How would you deal with loud neighbors without being a Karen about it?

[slackerinabox]

I'll try to be brief, I know I get wordy and i'm drunk. We moved into the 2nd floor of a house (the family owns the building) from a "nice" quiet and clean area to a still safe but more urban area because coop life was feeling like a box. free parking, yard for the kids, the usual deal. we're doing fine other than an annoying tenant who ratted us out to the landlord for a celebratory spliff when the kids where being cared for elsewhere (we put a lot of our own money, elbow grease, and frustration into the project - a beer and pizza party kinda night). anyways. we're fine with the edge - we've live in bedstuy when it was still a little rough around the edges and lived in bushwick when gangs were more prevalent that yoga and bistros.

so again, we're fine with it being what it is EXCEPT for one fucking annoying neighbor and the apparent 300 people in his house throwing parties with very annoying traditional latin music with repetitive beats and raggaeton and.. to take a step back from being racist i'm brown and have lived with every type of people, but this is bad music. i love latin movies (guillermo del toro! some great horror out of there) and i like a lot of the music, and when bushwick bk banged the music too late it was kinda cool stuff.. like had a beat you could nod your head too while annoyed that this kids can't sleep. but this is tijuana chanty town music, it's awful....

i've wanted to call the cops but i'm too bleeding heart liberal.. I've talked to a mutual friend to get his insight (should i talk to them? will they just stab me?) and his advice is to play his game, blast music louder and to avoid confrontation especially when there's drinking involved. headphones don't work because the BASS... hmmm. shoot me ideas

oh another rub - they rent a spot in our lot, which enables the partying because they don't have a garage (no garage so otherwise they'd have no place to party). I'm considering paying for the whole lot just to spite them ...

 

[highland145]

You could reach up and pull them testicals down.

Just a suggestion.

 

[bbhaag]

You could reach up and pull them testicals down.

Just a suggestion.

Just make sure you are sober when you do this....otherwise it might end up getting you or someone else hurt.

 

[slackerinabox]

You could reach up and pull them testicals down.

Just a suggestion.

i'm not going to fight with them, everyone's edgy with being quarantined and simple traffic incidents are turning into fist fights and stabbings around here. but i see your point, in the grand scheme of things. im just scared of stab stab and there's like literally 24 guys there, i'm outnumbered my wife is a piss poor ninja

 

[highland145]

Bear mace, ftw.


Fwiw, I live next to dead peeps so I can talk smack.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If it's constant non stop, then yeah I would maybe do a complaint at the police non emergency number. If it's a one time thing or once in a while it's one thing, but when they do it every single day that's pushing it.

I had a neighbour like that and I ended up calling the police, I hate to be THAT guy but when it's every freaking day enough is enough. That neighbour's issue was not partying it was just obscenely loud music at every hour of the day. It stopped for a while, then started again. I ended up building my shed between my house and his and the music stopped, well, I thought it did, but it apparently does a good job at blocking the sound... Though it does seem it actually did stop now, as last I checked the speakers are not even there anymore and there's a camera there instead. They probably got stolen lol.

 

[IronWing]

Locate electric panel, remove breakers, music stops.

 

[slackerinabox]

Dude

If it's constant non stop, then yeah I would maybe do a complaint at the police non emergency number. If it's a one time thing or once in a while it's one thing, but when they do it every single day that's pushing it.

I had a neighbour like that and I ended up calling the police, I hate to be THAT guy but when it's every freaking day enough is enough. That neighbour's issue was not partying it was just obscenely loud music at every hour of the day. It stopped for a while, then started again. I ended up building my shed between my house and his and the music stopped, well, I thought it did, but it apparently does a good job at blocking the sound... Though it does seem it actually did stop now, as last I checked the speakers are not even there anymore and there's a camera there instead. They probably got stolen lol.

Dude thank you for sharing your story. there's a dinky chain link fence in the yard faciing theirs. A solid wood fence or whatever sound dampening the fencer recommends is a solid approach.

it's the 3 day weekends they seem to have.. now i'm a very sensitive sleeper but my poor wife is a teacher and they cleaned house at work, so less people are doing more work (wakes up at 6 am and has meetings until 10 or 11 pm)..her weekends are very valuable to her sleep wise but music blasting until 3:30 am makes that difficult. it sucks for her

 

[slackerinabox]

Locate electric panel, remove breakers, music stops.

it's the yard directly next to me, the speakers seem to be facing into our god damn windows, the kids can't sleep with ear plugs and white noise because of the vibrations.. the mrs.. otc sleeping pills.. ahhahahah its' not ideal. we called 311 for non-emergency, they showed up 8 hours later

 

[Spacehead]

Did you talk to any other neighbors to see if it's bothering them too? If so it might give you an edge if you talk to the police about it.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Just keeping sending in noise complaints.

 

[slackerinabox]

Did you talk to any other neighbors to see if it's bothering them too? If so it might give you an edge if you talk to the police about it.

To be honest we've been so busy and anti-covid we haven't been very social and don't know the neighbors all that well (move is so fresh we're still renovating our old apartment). Good idea though. I'm sure some people empathize - even though it's a "rusty" area there's a few really hard working immigrants around me including a young doctor who I know wakes up at 5 am in the morning and lots of nurses aids, etc. live around here since there's a hospital a few miles away and rent is cheap for people starting their careers- I don't know them personally but they must be equally annoyed

 

[BoomerD]

Just keeping sending in noise complaints.

"I think I saw one or two guys with guns."

 

[purbeast0]

I like the "I'm not racist, but..." part of the story.

 

[slackerinabox]

I like the "I'm not racist, but..." part of the story.

eh, i'm a little racist. though I genuinely love latin culture, food, movies, etc. its not the spanish music, it's that it's really bad and repetitive spanish music. i suppose i didn't need to specify the genre of music but i like details, and ok ragaetton is the worst music ever made. we all have our cultural hangups, bollywood sucks and burning baby girls is bad..gang rape as punishment? shit, i'd take raggaeton all day than subject my daughters to that 1/2 of their culture.

 

[slackerinabox]

"I think I saw one or two guys with guns."

1000% i thought of having my white (the only in a 3 block radius) wife walk into the local precinct to report a fight or other such ... over exaggeration.. , but i genuinely don't want to get people arrested or deported (seriously, a lot of people live there.. boarding house?) over them just being dicks.. the last time i lived in a edgy latin (this is more mixed) area people parked literally in my yard constantly until i slashed some tires, maybe fire with fire? not 20 years old anymore so what i mean is incredibly high wattage PA system and free weekly party to get to know the neighbors once covid allows?but with good music, neighbors can take turns from the media center jukebox. yeah!

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

If their shit is in the back yard, just wait until they're gone then snip the speaker wires. If they fix it, do it again and put glue/solder in the speaker wire plugs.

If it's in the house, spray paint 'turn that shit down' on the lawn.

 

[ponyo]

move

 

[zinfamous]

Bass is usually what makes it much worse than it has to be, because you just can't escape that crap. You can try talking to them about adjusting their levels and taking down the LFE, but ime, people that love that shit probably aren't going to budge. heavy bass tends to track with very stupid people, and they will probably just blankly stare at you when you suggest such a thing.

I've lived around that situation too, and I can't stand it. I don't begrudge people having fun and I do like attending such nutso parties from time to time, but I sure as shit don't want to live near it and the occasional times when I have hosted those, I always chat up the neighbors before hand out of respect. It's not a permanent thing for me, but I know your situation and how some houses are just permanent "latin polka" as I call it. It's like they play the same tune all the time. I don't understand how it's the one thing they listen to, but it is, lol.

Anyway, your best bet as mentioned earlier may be just to keep up with the noise complaints. I do like politely approaching neighbors about these things, but it does make going the noise complaint later a bit more difficult--they now know who you are, lol.

Next step would be to sprinkle some crack around their place and then call the DEA.

 

[Kaido]

move

That's what I had to do. I had over 20 police complaints filed against my previous neighbor, and I'm about as laid-back of a person as they come! But things were really kinda rotten...I would have friends over for dinner & our utensils would literally be dancing around our dinner table from the subwoofer vibrations. It was ridiculous. I discovered that eviction laws can be really, really difficult to actually get people with problems removed...so I eventually just moved.

Currently I'm renting. I'd like to buy a house, but ngl I'm also kinda worried about new neighbors. My current neighbors are awesome & I have zero problems with any of them, which is a big selling point for me, even though I could really use the space (and a garage!). One of the biggest reasons I'm hesitating to move is because I had such a bad experience previously & am enjoying such a good experience now, kinda don't wanna rock the boat lol.

 

[MrSquished]

Keep calling in complaints and maybe start talking to other neighbors that may feel the same as you to do the same.

Lived in a place for a couple years with an ex in an urban area. After some time these neighbors moved in next door and them and a bunch of their friends would loiter out front of our front bedroom window, which was second floor, until after 2am partying and being loud. No speakers, just lots of people being rowdy and yelling loudly over each other. It would still prevent us getting good sleep.

Eventually I just started calling the non emergency police number. Eventually after some of that the cops came. When it happened again I called again. Eventually the cops came again and this time I watched out the window as several of them were handcuffed.

Never did find out the details but never had an issue again.

 

[slackerinabox]

Bear mace, ftw.


Fwiw, I live next to dead peeps so I can talk smack.

Do you literally live near a grave? Any stories??? Bear mace - intrigued and added to cart.. for reasons..

 

[slackerinabox]

Bass is usually what makes it much worse than it has to be, because you just can't escape that crap. You can try talking to them about adjusting their levels and taking down the LFE, but ime, people that love that shit probably aren't going to budge. heavy bass tends to track with very stupid people, and they will probably just blankly stare at you when you suggest such a thing.

Exactly, the fucking 3 dollar casio tones and rooster sound effects can be white noised out, but not the bass. And for whatever reason the real bass kicks start after midnight.

I've lived around that situation too, and I can't stand it. I don't begrudge people having fun and I do like attending such nutso parties from time to time, but I sure as shit don't want to live near it and the occasional times when I have hosted those, I always chat up the neighbors before hand out of respect. It's not a permanent thing for me, but I know your situation and how some houses are just permanent "latin polka" as I call it. It's like they play the same tune all the time. I don't understand how it's the one thing they listen to, but it is, lol.

I snarked that this is the exact same music my dad bitched about 30 years ago. It's like me losing my shit to Thriller, I simply don't get it. And parties are fine, I'm really not a stick in the mud - but is a party 2 to 3 times a week really a party when it happens so often? Whatcha got worth celebrating when you have hand towels as drapes? That was perhaps mean... .

Next step would be to sprinkle some crack around their place and then call the DEA.

Oh, I already have ICE's hotline saved on my phone but it's a last resort we'll give until next spring. In the meantime chatting up the neighbors and complaining as a group seems like our safest bet

 

[Red Squirrel]

That's the thing, once in a while, not a big deal, people should be allowed to have fun. But when it's all the freaking time? Then yeah, complaining starts to become justified.

 

[zinfamous]

Whatcha got worth celebrating when you have hand towels as drapes? That was perhaps mean... .

lol! I mean...my guess would be "livin'", but I love this dig. I'm going to use it.