What Can I Do About Neighbors Harassing Me?

Question

live on the 2nd story of an apartment building above 2 80+ year olds. For the past year and a half, they have written several letters to me and the landlord saying me and my family are too loud as far as talking on my balcony, shutting the sliding glass doors too hard, etc. Now, they are having their daughter call the office daily to complain about us. Needless to say, my husband and I have a 4 year old and we are the only ones that live here. We do not have parties, we do not play loud music, we are just normal people. I have already filed for an injunction with the courts but it was denied as my neighbor would have had to physically threaten me. Soooooo....What legal rights do I have or what can I do?

My noise isnt any more than a normal person sitting on theie balcony talking or letting my child play with her toys out there. The glass door has tried to be fixed but the Property Mgr said they have done all they could and they do not see any reason to label it as "excessive"

These neighbors have also taped handwritten letters to my door, sent some to the office and now are having their daughter in law call the office everyday to complain. We have tried to be more quiet but it is hard since we are in an apartment on the 2nd floor....they hear everything!

The door isn't loud...it is just they can hear the rumble of it rolling on the track. And, yes, they too have grandkids but when they visit, you don't hear a peep from the kids. The landlord had no intentions of evicting us. She can't find anything wrong with what we are doing, those people have also complained about the 2 previous tenants who used to live in this apt before us.

Answer 1

Sounds like your basically trying to live a daily life to me. Perhaps they should turn down their hearing aids. And they should know better than to expect parents of a child to make that child be silent, that is not good for the child, children should be allowed to be children (respectfully ofcourse, no yelling, screaming and the such and out of control). This is a different day and age as when they grew up...." children should be seen and not heard" is extinct anymore. And you can't tell me they don't have or never had small children and grandchildren. As for the patio door........is it the track? Might I suggest spraying some WD-40 on the track for ease in sliding. You never did elaborate on why the thing is so loud. Good luck. Make her / him some cookies and try to be nice, don't drop down to their level.

Answer 2

Talking on the balcony and shutting your glass sliding doors is not an evict able offense. Talk to your landlord about moving into a downstairs apartment or maybe the elderly couple needs to move. One bad thing about living in apartments especially an upstairs one even though you don't have party's or play loud music the simple fact is that the apartment under you will hear noise regardless. The elderly couple needs to realize that and quit bitching. They should of thought about the noise level before they ever moved in.

Answer 3

If you are not making that much noise, they're just being super-sensitive, which is what most old people are--it comes with age. Make a sincere attempt to reduce the noise coming from your apartment, then talk to the landlord. There is probably not enough buffering insulation between the 2 floors--that's not your problem. Legally, you've got nothing if the landlord and the people below want you out. Just remind the landlord, if it comes to it, that he will lose a paying customer.
Since the people below are so fond of writing notes, write them one: Let them know that if they get rid of you, WHO KNOWS who will move in after you. The next tenant could be a family of 10.

Answer 4

Two thoughts, both not as clean cut as: MOVE. Which would be the best for all, but with a lease and everything I know that's tough.

If they are taping letters to your door and calling to complain daily you can try taking them to court in civil court to get a restraining order against them and their daughter. The problem is you both have valid complaints. They probably can hear everything you do, apartments are notorious for that, so the judge would call it a wash.

The second solution would be to ask your landlord if he has another property he can swap you for and continue the lease there. You have a right to enjoy your own space, and who can with the old farts downstairs bitching 24/7? Get up your landlord's butt about your quality of life, and make him deal with them.

Answer 5

Unfortunately, there isn't too much you can do. It sounds like you are like me and my family, we don't do anything out of the norm, but years ago when my girls were young, we had a similar problem with neighbors. In the end, we just moved because it was getting so my girls couldn't play outside without the neighbors yelling at them or calling the police on a regular basis. You could try filing charges against them for harassment, but I doubt if that would do any good since they haven't done anything to you specifically. Good luck to you.

Answer 6

You would be surprised as to how clueless people can be as far as making noise goes.

I am sure my neighbors do not realize that they keep me up til 3 AM most nights.

Just try to be concious of the noise you do make.

When I complained about my upstairs neighbors, the office told me that if there were enough complaints they would be evicted, so I am pretty sure its legal for you to be evicted due to excessive noise.

Answer 7

they need to get over it, there old and it sounds like they want it to be extremely quiet ALL the time, well they need to learn that when you live in apartments its NOT going to be extremely quiet, have you tried talking to them? or maybe just playing it out?