The cookies are in the oven, now, what do I say?

[Anonymous]

Wow, OP. You're a piece of work. You're REPORTING them without even talking to them first??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh for crying out loud! It's not a report. It's a courtesy letter they offer to send so they don't know who's complaining abt them.

My previous company offered a "courtesy call" in the same lines. You call the front desk and tell them who's making noise and the front desk calls them asking to keep it down.

I didn't know abt this that's why I thought I had to go there and talk to them.

Problem solved.

Problem solved? So what if you can continue to hear their screen door and TV after the so-called "quiet hours"? Then what?

(And if you think your management company is going to evict people over TV noise, you're high.)

The letter is going to accomplish nothing except make your neighbors pissy. And now you REALLY can't ask them to turn their stuff down, because they'll know that you're the tool that complained to management.

Not smart.

[Anonymous]

If you think this problem is solved you're nuts, also, if you don't think they'll suspect the person living below them as being the one who made the call, you're even crazier.. seriously.. you need to not live in an apartment, and your neighbors are going to dislike you for not talking to them first. No matter what the letter says, it's going to be offensive to them, and with good reason.. you're neighbors for goodness sake!

The apartment complex is not going to tell your neighbors that they can't do laundry after 9:30. The letter will simply state that there was a noise complaint, and ask that they try to prevent the noise. I doubt it will say a single word about their appliances. (Because, really, who considers the washing machine to be excessive noise..)..

Do you never do laundry or watch television after 9 pm?? I bet you do.. Yet, you want your apartment complex to ask your neighbors not to..

Unreal. You're a real peach of a neighbor.

[Anonymous]

Op, have you even met your neighbors? It's funny how you assume they are getting beer when the door is opening and closing. Do you know if one of them has a hearing problem? My DH was in Iraq for a year and after several road side explosions, his hearing is not perfect. I sometimes have to ask him to turn it down because its too loud for my ears. I would much prefer if our neighbors asked us to turn down the tv, as he often times doesn't realize its as loud as it is. Much better than a noise complaint or something that is vague. Be a big girl OP, go talk to them. But maybe try to tone down the princess entitled attitude first. Or have DH do it since he might not be such a drama queen.

[Anonymous]

OP, you might have your neighbors on the laundry and vacuuming, but the screen door is not off limits and neither is the jumping around. These are entirely within the rules as you state them. You still need to think about what you are going to do differently, how you are going to change the situation to make it better for yourself. Soundproofing, earplugs, switching bedrooms with your kids. Most of the noise your are complaining about won't be solved even if your neighbors take this letter seriously - and they probably won't.

[Anonymous]

Even after reading this thread, I am having trouble thinking that vacuuming is loud enough to be banned.

[Anonymous]

you can call it a courtesy letter if it makes you feel better but the PPs are right. By doing this you are essentially forfeiting and effective opportunity to talk to them in person because if you end up doing that, they will know it was you that prompted the "courtesy letter" for sure. That will anger them because you could have just talked to them first rather than have the management of the building get involved. Neighbors need to TALK to one another to work things out - or at least try! I am over here shaking my head honestly because we live in a transitional neighborbood in a rowhouse in DC and I cant tell you how many times we have had to go to a neighbor to try and smooth something out. It isnt easy but it is part of living around people and it is good for the kids to see you trying even if it doesnt work out. It's a few minutes of conversation - totally worth being awkward or nervous about it at first IMO.

[Anonymous]

In college I had a room next to a girl who was a really intense pre-med type. My friends told me that she was in the dining hall complaining about how loud my alarm was and how it woke her up every morning. It was on the shared wall between our rooms and it was set louder than I needed it to be. I would have had no problem moving it and turning it down if she had asked me but, since she complained to everyone we knew without talking to me, I left it in place and turned it up louder just to bug her.

If I got a letter like this and my neighbor hadn't talked to me first, I would stomp around in boots and slam my door extra hard just to piss them off. If they had talked to me first, slippers all the way.

[Anonymous]

They said it all had to be off by 9:30pm.

If they did tell you that, they were lying or misinformed. Or perhaps they were just trying to shut you up. "Quiet hours" rules are notoriously difficult to enforce. What you think is disruptive likely doesn't meet the definition of excessive noise.

I have a feeling that your so called "problem" is far from being resolved. I know damn well I wouldn't stop my washer or tv at 9:30pm, no matter how many courtesy letters you request.

[Anonymous]

Read it again. This isn't about the TV at 9:30. It's about slamming doors at 2AM and vacuuming at 10:30 PM when her kids are trying to sleep. Don't pretend there isn't a difference, and don't try to convince anyone that there's really no other conceivable time when those two things ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO be done because of work schedules. Besides, why do you need to be slamming doors anyway? We live in a house and we don't do that. In an apartment you're supposed to have courtesy for neighbors on all sides.

[Anonymous]

Are you willing to keep your kids imobile, in bed and quiet until 9:30 or 10:00 AM on the weekends? Seriously, I have 3 kids, and even if your baby is a perfectly silent angel now, I guarantee that he/she will be louder than any white-noise dishwasher as time goes by. What about night terrors? Is that a violation of your lease? Asking an adult stranger to tailor normal life activities to the timeline of your kids' bed routine is so unreasonable. Let them make their normal noises; your kids will become better sleepers in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read it again. This isn't about the TV at 9:30. It's about slamming doors at 2AM and vacuuming at 10:30 PM when her kids are trying to sleep. Don't pretend there isn't a difference, and don't try to convince anyone that there's really no other conceivable time when those two things ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO be done because of work schedules. Besides, why do you need to be slamming doors anyway? We live in a house and we don't do that. In an apartment you're supposed to have courtesy for neighbors on all sides.

Finally someone read what I wrote.

Thanks PP for bringing light to the discussion.

People here complain about neighbors hanging clothes in the line in front of the house... I wonder what they would do if the neighbor was slamming the door with the TV at full volume at 2am right above their heads. Maybe someone vacuuming banging the vacuum cleaner against every single wall at 11pm, or playing some stupid videogame running around and jumping on top of your head while you try to sing your teething child to sleep.

As I said several times, I don't care about what they do during regular hours of the day. Night time is for SLEEPING! There's a rule and we all sign a lease agreeing with it. If they chose to be inconsiderate I'm just using the tools our leasing company offers to keep it all under control.

We're in a pet free building and on the day of the move I caught my kiddo playing with a dog in the bedroom. I FREAKED OUT! Someone was yelling for the dog on the hallway and the thing ran back outside. Lucky them I didn't know which apartment they were coming from. The fine for having pets in a pet free building over here is quite expensive.

BTW, they're extremely quiet tonight so 1-they're not home or 2-the letter has reached them.


ps. DCUM would you please make up your mind? In the beginning of the thread most of you called me a fool for baking cookies and a bunch of you said you'd throw them in the trash and laugh at me behind my back. Are you guys the same crying out loud saying it's not fair to go to the management straight?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you willing to keep your kids imobile, in bed and quiet until 9:30 or 10:00 AM on the weekends? Seriously, I have 3 kids, and even if your baby is a perfectly silent angel now, I guarantee that he/she will be louder than any white-noise dishwasher as time goes by. What about night terrors? Is that a violation of your lease? Asking an adult stranger to tailor normal life activities to the timeline of your kids' bed routine is so unreasonable. Let them make their normal noises; your kids will become better sleepers in the long run.

Meh, I won't even waste my time with angry women who can't even read the thread before spilling their venom. I said several times we thought of all that before picking an unit. We don't share walls with anybody. The only neighbor we have is the couple upstairs. The noise we hear from them is due to vibration they cause on the structure jumping, running, banging things and turning on machines that make the floor vibrate. Our noise does not affect them at all. I don't vacuum the ceiling of my home, we don't watch TV at night and my washing machine is not hooked up to the ceiling. (and they're not on after 6pm)

[Anonymous]

Welcome to apartment life. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you need to move to a single family home.