's apartment, so I can only assume this is his lifestyle and it's not exactly productive or going to change anytime soon.

I brought it up to the apartment and he lowered the volume SLIGHTLY but still to the point of rumbling my room quite a lot. I dont want to start some crazy neighbor war, and, again, I doubt the guy is super reasonable and considerate and would be amenable to a conversation, considering his past behavior, so I dont want to speak to him personally.

My question is- what are my recourses? Should I keep complaining to the apartment every time he does this? I worry that they wont take it seriously and dont want to be a nuisance. I've never had this situation before

[Anonymous]

It’s the price of shared walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s the price of shared walls.

Maybe, but i've never encountered this before and lived in many apartment complexes. Surely there must be a remedy?

[Anonymous]

Ask him to turn down the bass specifically, not just the volume. Or ask if he would mind using headphones after a certain time, like 10PM.

If not, then complain to the building manager. I'm sure there are some rules in your lease that stipulate noise levels.

[Anonymous]

::Knock knock::

Hey, I'm Jude, I live next door. Hey yeah your base is REALLY loud. I'm all for everyone doing whatever they want in the privacy of their own home, but only until it starts bothering others. Would you please use headphones going forward?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:::Knock knock::

Hey, I'm Jude, I live next door. Hey yeah your base is REALLY loud. I'm all for everyone doing whatever they want in the privacy of their own home, but only until it starts bothering others. Would you please use headphones going forward?

When I brought this up to my complex they said they prefer/ask all residents to handle it by going through the office, because they want to avoid creating a "neighbor war" situation, which I agree with. So i think I'll have to go through the office, but worried they wont be willing to handle it as strongly as they should.

[Anonymous]

Why on earth can't he use headphones, the jerk?

Sorry you're going through this, OP. Contact him directly, and tell him it's specifically a bass problem - those can carry really far away. Ask him to ear headphones or lower the bass volume.

Also contact the building management.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s the price of shared walls.

no it’s not. It’s the price of living next to an entitled prick. I had the exact same issue and complained to management and it would stop for a day or two and start back up. Finally met the neighbor at one point and told him straight up his music or tv was keeping me awake really late, and I have to work (with kids) really early. I seldom hear him anymore. He seemed really surprised I could hear him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:::Knock knock::

Hey, I'm Jude, I live next door. Hey yeah your base is REALLY loud. I'm all for everyone doing whatever they want in the privacy of their own home, but only until it starts bothering others. Would you please use headphones going forward?

When I brought this up to my complex they said they prefer/ask all residents to handle it by going through the office, because they want to avoid creating a "neighbor war" situation, which I agree with. So i think I'll have to go through the office, but worried they wont be willing to handle it as strongly as they should.

I agree with the plan to go through the building management. Prior to doing this, you might want to make a log of the times that the disturbances are occurring, and include the suggestion of wearing headphones, which the person intervening might not think to suggest. The log is important not just as documentation of the noise, but because the intervention might be different depending upon the time of day, and as it becomes clear that this is an ongoing problem. You might also want to check with surrounding neighbors — above, below, and next to the noisy neighbors apartment, since having multiple neighbors inconvenienced makes it clear that this problem extends beyond one neighbor with sensitive hearing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:::Knock knock::

Hey, I'm Jude, I live next door. Hey yeah your base is REALLY loud. I'm all for everyone doing whatever they want in the privacy of their own home, but only until it starts bothering others. Would you please use headphones going forward?

When I brought this up to my complex they said they prefer/ask all residents to handle it by going through the office, because they want to avoid creating a "neighbor war" situation, which I agree with. So i think I'll have to go through the office, but worried they wont be willing to handle it as strongly as they should.

I agree with the plan to go through the building management. Prior to doing this, you might want to make a log of the times that the disturbances are occurring, and include the suggestion of wearing headphones, which the person intervening might not think to suggest. The log is important not just as documentation of the noise, but because the intervention might be different depending upon the time of day, and as it becomes clear that this is an ongoing problem. You might also want to check with surrounding neighbors — above, below, and next to the noisy neighbors apartment, since having multiple neighbors inconvenienced makes it clear that this problem extends beyond one neighbor with sensitive hearing.

Thank you, this is a great suggestion. It's unfortunate that I do have to build a case against this person but I also noticed when I walked down the hall that he has the only unit where you hear noise blaring out in the hallway, so I hope that the other neighbors might have been affected to, although perhaps not as much as me. I did log and took videos, it's just unfortunate that some of the bass noises dont seem to show up on the recording as well, I assume because theyre in a lower octave, but in person you really feel/hear them.

[Anonymous]

I’d definitely contact the building manager. I live in a TH, so I understand…..but, I know I can’t expect it to be as quiet as a SFH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the price of shared walls.

no it’s not. It’s the price of living next to an entitled prick. I had the exact same issue and complained to management and it would stop for a day or two and start back up. Finally met the neighbor at one point and told him straight up his music or tv was keeping me awake really late, and I have to work (with kids) really early. I seldom hear him anymore. He seemed really surprised I could hear him.

Thank you. This is really good advice. I should mention that another reason I'm afraid to speak to him is because I'm a conventionally attractive young woman, and I get incel-ish vibes from his habits/schedule, so I want to avoid some weird situation where he hates me or is extra douchey because i'm a female. I think if I were a man I would have no issue going over and addressing him directly.

[Anonymous]

There is an app where you can record the decibels of the bass— I had this issue in my townhouse. Would have been great to knock on the door, which I did, but with decibels that loud no one was hearing my knock. Recording the decibels, turned in to the HOA and then started contacting police. They wrote me a letter apologizing and vowing to be better neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the price of shared walls.

no it’s not. It’s the price of living next to an entitled prick. I had the exact same issue and complained to management and it would stop for a day or two and start back up. Finally met the neighbor at one point and told him straight up his music or tv was keeping me awake really late, and I have to work (with kids) really early. I seldom hear him anymore. He seemed really surprised I could hear him.

I’ve had this come up before. I’m pretty quiet, and I think that because neighbors didn’t hear any noise coming from my apartment, it genuinely did not occur to them that I could hear noise from theirs. Solutions have ranged from using headphones, to calibrating the bass by going into each other’s apartments during quiet hours adjust the sound to unobtrusive levels, to agreeing to communicate when it was an issue. With one shared wall, I would turn up my music when I could hear theirs. They would then turn theirs down, and I would then turn mine back down. This system worked quite well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is an app where you can record the decibels of the bass— I had this issue in my townhouse. Would have been great to knock on the door, which I did, but with decibels that loud no one was hearing my knock. Recording the decibels, turned in to the HOA and then started contacting police. They wrote me a letter apologizing and vowing to be better neighbors.

Awesome, thank you! I will try this. Although I should note- the guy doesnt have raging parties that are shockingly loud. It's more like low-grade bass, at enough volume to make my walls vibrate but not necessarily hugely loud, if that makes sense? But when it goes on for 16 hours straight, you start to feel like youre losing your mind!