(I ended up writing this post pretty long because I read that details are good.. so please read! I really need someone's help. Thank you!)
I have been living in this apartment with my family for about 6 years now.
I live on a third floor, and the neighbor downstairs (2nd floor) almost always has this loud music on that my apartment vibrating is considered as "normal". I know there is a woman living there with her two young (elementary school) children, a boy and a girl. She moved in about a year ago with her parents and my family got along pretty well with them too(only with her parents; we do not know her). But ever since the woman's parents moved out, there is this guy that seems to be coming to her house every day and stays in her house like.. all day. He doesn't seem to be going anywhere out, he just always stays there. Well the problem here is that he almost always has this really loud music on that I can hear not only the beat but also the music flow in my house. It has been happening every day, so after awhile, I couldn't bear with it (especially when I and my sister were both attending school and had school work to concentrate on) and so I went downstairs and knocked. No one came out until I knocked really hard that my fingers later almost got a bruze (probably because the music was too loud for them to hear the knock). The guy came out, and so I asked him if he can keep the volume down a bit since it makes my house vibrates and is too loud that I can hear it from my own home too. He said, "Oh.. yeah of course! I am very sorry, I will surely do that". He was very nice about it (he would better, I was in the "should be mad person"'s position and I was nice to him when I told him that). So things were quiet until couple days later. The music was all loud again. It went on for another week or two (the time range was usually at 11am~ 6pm). I went downstairs to just let him or whoever is in there to know that the music was kind of loud again... but no one came out when I knocked. I don't think they could hear my knock.. so I gave up. Then couple days after, the music was very loud again, but this time, at night at about 9:something pm. My parents work very hard, and that's the time when they get back home to rest and sleep. But their music was so loud that when my mom was lying down, her head was hurting and couldn't sleep (she was already lacking in sleep). So I went downstairs and knocked, but they didn't hear me again. We decided to tape a letter in front of their door. So we did, and the music kept going on until about 30 minutes later. Then it got quiet.. we are thinking that someone came out or the guy was leaving and someone saw the note that we left in frotn of their door. I wrote that it is an apartment and respect such as keeping down the volume for a music counts as big when it comes to community, especially apartment. So that I would really appreciate it if they could "cooperate" with the neighbors... then I even put a smiley face on the paper too. It stayed quiet for couple days... then the music keeps on going AGAIN!!! (not at night though, that was just that one time). Thinking that I have given them enough of the nice advices and warnings, I called the leasing office. A guy picked up, I told him what has been going on and that I tried to talk it out with them too; the guy told me that ok, he will do something about it. Then after couple minutes, it got quiet whatever it is that they did (or it was just consequences that the person below us turned it off). BUT!! next day, downstairs has even louder music on than the day before!!!!! Frustrated, I called the leasing office again. A woman picked up this time, and I was telling her the stories... as if she knew what has been going on, she stopped me and said that I will have to talk to the woman that lives downstairs and try to work things out. I told her that I did talk to the one that was in there (the man), and I did definitely try more than once to let them know how loud their music is. She told me that she talked with the woman, and the woman said that I should be coming down and let her know whether they are disturbing us sleeping or something whenever they do (which is funny because I did go downstairs more than once, only to talk to the guy who was the only one there and the woman was like.. never there. Nor did they even open the door whenever I knocked?) then she said,
"As long as it's after 7am and before 10pm, the residents CAN listen to the music as long as they want, as loud as they want."
Thinking "what did she just say...?", I re-asked again.
"even if it's VERY loud, it doesn't matter how loud it is?"
And the woman says,
"Like I said, as long as it is within that time range, the resident can listen to any music AS LOUD AS THEY WANT".
I went silence for a moment, then said "ok. thank you" and hung up.
I have been looking some things up because the leasing office would not even try to deal with this problem but rather, sounds to be blaming us for disturbing "their freedom".
What shoud I do?
I looked up some things and got results like applying to "nuisance law" and something like "Most areas have laws regarding the noise levels and they generally have time ranges applied to them. So it might be acceptable to have up to 100 dB at X feet away from 8 am - 10 pm, but it might be 80 dB from 10 pm - 8 am for instance".
But I really have no idea what to do because i am not familiar with any law at all, nor do my parents speak english fluently so I have to be the one who stands up for it. Sometimes my parents stress out from it but they can't do anything about it due to the language barrier. Some people say "just move.." but my parents are working very hard to make the living and I don't even know if they can afford it, when I and my sister are both attending college and we are not even eligible to get a loan (but my parents still want us to get all the education that we can get, b/c they couldn't). We all personally would very much like to move to somewhere else, but it's the cost of it that becomes matter. And in case that happens, we shouldn't even be paying the "a year lease breaking fee" b/c we are moving due to their irresponsible actions.. right?
Sorry for the long post, but please help! Thank you so much!!!
P.S:
if you need more of the background story to how we have been living in this community, here it is:
Although it is an apartment, we enjoyed the quiet and nice environment around the community.... until another management took over a year or two ago from now. Things started to get out of shape with rude leasing office employees and their irresponsible actions whenever I brought up a request. Then a month of two ago, our favorite management was back (I am pretty sure it was because of all the complaints for the new management) and I thought things were going back to the way it was. (But it was kind of weird.. some employees who have been working there still worked there after the management changed?)
I have been living in this apartment with my family for about 6 years now.
I live on a third floor, and the neighbor downstairs (2nd floor) almost always has this loud music on that my apartment vibrating is considered as "normal". I know there is a woman living there with her two young (elementary school) children, a boy and a girl. She moved in about a year ago with her parents and my family got along pretty well with them too(only with her parents; we do not know her). But ever since the woman's parents moved out, there is this guy that seems to be coming to her house every day and stays in her house like.. all day. He doesn't seem to be going anywhere out, he just always stays there. Well the problem here is that he almost always has this really loud music on that I can hear not only the beat but also the music flow in my house. It has been happening every day, so after awhile, I couldn't bear with it (especially when I and my sister were both attending school and had school work to concentrate on) and so I went downstairs and knocked. No one came out until I knocked really hard that my fingers later almost got a bruze (probably because the music was too loud for them to hear the knock). The guy came out, and so I asked him if he can keep the volume down a bit since it makes my house vibrates and is too loud that I can hear it from my own home too. He said, "Oh.. yeah of course! I am very sorry, I will surely do that". He was very nice about it (he would better, I was in the "should be mad person"'s position and I was nice to him when I told him that). So things were quiet until couple days later. The music was all loud again. It went on for another week or two (the time range was usually at 11am~ 6pm). I went downstairs to just let him or whoever is in there to know that the music was kind of loud again... but no one came out when I knocked. I don't think they could hear my knock.. so I gave up. Then couple days after, the music was very loud again, but this time, at night at about 9:something pm. My parents work very hard, and that's the time when they get back home to rest and sleep. But their music was so loud that when my mom was lying down, her head was hurting and couldn't sleep (she was already lacking in sleep). So I went downstairs and knocked, but they didn't hear me again. We decided to tape a letter in front of their door. So we did, and the music kept going on until about 30 minutes later. Then it got quiet.. we are thinking that someone came out or the guy was leaving and someone saw the note that we left in frotn of their door. I wrote that it is an apartment and respect such as keeping down the volume for a music counts as big when it comes to community, especially apartment. So that I would really appreciate it if they could "cooperate" with the neighbors... then I even put a smiley face on the paper too. It stayed quiet for couple days... then the music keeps on going AGAIN!!! (not at night though, that was just that one time). Thinking that I have given them enough of the nice advices and warnings, I called the leasing office. A guy picked up, I told him what has been going on and that I tried to talk it out with them too; the guy told me that ok, he will do something about it. Then after couple minutes, it got quiet whatever it is that they did (or it was just consequences that the person below us turned it off). BUT!! next day, downstairs has even louder music on than the day before!!!!! Frustrated, I called the leasing office again. A woman picked up this time, and I was telling her the stories... as if she knew what has been going on, she stopped me and said that I will have to talk to the woman that lives downstairs and try to work things out. I told her that I did talk to the one that was in there (the man), and I did definitely try more than once to let them know how loud their music is. She told me that she talked with the woman, and the woman said that I should be coming down and let her know whether they are disturbing us sleeping or something whenever they do (which is funny because I did go downstairs more than once, only to talk to the guy who was the only one there and the woman was like.. never there. Nor did they even open the door whenever I knocked?) then she said,
"As long as it's after 7am and before 10pm, the residents CAN listen to the music as long as they want, as loud as they want."
Thinking "what did she just say...?", I re-asked again.
"even if it's VERY loud, it doesn't matter how loud it is?"
And the woman says,
"Like I said, as long as it is within that time range, the resident can listen to any music AS LOUD AS THEY WANT".
I went silence for a moment, then said "ok. thank you" and hung up.
I have been looking some things up because the leasing office would not even try to deal with this problem but rather, sounds to be blaming us for disturbing "their freedom".
What shoud I do?
I looked up some things and got results like applying to "nuisance law" and something like "Most areas have laws regarding the noise levels and they generally have time ranges applied to them. So it might be acceptable to have up to 100 dB at X feet away from 8 am - 10 pm, but it might be 80 dB from 10 pm - 8 am for instance".
But I really have no idea what to do because i am not familiar with any law at all, nor do my parents speak english fluently so I have to be the one who stands up for it. Sometimes my parents stress out from it but they can't do anything about it due to the language barrier. Some people say "just move.." but my parents are working very hard to make the living and I don't even know if they can afford it, when I and my sister are both attending college and we are not even eligible to get a loan (but my parents still want us to get all the education that we can get, b/c they couldn't). We all personally would very much like to move to somewhere else, but it's the cost of it that becomes matter. And in case that happens, we shouldn't even be paying the "a year lease breaking fee" b/c we are moving due to their irresponsible actions.. right?
Sorry for the long post, but please help! Thank you so much!!!
P.S:
if you need more of the background story to how we have been living in this community, here it is:
Although it is an apartment, we enjoyed the quiet and nice environment around the community.... until another management took over a year or two ago from now. Things started to get out of shape with rude leasing office employees and their irresponsible actions whenever I brought up a request. Then a month of two ago, our favorite management was back (I am pretty sure it was because of all the complaints for the new management) and I thought things were going back to the way it was. (But it was kind of weird.. some employees who have been working there still worked there after the management changed?)
