They Complained About Upstairs Noise—So the Landlord Moved In Above Them with His Family and Loud Dogs
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Imagine living in an older apartment building with thin floors and walls. You’d be able to hear every noise coming from the surrounding apartments.
In this story, one couple is in this situation, and they made a simple request to the landlord to possibly add some carpet over the hardwood floors to reduce the noise.
He didn’t just ignore their request. He actually made the noise much, much worse by moving into the upstairs apartment with his whole family including kids with loud toys and dogs that often bark.
Keep reading for all the details.
Moved in lower floor apartment with very poor sound insulation, asked landlord to help, he “resolved” the issue by moving in upstairs himself, with family, 1 year old kid, and 3 pitbulls
Two years ago my partner and I rented a nice looking 2nd floor apartment from a private landlord who lived out of state, and very quickly learned there is hardly any sound insulation with the 3rd floor.
It’s an old 1900s house, and the floors were not decoupled. We can hear every phone conversation, and heavy steps cause our walls to shake.
It doesn’t help that there are hardwood floors throughout with no rugs.
We asked landlord to help us resolve the issue, by maybe putting a couple of rugs in noisy areas like bedroom or living room, or adding the rule of no street shoes inside.
It’s gotten worse.
No adequate response was received, and no resolution offered, until previous tenants moved out, and 6 months ago the landlord moved in himself.
Since then the following happened:
* He moved in this smallish 2 bedroom with his family; wife, ~1 year old kid, and 3 large pitbulls
* He never informed us he’s moving in, and for how long, just at one point noise levels went up dramatically. We had to check with the agent who rented us the apartment on behalf of the landlord, and it was a temporary move while he’s building a new house in this state. Nobody knows for how long
This sounds awful!
* We waited a couple of months, understanding that moving process might be noisy, and sent polite message after to ask him to find the solution that works for all of us in this situation
* Since then, every text we sent was ignored, and the noise doubled down right after, I can only assume that was on purpose. We only maybe sent a text once every 1-2 months, but every time we “pay” for it
* In last few months landlord bought toys for the kid, that make even more noise inside; kids piano, bicycle, another toy to ride, basketball hoop, and who knows what else. Every time we “dare” to reach out, we can hear all of them
* He regularly plays fetch with his dogs and the kid inside his apartment, that he’s fully aware of, has very thin flooring (pets are not allowed as per our lease by the way)
The noise is a big problem, but it’s not the only problem.
* The noise schedule is irregular and unpredictable, which makes it extra stressful; I work from home 9-5, and my colleagues on zoom calls can hear it; there is no rest in this house as well, since noise can happen at any time of day or night, weekday or weekend. Our sleep schedule is non existent by now sadly
* Since he moved in, he turned off water supply once without any notice
* He installed a new washing machine upstairs, and one night it leaked so much, we had to put a few buckets to catch all the water in our kitchen, that was under it. When I called to let him know about the leak, he tried to ignore my calls as well
* He screams passive aggressive stuff that we can obviously hear, on shared staircase. One day he stepped out and shouted at me for “banging the door” at 9.15pm, causing his 3 dogs to bark loudly (which they do every time we climb the stairs), which in turn woke up his kid
The landlord really sounds awful.
* I’m extremely scared of large dogs, especially pitbulls. He walks all 3 of them daily without leash, in the backyard, and just screams at them when they try to run away
* My partner was delivering lease end notice in person, and asked the landlord to not scream at me/us in the future.
At this point, the landlord got directly in his face, screaming bloody murder and blaming us for the noise (he never responded our texts, and never let us know he has issues with us or our noise via talking or text before).
My partner asked him to stay away, but landlord kept getting in his face screaming.
They sounds like good tenants.
At this point we don’t feel safe in this place, we are ending the lease in a couple of months, but every day in this place is honestly a torture.
We are a couple in our mid 40s, no kids, no pets, both with great credit and 9-5 jobs, rarely any guests, we just like chilling at home after work. We are never late with rent, and follow lease rules.
We both lived in apartments before, including ones in large cities, and never had such a terrible experience.
All we asked after all is to have a couple of rugs on the floors, and maybe some consideration, keeping in mind the poor sound insulation.
She feels like the situation is hopeless.
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I really don’t know what kind of help or advice I can get at this point, I’m honestly at my wits end.
We have been asking friends for advice, and trying to break the lease early, but nothing worked so far.
I guess at this point I just need to vent, and maybe hear other terrible landlord stories…
She also wants to warn potential tenants.
It’s a private landlord, so there is no way to leave reviews online. But I want future tenants to be aware of the situation here.
Where do you you think I could share this information? On nextdoor, FB page of my town? And is it safe, can he go after us?
I really don’t want other people or families to get stuck in this lease like we did.
What an awful landlord and living situation. At least they’re moving soon. Let’s see if Reddit has any advice about how to warn other tenants.
Here’s some advice.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a homeowner who doesn’t think their painters should use their water spigot on the job.
Another person has a strong opinion.
It truly does sound like a nightmare. The good news is that they’re moving. Recording evidence of the noise and sharing it everywhere they can think to share it would be a good idea.
I feel bad for the next tenants.
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