Frazzled Tenant
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
My husband and I have been living in this unit for almost three months now. Right away we noticed the people upstairs are incredibly loud. At first we thought they had half a dozen children with as loud as it is. After a few weeks of running and stamping around and kids screaming, I finally went upstairs and said I wasn't sure if they knew how much sound carried down, but could the please not let their kids run around inside? At the time they seemed nice, and the problem stopped for a few days. But only a few days.
It started up again, worse than ever. The boom boom BOOM BOOM BOOM! of the running and jumping that goes on up there has literally resulted in pictures falling off our walls!
A few weeks ago I went upstairs again, figuring it just slipped their minds, and they were very hostile and said I had no right to ask them to keep their kids quiet because "kids can't be controlled" and claiming it's too cold to let their kids go outside. 90 degrees is too cold? Anyway they said they were going to try getting me evicted for complaining to them and I had no right to expect silence when they sometimes can hear a door close down here. I describe this calmly, but it got hostile on their side and I was afraid the man was going to hit me.
Now I'm not expecting silence. I know that some noise is to be expected. But running and wrestling (as they said their kids were just doing) and screaming go above and beyond what I think is reasonable, and it goes on sometimes for hours at a time. Also the doors have hinges that prevent them from being closed hard, even if you try to close them fast.
Anyway I did complain to management after that, who told me there is nothing they can do aside from ask the people to keep their kids quieter or to move to a bottom floor apartment, but they can only do this if they're personally here when the people upstairs are being loud. I haven't managed to get anyone from the office to come here to listen to it, and video recording it is worthless.
This has been going on for the entire time we've been here. I'm seriously afraid that they're going to come crashing through the floor at some point!!
We, on the other hand, have tried our best to always be courteous. We don't vacuum after 8 in case the kids are in bed, keep our TV low (even though I can't hear very well, which means they must be VERY loud if I can hear as much as I do from them!), and don't call each other from different rooms in case our voices travel upward or through the walls. We do this not only for the benefit of the people upstairs, but for the people who live next to us who we've only once heard a peep from, and that was when some nails or something were hammered into the wall one day. I can't handle people being mad at me.
Let's toss in a kink. I am disabled. My anxiety and stress leads to seizures (there's also some PTSD in there stemming from a long-term relationship where I was physically, mentally, and sexually abused, and from witnessing a suicide of a close relative after years of arguing loudly and violently and police involvement in my own home because of my parents- loud noises and angry sounds cause me to panic and hyperventilate and then anxiety builds quickly and I'm down with a seizure). I've had seizures that have caused me to stop breathing. The constant noise has me very tense. I am on SSDI long-term, which isn't easy at all to get. The management knows this. The amount of constant noise is having a negative impact on my health and my disability. There are days when the noise is so bad that I just can't take it anymore and I have to leave this apartment for my own sanity and safety. Seizures from the tension and stress aren't fun. The management KNOWS about this. They have been informed in writing, and I offered them copies of the evidence from my doctors and the government. I'm even in a handicapped unit in case a seizure comes on when I'm home alone or in the shower, so I have something to grab onto. I have a hard enough time being in public for longer than an hour or two on my own, and even then, even if I have someone I know with me, it's still hard. Too many triggers. I hate this so much. I wish I could be normal and actually enjoy amusement parks instead of ending up in bathrooms trying to calm down. I wish I could have enjoyed my own wedding instead of my heart racing and needing to leave our own reception half an hour into it. 30 people I know and love were too many at the same time to have around.
We are in a lease that lasts another nine months. I really don't think I can handle another nine months of this. This is really awful. I otherwise love this apartment. It's gorgeous, and the area is amazing. I don't want to have to leave, but I can't fathom going through this for another nine months. To break the lease requires 30 days notice (of course) and an additional month's rent. We can't afford to pay for a month we're not here while also paying for that month somewhere else. But I also can't mentally or physically handle what's going on with the noise noise NOISE.
I can't handle this anymore and I don't know what the legal options are when the management won't even talk to the people upstairs about not letting their kids run and run and scream and scream. I've got video'd evidence, as I've said that they won't even watch in lieu of never coming over here.
Since they won't do anything, and this is having a negative effect of my confirmed and proven disability, do we have cause to break the lease with 30 days notice (or without) without having to pay an additional month? Really our ideal solution would be for them to make the people upstairs be quiet so we don't have to leave an apartment we otherwise love, especially when the cost of rent has gone up in the area, meaning we'd be paying more if we left. But that's just not happening here. They won't do anything.
Please don't slam me for by disability. I get enough of that from people I know who think the only physical disabilities involve wheelchairs and crutches, and the only mental disabilities involve various forms of retardation rather than someone who can walk and hold an intelligent conversation.
My husband and I have been living in this unit for almost three months now. Right away we noticed the people upstairs are incredibly loud. At first we thought they had half a dozen children with as loud as it is. After a few weeks of running and stamping around and kids screaming, I finally went upstairs and said I wasn't sure if they knew how much sound carried down, but could the please not let their kids run around inside? At the time they seemed nice, and the problem stopped for a few days. But only a few days.
It started up again, worse than ever. The boom boom BOOM BOOM BOOM! of the running and jumping that goes on up there has literally resulted in pictures falling off our walls!
A few weeks ago I went upstairs again, figuring it just slipped their minds, and they were very hostile and said I had no right to ask them to keep their kids quiet because "kids can't be controlled" and claiming it's too cold to let their kids go outside. 90 degrees is too cold? Anyway they said they were going to try getting me evicted for complaining to them and I had no right to expect silence when they sometimes can hear a door close down here. I describe this calmly, but it got hostile on their side and I was afraid the man was going to hit me.
Now I'm not expecting silence. I know that some noise is to be expected. But running and wrestling (as they said their kids were just doing) and screaming go above and beyond what I think is reasonable, and it goes on sometimes for hours at a time. Also the doors have hinges that prevent them from being closed hard, even if you try to close them fast.
Anyway I did complain to management after that, who told me there is nothing they can do aside from ask the people to keep their kids quieter or to move to a bottom floor apartment, but they can only do this if they're personally here when the people upstairs are being loud. I haven't managed to get anyone from the office to come here to listen to it, and video recording it is worthless.
This has been going on for the entire time we've been here. I'm seriously afraid that they're going to come crashing through the floor at some point!!
We, on the other hand, have tried our best to always be courteous. We don't vacuum after 8 in case the kids are in bed, keep our TV low (even though I can't hear very well, which means they must be VERY loud if I can hear as much as I do from them!), and don't call each other from different rooms in case our voices travel upward or through the walls. We do this not only for the benefit of the people upstairs, but for the people who live next to us who we've only once heard a peep from, and that was when some nails or something were hammered into the wall one day. I can't handle people being mad at me.
Let's toss in a kink. I am disabled. My anxiety and stress leads to seizures (there's also some PTSD in there stemming from a long-term relationship where I was physically, mentally, and sexually abused, and from witnessing a suicide of a close relative after years of arguing loudly and violently and police involvement in my own home because of my parents- loud noises and angry sounds cause me to panic and hyperventilate and then anxiety builds quickly and I'm down with a seizure). I've had seizures that have caused me to stop breathing. The constant noise has me very tense. I am on SSDI long-term, which isn't easy at all to get. The management knows this. The amount of constant noise is having a negative impact on my health and my disability. There are days when the noise is so bad that I just can't take it anymore and I have to leave this apartment for my own sanity and safety. Seizures from the tension and stress aren't fun. The management KNOWS about this. They have been informed in writing, and I offered them copies of the evidence from my doctors and the government. I'm even in a handicapped unit in case a seizure comes on when I'm home alone or in the shower, so I have something to grab onto. I have a hard enough time being in public for longer than an hour or two on my own, and even then, even if I have someone I know with me, it's still hard. Too many triggers. I hate this so much. I wish I could be normal and actually enjoy amusement parks instead of ending up in bathrooms trying to calm down. I wish I could have enjoyed my own wedding instead of my heart racing and needing to leave our own reception half an hour into it. 30 people I know and love were too many at the same time to have around.
We are in a lease that lasts another nine months. I really don't think I can handle another nine months of this. This is really awful. I otherwise love this apartment. It's gorgeous, and the area is amazing. I don't want to have to leave, but I can't fathom going through this for another nine months. To break the lease requires 30 days notice (of course) and an additional month's rent. We can't afford to pay for a month we're not here while also paying for that month somewhere else. But I also can't mentally or physically handle what's going on with the noise noise NOISE.
I can't handle this anymore and I don't know what the legal options are when the management won't even talk to the people upstairs about not letting their kids run and run and scream and scream. I've got video'd evidence, as I've said that they won't even watch in lieu of never coming over here.
Since they won't do anything, and this is having a negative effect of my confirmed and proven disability, do we have cause to break the lease with 30 days notice (or without) without having to pay an additional month? Really our ideal solution would be for them to make the people upstairs be quiet so we don't have to leave an apartment we otherwise love, especially when the cost of rent has gone up in the area, meaning we'd be paying more if we left. But that's just not happening here. They won't do anything.
Please don't slam me for by disability. I get enough of that from people I know who think the only physical disabilities involve wheelchairs and crutches, and the only mental disabilities involve various forms of retardation rather than someone who can walk and hold an intelligent conversation.