I don’t recommend anyone try to do this because it can end up making a lot of bad things happen: police, jail time, violence or even worse, but in this case, it ended well. This is a real retaliation story of a man who was able to get rid of his noisy upstairs neighbors and what he did was very, very dangerous.
This neighbor is someone who lives on the 2nd floor of my building. He is an old man well into his 70’s who lives alone. The neighbors he had issues with lived right above him, on the third and right across from my apartment. In that apartment was a man, woman and their 2 children, one little, one a teenager.
I knew there was a problem when one morning I woke up to hear loud screaming from the older man who was walking by their door, screaming at the top his lungs and yelling profanities I dare not repeat… this would become an event that would happen almost every single day, sometimes two or three times.
The way this man yelled was so loud and with such anger, the neighbor he was yelling at was too scared to even come out. The police were called many times, during the day and night from both neighbors against each other and though I don’t know what dialogue went on most of the time, the 3rd floor neighbors were the ones who had the police called on them more often and obviously it was from the older man.
I remember having casual conversations with this gentlemen while leaving my apartment, seeing him on the stairway. I did try to avoid eye contact him with him after hearing him scream so much, but he asked if he could speak with me. We actually had a nice conversation and he told me about the problems he was having.
His side of the story was that these people were constantly banging on the floor and he was unable to get any sleep so to stop the noise, after yelling at them and asking them to stop didn’t work, he would blast his TV as loudly as possible almost a whole day to block out the sounds.
He vented out a little bit and I did try to calm him down, but this was also during the same time I had my own little adventures with my downstairs neighbors. I told him to contact the super, landlord or just call the cops when they would get out of hand.
He told me did all of this and even said he contacted his congressman to complain about the problem, but this wasn’t just about the neighbors, it was also against our landlord who he said wasn’t doing anything because he believed she was trying to get rid of him. These are all things he said were happening but there is no way I can verify it. It’s just his position.
We only had about 3 discussions and between them, the problems with the yelling, police kept going on. The old man would even bang on the heated pipes in his apartment for several minutes in outrage a few times and this banging would be heard throughout the entire building. Our heated pipes go through every floor so the upstairs neighbors definitely heard it.
One day, the old man was confronted by the man in the household and both of them nearly got into a fist fight, with both threatening each other. Another day, the police were called again, but this time, they told the upstairs neighbors that they were being called way too often and if this kept going on, they would start writing tickets. I know this because I overheard them while leaving my apartment.
Not long after that happened, the neighbors on the third floor finally moved out. Maybe it was the stress they were caused by the old man, maybe it was the threat of the cops, but it finally happened. I’m not excusing the neighbors, nor the old man because I don’t know the real truth so I never took sides, but what I do know is what the old man said about them may have been true because the next neighbors that moved in never had issues with him, not even once.
It’s a good thing this retaliation story has a happy ending. It’s a very risky move and most people would never do the sort of things this man did because you never know who you’re dealing with. It’s always better to go through legal methods and at all costs avoid anything like violence or threats.
I have had moments where I would yell at my neighbors or stomp on the floor and sometimes it would work, but when it didn’t, I would always call the cops. I know there’s so many people in the world who have to deal with noisy neighbors and first thing you should always do is look for legal means to solve it.
Have a crazy neighbor story of your own? Share it!
People who say “take the high road” when dealing with overly noisy and ignorant neighbors are idiots.
1. Complaining to the landlord or complex you live in
2. Writing notes to ‘that’ neighbor and slipping it under there door
3. Politely and calmly confronting ‘that’ neighbor about the noise
4. Doing nothing in fear of having constant tension in your apartment
5. Breaking down and calling the cops numerous times (which you can get fined for in some states)
All of these are examples of how quiet neighbors choose to approach and try to end their noisy neighbors constant noise. Yet 99.9% of the time it doesn’t work.
I’ve lived in various apartments all my life and dealt with many, many, MANY noisy neighbors. When I was younger I took the high road, trying each of things I listed above.
For years I would take this road and for years the end result was the same; nothing happening except more noise and tension in the home.
After realizing nothing good can come from this, I broke down and bought myself a really decent soundbar.
Now when my most recent neighbors make noise, I make even more noise. It works.
I admit I dislike when the base is overly loud, but I’d rather deal with that for 45 min in order to stop the noise than deal with my neighbors noise all day and night.
Apartment “noise regulations and rules” are only there to give anyone who leases a false sense of security. Only those apartments that are ridiculously expensive follow these rules – but for that amount of money you may as well rent or buy a condo or home.
Basically…to anyone that reads this, yes sometimes your neighbors are just ignorant and have no idea how noisy they are. In this case *maybe* approaching them will stop the noise. Maybe, though doubtfully. Typically noisy neighbors are just blissfully and willingly ignorant to those that live around, choosing to believe they live in a 2 – 15 story home rather than an apartment.
It sucks to have to lower yourself to their standard, but once you do you realize it makes your life a hell of a lot easier.