Imagine living in an apartment where there is a neighbor who lives directly below you, and this neighbor claims that your cat is making a lot of noise and keeping him awake at night. What would you do if you knew the cat wasn’t making the noise because the cat was asleep on your bed at the time?

In this story, one person is in this situation, and he eventually found out where the noise was coming from. However, that wasn’t the end of the problem. Now, he’s the one being woken up at night by the same neighbor who was complaining about noise.

Keep reading for all the details and to decide if he’s handling this situation correctly or not.

WIBTA if I go to HOA about my elderly neighbor?

My neighbor John (89? M) is a widower living one floor under me.

Preamble/Backstory

The conflict started in February with him slipping a note under my door, saying that he would appreciate if my cat (4,5F, 4,5 kg/~10 lbs) would not wake him up in the middle of the night. The note was written pretty aggressively, including smth along the lines of “I will call police/get you evicted”.

Babygirl is very lively, but usually goes to sleep around 21:00/9 pm. Yes, she has zoomies like every cat does, but those are very rare and mostly occurring before this time. Besides, she is pretty active and he never said anything about her during the day.

But it can’t be the cat that’s causing the noise.

After I talked to our HOA-head (Dean) and family friend/lawyer (Ken), both were convinced that I’m in the clear and that it was impossibly my cat.

1. The noises were described as “metallic, screaching” [metal werecat?]

2. They were coming from the corner of my room that has nothing for the interest/not enough place for the kitty, unless she spent her nights banging her head on my table/PC-setup

3. John was showing his distaste for noise, by loudly banging onto the ceiling and screaming “Hello! Silence!”, couple of times waking me up and startling kitty, who was sleeping on my legs [the fastest cat in the world, The Flash-Cat]

It really wasn’t the cat.

After few talks between me, Dean and John, where John promised to escalate everything by sticking his walking stick (watery water, sorry) out and hitting my windows from outside, it came yo head, as he found out.that.were.neighbors.from.the.other.side.

Yes, all this time he was guilteing (?) babygirl instead of family of 5 with three young kids who was making the ruckus deep into the night!

No apology, no accountability. Hit on my mom, though.

He started keeping notes.

Fabula/Main event

Following the advice of Ken, I started a diary, noting every day and time John would band his stick onto ceiling/screaming.

Since February there have been around 47 instances, happening pretty often in the last two months.

I’m constantly getting woken up by his screams and it’s not the nicest feeling in the world.

He’s thinking about calling the police.

Last night he was screaming, but also promised to call police to deal with an invisible enemy (sadly? not Simon from The Misfits).

I talked to John about his behavior and was promised he’ll stop.

I asked Dean to talk with John on my behalf, because it did not stop.

WIBTA if I escalate the situation by writing a formal complaint//playing UNO-Reverse and involving police John called, in case he does, towards him? I don’t think I can exist happily by having him screaming multiple nights a week

Never Miss a Story

Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.

Is calling the police too dramatic or the right thing to do?

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a family who is resisting pressure from the HOA to remove their tree and lights.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

This person has a theory.

Another person suggests contacting John’s family.

But this person has questions about the HOA.

It is possible that the neighbor might have dementia or another medical issue that would explain his annoying behavior.

It’s definitely not the cat that’s the problem, but it might be better to have the HOA call the neighbor’s family instead of calling the police.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a woman who was in love with her dream house – and then spring came and her neighbor’s trees caused her to question the purchase.