I'm at my wit's end. I've read through the threads here end am not sure how to handle my situation. I'll bullet it to make it more readable:
* I live in an old apartment with hardwood floors and have been living here peacefully, as a grad student for the past 2 years
* This year two men moved in upstairs and very quickly established that not only were they incredibly loud and inconsiderate (doing laundry at 7am) but that they also did not care that they were being loud or inconsiderate. I still attempted to have an amicable relationship with them to try to work through the issues.
* After one month, it became apparent that one of the men was actually not on the lease. This was brought to the landlady's attention by another tenant and she put him on.
* At the beginning, the "lease addition" decided that he wanted to teach classes in the apartment. I had misgivings about this and it was immediately apparent that the amount of noise was waking me up, and it was intolerable for me to be home (it sounds like he's teaching in my apartment. ) I tried to resolve it with them respectfully. Whereas we had previously enjoyed a cordial relationship, they snapped, became very nasty and appeared to be unpredictable and unstable. They also went on rants that were not relevant to the topic we were discussing. They stated they were not making noise, that they were being discriminated against and that they were victims. At this point, the situation was so out of hand, I involved the landlady.
* The landlady gave them a 10-day notice to comply to quit the classes. The two became hostile and retaliatory, jumping on the floors over my head and swearing at me.
* The retaliation and noise continue: they state they have a right to make "normal" noise in their apartment, yet they run back and forth on the hardwood floors in clogs and loud shoes (including bike shoes), drop large pieces of furniture, bang, shout and vacuum for hours on end. This is a one-bedroom apartment.
* I continue to document this to the landlady, but the two are lawsuit-happy and are trying to suggest they are being discriminated against. I continue to make legitimate complaints to my landlady for documentation purposes. In an attempt to be fair, she follows up with them. In response, they act out. I have gotten some of it on tape. They even yell at the landlady. (Couldn't this alone be grounds for eviction?)
* After a recent complaint, I was confronted by one of them who is clearly off-kilter. He was loud, accusatory and very frightening. Fortunately, my neighbor came out during the confrontation and witnessed the whole thing. We reported this confrontation to the landlady who arranged to meet with them to discuss the issue. The person who confronted us, of course, denies the nature of the interaction.
* The hostility, banging and retaliation is making it uncomfortable and unsafe to be in my apartment. I just don't know what else to do to "prove" how bad this is. I am not being overly sensitive to the noise--I assure you. I have let a lot of things slide to avoid the reperecussions, but I can't even read in my house when I'm home because of the noise. I think a decibel meter may not "capture" the nature of the noise: someone running around over your head constantly or dropping furniture. To top it off, one of the men is unemployed, and home all the time, and when the two are home together, they are near shut-ins and almost never leave the house. I would normally move but because of my job/school and costs, this place has been perfect.
My landlady is incredibly sweet and this sort of conflict and dealing with people who are mentally unstable and cannot be reasoned with is new to her. She has given them 2 notices to comply, but in an attempt to be "fair" she is trying to work it out to prevent an eviction.
Any advice at all?
* I live in an old apartment with hardwood floors and have been living here peacefully, as a grad student for the past 2 years
* This year two men moved in upstairs and very quickly established that not only were they incredibly loud and inconsiderate (doing laundry at 7am) but that they also did not care that they were being loud or inconsiderate. I still attempted to have an amicable relationship with them to try to work through the issues.
* After one month, it became apparent that one of the men was actually not on the lease. This was brought to the landlady's attention by another tenant and she put him on.
* At the beginning, the "lease addition" decided that he wanted to teach classes in the apartment. I had misgivings about this and it was immediately apparent that the amount of noise was waking me up, and it was intolerable for me to be home (it sounds like he's teaching in my apartment. ) I tried to resolve it with them respectfully. Whereas we had previously enjoyed a cordial relationship, they snapped, became very nasty and appeared to be unpredictable and unstable. They also went on rants that were not relevant to the topic we were discussing. They stated they were not making noise, that they were being discriminated against and that they were victims. At this point, the situation was so out of hand, I involved the landlady.
* The landlady gave them a 10-day notice to comply to quit the classes. The two became hostile and retaliatory, jumping on the floors over my head and swearing at me.
* The retaliation and noise continue: they state they have a right to make "normal" noise in their apartment, yet they run back and forth on the hardwood floors in clogs and loud shoes (including bike shoes), drop large pieces of furniture, bang, shout and vacuum for hours on end. This is a one-bedroom apartment.
* I continue to document this to the landlady, but the two are lawsuit-happy and are trying to suggest they are being discriminated against. I continue to make legitimate complaints to my landlady for documentation purposes. In an attempt to be fair, she follows up with them. In response, they act out. I have gotten some of it on tape. They even yell at the landlady. (Couldn't this alone be grounds for eviction?)
* After a recent complaint, I was confronted by one of them who is clearly off-kilter. He was loud, accusatory and very frightening. Fortunately, my neighbor came out during the confrontation and witnessed the whole thing. We reported this confrontation to the landlady who arranged to meet with them to discuss the issue. The person who confronted us, of course, denies the nature of the interaction.
* The hostility, banging and retaliation is making it uncomfortable and unsafe to be in my apartment. I just don't know what else to do to "prove" how bad this is. I am not being overly sensitive to the noise--I assure you. I have let a lot of things slide to avoid the reperecussions, but I can't even read in my house when I'm home because of the noise. I think a decibel meter may not "capture" the nature of the noise: someone running around over your head constantly or dropping furniture. To top it off, one of the men is unemployed, and home all the time, and when the two are home together, they are near shut-ins and almost never leave the house. I would normally move but because of my job/school and costs, this place has been perfect.
My landlady is incredibly sweet and this sort of conflict and dealing with people who are mentally unstable and cannot be reasoned with is new to her. She has given them 2 notices to comply, but in an attempt to be "fair" she is trying to work it out to prevent an eviction.
Any advice at all?
