Apartment living comes with a basic understanding: you’re going to hear other people. Footsteps, dropped items, furniture moving—it’s all part of sharing walls, floors, and ceilings with strangers. But when normal daily noise turns into constant conflict, things can escalate fast.

This couple had barely settled into their second-floor apartment when problems with their downstairs neighbor began. According to OP, the elderly woman seemed hostile from day one, warning them during move-in to stay extremely quiet. Since then, she’s allegedly shouted at them multiple times a day over what OP describes as normal, unavoidable sounds—things like moving chairs, accidentally dropping items, or simply walking around.

At first, OP tried to brush it off, but the repeated yelling eventually became too much. After one heated exchange, they reached out to property management hoping to resolve the issue. Management reportedly revealed that this wasn’t the first complaint against the neighbor, and previous tenants had experienced similar problems.

Still, OP never expected the situation might end with eviction.

AITA for reporting my neighbor for yelling to much and indirectly causing her to get evicted

My partner and I just moved into an apartment on the second floor of an apartment complex that has been otherwise nice.

However, our downstairs neighbor (~80F) has been pretty antagonistic to us about noise right from the beginning. When we were moving in, before saying anything else to us, she told us that we had to be super quiet moving in. Naturally, we made some noise moving our furniture in and getting unpacked, and she yelled at us several times.

Since then, about two-three times a day, she yells at us through the floor for making too much noise and not being respectful.

Wowww.

Reason for being called loud and rude include: 1. Scooting in our chair 2. Setting down our couch during the middle of the day in a new location even though we tried to do it as softly as possible 3. Dropping a protein shake bottle 4. Dropping a cutting board while putting it away 5. Getting up too loudly 6. Moving a cardboard box

You get the point.

Eventually, I got fed up because it was happening so consistently that I yelled back one time to tell her to ‘mind her own f—— business’, and we exchanged curses at each other.

Yikes.

The next day I called management to tell them about the problem. They told me that a couple of previous tenants had the same issue with her and that she would give her one more warning.

She stopped yelling for about three days and then went right back to yelling multiple times a day, so I told management again if they could talk to her. They said they were going to go with the second option, and today I saw a note on her door that I think means she is being evicted.

I now feel super guilty about the whole situation because I never wanted her to get evicted.

That may have gone too far.

I wanted her to stop yelling at us, and if she wanted to reduce the noise to just come and talk to us so we can working through a solution (e.g., putting chair softening pads on our dining chairs, accepting that incidental and accidental noise is a part of apartment living, putting up noise cancelling pads in her apartment).

I also feel guilty because she’s old, meaning that moving will be hard for her. It possible she could have dementia or something like that, but I don’t know because she never talked to us as a friendly neighbor. Nobody has indicated this to be true, I am just spiraling a bit.

Anyway, AITA, and what should I do in this situation?

Reddit overwhelmingly leaned NTA, with many commenters saying OP didn’t get the neighbor evicted—the neighbor’s own repeated behavior likely did. Most felt OP gave the situation multiple chances before escalating it, and contacting management after ongoing harassment was a reasonable step, especially when the yelling had become a daily occurrence.

Many commenters also pointed to management’s response as an important detail. The fact that prior tenants had already complained suggested this wasn’t an isolated conflict or a one-time misunderstanding. In other words, eviction likely wasn’t triggered by a single complaint—it was the result of a documented pattern.

That said, some commenters expressed sympathy for the elderly neighbor, especially if underlying issues like mental health struggles, cognitive decline, or extreme sensitivity to noise are involved. But even those commenters generally agreed that while her situation may be sad, it doesn’t make it OP’s responsibility to tolerate constant verbal abuse.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about some renters who moved out and left their apartment in the same state of disarray they’d found it in when they moved in.

The overall consensus was that feeling guilty is understandable, but OP didn’t create this outcome. They asked for help with harassment. What happened next was the result of a much bigger pattern.

This person has some good justifications.

This person says not to blame himself.

And this person says do NOTHING. NADA. ZILCH.

You didn’t get your neighbor evicted—her inability to peacefully coexist with anyone probably did.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who got creative with his parking after his neighbors started using his extra spot without asking.