Originally posted by: Joemonkey
I'll try to put in a long story and cliffs, but who knows what will happen. Just a little background to let someone play the race card if they feel like it, I'll let you know my wife and 3yo daughter and I are white and the downstairs neighbors are a 300lb black man, 100lb white woman, and 2 mixed kids probably 1yo and 3yo
we have been here since Sep 2008, who knows how long they have been here. They live on the 2nd floor, us on the 3rd.
The downstairs neighbors constantly fight, yell, slam doors, etc., F-word easily understandable through the floor to the point where we turn up the TV/stereo or tell our daughter it is singing and dancing time to prevent our daughter from coming up to us and asking "daddy/mommy what does f*ck mean?"
We never called in a noise complaint against them due to the fact we knew it was apartment life, get over it, oh well. One day in October while the wife and I are watching Dexter on Showtime (in case you don't know, very little loudness and/or music, mostly dialog) loud enough that we can simply hear the talking OK, we hear their door slam, running up steps, and a loud knock.
Wife answers the door, it's the female from downstairs asking if we were listening to music loudly. We asked her if she even heard anything from outside the door, she said no, we said "uh, well ok then, we'll still turn it down."
Happens again sometime in December, still said they didn't hear anything outside the door, no big deal, we told her we'd turn it down.
*pay attention! admission of SOME guilt!* new years eve we BLARE aud lang syne when midnight hits, chick comes up, we apologize, oh well
2009 rolls around, we start getting the distinct smell of weed smoking in our kitchen and bathroom. Back in 2008 we smelled it as they smoked it on their deck, but we just closed our deck sliding glass door and looked at each other and said "meh, live and let live." However, in this instance, we call the apt office, they tell us to call the cops. We honestly don't care about pot smokers smoking pot, nor do we want to call the cops on them, but we don't want our 3yo daughter smelling/inhaling it asking us questions about it, not to mention that whole "you have rights until they infringe upon your rights" thing in the constitution
Their pattern seems to be "take the kids to daycare/school/grandma's/whatever then go home and toke up" so one day while I'm at work my wife finally gives in and calls the cops. The cop on the phone hears my daughter say "Mommy what's that smell?" and says she'll take a personal interest, sends out officers, they don't open the door, and oh well
One day my wife and daughter go out of town and I watch Iron Man on blu-ray, start the movie at like 7:30pm, and apparently downstairs neighbors call the cops on me for having it too loud. I was constantly upping and downing the volume to simply "hearable" levels to make sure I didn't piss off the asshats downstairs, yet they call the cops on me. About 8:30pm a cop comes to the door, i answer, he says they've received a noise complaint. I ask if he even heard anything outside the door, he says no. I tell the cop that it was probably retaliation for our call, he says "if you're telling the truth, that sounds about right" and leaves.
A few more weeks go by and we hear via our floor (literally) loud enough that dude had cheated on chick, 2 cop cars our outside, they tell him to leave and not come back, he leaves, 20 mins after the cops are gone, he's back. Many more times over the next few weeks this EXACT same thing happens, multiple cop cars outside our stairwell, multiple cops in and out of their apt, etc.
A few weeks later the guy from downstairs comes up for the first time, says "you guys playing something with a lot of bass?" and i say "uh, no... in fact our stuff is paused..." he says "hmm i still hear it" which makes me think "ok well our shit is PAUSED and you're still hearing shit?!?!"
We do have four big wooden speakers from the 70's sitting on the floor, so we thought we would try to be nice and go out and buy four $8 planter holders on wheels to get them off the floor completely just in case it really IS somewhat loud/bass-y down there. We still watch TV and movies at the same volume, no complaints since we bought them, so maybe it was "loud" down there? yeah i doubt it, they probably were just too high to complain...
The pot smell continues, and both our bathrooms constantly smell like cigarette smoke, so my wife calls the apt. complex to have their courtesy officers check on it to OUR apt, not theirs. courtesy officers are busy so my wife asks 2 of the office workers to come to the apt, both say "oh yeah that's pot" and suggest we call the cops. Cops come, downstairs neighbors don't answer the door (neither would I if i was smoking up!) and nothing happens.
i start looking through my lease and see that
Resident, any member of Resident's household, Resident guest or other person under Resident's control, shall not:
i: engage in criminal activity, including drug-related criminal activity, in or near the apartment community. "Drug related criminal activity" means the illegal manufacture, sale, distribution, use, or possession with intent to manufacture, sell, distribute, or use a controlled substance (as defined in section 802 of Title 21 of the United States Code);
ii: Engage in an act intended to facilitate criminal activity, including a Drug-related criminal activity, in or near the Apartment Community
<snip>
VIOLATION OF ANY ONE (1) OF THE ABOVE PROVISIONS SHALL BE CONSIDERED AN EVENT OF DEFAULT HEREUNDER AND GROUNDS FOR IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF THIS LEASE
so tonight, we're watching slumdog millionaire, which gets VERY loud at times, but i'm still on remote duty and am constantly upping and downing the volume so it isn't too loud. About 1.5 hours into the movie a cop shows up at our door with a noise complaint! chick from downstairs comes out and yells up "about time you got here! we called 2 and a half hours ago!" and he says "ma'am I will talk to you in a moment!" and the cop and my wife both hear the guy say something about "that bitch upstairs"
now wait... 2.5 hours ago? 1.5 hours into the movie? and they said it sounded like people were "jumping around" up here? 2.5 hours ago we were all sitting quietly in the dark and ANYONE with a kid knows that at bedtime there is NO jumping around and simply quiet time
15 mins after the cop left we heard 300lb dude outside in the parking lot yelling shit, driving off, coming back, yelling more shit, then out on their deck yelling about "stupid bitch and i hope you heard that" and who knows what else! We just sit up here looking at each other wondering what kind of person seriously thinks that will get something done...
so..
Cliffs:
shitty ass downstairs neighbors
illegal activity
cops don't care
we are willing to move but don't want to pay penalties
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