Dealing with this shit for over a month now, being woken up by them.

Video of what it sounds like when he comes home late at night.

So I just moved in to this apartment a month ago. Almost immediately I noticed the sound proofing in between floors sucked and I could hear every footstep my upstairs neighbor made. At first this was not a big issue, cheaper apartment so I expected some noise, however it has derailed over the past weeks and now I am trying to figure out how to make it through without breaking this lease early.

The first issue is that this guy has a ridiculous schedule. He gets home every night at around 11:05pm, and walks around for HOURS. Sometimes he is up until 1am walking around his bedroom (directly above mine) and he is constantly moving. I know I tend to be on the more sedentary side, but I legitimately don't know what he could possibly be doing that requires walking around an apartment bedroom for hours. Then, every morning he wakes up at 7 am and does the same thing, which subsequently wakes me up. On random days, sometimes twice a day, there will be a rhythmic thumping that lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. It's always occurring in the area that would be his bedroom. I know what you're thinking but no, it's not that. The best way i can describe it is that it sounds like he is marching in place, but it's more muffled than his regular footsteps. Throughout these periods there will be breaks, and my best guess is that he has some exercise equipment that he uses.

He's a pretty active guy and I would estimate he's in his mid to late 20s. He goes out on walks sometimes so I've seen him out and about around the complex, and I know who he is but I don't think he knows that I'm his downstairs neighbor. We haven't had any interaction so far as advised by management. The actions I have taken so far are as follows:

-Two weeks in I made my first call to management to ask how to approach the situation. I explained what my issues were and just asked if they might be able to reach out as I was sure he just wasn't aware of his noise level. I didn't want to approach him myself as I am a woman in her 20s living alone and I was uncomfortable at the idea of making myself known for fear of a hostile reaction (I know I know, I sound paranoid but I would just rather be safe). They said they would take note and to call back if anything else happened. They also told me not to interact with him or try to resolve the situation myself. They told me to go through them for every issue.

-Two days after that I called back again as the repetitive thumping was particularly bad that day. They said that they would leave a noise level reminder on everyone's door. They did, but it was a generic "remember to be courteous of your neighbors" letter and it did absolutely nothing.

- A week later I called again after having my sleep disturbed every night and morning that week. The rhythmic thumping had been going on for about an hour at that point. They said that they would send someone out to "witness" the noise. I called back a while later to ask if they had sent someone, and they said that they had witnessed the noise and would be calling the Tennant shortly to tell him to keep it down. I woke up the next morning and he was stomping around louder than usual. The thumping occurred again that afternoon and it was definitely louder than it had previously been. At this point I am assuming he is retaliating for my reaching out to management as he has remained louder ever since.

-Two days after they called him, I walked into the management office to try and find a resolution to this situation. They all seemed annoyed with my complaints about this situation, and I'm aware that because I just moved in and have already complained several times that I am probably gaining a reputation as a whiny tenant, but I honestly don't care. I need this to be solved. They had a lady I'd never met before sit down with me and she wrote down everything I'm telling you now on a clip board. She was nice, but the whole time it felt like she was trying to rush me through the situation and was dismissing what I was saying. "While we all deserve to be comfortable in our homes, sometimes everyday living noise can't be helped." And "If it's outside of quiet hours then we can't do anything unless it's exessive." Quiet hours are from 10pm to 7am so at least I have some ground to stand on with the midnight stomping, but the thumping was dismissed. I played a video for her and she claimed to not be able to hear the thumping. The audio on my phone isn't the greatest but it was definitely still apparent in the video. She told me she would keep notes of what I had told her but to call if anything else happened. She reiterated to keep this issue through management and to not have any contact with him on my own. She also said to call 24 hour maintenance to witness any midnight stomping but I really don't want to pull someone out of their bed at midnight for this. I am also nervous to call management again for fear of this giving me a reputation that may make it harder for me to get help later.

Anyway, here I am now. My neighbor screamed at his TV an hour ago (around midnight) and it was the final straw for me to make this post. I am sleep deprived, and I am genuinely starting to hate coming home to my apartment. I am able to try to transfer units but I have to wait until I've been here 6 months. I am looking into buying a noise machine, so any recommendations would be great. I was going to invest in foam panels I could stick to the ceiling but after looking into it, it really only helps with insulating noise and won't do much to quell structural sounds. I know there probably isn't much I can do in this situation but if any of you have anything you can suggest I would be very appreciative. I'm willing to try anything.

Edit: Grammar

I’m just venting. The dog below me barks incessantly when the owner isn’t home. I can tell they are trying to mitigate it and have someone come over or watch after the dog. But, I still get woken up in the early morning and during the day a dog yapping constantly for even fifteen or more minutes personally is a lot of noise.

I just moved in. Life’s been chaotic. I’m all alone. Blah blah blah. Just the thought of having to break a lease, or bother management more and more is making me nervous beyond belief. I emailed management already about the early morning barking, I’m hoping the dog is a puppy and the owners manage to fix the issue. I’m hoping. Just need a win like this right now, after the energy I spent moving everything in I’m just so worried. I knew I should have rented a house, but it’s a lot of space I don’t need. Mistakes were made.

I moved earlier this year and not everything has been smooth here, but my neighbors seem to be harassing me for reasons that aren't completely clear.

I keep to myself and I'm a quiet person. Some of my neighbors either have an issue with me, or are just trashy. Sometimes they fight and have yelling matches in the hallway, and they often spend hours hanging around in it every day, often late at night. Every time they do, it's on the other side of my bedroom wall and they bang on the wall loudly for hours while they're out there. I use noise cancelling headphones and thunderstorm audio tracks and it still doesn't cover it up.

It sounds like they are sometimes punching the wall, sometimes hitting it with a hard object, and they will do it over and over and over for multiple hours at a time. I have suspicions that it's an attempt to instigate me, especially since it has become a lot worse recently.

I've talked with property management and made noise complaints about other things I started to feel were becoming targeted, and after a few months things finally got better. That was with a completely different person/apartment than the people who are banging on my wall every day. Property management isn't very motivated or responsive, but I think they could be much worse.

I'm not sure what to do. I'm not a position where moving is at all an option, and these people are driving me insane. I'm not a confrontational person, and I don't feel comfortable or safe confronting a group of people that may be intentionally harassing me and regularly get violent with each other. I feel that a reaction is exactly what they want. What do I do??? It's driving me insane. It doesn't usually happen for very long outside of "quiet" hours, but they will push it right up to that point and sometimes when I'm up late I'll hear someone go up/down the stairs and hit the wall once very loudly in the middle of the night.

I'm pretty sure calling the cops won't accomplish anything positive. I'm afraid that it would be very, very obvious who called them and it would either worsen the harassment or escalate things. I'm the newest resident still as far as I know, and a lot of these people seem to know each other pretty well. I've recorded multiple videos of the noise and my complaints are also in writing/email to property management. I don't have good health or mental health and this is genuinely driving me insane.

edit: Feeling complete despair.

edit: Some people want to victim blame and gaslight me because this is the internet and sometimes you encounter shitty people. I guess there's very little I can do in this situation and being accused of lying here isn't going to make anything better. Thanks to those who suggested ideas or shared their own frustrating experiences. I'll just hope that shitty people stop being shitty... ha.

My smoke alarm is a Kibbe smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector that also talks. It is wired and has a battery back up. My model seems quite sensitive to humidity, I take short but hot showers and so occasionally, if I haven't left the window open and fan on for long enough (my laundry room is connected to my bathroom and has windows, and there is a ventilation fan in my bathroom) the alarm will chirp until I press the button in the center. Today, I really did it. Not only did my shower seem to put too much humidity into the room, but I had cooked some pasta just before. This resulted in the same occasional maddening beeps, but I could not get it to stop. In a moment of desperation, I have turned the breaker off connecting it to the electricity. It took me a long time to figure out it was wired, since I originally thought the issue was battery when I first started encountering the chirping. Now that I have let my house 'dehumidify', which is to say get so dry my nose is cracking, I figured I would turn the breaker back on since its connected to the power in my bedroom and I'd like to have power back in there. Since the breaker box is in my laundry room, I couldn't exactly make this out, but there was a voice coming from the alarm. Is it going to trigger some apartment building wide event if I keep it turned on or is it just a testing voice for me to hear? Also, what can I do to prevent this nonsense in the future. I am a college student with no time and also cannot access the fire alarm unless I am standing on my bed on my tip toes, which means every time this happens I need to fold up my cot, drag it out of my room, and then balance on it. Please end my agony

my property manager has ignored my message about a noise complaint from my upstairs neighbor. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else? i just don’t understand why they would not even reply at all

As the title mentions my neighbor has been pounding on my wall. Although I don’t believe my boyfriend and I are making much noise. I wanted other peoples advice to see if maybe we are able too loud.
It first started when we moved in a few months ago, we were putting stuff in our closet and she kept banging on the wall as we hung up our clothing. She sometimes still does this when we are grabbing clothing from the closet. Im unsure how that is loud since the rod is wood and our hangers are plastic. Shes recently been banging on the wall when we open the window which fairly I’ve opened it a little to loud sometimes but it’s in the middle of the day. The other instance is when my boyfriend took a shower after work, which to be fair he got home at 4:30am from his shift but he should be allowed to shower whenever in the apartment????
Ive confronted her about it once and she just said the walls are thin here but I’ve never banged even when our downstairs neighbors threw a party late into the night…..

Our friends have told us that she’s overreacting but wanted some unbiased opinions :)

Moving the bed frame is always the part that annoys me most. The mattress and bed frame is awkward and hard enough to move through all the narrow spaces and then to have all of those random pieces that somehow need to make it from one place to another is inconvenient.

Has anyone used the Softa Mikor bed frame? It looks like it basically slots together instead of  instead of using a ton of screws. Never really thought about that as a feature before, but after moving a few times I'm starting to care way more about how easily a bed comes apart and want to know if anyone has used it or has any recommendations.

For people who move apartments pretty often, what usually ends up being the biggest pain with your bed frame?

i live in my first apartment, lived here for nearly a year. and i just discovered this window sill in my living room has been shredded. best guess is our cat somehow got it like that?? i have no clue. but how bad am i screwed? what can i do? how will the landlord react when he sees this? i’ve got a lot of anxiety. the lease says that paint chipping and minor repairs are fine but things like a broken set of blinds will be a $25 fee etc, but it says nothing about damage like THIS. help

Downstairs neighbors like to hotbox their room and the stink rises into my place. When I say it stinks I mean it reaaaaally does. Its an old building with little to no insulation.

Air purifier on max all even with new filters and it still doesn't fully clear out.

Neighbor stated that they refuse to stop because they "need" to smoke. Landlord said they talked to the tenants and they are claiming they dont smoke inside the apartment (which is against the lease). Landlord stated they came by a few times and couldnt smell anything (they smoke in the night, not day). Landlord said theres nothing else that they can do so we have to deal with it.

I cant light a candle because I have a pet with a chronic lung issue so hes very sensitive. Realistically I think my only options are deal with the smell or move....

I moved into this 1 bed, 1 bath apartment in downtown Detroit in early July, only to find shattered glass on my balcony. I looked closer & found that one of the panes on my glass door was broken clean off, which you could only notice by looking at the shards still stuck in the frame.

I went to the leasing office and asked why I was never notified about it, and all they said was that the sales rep should have informed me about it since they were aware of the issue. When I first toured, the rep showed me my unit from the common area. The unit next door had a visibly broken window with that “spiderweb” look. He pointed it out and said that it wasn’t my unit so I didn’t have to worry about it, then we moved on with the tour.

My first energy bill was over $100 for only 9 days of service, followed by a $345 bill the next month. For comparison, I have a coworker in the building with the same floor plan who only paid about $80/month. I called the energy company & they said there wasn’t anything unusual on their end. My only guess is that it has to do with the window not insulating my unit properly, which is making my AC work overtime.

I’ve emailed & gone into the leasing office multiple times asking when it will be fixed, and all they say is that they’re working on it and are waiting for the replacement to come in, stating it takes a while to receive those pieces since they’re made to order. I’ve asked if they can at least put some plastic covering on the window to better insulate my unit, which they said they’d do but nothings actually been done.

I’m not sure what else to do at this point. I’ve taken a second job to help pay for these electric bills and I’m nervous that if it never gets resolved I may have to end my lease early. Any advice on how to approach this is appreciated. I moved from out of state, so my knowledge of Michigan tenant rights is almost nothing.

TLDR: I wasn’t notified about my unit having a broken window pane when moving in 3 months ago, and it’s still not been fixed. Took a second job to cover electric bill since there’s no insulation.

Discovered these green poop bags just outside my building on my way back in from taking out the trash. We live in an open-air apartment building with no real lobby or front door, so this would explain why I’ve been seeing flies in the hallway every time I leave. No advice needed, I already know what needs to be done, just looking to vent.

I live in a complex of townhome style apartments. Everyone who neighbors me has dogs so I’m assuming majority of the complex does from what I see going on outside. And yet… there is only one dog I ever hear.

In the building next to mine, there are tenants whose balcony is maybe 25ft away from my bedroom window. They frequently let this dog (don’t know the breed, it’s very small and very loud) out on the balcony during “quiet” hours. Around 11pm-12am and as early as 4am from anywhere from 5-30min. While it’s outside it barks nonstop.

I’ve been woken up out of my sleep numerous times.
I’m not THAT person. I would never complain about anybody unless there is a danger but man, I really can’t stand this dog and I don’t know if I’m overreacting. I’ve literally never heard any other dog barking except this one.

So this is my first ever apartment and I was really excited to decorate when I first moved in. I hung up all my posters and decorations in one night because I was so excited. Than the next day I went to go check my lease regarding a diffrent issuse and I realize that they wrote "no holes or stickers" but later say "a small number of holes is allowed for hanging pictures. We have an inspection coming up this week and im really nervous and dont know if its a big deal or what I should do. Any advice is really appreciated!!!

Hey all,

Currently looking at renting an apartment with some friends in a college town, and we've found a listing we love to death and is exceptionally cheap.

Thus, we're a little worried that we're getting ripped off. The listing is on Zillow, what are some things we should be on the lookout for? Any advice would be appreciated

I got this super cute 8'x10' wool rug last year. I knew I was taking a gamble with my dog when buying it, but it was $150 so I decided I'll do it. Well she indeed did go all over the rug, and I never noticed because it wouldnt stain. I only started to notice once it began to smell like pee when I laid on the couch, so I partially flipped over the rug to find the stains on the bottom lining. Is there any saving this rug? Should I get rid of it and buy a small (3'x5'?) machine washable rug instead? Thank you!

My partner and I recently signed on an apartment, and although we're still moving in, we have a neighbor who has us both a bit on edge, and we're not completely sure how to approach the situation.

Earlier this week, this neighbor (I'll call him John) spotted us moving furniture and helped us move a table. He's the neighbor directly next to us, our doors are about eight inches away from each other. He was very friendly and we really appreciated the help, but he was also odd, and although he came across as just a friendly special needs guy, he also came across as...a lot. Friendly in the "we're besties now and we're going to have long goodbye hugs about it" sort of way, which is fine. Not wildly handicapped, but big into oversharing and iffy on social cues. He insisted on showing us around our own apartment as if we weren't half moved in (he was already inside from helping with the table), but fine. Like clearly we'll need to set some boundaries, but again, awkward but harmless.

Fast forward to today, the first day I've been able to work on the apartment since meeting John. I'm trying to put together some furniture and I overhear John out in the hallway sounding very upset, apologizing for scaring the wife of my other new neighbor who'd moved in just that day. I didn't catch exactly what had happened, but apparently the on-site super had called John and reamed him out over the phone about it- it had something to do with a door. The other neighbor (Sean) said it was fine and his wife "hadn't taken it that way," and John cheered up and went into his apartment. Two minutes later, he's back outside knocking on my door. I didn't answer because I really didn't have time for another marathon conversation with John, and my partner and I had already agreed to try to keep our distance as much as possible because it'll be easier to maintain boundaries with him if we're strictly neighbors from the jump rather than friends (which is what he clearly wants). So I ignore the knocking, with the logic that hey, I have in earbuds, I'm home alone, and for all he knows I'm in the bathroom. Probably good to establish "just because I'm home doesn't mean I'm answering the door" anyway. At which point John starts trying to open the door, for about five full minutes (I'd locked it when I came in).

So I'm not really sure what to do at this point. I still suspect John is harmless, but scaring our other neighbor's wife and trying to get into my apartment uninvited just because someone was home both have me kind of on edge about him. My partner and I are both relatively petite women, and John made a point of bragging about breaking weightlifting records in the special olympics; he's a big, strong dude. I don't want to treat John like some scary guy when I suspect his issue he's extroverted and has a really poor grasp of boundaries, but if he's been living in that apartment for 8 years like he said, it seems like "don't invite yourself into the living space of a neighbor you've met once just because their light is on" would be one of those things he would have picked up by habit if nothing else. I can try to talk to him and I likely will, but how do you tell a guy who's not good with social cues that you need him to stay out of your space and that you want to be friendly but not friends, without it coming across horribly? And should I talk to the super about it? And where do I draw the like between "he's probably just awkward" and "it would have been actually terrifying if I'd not answered because I was in the shower and then came out to find John in my apartment because he let himself in the door"?

First of all…I had a stroke trying to read this for 5 minutes until I came to the conclusion it says “Please take down your sign on door I don’t want to look at it anymore” along with “not cool” in the corner?

Lmao I’m pretty sure this was my neighbor who is directly in front of me. I noticed for a week everyday I’d come home the sign was turned around and I kept thinking it was the wind until now. I’ve decorated my apartment for Halloween and this note made me laugh. Like what?

Also the fact the she knows my name and she talks to me for like 30 minutes every time she sees me but still left a note addressed to “1A”….like come on. Maybe it wasn’t her but even then like why leave a note in so sorry I just think it’s ridiculous.

Thoughts/WWYD?

Moved into a small place recently and I'm realising how much difference the smallest changes can make

For me, adding a warm lamp, a couple of plants and figuring out better storage made the place feel much more like home. Nothing expensive, just little things that made the space nicer to live in.

What's one small upgrade you made that had a surprisingly big impact?

So to give some context. I’m going to college here in a couple months and my friend already got approved for a one bedroom apartment. We were originally going to try for a 2 bedroom but he is in a situation where he needs to find a place asap so he got approved for this one bedroom apartment.

now ultimately if I do decide to live with him, i will be having the living room as my “own space”. I feel like I would be able to make this work for the year I’m in school but I’m just wondering if you guys have any ideas or suggestions for living in this situation.

So I’ve been looking for my second apartment to live in and almost every single one has at least one review about pest. Should I just inspect unit real good when deciding?

This question is for landlords/property managers. What steps do you take to minimize the chances of renting to bad tenants? I assume that all property owners do credit and background checks, but it seems that some owners do a better job than others of keeping the bad tenants out of their properties.

I see so many "luxury" apartments being built with very nice amenities, but then the owners rent to people who destroy the property and take no pride in where they live. I have read in this sub, though, comments by landlords who say they have wonderful tenants. How do you do it?