Condo living--harrassed by our neighbor for noise

So the wife and I have our new condo. Below us is a woman who we are apparently pissing off. So I'm ranting; if anyone has actual advice that's great too.

We rehung our doors on Sunday which caused quite a lot of noise since the pins are steel. She complained and called security. Turns out Sundays are really a no-no day for any sort of work like that--our fault, we accept it.

The day we moved in she complained to security. Security came by and said "Oh, you're moving in, nevermind."

She complained a couple weeks ago becuase I was hammering the back onto an Ikea cabinet at approx. 6pm. I interpret that as "reasonable" noise since it actually creates very little noise.

Here's the rules: contractors are only allowed to work M-F 9-5 and Sat 9-12. Quiet hours are from 11pm - 8am. Any other time you are allowed to make a "reasonable" amount of noise as long as it does not bother your neighbors. So you're at the mercy of your neighbors to a degree. For instance, the people above us make a lot of noise (stillettoes on hardwood floors, etc.). It doesn't particularly bother us.

When we got home today we had a letter from management saying that our downstairs neighbor had come to them to complain about our having a contractor or doing that sort of work between 4:30 and 6:00 am that morning. Yes, 4:30 am we are supposed to have had a contractor in our home. The reality is that we both got up to pee at about 4:30 (I think it was 4:45 for me). My wife didn't even flush the toilet. Then we woke up with the alarm at 6am. Left the house at 7:10 as always.

She has on mulitple occasions banged on her ceiling when she feels we are making too much noise. We suspected it was her and now we have confirmation. Virtually every night we come home, make dinner, eat, watch some tv, and go to bed by 9:30. On the weekends we're generally in bed before 11 if not 10. We do not complain about the noise that we suspect she is making (banging on the ceiling), but have always felt a bit harrassed by it. Afteall, we are merely going about our quite reasonable evening activities.

With this letter, however, and especially since it was worded not as an accusation but as a fact that we had a contractor working at 4:30am, we truly feel harrassed. We have been here since mid March and already we fully carpeted our home in an effort to dampen sound, we have only had contractors in during the approved hours (on three or four different occassions), and we feel we make very little noise in the evening and on weekends.

That's my rant. I'm really pissed. We were going to do some work tomorrow between 9-12 in order to cause as little trouble as possible, but now we don't much feel like it. And now we have to sit here and compose a letter to the condo manager wherein I'm going to have to use my proper title of "Dr.," use words such as "harrassed" and "will be forced to take action" and generally go through a whole lot of bother that we don't feel like putting up with. I hope she dies in her sleep tonight.

bob

Seriously, I wouldn't worry about it. By that I mean, I wouldn't care. She's obviously a lonely, bitter, old hag with nothing better to do so I would ignore her and tell the office that if there is a problem they need to prove it because her word is not trustworthy. Plus, keep in mind she probably complained about the last owners too so the office probably knows her MO.

Have you gone down and talked to her?

I had a similar situation several years ago. Management realized my neighbor was just being harassing because complaints were often called in during hours when I was at work. I wish I had a good solution for you, but I don't, I ended up moving as soon as the lease was up, even though it was a great place in all other respects. Some people are just jerks and have nothing better to do than try to make others suffer.

Sounds like she needs to get laid - know anyone you can hire for the 'service'?

I had a similar situation with a bona fide crazy guy in a rented apartment. I actually both threatened his life and had a friend (who was in a position to do so) threaten to have him commited for 90 days. in the end, I moved, it wasn't worth it.

you, however, are in a condo. I would suggest all out war. I would talk to her, and tell her how unreasonable she is. then, I would complain to the condo manager for every time she pounds your ceiling with a broom. I would start wearing my vass boots around the house, and play some music, maybe even dance. I would contemplate flushing the toilet at 3 am, etc. then I would talk to her again.

good luck.

Talk to her, then for a week show her how bad it can really be. Trying to appease this kind of person never works, trust me. You need to escalate and cause her enough problems so that complaining just isn't worth it for her. If that doesn't work, kill her.

Thanks for the replies--always worth a laugh. I think our recourse is limited. This is the plan:

A letter has been composed and edited. It politely explains the three instances she has called security and they have shown up at our door. It explains that we were asleep during those hours except for 4:30 when we both had to pee. Etc, etc. We refute her claims.

We also laid out our feeling that she is harrassing us. We have tried to meet her, but she has refused to answer the door. We know she was home, because she had just complained about us. We state very clearly that "At this point, and in light of this letter, we truly feel harrassed by this neighbor and fear we will have to take some concrete action to be able to live in our home in a reasonable manner."

We will complain each and everytime she bangs on her ceiling. Ooh, we should put that in the letter too.

One of the security guards does understand, I think, that this is her thing. The last time she called they came by I said "she complained the day we moved in," and he sort of had this look like "ah. got it."

I'm sure it'll all turn out fine. We're not taking any **** but we're going to deal with it in a serious manner like adults.

There's a real old vs. young thing going on here. I said it in my first post above and I'll repeat it: Hopefully she'll die soon.

b

Neighbors are like herpes, you just have to live with it. On the other hand, sensitive as she may be, she is complaining about house rules that were broken. I also suggest talking to her, and probably bribe her with a small gift. I remember years ago my parents were having our family home built, and on the first week of construction my dad went to the house behind ours, introduced himself and gave the couple a box of pastries explaining beforehand that there might be nights that they have to do some work. I believe the neighbors, were very appreciative of the gesture because one time there was a very very strong typhoon and they let the construction workers in their home for shelter.

Originally Posted by acidicboy

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I also suggest talking to her, and probably bribe her with a small gift.....a box of pastries ......


pastries, needle, high powered laxitive. need I say more?

Get a good porno on DVD, turn the volume on your TV up really loud and leave on loop mode when you and your wife leave for work in the morning.

Damned duplicate post.

This remembers me the "Duplex" film

I see some sort of Agatha Christie plot here.....

Install an indoor bullet catch and firing range. From the hours of 5pm to 11pm, shoot off a few thousand rounds of handgun ammunition. If she knocks on the ceiling, go down and talk to her...gun in hand.

I like the Appreciation idea too.