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[shovelbum]

I live in an old house that's been broken up into multiple apartments. A few weeks ago a new couple moved in next to me and they play LOUD music...only at night. What makes it worse is that it is music that I don't like at all. Sometimes they jam on their electric guitar and base, late at night. I have politely complained to them twice, wearing my pajamas, once at 12:30 AM and once at 11:30 PM. Both times they were very apologetic and turned down the music immediately. Now, a few days later, it is 10:00 PM on a Sunday night, I am ready for bed and they are at it again. How many times will I have to complain to them? How can I get them to stop for good?

[peppergal]

I had neighbors like this once.  After asking them nicely three or four times, I talked to the landlord, who provided them with a copy of the city's noise ordinance.

Shortly thereafter they were evicted for a string of issues (including illegal chickens, and an incident involving a snake and the police), but that's a story for another thread.

[barred_owl]

You need to speak with your landlord, shovelbum.  Have a look at your lease, too--if there are provisions in it regarding noise, use them as your leverage with the landlord.  Good luck.  Noisy neighbors are a pain.

[dolljepopp]

In my last US apartment, my roommate and I had a nuisance neighbour on the other side of the paper-thin wall. Music twenty hours a day. We'd complain, it would be better for a day or two. We complained repeatedly to the landlord (who was basically a criminal, but, you know, you follow the procedures -- and the lease had a strongly worded noise clause). Criminal landlord did nothing. We began logging police complaints -- a few dozen in a few months. The police came out once and said, "You'll have to work it out yourself." We kept calling, they kept not doing anything. Ditto criminal landlord. My roommate (whose room bore the brunt of it) phoned the city's housing department or whatever it was called. A few calls resulted in a free phone conference with an attorney, who advised us on how to conduct a rent strike. We provided written notice, sent by registered mail, opened an escrow account and paid rent into it. Every month we sent a new letter via registered mail to the criminal landlord explaining that when he addressed the situation, we would pay him all his rent and that he was welcome to look at the account balance at any time and/or speak with our attorney. No response, no  action. Six months later, following the attorney's advice about the legalities, we broke the lease. Criminal landlord sent some threatening letters. We responded with an offer to pay all back rent on the condition that we were let out of the lease with no further liability. Criminal landlord pushed for a couple of extra months' rent. Eventually his time under the local law to do anything ran out. He had not filed court paper one, so we closed the escrow account and split the money. Basically we lived there a year and paid six months' rent. Criminal landlord lost several thousand. (The attorney guessed that he actually wanted to avoid a court appearance at all costs, as he was pretty well known as one of the worst landlords in the area.)

Fight the bad neighbour. Go through channels and do not give up.

[svenc]

Heh, reading Dolljepopp's last message made me wonder, "Are you my old roommate?"  I had a very similar situation with a criminal landlord and a rent strike, except the dispute was over the housing conditions, not noise.

In any case, the result was the same.  We ended up breaking the lease early and pocketing a large chunk of change after depositing money into an escrow account for much of the rental year.  All this was only after the landlord failed to accept a much better deal that we had offered, on the advice of a renter's advocacy lawyer.  The landlord simply couldn't be bothered to look out after his own interests, much less do the right thing by us.

However, I was living in a town where the rental laws definitely favored the tenants in many regards.  Check in with the local laws and advocacy groups before doing anything like a rent strike.

[john_proctor]

Counter strike.

Take up the bagpipes.

[periodically]

Counter strike.

Take up the bagpipes.

 at 4:30 AM.

[john_proctor]

Counter strike.

Take up the bagpipes.

 at 4:30 AM.

Improvising soft-jazz grooves of Neal Dimond.

[helpful]

Anyone have any bright ideas on how to get fellow public transit users from blowing out their ears and also blasting away noise from their ipods. I try to ask them to turn it down, but they just look at me funny.

My standard is that if i can hear the music clearly from their ipods thingies in their ears then it was too loud both for me and for their ears.

[shovelbum]

Oooh! I like John Proctor's and Periodically's suggestions.  Well, perhaps pajama chat 1 & 2 did some good after all, because 10 minutes after I posted this vent, they switched to acoustic guitars. There is hope!

[humanista]

However, I was living in a town where the rental laws definitely favored the tenants in many regards. 

Berkeley, CA?

[thundering_m]

Anyone have any bright ideas on how to get fellow public transit users from blowing out their ears and also blasting away noise from their ipods. I try to ask them to turn it down, but they just look at me funny.

My standard is that if i can hear the music clearly from their ipods thingies in their ears then it was too loud both for me and for their ears.

bookmark.

[finallydone]

Oh, this was me at 4.30am Saturday when the young twenty-somethings below me decided to karaoke to Salt 'n Pepa's Shoop song.  I could hear e-v-e-r-y word and every drunken syllable. 

[european]

Anyone have any bright ideas on how to get fellow public transit users from blowing out their ears and also blasting away noise from their ipods. I try to ask them to turn it down, but they just look at me funny.

My standard is that if i can hear the music clearly from their ipods thingies in their ears then it was too loud both for me and for their ears.

Some time ago I found myself in an utterly crammed train for about half an hour with a subject who exhibited this phenomenon. Unfortunately, he was a particularly good example, given the fact that it was about double as loud as most of these people put their volume. Thus, not only could I hear the music clearly... I could hear it clearly and it was doubly disturbing for my reading.

I glared at him. Everybody in the wagon glared at him.

He shrugged and didn't do anything about it.

[mkalex1]

Anyone have any bright ideas on how to get fellow public transit users from blowing out their ears and also blasting away noise from their ipods. I try to ask them to turn it down, but they just look at me funny.

My standard is that if i can hear the music clearly from their ipods thingies in their ears then it was too loud both for me and for their ears.

Some time ago I found myself in an utterly crammed train for about half an hour with a subject who exhibited this phenomenon. Unfortunately, he was a particularly good example, given the fact that it was about double as loud as most of these people put their volume. Thus, not only could I hear the music clearly... I could hear it clearly and it was doubly disturbing for my reading.

I glared at him. Everybody in the wagon glared at him.

He shrugged and didn't do anything about it.

Where's Spock when you need him?  One good Vulcan neck pinch, and problem solved!