Here's the situation, in so many words (hopefully, not too many).
As we are approaching the beginning of a very happy fifth year at a luxury apt complex in Houston, TX we are now all of a sudden faced with a case of our relatively new downstairs neighbor insistently banging on his ceiling during daytime and early evening hours, disrupting the few precious hours our family spends together at dinner and scaring my children.
Our new neighbor from apartment below approached me several weeks ago outside of our apartments to raise an issue of noise that he believed was coming from our apartment. When asked whether he was referring to our 2-year-old and to pinpoint the source and location of noise (is it coming from the common stairs? or another ground-floor apartment adjacent to his?), he was not able to give me a definitive answer. Regardless, I assured him that I would pay attention to the issue he had raised and if I should become aware of any excessive noise coming from our apartment, I would take care of it. As a matter of fact, in the weeks to come I went as far as even keeping the music and TV volumes lower than usual and making sure the neighbor's car was gone before vacuuming the floors.
However, what started happening about two weeks ago totally caught me by surprise. The gentleman downstairs started banging (really heavy object) on his ceiling (around my kitchen/living room area) regularly several times a day at such times as 3pm and 7pm. Even though these outbursts would coincide with my children being active, I refused to believe what I was hearing and assured my family that the neighbor must be moving some heavy items downstairs or something of that nature (he does have a makeshift gym in the garage, so I figured he must be exercising at home now). My kids would become frightened of this loud and menacing noise and cried several times. Granted, my two-year-old does run around and jump but not beyond what would be expected and I believe comes with living in an apartment and having neighbors.
The situation came to a head at around 8:50PM last Thursday. The banging coming from downstairs became so violent, loud and insistent that it disrupted my family dinner and forced me to go down and talk to the gentleman. After I urged him to find a reasonable human-to-human solution, I was told that he apparently had already tried that before and that it didn't work. When I reminded him that we were really talking about a two-year-old running around, he responded by saying that it couldn't be a child but had to be "a man with your size feet" bouncing around the apartment. When I assured him that the noise ordinance allows activity till later than 9PM, he responded by asking where I got that information. Finally, when I asked him what he thought a solution should be, he said that "all noise needs to stop". When I said that we need to talk this reasonably, he said "do not come down to talk to me then" and shut the door in my face. When I wrote to my apt complex management the same night, the next morning the manager assistant informed me that the tenant talked to them already and asked to have him moved which they got an approval on almost right away.
Three days later, when he resumed banging again (again: a two-year old, running on heavily carpeted floor during daytime), I went downstairs and without knocking on his door, informed him that if he did that again, I would call the police. Which is... what he did right away. The police arrived and talked to him first, ordering me to stay inside, then came upstairs to talk to me. They were EXTREMELY nice - one of the officers lives on the property - but A)did ask me to be conscientious and B) did inform me of at least one lie the neighbor told them (according to nim, ehn he confronted me, I said: "for YOU, I will not keep it down").
Next day I got a call from the actual manager who was basically making open threats (and in doing so, joining the downstairs neighbor on this harassment spree) that if we did not stop "this" right away, action would be taken, that she is now on his constant stand-by and will come out and listen to to the noise coming from our apt as soon as he calls her (and will NOT use sound level meter), and will bring police if necessary and even hinted at terminating our lease if necessary. My pleas to come out right now and listen and see for herself that this is a non-issue did not have any effect on her. I did inform her that as soon as the banging resumes, I would call her to come out and listen to the noise coming from his apartment.
Please advice me on the course of action I need to pursue. I will really appreciate any and all advice.
Thank you
As we are approaching the beginning of a very happy fifth year at a luxury apt complex in Houston, TX we are now all of a sudden faced with a case of our relatively new downstairs neighbor insistently banging on his ceiling during daytime and early evening hours, disrupting the few precious hours our family spends together at dinner and scaring my children.
Our new neighbor from apartment below approached me several weeks ago outside of our apartments to raise an issue of noise that he believed was coming from our apartment. When asked whether he was referring to our 2-year-old and to pinpoint the source and location of noise (is it coming from the common stairs? or another ground-floor apartment adjacent to his?), he was not able to give me a definitive answer. Regardless, I assured him that I would pay attention to the issue he had raised and if I should become aware of any excessive noise coming from our apartment, I would take care of it. As a matter of fact, in the weeks to come I went as far as even keeping the music and TV volumes lower than usual and making sure the neighbor's car was gone before vacuuming the floors.
However, what started happening about two weeks ago totally caught me by surprise. The gentleman downstairs started banging (really heavy object) on his ceiling (around my kitchen/living room area) regularly several times a day at such times as 3pm and 7pm. Even though these outbursts would coincide with my children being active, I refused to believe what I was hearing and assured my family that the neighbor must be moving some heavy items downstairs or something of that nature (he does have a makeshift gym in the garage, so I figured he must be exercising at home now). My kids would become frightened of this loud and menacing noise and cried several times. Granted, my two-year-old does run around and jump but not beyond what would be expected and I believe comes with living in an apartment and having neighbors.
The situation came to a head at around 8:50PM last Thursday. The banging coming from downstairs became so violent, loud and insistent that it disrupted my family dinner and forced me to go down and talk to the gentleman. After I urged him to find a reasonable human-to-human solution, I was told that he apparently had already tried that before and that it didn't work. When I reminded him that we were really talking about a two-year-old running around, he responded by saying that it couldn't be a child but had to be "a man with your size feet" bouncing around the apartment. When I assured him that the noise ordinance allows activity till later than 9PM, he responded by asking where I got that information. Finally, when I asked him what he thought a solution should be, he said that "all noise needs to stop". When I said that we need to talk this reasonably, he said "do not come down to talk to me then" and shut the door in my face. When I wrote to my apt complex management the same night, the next morning the manager assistant informed me that the tenant talked to them already and asked to have him moved which they got an approval on almost right away.
Three days later, when he resumed banging again (again: a two-year old, running on heavily carpeted floor during daytime), I went downstairs and without knocking on his door, informed him that if he did that again, I would call the police. Which is... what he did right away. The police arrived and talked to him first, ordering me to stay inside, then came upstairs to talk to me. They were EXTREMELY nice - one of the officers lives on the property - but A)did ask me to be conscientious and B) did inform me of at least one lie the neighbor told them (according to nim, ehn he confronted me, I said: "for YOU, I will not keep it down").
Next day I got a call from the actual manager who was basically making open threats (and in doing so, joining the downstairs neighbor on this harassment spree) that if we did not stop "this" right away, action would be taken, that she is now on his constant stand-by and will come out and listen to to the noise coming from our apt as soon as he calls her (and will NOT use sound level meter), and will bring police if necessary and even hinted at terminating our lease if necessary. My pleas to come out right now and listen and see for herself that this is a non-issue did not have any effect on her. I did inform her that as soon as the banging resumes, I would call her to come out and listen to the noise coming from his apartment.
Please advice me on the course of action I need to pursue. I will really appreciate any and all advice.
Thank you
