Woman Reaches Her Limit: Downstairs Neighbor Keeps Complaining Despite Her Efforts
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Imagine moving into an apartment and meeting a neighbor who is both friendly and critical at the same time.
I’d be second guessing this whole living situation because if someone introduces themselves by complaining about what you’re doing, it seems to be a bad sign for the future.
That’s exactly what happened in this story when two women moved into an apartment and met their downstairs neighbor. He switches from friendly to overly critical over and over again.
Now, his complaints are affecting the women’s mental health, and they’re counting the months until their lease is up.
Keep reading for all the details.
Neighbor complains and landlord is biased
So me (29F) and my girlfriend (26F) have recently moved into this very small apartment that we sacrificed a lot to get and didn’t necessarily expect to move when we did.
It’s been quite hard and stressful because it is a quarter of the size of what we are used to.
We have three cats but only said we had one but I know you cannot tell.
We share the upstairs with another neighbor who is quiet and keeps to themselves, and the downstairs neighbor has the bottom floor, and the outside of the apartment.
One neighbor seemed friendly and annoying at the same time.
Immediately when we moved in the downstairs neighbor was friendly, but complained about us moving stuff in and taking a space in the parking lot (where only he parks even though there is two spaces and I do not have a car).
Then he continued to be friendly but complained that we may have been leaving the gate open when moving, his reason being that his friend visits with a dog, even though we were leaving the gate open when moving heavy furniture.
He continues to be helpful and nice and and helps with some issues we have and generally things are good.
Though the first two nights we stayed, our cats were stressed and he had banged on the ceiling to let us know that he was frustrated by it, which stressed me out so badly I missed work.
Then the neighbor offered more “advice.”
However it all turned around the day we were gifted a bird feeder and had it upstairs on our balcony.
He was “giving advice” that we should not have it because it attracts too many birds and will attract rats.
I thought it was odd because he decorated the entire outside with plants and I thought made it inviting for birds and other wildlife.
I honestly forget about it, thinking he’s just trying to let me know.
But the guy was serious about not wanting the bird feeder there.
A day goes by and I come home from a 11 hour shift at work and as soon as I opened the gate to the backyard area, he came out with a leaf blower, yelling over it how we need to take away the bird feeder because it’s making a mess.
I felt threatened at this point and both me and my girlfriend had took it as such.
I questioned him as to why he had an issue with us already even though it had only been days and we had argued. We both have PTSD and it made us both incredibly anxious.
The male landlord was agreeing he “gets this way with everyone” but tells us to take the bird feeder down to appease him.
They really shouldn’t have lied about how many cats they have.
We do, and we keep our distance.
He tried to rat me out for having more than one cat which I stupidly mentioned when he had been complaining about the landlords (two, because it’s a son and mother that both are in charge of the building).
The mother decided to schedule a check in of how things were coming along, sounding mad about the cat thing and acting like we would be evicted about that and not getting along with him.
I have a panic attack at work and yet again, leave early missing the rest of the day.
She lied again and got away with it.
The meeting goes well and I just say I have one cat because I had two of them away with someone at this point and she is nice about the apartment.
However, telling me I must get along with the downstairs neighbor because he has lived here since about 30 years ago. And to not put anything downstairs and to fight with him (even though no one even wants to) and to write him an apology note.
I don’t end up saying anything at all to him until a month later when I lost power and needed to ask for his help to get it back on.
Eventually, the neighbor did get an apology.
He was generally nice but he has also hit the ceiling a few times, one time including when he hit the radiator and it sounded like an explosion because my cat made a noise before work.
I apologize to him for everything and thank him greatly for his help and things seem better with him and we are back to being pretty friendly if I see him.
Next random questionable incident the male landlord tells me to remove everything off of our shared balcony including a table and chair set that has been there for years before we lived there because it’s “in the way”.
We are confused, but do it and put it where we were told, and it’s been sitting there ever since despite telling us they’d remove it. Not related to the neighbor but feels odd.
The neighbor is still mad at them.
Now, we are told that our tv (volume 10/100) and box fan (level 1) and possibly some nights where we used an alexa (volume 4/100) playing rain sounds for sleep have been keeping him awake at night, despite us living all the way upstairs and him having extremely high ceilings.
I have already put multiple rugs down all over my floor, and stopped using the bathroom at night or flushing the toilet because he had banged on the ceiling one night when I walked to the bathroom.
I have no idea how he could ever possibly hear such a thing, and it’s been the only thing not keeping me awake anticipating the banging I might hear which makes my heart race out of my chest to the point it makes me nauseous and sweat.
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I cannot deal with unexpected loud nosies like that, and I do understand what it’s like to be frustrated by noise, so I have been tip toeing and putting the fan on to mask any small sounds.
She’s trying to be considerate.
I am on a budget but i will put even more rugs down but I dont know if it will even help if he can somehow hear my tv.
I do not make sound past 9 pm and have not even had any visitors at all whatsoever because I am so worried.
I dont want to put my pets in danger because they were already abandoned by previous owners and at some point it feels like he is blackmailing me to not say anything against him or I fear he will expose this, and I don’t know what more my mind (or bladder for that matter) can take.
On weekdays I am typically asleep very early because I work very long early days.
This whole situation is affecting her mental health.
Some mornings Im scared to even wake up because I don’t want to hear the banging and worry about it all through the time I’m away.
I admit my cats jump sometimes, but they are always sleeping at this point.
We are both becoming very depressed and feeling unstable and defeated because no matter what, his side is taken and we are scolded like children constantly.
I just don’t know what to do at this point. Any advice is accepted. I want to move when the lease is over but it’s months from now and I worry about how much I won’t be able to do this.
Okay, so the first thing to do would be to not lie about how many pets you have. Then there’s nothing to blackmail you about. Other than that, it sounds like OP is trying to be a considerate neighbor, and the downstairs neighbor is a bit picky about noise.
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
Here’s some advice.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a barn owner who wants to evict a tenant who promised to build stalls but never did.
Another person suggests calling the police.
An air purifier might help.
I’m wondering how that man managed to live in a downstairs apartment for 30 years, but he’s this upset about noise when the upstairs neighbor walks, watches TV or uses the bathroom. Isn’t he used to a little noise by now? I’d think he would’ve figured out how to reduce the sounds on his end at this point, like with the air purifier idea or something.
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