Pexels/Reddit

Apartment living comes with an unspoken rule: you’re probably going to hear your neighbors sometimes, and that’s just part of the deal.

One woman found herself on the receiving end of that reality after her downstairs neighbor complained twice about noise, despite her not playing music or doing anything beyond normal walking around her own place.

Her roommates backed her up, confirming they never heard her and she wasn’t waking anyone up, yet the complaints kept coming from the same person below.

She even bought a carpet hoping it would fix the issue, but nothing seemed to satisfy the neighbor’s concerns.

Now she’s stuck worrying about a fine for noise that barely qualifies as noise at all.

Keep reading for the full story.

Downstairs neighbor keeps complaining about noise.

I am not that noisy. I don’t play music, and the only “noise” I make is walking around or sitting on my bed.

They have complained twice, and I think this is their first actual apartment post-grad.

This tenant thinks of noise as a given with apartment living.

I’ve lived in a few apartments and have realized that you probably WILL hear your upstairs neighbors.

It just comes with the territory of apartment complexes. And as long as it’s not EXCESSIVE and really disruptive, it is what it is.

She’s polled other people she knows and they also attest to her quietness.

My roommates have said that they haven’t heard me and I don’t wake them up, and it’s only the person right below me complaining.

She’s tried to mitigate the issue, but nothing seems to work.

I bought a carpet to try to fix it, but it didn’t work.

She keeps complaining, and I’m scared I’m gonna be fined.

I feel like I can’t be THAT loud if I’m not waking up the people right next to me, right?

Noise travels quite differently when it’s above you instead of next to you.

What did Reddit have to say?

Sometimes the noise doesn’t come from where you expect.

The neighbors need to be able to back up their claims.

Neighbors can be really difficult to deal with.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who shuts down her neighbor’s construction project after her property gets damaged.

This commenter shares their take.

She bought a carpet. She checked with her own roommates. She kept her routine boring by design.

But at the end of the day, none of that mattered to the one person determined to be bothered by the slightest noise.

Apartment living comes with a baseline amount of sound, and expecting silence from an upstairs neighbor is really just expecting them to stop existing.