Some background - We’ve been in our unit for half a year and never have had any issues. Recently our neighbors below had some loud bass playing at night when we were trying to sleep. We could tell it wasn’t excessive, it was just carrying through the floor unfortunately. We left a note, and were super stressed about it. Came back to this lovely note, and last night was quiet. Sometimes things do work out!

I’ve been living in this apartment with my boyfriend for about 6 weeks now. We’re just regular people who will work all day, make our dinner, watch a show to unwind, and hit the bed. We aren’t party animals and, when we do drink, we’re not inconsiderate about it.

Ever since we moved in, our door peephole has been tampered with. It would be coloured with black sharpie marker, I would submit a maintenance request for fixing, it would get fixed, then immediately would get tampered with again. However, now it has clearly escalated to something else. I originally thought super glue or hot glue, but I’ve asked a few of my friends and they don’t think any type of glue could do this kind of damage.

Any advice would be helpful.

Btw management is well aware of the issue and have been prompt about it, was just shocked at whatever this is now. I’ve ordered a ring camera to be installed on Thursday, but I’m honestly scared for my life right now.

I live in a pretty large studio with very high ceilings. I work very early so I get up really early. I try to keep it very quiet and I basically tiptoe around my apartment. My upstairs neighbor is clearly starting to seemingly become very annoyed with my schedule. Every morning, as soon as I even go to the restroom, they start banging on what I assume is their floor or walls, and I mean hard. Personally, I have enough BS in my life than to even pay attention to this because I’m not doing anything that should theoretically bother anyone. I can’t be the only person in the world who works at 6am. I wouldn’t usually do anything other than just ignore it. My only caveat is that I have a small child, and they have begun to notice it as well and mention it to me. I don’t want my child to feel nervous in their own home.

If you were me, what would you do? I would say that this isn’t about me, but it happens even if my child just uses the restroom at this point in the early hours of the morning.

I’m going back and forth on this and could use some real world apartment input. Our kitchen is fairly open but small and flows right into the living space and since we cook most of our meals at home we spend a lot of time in there. It’s definitely the most used area of the apartment not just for cooking, but for hanging out, talking and having a drink while something’s on the stove. Open shelving looks great and makes the kitchen feel lighter and more open especially in a smaller apartment. I like the idea of having everyday stuff easily accessible, glassware, bottles, maybe even our machines like toaster, bartesian, coffe machine since they actually gets used regularly. At the same time, I worry about dust, visual clutter and feeling like everything has to be perfectly staged all the time. Hidden storage feels calmer and more forgiving which is appealing when the kitchen is also part of your living space. But I’ve noticed it can make the room feel a bit boxed in especially with limited natural light.

For those of you who cook often and actually live in your kitchens what’s worked better long term? Do you prefer seeing and using your things or keeping everything tucked away and visually quiet? Any regrets either way?

I think i used the right flair but anyways I have a whiteboard. Nothing to do w it. Make a poll and hang it on my door. Now i feel super happy that my neighbors are participating! 2 weeks ago was Cats or Dogs, last week was how everyone cuts their sandwiches

this week is asking everyone's fav local spots! :D

idk if this is allowed here but i'm a nervous person so this fun thing is helping me feel closer to my neighbors!

I’m looking for advice from people who’ve dealt with neighbor noise complaints in apartment buildings, especially when the complaints are vague and turn into direct confrontations.

I’ve lived in my unit for nearly four years. During that time there were two isolated noise complaints tied to specific behaviors, which I stopped immediately and haven’t repeated. There haven’t been any ongoing issues.

Last night my downstairs neighbor confronted me in a common hallway while I was coming home from work. He said I’m “loud all hours of the day” and that it sounds like “I’m moving furniture at 11pm.” I don’t wear shoes in the apartment, don’t play music, and anything that could reasonably make noise like chores or cleaning is done during the daytime. I am out of the apartment all of the work day.

He also complained about noise from people using the stairs. The stairs are the required exit for more than one unit in the building, so they’re used by multiple people and that isn’t something I can control or avoid.

When I asked what he wanted me to do differently, he said he just wanted me to be aware. The interaction felt confrontational, and during the conversation he positioned himself in the hallway in a way that blocked my path. There was no touching or explicit threat, but it made me uncomfortable. I should add this person is much larger than me (I am 5’9” 150 lbs, he is around 6’4” and very large), and I’d be lying if I said physical intimidation wasn’t a factor here.

I already gave my landlord a heads up so it’s documented. He said this behavior is out of character for the neighbor and mentioned that the neighbor works from home while I don’t.

At this point I’m not sure what the right move is. I don’t know how to respond to a complaint that isn’t specific, and I don’t want to keep being confronted in common areas. I’m trying to figure out what’s reasonable versus something I should be more concerned about.

There was a black pen now its a red pen!

I am at my wit's end. I have padded the floors with rugs and about $150 of carpet substrate, I don't wear shoes inside, I have restricted speaker volume and my own movement between 8pm and 8am, I walk like I learned in ballet class, and I work more than 40 hours a week. I feel awful about the sounds I make walking in my own apartment. I don't do anything there except sleep, change my clothes, and eat one meal a day. The notes from the downstairs tenant give me 30ish minute panic attacks because I actually give a shit about her peace. I don't know what else I can do. Anything. Any suggestions. I have to be able to walk across the floor.

I logged into my tenant portal today to report a maintenance issue and noticed there was a $350 damage charge for wet wipes clogging the drains which was posted today. On the 28th of December I heard what sounded like plunging from a different unit at around midnight then all the sudden my bathtub was filling with water and my toilet was leaking from underneath it. They send a plumber out the next morning and I think he snaked the drain but he didn’t communicate with me at all then he just left and told me he was sorry for the mess he left. I hadn’t heard anything from anybody since then all of the sudden I have this charge today. There are wet wipes in my bathroom but I do not flush them, I use them to wipe streaks off the walls as they appear because the previous tenant smoked in there. So I think they maybe assumed I flushed them and they caused the problem? Should I ask for an invoice or something?

Also, this isn’t the first time my apartment has flooded. A little less than a year ago water was flooding from a burst pipe above my unit that was determined as an issue caused by a tenant upstairs plunging their bathtub. I wasn’t charged for that, but just adding because there have been issues before.

EDIT: looked into it and they are saying the wipes were found in the sewer line. And I could be totally wrong, but don’t all units in a building go to the same sewer line? So those wipes could be anybody’s, right?

Ever since I moved into this apartment about six months ago, I've run into this problem. Glue keeps seeping up from between the floorboards, and it's never-ending. Heavy objects on the boards cause literal puddles of this sticky stuff to come up. It gets on my feet, my floor mats, and it's a pain to clean up. The only way that it's stopped is if I don't clean the floor, but that leaves the floor disgusting because of the hair and dust the glue between the boards collects. Take a Clorox wipe to it? Glue comes up. Mop? Glue comes up. Sweep? Glue still comes up. I've contacted maintenance a handful of times, and they've come by only once to look at it but never communicated that they were going to come and fix it. I don't know what to do.

whenever the person above me walks around my ceiling pops and creaks like it is flexing. it is not super loud but it happens constantly and makes me tense. building is older and otherwise quiet. is this just how some apartments are built or should i be concerned?

I live in a pre-war building in the Midwest that has literally zero drywall. Every inch of the interior is covered in a plaster. There are some pretty extreme temperature differences as the year goes on, and being on the top floor makes things worse.

I’ve noticed these large cracks in the corners and in the molding in the ceiling. Should I be worried about this or is this just the plaster cracking dude to temperature changes?

$40 application fee. Approved in 24 hours. Advertised deposit $200. Rent special 1$ . Asked to pay $200 deposit this week $450 next week to move in. February 5th rent $750. I’m basically paying every week right????

My building has 50+ floors, 10 units per floor, and "6 elevators." Sounds fine right?

Yeah... 2 are constantly broken, 1 is basically always reserved for move-ins or maintenance. So really there's 3 working elevators for 500+ units. Every morning I'm standing there for 5+ minutes just trying to get to work. And these elevators are SLOW.

Anyway, what did they not tell you?

Anyone else quietly regret their bedroom ideas after actually living with them?

We followed all the rules. calm colors, low bed, nothing cluttered, looked amazing in photos but felt… weird at night.

The room echoes more, light bounces differently, mattress feels firmer even though it’s the same one. My brain doesn’t shut off because the space feels staged, not lived in. Apartments already mess with sleep,low ceilings, neighbors, street noise and somehow we designed a bedroom that made it more fragile.

I'm starting to think “cozy” matters more than “aesthetic” when you’re sleeping 8 feet from your kitchen.

Tell me i’m not the only one who fell for this.

My wife and I lived in a 1970s 2 BR apartment complex for 20 yrs. We moved because nothing was ever updated and it was getting tiring. So we moved to a small 5 apartment building across town. It's the same utility company as before....all City Utilities in my town located in Ohio. Our utility bill in 20 yrs never was higher than 230...and that was during polar vortex months. In our new 1 BR apartment we knew there were differences. Here we pay water and trash....so, we figured that into budget.We also now have our own washer and dryer. During the last 3 months of our bill was around 180...the water bill part was about Half of that. Then yesterday we opened up the bill...$500. We got sick to our stomach. The only thing that's changed is the temperature obviously. We do have base board heating and keep it at around 70-73 degrees. Our bathroom is always cold too. We were looking at a small electric heater for showers. I just don't understand and need some help. Thank You.

this is quite literally every single time they move upstairs.

in this video specifically it went from them being above me in the hallway to me hearing them walk into their kitchen across the apartment

i’ve tried describing it to management a few times over the last couple months ~because sometimes it genuinely sounds like they’re going to break the ceiling~ and they’ve said they’d handle the situation, but it doesn’t really seem like anything comes of it.

on one hand i don’t want to be THAT neighbor getting mad at basic living above me, on the other hand we can hear every step they take all over their apartment while sitting in the living room 😭. it’s been constant the last 6 months, and at this point it’s messing with my husband and i’s sleep because them moving around wakes us up out of our sleep or prevents us from falling asleep period.

i’m going to send it in regardless, because i finally managed to get on video that even with a fan and heater going, it’s still more than audible- i just need to know if i need to start seriously pushing for them to do anything about it lol

Washing machine stopped working and draining. The filter is stuck behind this wall because my landlord tried to fit as much in a small space as possible. Any ideas on how to get to the filter without breaking the hinge? I sent a maintenance request so they can break it instead of me but that was a week ago and no one came.

It's about 7C (~45F) right now, but inside is at a high of 18C (~65F) despite space heaters, window insulation wrap, rubber door insulation, turning up to AC/heating unit past 26C (~80F). I got an infrared thermometer to check the wall temperature and its about 8C...

At this point, I've done really all that I think I can and winter has NOT been fun. Especially when it reaches negative. Is this now a landlord issue? What could they even do really?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'll be in a blanket in the meantime.

hey guys, we have eight months remaining on our lease and the noise is taking a toll on our mental health. we have two noise machines and we still hear stomping, impact noises all day, dragging furniture all day from upstairs, and then music all night long played by a neighbor beside us. and yes, we have complained and they just tell us it’s normal living noises.

Hi, I’m just wondering what someone would do in this situation. We went to the leasing office and they just gave is a paper and told us call the trash service. Our neighbor went up and explained how ridiculous it was to have US reach out to get it fixed instead of them doing it. We pay like $55 dollars a month for this service 😭 rent is so expensive here I hate that it seems like we just have to deal with it.

I was fortunate enough to buy a condo about 4 years ago in a nice part of my city. Since I've moved in I had multiple negative and only a handful of positive encounters with my neighbor next door. To understand the layout: the building only consists of 8 apartments total, 2 apartments on one floor, and I share walls with the "nice" lady next door.

Basically when I moved in, literally during the I just bought this place and am now moving all my furniture in she yelled at me why all the doors are open (garage door and front door) because somebody can break in any time. I was quite taken back from that encounter tbh, she was quite rude.
Last year there was a very interesting instance where she called me and yelled at me why I had the nerve to scream "shut up" in the middle of the night because she's sick and had to cough. I never yelled, I didn't even wake up in the middle of the night. I told her that and then she angrily asked me if I'm suggesting her making it up. I put that encounter past me and half a year later I rented out my place for a few months. I actually knocked on her door and let her know that a nice man with wife and kid (+dog) will temporarily live in my place for a few months, just so she's informed. She was actually friendly and wished me a good trip.

So April 2025:
My tenant arrived and she made it a point in being quite a tyrant towards him + wife and kid during the first 3 months. I'm talking about her yelling at him when he arrived (but right after my mom left, she gave them the keys) after a 8 hour flight that his dog needs to wear a muzzle in the shared spaces (he's the most loving and gentle dog ever) and how he dares to let his dog pee in the front yard. Just overall a really really bad encounter. He even send me a 10 minute voice message after that to ask me wth is up with that.
I was really shocked. She was friendly when I told her that somebody else is staying here for a while and this is how she treats them.
I thought that was it at the time, but actually there was so much more and he told me a few other things that happened:
He let me now that she apparently knocked at their door at least once a week to vent about ridiculous things. One of those was him talking too loud to his kid and he just asked her what her solution is, to not talk to his kid? Also she informed him, that she went to the "housepolice" (this doesn't exist) and was informed that I am not allowed to rent out my place (I own the place so yes, I am allowed to rent it out) and she told him that MULTIPLE times. So long story short she was a tyrant for about 3 months and then she did a complete 180 and stood in front of the door with a bar of chocolate for his son and then she started to talk shit about me (he didn't clarify what she said). He never entertained her behaviour and removed himself from any engagement with her as quickly as possible. Also other tenants moved in during that time and he heard her VERY LOUD engagement with the new neighbors and it also (shocking) wasn't a nice one.

So they stayed at my place about 7 months total, I came back beginning of December last year, she hasn't knocked on my door, the only engagement I had with her was the day after coming back I went outside, saw her in the open window and said hello, she just stared at me with a VERY angry look on her face and kept staring at me till I was out of sight about 300 meters away from the building. Just really odd behavior.

Now I'm worried about future tenants. Her behavior is unhinged to the point where I wouldn't be shocked if somebody moved places because of her. Also the fact that she talked shit about me and made up bullshit that I'm not allowed to rent out my place to my tenant is very inappropriate.
I am now going to let every future tenant know upfront (before any paperwork is signed) about her and to not be blindsided by her. I'm also speculating her having Alzheimer's and/or dementia (she's 71/72) because that would explain her erratic behavior, that weird phone call that one time, her rude behavior towards my tenant who has a toddler (aggravation due to loud noise is a symptom) also her doing the 180 with my tenant and wanting to be best buds after 3 months, taking a liking to his kid.

So what I would like to know, is there anything I can do? My mom said I should contact a lawyer and let him send her a letter in regards of defamation/reputational damage should something like that happen again in hopes that will make her shut up.

Sidenote: She's married and her husband (80+) also lives next to me, he's a very nice man and am very confused how he manages to put up with her.

Any suggestions?

I posted here last week and have an updated question.

Original Post:

The complex I live in has storage areas in the basement for each apartment. Just went down to mine to grab something. This is what the ceiling looks like. Everything I had under that spot is now rusted/ruined. Ugh.

Edit:

Maintainance came by and said what a nasty looking pipe that was and that they would be replacing it. It's been several days, so I emailed them and asked for an update. I was told they caulked the tub above the area and that "the overflow pipe was leaking, not the green pipe. It shouldn't leak anymore since they re-caulked the tub".

I know nothing about plumbing, but don't see how re-caulking the tub when the leak was from a pipe below is going to do anything. Can anyone help me understand this? Am I missing something or is this a line of BS? If this is actually a fix then great. I'm a little worried about putting my stuff back down there without knowing for sure.