What's the best way to handle a noise complaint?

[ecstatic]

The house next door to me is a rental, and I've never had an issue with any of the tenants (besides the guys who killed my shrubs 10+ years ago). I've been putting off confronting the current tenant about the loud music/heavy bass, and now I'm at the point where I don't think I can be calm during an interaction. I hear it when I'm in my master bedroom. It wakes me up in the morning (which is infuriating) and appears to continue the entire day and late into the night--every time I'm in my room, I hear it! Honestly, what really bothers me is being awakened by it. Every time I'm completely fed up and ready to confront them, the timing is wrong (I don't feel like getting dressed, or it's too cold, etc. (I doubt they'd hear the doorbell anyway). Now I'm so furious that I'm thinking about skipping the confrontation and submitting a complaint to the HOA.

[JDC]

1. Straight to the HOA

[applegrove]

2. I am glad at the people who complained about me. Do what feels the most

comfortable. Sometimes people can be wrong about how loud their music is. I would certainly not want to wake anybody up. I've known of three complaints. I welcomed them all.

[ecstatic]

5. Maybe, I think if they could just lower the bass level

that would really really help!

[applegrove]

6. Note that in your HOA complaint.

[Siwsan]

3. I'd report them to the HOA and let them handle it

In this day and age, I am reluctant to confront strangers over their behavior. There are just too many nut jobs.

[steve2470]

4. another option, a tad more drastic...

If you don't mind the cops coming around, they will go confront the noisy person and tell them to tone it down. AFAIK, they don't tell the person who called. I've done that many times over the years and it always worked. Now...in your situation....they might KNOW you called by process of elimination. Good luck, HOA also a good option. Confrontations are a waste of time. If they are THAT rude to be that loud, they will go back to their old tricks soon enough.

[ecstatic]

8. I could never forgive myself if the cops killed someone

over this. I would love that option if I knew for sure that the cops would be "good cops." They're kind of unpredictable around here.

[shenmue]

7. Police?

[ecstatic]

9. Thanks for the advice everyone! I feel so much better

Writing about it has dissipated my anger. I think I'm going to complain to the HOA when they wake me up tomorrow morning. lol

[UTUSN]

10. OK, first I had to look up "HOA" and "AFAIK". Then, from 15 years' experience with tenants/noise...

There is no HOA where I am, so no idea what power they have. My whole street is quiet, one family owners ---------------EXCEPT at my end of it where the last two habitats got taken over by house flippers and absentee landlords, NEXT to me. There was turnover every couple of years, and each new residents brought their own different set of habits ----------- we're talking, 18 wheelers with the motors running; parties; family disturbances with screaming and door kicking and cops dropping by.

But get this: A car alarm. What?!1 How could this be a problem, you ask? It was a sound activated alarm at the corner with the big street being a mad traffic race track, meaning that trucks and motorcycles ROAR by all day and night and set off that alarm. I started keeping a log of the dates and times.

With all of this going on, it came down to calling the cops for noise complaints. The parties were fairly easy for the cops, just a word. Tougher was calling them for special occasion parties, like birthdays (with D.J.), like, who could call cops to break up sweet parties?!1

But the cops were really THROWN over the car alarm complaint. First of all, lots of the cops are YOUNG and genetically LIKE loud noises, like SIRENS. Secondly, they saw the car alarm as a PREEMPTIVE, SAFETY, PROTECTIVE device. Their faces went blank in shock at somebody complaining about an alarm. It helped when they saw the log of dates/times, round the clock, of the danged thing going off to NO END, no purpose since nobody was breaking in. The first time, they came back to say that they talked to the young jerk owner of the vehicle who told them he needed the alarm because he had been robbed of a vehicle before. The second time I was prepared: "He's going to tell you he was robbed before - uh, he was robbed WHEREVER HE RENTED BEFORE, NOT HERE!1"

For the unusual complaint about a car alarm, it came to this: It's a matter, like all the rest of it, of DISTURBING THE PEACE. When the cops have legal jargon they CAN UNDERSTAND, it works. Disturbing the peace.

As far as loud noises/parties/music, the conventional wisdom is that 10 o'clock P.M. is the cut off, people can be loud UNTIL 10 P.M. Not so. Some people work nights and sleep days, so the disturbance can be ANYTIME of the day. Another thing: You don't need all the neighbors to back you up. All it takes is ONE SOMEBODY/YOU whose peace is being disturbed to complain. Neighbors don't like to get involved, don't matter. Call the cops.

[fierywoman]

11. HOA if you have one. Police (it's called disturbance of the peace.) Anonymous letter.

Certain witchy spells (google it.)

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. If the HOA won't help,

Call city hall or its equivalent in your city about noise ordinances. And make the appropriate complaints.

I've been dealing with barking dogs for years now, and it's tiresome. They are the main reason I've come to despise dogs. I've NEVER heard a cat's meow's being heard a block away, unlike barking. I have knocked on doors and registered my complaints directly. In the case of the dogs, the owners pretend to be utterly astonished, had not notice the dogs had been barking for three hours straight.

The equivalent is happening to you. They like the music, don't have a clue it might annoy a neighbor. They need to find out that it is annoying.

[procon]

13. Years ago my dad had a similar problem and his solution was more direct.

He'd asked politely when the renters next door cranked up their rock n' roll, but they ignored him. So he hauled several old stereo speakers out of the storage shed, the giant ones that were popular back in the day. He enlisted his grandsons to come over and mount the speakers up on construction scaffolding so they loomed over the fence and directly down at neighbors house.

The kids downloaded a large collection of annoying audio files from Chinese opera music, bagpipes, trains roaring down the track, the macarena song, and crying babies. They hooked everything up for the next time the neighbors started playing their loud music.

My dear old my dear was in his 80s, but he fired up act 1 of the Chinese opera singers and drown them out, then crushed their tunes to a silence with a finale of dogs barking Christmas songs. Took a couple of more episodes but they stopped the loud music and moved shortly thereafter.

[ecstatic]

16. Lol! nt

[Laffy Kat]

14. That's what HOAs are for.

Might help if you can record what you're hearing or get at least one other neighbor to corroborate.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

15. Have a noise party.

My then-husband and I onced lived in apartment above a couple of knuckleheads who insisted on playing loud music all the time, until very late at night, despite our repeated entreaties to keep it down. They basically told us to fuck ourselves when we complained.

So we had a noise party. We invited a bunch of people and asked them to bring something that could be used to make a lot of noise. There was a trombone and a bagpipe and some power tools and we rolled a bowling ball down the hall and played recordings of operas as loudly as the stereo would go. After a while the knuckleheads downstairs started pounding on the ceiling. I guess they could dish it out but couldn't take it...

We moved out not too long afterwards, but in the meantime it was pretty quiet downstairs.

[ecstatic]

17. Lol!

[NightWatcher]

18. Contact the person, then the owner, then the police, then build an poop catapult if those don't work