Posted by
jochan122
11 yrs ago
Hi all,
Long story short:
both my neighbor (who lives a floor below me) and I are both owners of the place we live in.
She is ...let's say a huge nuisance. The entire building knows, and even the management apparently cannot do anything about it because she owns the place.
She has been complaining how she's hearing noises from my unit and is really disturbed by. She accuses my sister and I for walking in the house in our heels / whether we need help cause she thinks we are having physical fights.
Anyways, when she "decides" to get annoyed - I say this as she NEVER complains when we vacuum, she would shout out of her window, saying how much of a nuisance we are and making personal insults against us.
She stepped the game up by coming to our unit and continuously ringing the bell.
I have been so tolerant with her as I thought maybe she's just mentally unstable. But I know she is not. I feel like she just throws a tantrum whenever she wants.
I actually feel REALLY annoyed and sometimes, I fear that she would come up / shout. It gives me the chills at times.
We have filed a complaint to the police = nothing can be done, nor is the management team doing anything. I am planning on issuing a formal complaint and ask them to look into it, if not I will seek for legal advice.
But is there anything I can actually do?? Thank you in advanced!
I have videos and voice clips of her shouting. It is so loud that I can record it from my unit...
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Hi Malka. Thank you for your reply.
We NEVER wear our heels indoors, ever. We even changed our slippers to better accommodate her. Even then, she doesn't care and still believes we are wearing our heels, purposely to annoy her. The guards have kept an eye on our unit... however could not identify ANY source of noise from our unit. I feel like I am under surveillance or something. Rather absurd.. And even if I do make any noise, I am not violating the law cause when she comes up to ring my bell it's not even after the time frame.
Another thing worth mentioning, is that when other people walks pass her door with their keys / coughs, she would literally come out and shout at them when she feels like to. So really, it is just not me who's suffering.
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foxy
11 yrs ago
Sounds like she suffers from misophonia. Even the slightest noise will set her off. If you have a wooden floor, you may not realize that you are making a noise that can be heard and annoying to the person downstairs.
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Doesn't she create more noise pollution by shouting all the time than anyone else walking with heels (which you don't even do) or coughing (for pete's sake! Coughing? Seriously??)? Also, if she is shouting insults at you, doesn't that constitute verbal abuse? If you have sound recordings, you can go to the police and ask if you can make a formal complaint for harassment. Just ask them if her behaviour is a valid cause for complaint
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I have a similar experience only i am the one below noisy neighbours. The noise travels through the walls and maybe you are not realizing that you are making these noises. Some people are heavy handed and let me tell you it can be extremely annoying to live below this kind of neighbours. I have been living in the unit for longtime and never had these problem with previous neighbours. Since a new couple comes to live there they are making very annoying noises. On the walls and pipes. The fact that you are recording it and thinking of going to police because she is complaining rather then change the behaviour and try to be less noisy. Also show that something strange is going on. Are you sure that you didn't make fun of it at start, and now the situation is escalating?
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The problem that I have is also similar in the way that they keep denying that it is them making the noise. But my ears can clearly hear it is coming from their unit. So they just don't realise it, after I confronted them by going upstairs, instead of adjusting the behaviour they would start making more and more noise. And we could hear them making jokes about it. If you have to deal with that every day, it will make you tired, and if then you keep saying it's not you. It is really frustrating. If you are living in appartments so close to eachother, you really need to try to keep a good standing with your neighbours it is not just about the noise. I can imagine that you make some noise and then start recording the reaction to it. If you want to keep living in good standing, tell her that you are sorry and that you did not realize it and that you will make an effort to adjust it. Then after you know this you try to be less noisy. Then it will be eassier for everyone involved, instead you choose to deny it, record her when she gets mad and threaten to go to police. This way you are only creating more problems.
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dabomb, I think you misread the op's story and adapted it to your own situation instead. Clearly the op's neighbour is the problem in this case: SHE is shouting, SHE is coming upstairs and ringing the bell like crazy. The op said nothing about pipe noises, but about heels noises, which she says she doesn't wear. Even if we don't realise how much noise can be carried from upstairs to downstairs, if the op is wearing slippers she bought especially to be quieter, there is NO WAY the neighbour can hear actual shoe noises. All she can hear is that there are people upstairs
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If u are renting this place,find another one. It seems the situation cannot be easily change without a confrontations either legal way or not. Do not fit yourself for too long with this kind of environment. It adds stress while your sleeping. I bet when you wake up ,the first thing came up to your mind is your neighbor. .its not healthy.
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I would tell her straight up that if she continues to yell and cause a disturbance for you, you will physically harm her. I had a crazy neighbour once, similar story, management and police couldn't really do anything, one day when she was hammering our doorbell my husband greeted her with a meat cleaver in his hand which he used to punctuate his sentence - "stop causing trouble". We didn't have any more problems after that.
The other thing you could do is make a LOT of noise on purpose, but make it in short bursts so that when management come there is no noise. Every time she complains, make it even louder. Eventually she will understand that complaining = more noise.
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Haha, very funny, Miffus! Reverse psychology, eh?
Love your meat cleaver story!!
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making noise on purpose louder and louder exactly the kind of response you would expect from an idiot . last time i checked a meat clever can not stop a bullet. your advice is plain stupid .
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The problem is that we live in apartments that are not soundproof and noise travels. Noise not only travels from the apartment above but also from apartments 5 floors above and it sounds like it is coming from the one directly above. I totally disagree with a lot of the responses. They are not intelligent and not at all well thought out. It is difficult at times to locate exactly where the noise is coming from. Every apartment block I have lived in in HK has been noisy because of water pipes or simply because people bang doors, cupboards etc. etc. and there is no respect for quietness and neighbours. It would help immensely if everyone put in a concerted effort to keep down noise and NOT slam doors, cupboards, drawers etc. etc. Of course some noises can't be helped like water taps and water pipes but closing windows, doors etc. can be helped and everyone can help by doing everything quietly. This would make a huge difference to apartment living.
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J4FHK
11 yrs ago
agree with your general comment "milla2009" but it is of no help at all to "jochan122"
jochan122, since your initial thread from 41 days ago, has there been any change, have you been able to use any of the advice above to make any progress?
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Well it goes both ways, doesn't it? Some sounds can't be helped, especially when there are kids. And how do you stop a dog from barking?
We need tolerance, compromise and understanding from all.
My kids aren't exactly quiet. My neighbour's dog barks every time someone walks past. And the elderly couple next door to us just nod understandingly. We apologise for the noise. Sometimes when the children come out of the house screaming and crying because they don't want to get an injection at the doctor's but they nod understandingly. When the elderly couple have dinner gatherings with friends and when their children come home from overseas, we can hear them in the wee hours of the morning too... but it's all okay. Having said that, nobody will purposely try to be noisy all the time. It's too much effort.
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HI Jochan122, just wondering how you are getting on? I have the same problem, but I am below a noisy neighbour. She is old, and wakes up at ridiculous o clock and rattles around in her home, not caring if she makes noise.
See my thread here:
http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/living-in-or-moving-to-hong-kong/threads/154498/neighbour-driving-me-mad!-help!/
After building management talking to her and my landlord, I am resorting to the police if she carries on. She drags chairs across her floor almost every morning from 5am onwards (yes, i understand she is old and cant lift them, but it wakes me every morning).
Were the police helpful? I am at a loss as to what to do!
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