Neighbors keep calling the cops on me (1 Viewer)

[SkiingNinja]

I live in an apartment as well. Unfortunately, this building is old and the walls are thin. Also, my lease does have a few stipulations regarding noise. When I moved in, the first thing I did was knock on the doors of every neighbor (one below, one to the left, one down and left). I told them that I just moved and am into HT and music. We all came to an agreement:
* Sunday to Thursday - shut it down at 10PM
* Friday and Sat - 11PM
* If I'm noisy and you don't complain about me, I won't complain about you
* If the music or movie is annoying, come over and join the party!
* If any of the neighbors are really not in the mood for the noise, they can tell the noise maker to turn it down for now and it will be no problem
* I kind of use a point system. The louder they are, the louder I get to be at a later date. Everytime they are annoyingly noisy, I don't say anything...I just get to be just as noisy next time
In the end, I play movies during the day or listen to music and moderate levels. No where near reference, but still loud by apartment standards....and my neighbors do the same. No complaints or problems ever. It's actually kinda cool. When I hear one of them playing a movie of when they have loud guests, I get to turn it up
And for the record...I have dual SVS 20-39 subs with the Samson 700 Amp. You know it's got to be annoying for them sometimes
Sorry for the longish post, but I see/hear this a lot from apartment dwellers.
The moral of the story is: Be friendly and talk to your neighbors ahead of time. If they know you, then the chances of them calling the police on you or complaining to the landlord is greatly diminished.
Sean

 

[Mike Broadman]

Andrew, it sounds like you're not doing anything wrong.
When my friends and I lived in various apartments throughout the same apartment complex in college, my friends would get complaints for no good reason. If I came over and we just talked, they would complain. In my freshman year in a dorm, the girl below us complained that my bed spueaked.
There are some pathetic people who are lonely or just jerks who enjoy bothering others and getting attention. It irks me that they feel the need to waste the police officers' time to do this, though. These sound like the type of people who listen real hard to what you are doing and eagerly anticipate the chance to call the cops.
Blast your tunes and tell them to go screw themselves.

 

[Philip Hamm]

Well, I don't agree at all with the "Blast your tunes and tell them to go screw themselves." mentality at all.
This is somewhat akin to the controversy about having loud exhausts in the motorcycle community. Some people have loud as hell exhausts and constantly rev them or blip the throttle. They have a "I'm free to blast my bike and anyone who doesn't like them can go screw themselves" attitude. The problem is that they don't have the right to impose their obnoxious loud noise on everyone around them. Loud pipes on motorcycles piss me off to no end, mine is stock quiet and is fine.
Anyway, in an apartment situation IMO a sub can be somewhat imposing. Your neighbors should not be forced to hear a T-Rex booming across their ceiling just because you want to watch a movie. There's a difference between having the right to listen to what you want to listen to and imposing your audio on others who don't want to hear it.
I don't have a solution for you, sorry. I live in an end unit townhouse and the sub is against the open wall. I've told my neighbor that I'll turn it down any time he asks, but he hasn't complained.
Try to come up with a considerate solution. It is a good chance that even with your sub very low it is extremely imposing on your neighbors.
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Philip Hamm
Pat's the best!™
AIM: PhilBiker
click on the little green house to see the evolution of my home theater!

 

[Andrew Chandler]

I knew there would be some people who have had the same problem I am having. I've contemplated inviting them up and showing them that I am not being unreasonably loud, but I'm in college and they seem to be in their later 20's and don't seem to be up to the notion. I think Im sort of being stereotyped as a college troublemaker (hey, they complained at 11am on the first day they moved in). They told me that they had to call the police on the previous renters of my place last year, so it seems that they are just hard to please.
I think ya'll are right in saying that we need to find a medium ground- they deserve there quiet time but that shouldn't limit me from watching movies or having friends over

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

That's the problem with bass. It can sound completely disproportionate depending on where you are in the building.
You may have to crank the subwoofer in your own apartment to get any useable levels of bass to go with the movies, and meanwhile the neighbours below you are leaping back and forth between the art falling off the walls and the china rattling in the cupboards... Bass really travels through the building structure sometimes.
What you need to do is talk to the neighbours below you about coming to listen for yourself in their place, then set up Jurassic Park or something bass heavy on the HT at normal listening levels and go hear for yourself.
If they are truly exaggerating in your case you can then say so and politely inform them that you will be watching movies at reasonable hours and that you feel that is your right to do in your own home. If however you find that it is really disturbing with the bass level in their home, you need to figure out a way to minimize it.
If you have your sub on spikes or somesuch, get rid of them immediately and put the sub on dampening feet instead. Spikes will couple the sub to the floor and make the whole structure resonate, most likely. You should also try alternate placements of the sub if you find it is disturbingly loud in the apartment below.
I'm moving to a new apartment myself next weekend. Will be interesting to see how I luck out in the neighbour lottery...
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/Kimmo
[Edited last by Kimmo Jaskari on September 24, 2001 at 12:13 PM]

 

[Frank Frandsen]

Being a cop I can tell you there is really nothing we can do. Especially with vibrations from a subwoofer. The city I work in has a noise ordinance and you can be cited if it falls between 10 pm and 7 am During the day,however, there is no action we can take. I usually give the standard lecture that you are neighbors and have to get along with each other but it appears these people drew first blood by not talking with you before calling the cops.
I would say listen away during the day but remember you may get retribution like your neighbor getting some quality gear and cranking it when you want quiet. By the way, I had a condo and could not wait to get out to blast my system. I get yelled at by my wife though.
Frank

 

[Claude M]

Yeah, I agree with previous post, find out from the cops exactly how many dbs allowed and the time of day when to cool it. Then get a SPL meter to make sure you're on the mark. Try to make friends with them too if they seem ok (this can go a long way). Good luck.

 

[Lee L]

I agree with Kimmo, the bass may actually be louder for the neighbors than for you. Reinforcing nodes are only found by experimentaion and it is especially difficult with the multi-family setup you are in. You should talk to them like you said and get them to come upstairs when the music is on, you should also go downstairs and talk to them and listen down in their place while it is on. You might be surprised at the sound level down there. Then, you should experiment with moving your sub around to see if it helps things. You could put a garden type stepping stone down and then some foam and another stone to see if that keeps the sound from apssing as easily but more than likely it is a placement issue. You may even need to raise the sub up on a stand.
Of course, they also might be breaking your balls unnecessarily in which case there is not much you can do but hopefully things will work out.

 

[Conroy Tesa]

This kinda reminds me of when my neighbors used to complain about my dog.(This has nothing to do with HT but kinda funny)
This old bat would call the cops constantly to complain about my beagle barking.
The cops would come in my yard and stand there and stare at my poor little dog and he would sit there without moving a muscle just staring back. My mom would come out with iced tea or some thing and the 3 of them would stare at poor old Beau for like 20 minutes. Nothing.
This happened like 3 or 4 times until the cops told this old women that there wasn't any problem.
Then she called an official from Noise Ordinace.
Same thing. The dog and him just had this staring contest. It was hilarious.
This old bat would start calling us, barking in the phone.
then she claimed I would be honking the horn in my car at 5 am and making it sound like a dog.
Neighbours is wacko
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Conroy

 

[NathanP]

Nice story Conroy
I would suggest that you move to a townhouse or du-plex, although a bit for exspensive about ($600 to $800 here)
du-plexes make a nicer spot because no one is below you and way off to the side between thick brick walls..
Nathan
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"Fascinating Captian"
--Spock
Visit www.speedemenu.com

 

[Andrew Chandler]

I bought the apartment just recently, so I'm not going to be moving for a while. Next time, though, I will take neighbors and wall thickness into condsideration, or at least get a ground floor.

 

[Ted Lee]

or at least get a ground floor

and deal with people walking around all day "on top" of my head...forget it. i'll NEVER own a place on the bottom floor. besides, in my own head, i feel safer on the top floor (barring a 7.0 earthquake)) than i do on the ground.
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You step in the stream,
But the water has moved on.
This page is not here.

 

[Jason Merrick]

You may have to crank the subwoofer in your own apartment to get any useable levels of bass to go with the movies, and meanwhile the neighbours below you are leaping back and forth between the art falling off the walls and the china rattling in the cupboards... Bass really travels through the building structure sometimes.

Andrew,
You need to mount your subwoofer on the roof.
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[Rhett_Y]

Glenn.
Lets put it this way. If you walk outside your house and belch and your neighbor hears it and calls the police and says, I want to file a formal complaint, or I would like him/her arrested for disturbing the peace. In california, the Penal Code Section is 415P.C. ( there are also lots of municipal codes for your city that can come into play, I.E. the city I work in, has a municipal code for creating a disturbance inside your own residence when you are under the influence of an alcoholic bevearge, Go figure, if we show up, Its our discreation of course, you can actually go to jail!), It is a misdemeaner committed not in our presence, we don't make the arrest, your neighbor does. You get a ticket, you both go to court, and the judge hears the case. Doesnt' matter how loud, what time of day, etc. If your neighbor doesn't like it, well there you go. I have been to situation over the vacuum cleaner running to loud at the 3 in the afternoon!!!!!!
Rhett

 

[Joe Cole]

No man is an island.
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Joe C.
quote:Who's scruffy looking?
My biscuits are a burnin.

 

[Frank_S]

I live in a townhouse and listen to music/movies pretty loud. My neighbour, 2 units down has a kid that screams so loud that I can hear him in my livingroom during dialogue scenes. It really is annoying to hear screaming for periods that can last up to 30 minutes. They just let the kid scream relentlessly, not to mention when he plays right outside my unit and screams out there. My only recourse to drown him out is to crank up the volume, se la vie I guess.

 

[Shayne Judge]

Conroy: That story is hilarious. I can just picture two cops and a lady sipping iced tea while staring at an old beagle.
Andrew: I would suggest inviting your neighbors over. I had a similiar problem, invited the guy over, got him hooked and joining me for various movies, and next thing you know he is buying his own system.

 

[MikeH1]

I feel like I have to add my .02 cents. I guess I'm one of the few lucky ones that live in an apartment and never get complaints. During the day/afternoon/evening I let the music pound. Its not very often mind you that I do this but still... nothing...no complaints. Maybe my gear just isn't loud enough? The funny thing is my roomate and a couple of his friends were on the balcony playing the board game Clue late one night and low and behold, the next day was a "formal" noise complaint stuck in the door jamb. Fuck did I laugh.
I do have a couple of my own rules that I go by though. I NEVER play it past 11 pm on weekends(earlier for weekdays) and always try to start off on a good note with the neighbors. I give them my phone # if they have a habit of saying something and tell them to call if its pissing them off, but nobody ever has. Maybe I just can't hear the phone

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you lose it here and your in a world of hurt...

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Andrew, I'll say again to unplug the sub and see if the complaints stop. I had a sub in an apartment for a year, and I did have to tone it down a little until the neighbors downstairs said it was ok. This way you'd find out for sure if it was the sub, or they didn't like any noise at all.
Rhett, that is truly fantastic. I can't imagine being a judge and hearing a case where one person hauled another into court over a burp!
I can, however, see the thinking behind a loud drunk in a place, as they could hurt themselves, especially if they are tossing furniture.
Frank, as for the kids, I'd set up a tape recorder and drop it off at their door. It might help.
Glenn

 

[David_LM]

I also agree that since your neighbors have already reached the point where they felt the need to call the police, a mutually acceptable resolution is probably out of reach. Hard feelings like this tend to turn into pissing matches.
Before I moved into my house, I lived in an apartment with thin walls and fought with my next door neighbor for over a year over loud music. He had a $5,000 system that had killer bass and no sound level of the bass seemed acceptable to me. I complained to the landlord several times and invited the property manager over to my apartment to witness the loud music. This led to my neighbor receiving several threats in the form of a letter from the manager to turn the music down. As the loud music continued, I filed a police report and called the police on several occasions. As the loud music continued, I pounded on the walls resulting to many near fisticuffs with my neighbor. I then recruited the neighbor on the other side of my problem neighbor to complain to the landlord. The landlord then threatened my neighbor with eviction which led to him moving out to a HOUSE so he could play his loud music.
Bottom Line: turn the bass way down or off or move to a house.