Glad I found this site as I'm having issues with my downstairs neighbors. I moved into my apartment two years ago. It's the second floor apartment in an older house. The other apartment is on the first floor. The couple that live there are in their early 70's but the guy thinks he's still in his twenties. He spends all his free time working on his truck or washing it. Now I have no problem with someone taking care of their vehicle but what I do have is someone having no respect for someone else's property. This guy washes his and his wife's trucks EVERY day. I'm not kidding. When I'm not home, he'll park his truck in my spot and wash it so when I get home, my space is full of puddles that I have to walk through. If I am home, he pulls his truck up right along side mine and as he's hosing down his vehicle, the water is spraying all over mine. The sun dries the water spots and they're hard to remove, especially on the windshield. He also parks his truck so that the hitch ball hangs over onto my parking spot which is directly behind his. He has plenty of room to pull up and not be so close to my spot. It's hard enough squeezing into my space because there is a tree behind it and a wall along one side (part of a building). The second issue I have is that he plays 60's music 24/7. I have gotten up at 2 or 3 in the morning to use the bathroom and the music is playing. It's loud enough that I can name every song and sometimes he turns it up loud enough that my coffee table vibrates. Asking him to lower it does no good because another neighbor told me that the guy that lived in my apartment before me went downstairs and knocked on the neighbor's door to ask him to lower the music. The neighbor wouldn't answer so he asked him from outside the door. When that didn't work, he went back downstairs and knocked again. This time, the neighbor opened the door, swore at him, and punched him in the face. In fact, the neighbor told me this himself. It was like he was giving me a warning not to complain about his music. My landlord is completely useless; he knows he plays the music and he can see him washing his car every day (the landlord has a business on the first floor opposite the neighbor's apt). I'm a single girl living alone and I don't like confrontation, especially since this guy has a chip a mile long on his shoulder and is always ready for a fight. I have been living with it for two years and telling myself that maybe he doesn't realize he's spraying my car or that he's parking with part of his hitch in my spot (though he can easily see it when he sits on his deck every night) but it upsets me anyway. This past week I bought a new SUV. I went out early yesterday figuring he'll wash his truck while I'm gone. I got home and parked my car and a half hour later he came out and started washing his right next to mine and sprayed my new SUV all over except for the driver's side. I was furious. The only thing I can do to get some satisfaction is to wait until he washes his car and then go outside and wash mine next to his so that his vehicle will be sprayed. Then if he comes out and says something, I can explain that the same thing happens to my car when he washes his truck. If that doesn't work, then I have more vengeful ideas though he wouldn't know they came from me.

Wow. I feel bad for you. I am having the same issues with my next door neighbor. I'm only 6 months into my lease and he complained twice to the office, probably 3-4 times by knocking on my door and pounding on the wall. Which I'm starting to feel like he is harassing us. I cannot believe the things these other peeps are telling you. I agree with you that it is an apartment and there are going to be noises regardless of the time of the day. If you cannot handle the noise, do not live in an apartment. My neighbor works from home and I'm guessing he works at night. But I shouldn't have to quiet down just so he could focus on his job. I'm paying for rent just like everybody else, why should I try to please my neighbor or follow his rules. I respect my neighbors and never make noises intentionally. I'm just having my normal conversations with my fiancee and sometimes I do have family and friends over, but we are usually quiet before 10pm. We do our weekly cleaning and vaccuming. We also noticed that the neighbor is bothered by the way we open and shut our doors. The doors in our unit likes to snap-in shut when its like an inch away from the lock. This neighbor just don't want any kind of noise. I am not going to shut up and be quiet like a mice. I'm not being disruptive or disrepecting my neighbors. He even had the audacity to say he never had any issues with his next door neighbors until we moved in. After numerous complaints, we had to go and ask our neighbors around our unit including the ones downstairs if they can hear us and if we were ever too loud. They all said we are fine and they don't hear anything from our unit besides normal things like walking around and dropping things. Sometimes I feel like he is delusional. We even spoke to the management team and they agreed with us that IT IS an apartment, there are going to be noises. If this neighbor renews his lease then thats too bad, hes going to have to deal with us. You just keep doing your thing girl.

Regarding all these post on people making noise upstairs, I really need to post this. I bought a 2 bedroom condominium 8 years ago and the neighbor below me started complaining about noise I was making the 2nd day I moved in. He and his live in girlfriend complained that I made noise walking and moving furniture. The first few weeks I was really nice and put up with their crap. I was quiet after 9pm and I never play loud music and it was just me living here at the time. I went out of my way and did things I did not have to do such as not wash clothes, dishwater etc. I did this and put up with their complaints until this guy came up to my door after week 8 and began to complain because at 9:10 when i was readjusting my headboard the headboard feel and make a loud thump. (one noise and he runs upstairs) He also earlier told me it was his girlfriend that my noises bothered. When he came to my door after the headboard thumped I looked at my watch realizing it was not even 10pm and asked him if he realized it was not even 10. he then threatened to cause bodily harm to me and have other people do things to me etc. I told him to get off my porch or id call the police and to make a long story short, I had to get a restraining order on him. His girlfriend made him go to court to try to have the order not be placed and the Judge told him and his girlfriend they live in an apartment building (condo is the same thing) and he needs to complain to the builders not me. The judge granted my order and said he needs to expect to hear these noises of walking etc. So if you move in a bottom unit expect to hear people walking, washing machine going, dishwasher flowing, people getting out of bed in the morning and vacuuming etc etc. IF you don't like it then go rent or buy a house or live in an upper unit. I still live here and the freak below still tries once in a while to harass me but he has never come to my door and if he ever does it again my attorney is waiting so i can bring a suit against him. If yo move in a bottom unit you need to expect noises. Unless its later than 10pm you don't have much recourse.

Energy_rater_la & klem1 - thanks to both of you again for your advice. Klem1 - do you have a suggestion for a sound deadening material to put on the walls? And would this material work for floors, too? I spoke to the building contractors who built out the apartments and they swear the walls can't be the problem in the bedroom (where the noise is the worst) because there are no walls with pipes in this room. The bathroom is right next to the bedroom and the bathroom wall with pipes is adjacent/continuous with the bedroom wall where I could make out the voices by putting my ear to it, but THAT bedroom wall is actually a masonry wall! The sound isn't just coming from the bathroom because closing the bathroom door doesn't lessen the sound any. The contractors say maybe the sound is coming through the floors, which are hollow cement. I guess it's possible, but it's hard for me to believe that normal volume voices can travel that much through cement/cork/flooring. I am thinking of hanging the sound-deadening material on different walls and the floor to see if I can locate the source. We haven't put rugs down yet, so if the floors are the problem, maybe it's as simple a solution as this (I really hope so).