I am in the same situation with my upstairs neighbors. I have a pet myself, a cat. She is older so is pretty chill and when she does feel like playing I do so with her in the carpeted room to avoid disrupting my neighbors. I also often take her on walks to the coffee spot or to friends (yes you can do this with cats and no I am not a weirdo I swear!) But my above neighbors got a young rottweiler in a studio apartment in a city area with no safe parks super nearby. The dog is out of control, I have seen it and it jumps all over you (sign of bad training). As a pet owner myself, it breaks my heart to see the neglect. Pets are responsibilities! They should not have got this dog, sorry. I would love to have a dog but I travel too much and cant afford a house with a yard (I too would prefer a large dog) and do not agree that it is okay for large dogs to be confined to apartments unless you plan on having the time to take it outside for a log walk everyday since you do not have a yard. So I have my cat. They never take the dog out, it's so sad. They take it out to pee across the street and that's it. It runs around the apartment and they use a hard ball that I can hear rolling from one side to the other, this is about 8 times a day by the way. Now I understand with covid, working from home has caused these issues meaning I would not be bothered as much perhaps if I was at the office more. But I disagree that I should have to live with this, it has caused me to have a lack of sleep and is taking a huge toll on my mental health. Not to mention that often it occurs during important zooms and even they can hear it! So I have had to mute myself. I can't afford to move again, and I should not have to. Also angry at them because irresponsible pet owners are the reason pets get banned in the first place. So sure understand your point about not taking it out on the animal as I don't want to see it at the shelter but that doesnt mean its fair on us to have to deal with their neglect.

Hello! I just read through this entire blog because i have the same problem: noisy neighbors with a small child running across the whole apartment and constantly banging stuff on our ceiling. We have been living in our co-op for 5 years and we have a big dog too (no kids). About 6 months ago, this young family moved in above us and the small child started to run all across the apartment (back and forth and back and forth). And bang really really loud on our ceiling. We tried to play the nice card and bought them stuff to help with the noise. But it still continued. By that time we got very angry and very stressed and ignored. CHILDREN SHOULD NOT RUN IN THE HOUSE! IT IS NOT SAFE FOR THEM (this is coming from someone who has three older siblings with many nephews and nieces). My siblings always monitor, discipline and explain to their children about proper behavior. People who are saying "kids will be kids" are completely wrong. YOU ARE THE PARENT SO CONTROL YOUR CHILD!!!! Let's be adults here and realize that noisy children behavior is mostly disruptive to everyone except those who are the parents (and yes maybe the parents themselves are sick and tired from them but hey, you wanted to have kids like the rest of your friends, so suck it up). We decided that we will not tolerate the constant running and banging so we are taking it up with our board. I personally think that there should be LAWS ON THE LEASE / CONTRACT AGREEMENT about families moving into a complex or building that has only singles or couples. Meaning they should be allowed possibly on the first floor only. REALLY! I would not expect others to tolerate if my kids or my habits were bothersome to others so why are we so quick to dismiss the complaints of those people who are bothered? I think its simply lazy parents who are careless and no common sense folks who don't know what the hell parenting is all about !!!!!!I truly sympathize with the people who feel ignored by their neighbors and management and landlords about the noise. Since we all can't afford private residences and mansions and what have you, then I believe from a rational point of view that who ever is the source of disturbance they should stop immediately or keep it at a bare minimum. IF YOU ARE CREATING DISTURBANCE THEN YOU SHOULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE AND STOP DISTURBING OTHERS! Because even if we decide to move out, then the following tenants will deal with this issue too. So, you and your running kids won't win anyways.

Hi- Some of you clearly have not spent much time in apartments. Normally you hear light walking and the ocassional ruckus when they have a party, which is bearable, especially if they are kind enough to let you know in advance. When you have truly noisy neighbors they ruin your life, you have no privacy nor peace, no ability to think or decompres in your own home. Your TV is overwhelmed by TV or music from upstairs and the base from their music waked you up every morning. It is intolerable. Your ignorant suggestion that everyone in an apartment disturbed by other wear earplugs is ridiculous . . . I can just see my husband, or guest, and our housekeeper all wearing earplus all the time. No normal conversation, no ability to watch tv, etc. Sounds like a good life. As a very long-time apartment resident, I have the followign advice . . . Please carefully check your lease for a "quiet enjoyment" or similar clause that not just requires carpeting, but also entitles you to the landlord's protection from other tannant's misuse. Contrary to some of the posters comments, the laws in many places don't just require some random floor covering but "adequate carpeting or similar noise-reducing materials" � their rugs are not adequate at noise-reduction. If people want to live in a communal place in a manner that significantly disturbs others it is their own responsibility to correct it. I'd call the police and ask them to visit your place, have some friends who visit your apartment and document the noise they hear, and ask the Mgt to come by. Then tell the Mgt SPECIFICALLY what you want -- say either: (1) they give the people upstairs the choice of 14 days to fully carpet with (over foam or similar padding) the place; or (2) tell them to move to another apartment in the building with the understanding that if they get similar complaints from their new neighbors they will be evicted. Tell the landlord that if they can't do this for you, you will have no choice to go to LL-T court -- that you really don't want to, but if you've mamaged for 13 years w/o significant complaint, they can't say you are difficult or unusually sensitive! We live in a NYC Co-op and the people above insisted on not carpeting their apartment b/c they have allergies the are the world's heaviest stompers, are often making noise at 1, 2, 3am, have a hyperactive 4 year-old (not normal child noise) who they allow to play with balls, etc., and run nonstop as early as 6am and as late as 1am, and another child learning to walk using a roller-walker. Also, they like to move the furniture around a lot on the HW floors! They were allowed to wake us up at 1am the night before my brothers wedding with their stomping, but if we call (while their child still is running around at 9pm) they complain we wake up their other child, so we stopped calling. It got so bad my husband started hitting the ceiling with a broomstick when it got to the point we were going to rent a hotel room. We have been living in nonstop hell for 4 years and are moving to another apt in the bvuilding just to get away from them (we own the place so we lost a good mortgage rate and had to pay more for the new place) -- that is how bad it is. We first called up a few times, then asked the doormen to call after they'd swear and yell at us to suck it up. Then after numerous houseguest and visitor, and even my housekeeper (working in NYC apts for 25 years) says they are the worst she's ever heard, we started documenting the noise -- loud bangs, thumps, running literally going on four hours to a non-human degree, etc. We had 6 months of tears, frustration and very detailed documentation and presented the info to the Board - along with the doormen's documentation of the calls. The management finally investigated and immediately insisted they carpet the place with padding. They complained about their allergies, but I have very serious dust and mold allergies and was able to find hypoallergenic carpeting and just vacum regularly and use air-purifiers. It is my problem, not someone elses. The carpeting helped the furniture and the heavy walking, which now is annoying dull thuds, but did nothing for their child who PREFERS running on the HW areas, and they pull up the carpet do let her play with balls, and for the younger one to use her roller/walker. The Board member assigned to our matter when the noise didn't stop just said he sometimes heard the people above he and deals with it -- he doesn't understand we sometimes have 18 hr days of noise -- every single day! The neighbor to the side of them just sound-proofed his own walls with quietrock at great expense, and we were advised that ceiling sound-proofing is significantly less effective than floor sound-proofing. Some people take no personal responsibility for their actions and really should find places to live where they can be on a ground floor! Sorry for the venting, but I totally sympathesize with you and am so sorry you have to live with this. As these people who have never heard it can tell, it make people very irritable and ruins your quality of life . . .

Actually, I should have mentioned that we eat in our dining room every day. I shouldn't call it a "formal" dining room, because it's not "formal". If someone bought the house, they'd recognize it as a dining room, separate from the kitchen (though it is completely open to the LR). When my kids were little, we ate mostly in the kitchen. Now that they're bringing home STUFF and dumping it on or next to the table, we eat in the dining room. Lately I've been more strict about decluttering and not dumping stuff in the kitchen -- so we're back to eating in the kitchen sometimes. Our dining table can hold 12 people when expanded, and sometimes we have that filled, plus people eating in the kitchen, too. So I'd like to have someplace people can sit in the kitchen, even if it's not a table. Seskatchewan girl: wow, what a lot of work...I will have to fetch my bifocals and take a close look!