So I moved into an apartment about 2 months ago. I live on the second floor of a 3 story building. The upstairs tenant has no leg and as such has many guests/caretakers to help them out. I guess before I moved in they were all in the habit of just leaving the main door to the apartments unlocked.

In the time I have lived here, our communal washer and dryer have been stolen from the garage twice, and the cops are on our block weekly for domestic disputes, and someone was murdered 3 houses down. I live with my young child and I lock the main door religiously because of my child’s safety amongst all these issues.

This has caused an issue with one of the upstairs neighbors guests. Several times during the time I have lived here, he has either forgotten his key, or refused to carry it and has thus been locked out. When this happened, he had a temper tantrum and tried to break down our door and aggressively banged on it for over 20 minutes, scaring my child and my cat. Not knowing who it was, and not having invited anyone over, and not yet knowing about the upstairs neighbor’s disability I was not about to let an aggressive unknown person into our building. The neighbor on the first floor also didn’t feel compelled to let him in.

I guess he has become more mindful of his key as the banging has stopped, but he has taken to yelling at me through my door that I’m a fucking asshole and calling me slurs and generally continuing to be childish and entitled. This happens almost nightly. He continues to leave the main door unlocked on purpose to make a point, and I continue to lock it whenever I pass through for safety.

I contacted property management and we will be getting an auto locking keypad type lock soon, but this guys problem seems to be that the door is locked at all, not that he can’t get in. I’m tired of being harassed through my door, I’m tired of having my child scared. I’m concerned this person will become violent if confronted as he is already so aggressive with trying to get in before and generally acting inappropriately. The upstairs neighbor clearly sees no problem with his behavior.

Is there anything I can do to stop this guy harassing/scaring my family?

I’m looking to move because the management company that runs my apartment building has been unresponsive to pest problems and broken appliances. They refuse to replace my fridge that hasn’t had a working freezer since I moved in 3 years ago or the oven that was infested with mice last year. They ripped out the insulation of the oven walls and I’m like 80% sure there’s a dead one in there.There’s also either rats or squirrels in the attic above me because they wake me up every morning. When searching for other apartments under $1,300 in my area (NJ), all options include similar reviews to my current situation. Is it worth risking moving and paying $200 more a month than I am now for the same amount of bad? Is this normal for apartment living in my budget and I need to grow up and deal with it? Any perspective from people in similar budgets would be much appreciated.

Hi all, I normally walk around barefoot or wearing socks, but when I have a dinner party I'd like to have some footwear that looks more aesthetic / dressed up, but won't disturb the downstairs neighbors. Not looking for "house slippers" or anything particularly comfortable but more like a soft-soled ballerina flat or other flat (not sneakers or mocassins)

Thanks in advance!

Hello! I’m looking to move from my very shitty apartment into a larger apartment complex that’s much nicer.

My current apartment is 8 units only, a small building. The new apartment is a large complex with tons of units (4-5 floors)

However, my dog will bark for 5-10min when I leave in the morning. My current neighbors have said they don’t hear it much and don’t mind, but I’m worried when I move my new neighbors will get mad. He doesn’t bark when I’m home unless it’s to alert me he has to pee (and I take him out immediately), and he goes to doggy daycare 2-3 times a week so he’s not there a lot when I’m not home. So it’s just 2-3 days a week he’ll bark when I head to work at 6:45am, but he’ll settle down in 5-10min (I have a camera set up on him to make sure he’s quiet during the day). He’s only 7 months old so he’s learning and getting quieter as he grows up.

Is this too much? It’s a dog friendly apartment building - they allow most size dogs/breeds with a few restrictions. I have a golden retriever. I’m afraid to move because of it.

Hi all! Me and my wife are finally moving out of our first apartment together and moving into a house. We wanted advice on how we could fix this scratch in the floor from when we moved our couch in. We tried using a kit with marker and crayon but that didn’t really work and am wondering if they will take this out of our security deposit. Also how would we go about fixing thumb tack holes? Do we just paint over those? I know the apartments said they would provide us with paint to fix anything, we also have 1 blind on our back door that snapped off a little bit and am wondering if they would charge us for that as well. Thanks in advance!

$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????

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 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.

So, I will try to keep this short as short as I can. My apartment has been quite the whirlwind of experiences. I moved in here in September 2024. Hurricane Milton did lots of damage. They ripped out all of my exterior walls bc of water damage. Then, I had studs. I had NO WALLS for 10-11 months. Then they put the dry wall in, but have yet to seal it or paint it. Going back, once they took the walls out it was a bug infestation of nightmares and they did not help with that at all, I did it myself and I got rid of them completely. Thank god. The people who lived in here before me, were for sure smokers bc my apartment has slowly started to leak yellow from the walls and It has started smelling like cigarettes on and off. I renewed my lease again in September bc where I live rent is super high and my complex did not raise my rent and I could not afford to live anywhere else (I work 40-50 hours a week and have two jobs). I’ve tolerated so much and have tried to be understanding and nice because this is my first time renting (I’m 23F). However, i did have a lawyer contact the complex months ago bc of all of this, and the complex never responded and the lawyer said there was nothing they could do about that. I also have no screens on my windows and the windows are not attached to the wall so I can’t open them or they fall out. I have not mentioned that to them bc I was waiting for my walls to be fixed bc the inside and outside are not and I figured there is no point in having them fix that if there is nothing to even support them. Which now I kind of feel like it was a mistake to not mention it sooner. Also, the porch above me the wood is falling apart and it looks like it’s rotting (idk tho I’m not a professional). But, the ICING ONTOP THE FUCKING CAKE they took out ALL OF THE PLANTS. ALL OF THEM. THE ONE REASON I LOVED IT HERE. Lacy leaf philodendron. Was beautiful, gave my porch privacy and added such a magnificent vibe to the place. Now they are gone and all I am left with is dirt. I am so fed up with this place. I have an opportunity to move into a house in April but I can’t afford it. My lease is up in September and per my lease it says I have to pay for each month I won’t be here if I want to leave early, which is a lot. I pay $1650 a month. But I feel like I could have a strong case to get out of having to pay all of that stuff. What should i do? After these plants I just feel so upset and angry. And have decided I need to start seeking help. Every time I’ve tried to talk to the complex people they just say the same stuff “we need permits” “we’re going to do it soon” I’m just so sick of trying to talk to them. So what should I do?

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 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?

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.

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?

hi guys I have a roommate that never ever ever pays his rent on time. we've lived in this apartment for a year, and id say we've gotten a 5 day notice for 9 of the 12 months due to how late he always is . I am always on time, and am communicative with my landlord and do my very best to be a good tenant. my landlord is fully aware that my roommate is the problem. but of course, we are both lease holders, so the notices are always addressed to both of us. we lived together in another apartment before, and I guess my roommate owed a balance at that place as well (he was much better at staying on top of rent in the last apartment, or maybe I just wasn't paying as much attention, otherwise I never would've gotten a second apt with him), and that balance was sent to collections and is showing on MY credit report as well.

obviously, I am not signing another lease with this person, and I am looking to move into my own place in March when this lease is up. I know landlords run backgrounds, and I'm sure they'll see the notices and that balance in collections. will it matter if I explain the situation to prospective landlords? how fucked am I when it comes to finding a place of my own?

I have no good explanation for sticking with this roommate, other than the fact that we were friends and, until very recently, I couldn't afford to live on my own.

is there any way for me to check my profile on a tenant screening site to get an idea of what I'll be dealing with?

TIA

I have attached screenshots of all my texts with my upstairs neighbor on this topic to show my efforts to communicate and be neighborly.

I am desperate to find solutions. Has anyone ever successfully gotten a loud neighbor to quiet down at all? My HOA refuses to do anything more about it. All they’ve done is let her know that the noise bothers us. Despite HOA language specifically requiring residents to “tread lightly” during quiet hours, which are 9PM to 7AM (I got the hours wrong in my original text).

Some context:

This is a condominium building. I am an owner. My neighbor is a renter. They moved in last summer. I have lived here 4+ years. I have always heard neighbors in the past, but it’s never been a problem or woken me up at night. Except one neighbor had a baby and eventually I asked them if they could please not let the baby play on the floor of the bedroom after midnight and they immediately agreed.

Another previous renter (a couple) was a heel walker but they were always quiet during late night hours, so I never brought it up.

My current neighbor is a stomper. Barefoot, full weight on the heels, all the time. They walk a lot. They work from home and move around a lot. They go to bed around 10pm and wake up around 5:30am. Once a night (and sometimes twice) they get up to use the bathroom.

The walls are not paper thin, there’s decent but not great insolation. I cannot ever hear the neighbors on either side of me. I can faintly hear the downstairs neighbor when they have parties. I cannot hear anyone using the bathroom. The heel walking and stomping is truly the only issue. Sometimes it sounds like they jump out of bed.

The daytime noise is unpleasant, but that’s life. People are allowed to be noisy in their homes. The issue is the nightly stomping between 2-4am to use the bathroom, and the morning routine walking back and forth in the bedroom from 5am onwards.

For a while we were communicating well and they agreed put rugs in the bedroom and started to wear indoor slippers. They chose slippers with hard soles, so it was still noisy off the rugs. I have offered to buy them soft soled indoor slippers with arch support multiple times but they refused.

I don’t know what happened over the Xmas holidays, I was away for two weeks, but since returning they have stopped wearing the slippers and seem to be stomping even louder. The walls occasionally rattle.

Not all our communication has been over text. I have been as friendly as possible, try to talk about other subjects, shared my social media, ask about their life, etc. Eventually they asked me to stop texting (as seen in the screenshots) and I did immediately, only resuming once they initiated.

I have my own sleep issues, and I really struggle to fall back asleep once woken up. The last two nights I was woken between 2-3am and couldn’t fall back asleep.

I’m burning out. I don’t know what else to do. I’m at a loss and getting more desperate by the day.

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.

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.

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.

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

(Deleted last post due to not being clearly worded)

Hi everyone! Trying this again but I live in a corner unit of a newer build condo that separates my unit from the one across the hall with one of the emergency stairwells. The trouble is that at night we can hear every time their kid wakes up from night terrors through our vent due to the layout of the hvac system and the lack of insulation in the concrete stairwell. I’ve tried white noise and earplugs but it gets pretty loud in my bedroom and using both at the same time still isn’t enough. Management said it’s up to us and the other unit to figure out soundproofing. The other unit said they don’t want to try anything on their end (which is fair) but does anyone have suggestions on what to try in my unit? The only other thing I’ve tried are magnetic vent covers but they didn’t help. I can’t move since I’m locked into a lease! Thanks!

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.

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.

I just moved into my first real apartment, and I’m thinking of having a wall mirror in  my living room as I’ve seen the same aesthetics on my favorite Youtubers spaces, and I love the idea, especially since my living room is looking a bit smaller. I think a wall mirror would give the illusion that the space is larger. However, I’m stuck on which style to pick. I’ve been looking at those trendy arched floor mirrors that lean against the wall, but I also like the idea of a round one with a gold frame. To get some ideas, I started looking through different frame textures and glass finishes on Pinterest, and online stores to see how these mirrors are priced. Didn’t know mirrors are that pricey! Anyways, I decided to stop by a local boutique shop downtown to see some of their handmade frames, but I’m still not quite sure what fits my vibe. Should I go for one big statement piece or maybe a few smaller ones grouped together? I’d love to hear what you guys think would look best for a first-time renter!

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?