Contact your landlord about this harrassment, just so he/she knows. Ask if there is anything you can do to reduce the noise coming from your unit. There probably isn't, but this will show that you are willing to work on the problem. Then keep a log of everything the downstairs neighbor does, and what you did that caused her reaction. You drop a fork, she calls police. Cat jumps from couch to floor, she bangs on ceiling. Record the day and time as well. In fact, document everything. Every contact with your landlord, if the police come, etc. It can't hurt. And look up any laws or ordinances for your town/city about noise. Make sure you are following them--you probably are, but just check to make sure. Same with your lease. Make sure you know if there are any clauses about noise or quiet hours. Again, I personally don't think you are violating them, but in a case like this it helps to know what the rules are. That way, if she does convince the police to show up, you can inform them that quiet hours are 10 pm -6 am (or whatever), and you were moving your kitchen chair across the floor at 7 pm, well within the time limit. What did the police say/do when she called them? Did they come out? Did they speak to you? In order to take you to court, one of two things needs to happen. The police will need to determine that you have broken a law. Or the neighbor will need to find a lawyer willing to take on the case and bring a suit to court. The chances of either one happening are slim. This woman needs to be in a top floor apartment, but I doubt that she'll ever move. Keeping my fingers crossed that the landlord will let you move to another unit. I don't think it needs to be a downstairs unit, unless you want one. I'd hope that other people in your building are more understanding of normal, common, everyday noise.

I had the same problem...old house converted into 2 apartments/poor soundproofing (cheap LL. We lived in the downstairs..noisy neighbor up.) Our LL did nothing to help. Talking to the girl upstairs did nothing. It got worse and worse. I had a full blown panic attack and we moved out (broke our lease but we were responsible for finding new tenants). I would talk to LL and explain what is going on. Keep a record of the noise and times coming from downstairs. Maybe try talking to the people downstairs. I don't know..I have little faith in humans when it comes to being considerate (that and I'm in a bad mood this morning). If it gets to be too much you might have to bite the bullet and break it. Keep us posted

If there is a vacant unit, ask the landlords if you can move into that. That would be the simplest thing to do. Ask the landlord to come over for a meeting. Show them the rugs, explain everything you do to keep your daughter quiet. Tell them that the constant complaints and police harassment are not acceptable. Ask the landlords what they are going to do to make the downstairs neighbors quit bothering you. Start complaining about the downstairs neighbors. For a week or two, document everything they do that is in violation of the lease, and all their noise. Record the dog barking, take pictures of the cars blocking you in. I can't believe the landlords didn't know about the people downstairs. They have a choice--keep the unpleasant people down stairs and have people move out of the upstairs unit as quickly as possible, or deal with the downstairs people and have a quiet building. Also, check with the police to see if there is any consequence for the downstairs people if they continue to make false claims against you.

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.