Mentally disturbed neighbor

[wysiwyg6000]

What is the name of your state? - NJ

Hi all,
I have been in my current condo unit for 2 years now, a family member of mine lived her for several years before me. My downstairs neighbor, who has been here for nearly 10 years, is a complete nuisance and has very serious mental imbalance issues. She constantly blasts her music with loud bass, talks obnoxiously loud (both inside and outside her condo - usually talking to everyone that walks outside) and is now crying hysterically at 4/5am every night over god knows what. I am sick of this. I haven't had a good night's sleep in 3+ months. I hate being from home on vacation from work because all I hear is bass and screaming (yes she screams at the top of her lungs). I have told her several times within the past month to lower her music, which she does and apologizes for it, then proceeds to do it again in the future. In fact,the one time she was blasting it at 8AM and asked me when I went outside on my way to work if she had "woken me up." It's like living above a 15 year old girl, even though this person is nearly 50. Numerous other people have complained about her to no avail. What are my legal options for removing this person from her unit? Unfortunately these are not rental units, so she does own the property...but she's always in such a flagrant violation of the condo rules that it makes me wonder how far ownership will take her. Could I successfully sue her out of this place?

[Avalon]

Hello, as a fellow condo owner, I can sure sympathize with your situation. Have you complained to the condo Association? Aren't there rules in your condo docs about loud or offensive behavior or creating disturbances? If so, the Association should be going after the neighbor for violating the rules, including fining her if that's permitted in your condo docs. You should insist they get involved in this, they are responsible for enforcing the rules. It helps that other people have also been disturbed by her -- so it's not just you. Be a squeaky wheel and don't let up.

You could also call the police if she's doing things like blasting music or screaming late at night -- I would think that falls under "disturbing the peace".

Meanwhile, have you tried running a box fan at night? That's what I do -- the "white noise" helps to drown out the noise from the neighbors.

[wysiwyg6000]

Originally Posted by Avalon

Hello, as a fellow condo owner, I can sure sympathize with your situation. Have you complained to the condo Association? Aren't there rules in your condo docs about loud or offensive behavior or creating disturbances? If so, the Association should be going after the neighbor for violating the rules, including fining her if that's permitted in your condo docs. You should insist they get involved in this, they are responsible for enforcing the rules. It helps that other people have also been disturbed by her -- so it's not just you. Be a squeaky wheel and don't let up.

You could also call the police if she's doing things like blasting music or screaming late at night -- I would think that falls under "disturbing the peace".

Meanwhile, have you tried running a box fan at night? That's what I do -- the "white noise" helps to drown out the noise from the neighbors.

Avalon,
The music, screaming, yelling, etc isn't really a problem during the summertime because I do use the air conditioner's fan when possible. I love it, it drowns out all of the noise. Unfortunately because it's wintertime now, I can't use it anymore. Also can't use a box fan because it's freezing in my place already! Another problem is that her stupid stereo has a lot of bass, which is the worst of it all. I would really love to soundproof my place but I'm afraid the condo association won't allow it because I would need to do the walls as well (requires taking down the drywall, putting up the soundproofing, then re-drywalling. The association is pretty uptight about what you do to your unit because it's a low/moderate income unit and everyone must be "uniform." There are condo rules about excessive noise but they don't seem to do anything serious about complaints. People have been complaining for years. In fact, one person who used to live ABOVE me wrote a letter of complaint about her music. Just imagine what I experience being directly on top of her! In some respects I feel bad because I know she's not all there mentally, but then again I have a right to peace too (and quite frankly, I've spoken to her about her music about 4x this entire month when I've never complained before in 2 years of living here).

[Avalon]

Ugh, I feel for ya. I am VERY sensitive to noise and am MISERABLE when my sleep is disturbed. At my condo, the soundproofing is so bad that I can hear someone upstairs just walking normally across the carpet. When the owners come down with their little kids, who are early risers, I could scream. Thank goodness they don't come down much in the winter.

I'm not sure what to advise except to keep after the Association and call the police if necessary. By the way, I turn my box fan so it faces away from me. My friend has a sound machine, not sure where she got it, but it just produces white noise and was as good as the fan when I stayed with her...and takes up less room.

I know it sucks to have to put up with all this, but the alternative is to move, unfortunately...unless anyone has some better ideas.

[wysiwyg6000]

Thanks for the headsup on the white noise machine...I had no idea these things even existed! There are a lot of them on Amazon. I think buying one of these babies for $50 will save my sanity when it comes time to go to sleep. As for the daytime, I'll just have to add the property manager to my speed dial

[MyGhetto]

I use a white noise CD instead of fans or AC to block out the noise in the Winter time. If you have a portable CD player just place it in your bedroom and choose the replay option on you CD player. Mine makes a windy sound that helps block out some of the noise. Since I have a choice of volume levels to choose from plus a graphic equalizer, I can customize my sound. Your case does sound pretty bad though. Bass is a non directional sound and is very hard to block out or soundproof because of that.

1 other option to block out the noise is earplugs. I use these plus white noise to block out the noise I hear coming from above me, since my neighbor has squeaky floors. I came here because I'd like to take some legal action when it comes to this. Anyhow when it comes to earplugs I recommend the silicone plugs that mold to the shape of your ears. You can always have custom plugs made too but they're not cheap.