Noisy Neighbors.
- Thread starter UhOh
- Start date
I have owned a couple of places that had Strata Nazi's so I found ways of working their system. I found the best way was
1 post a note on their door first saying their noise level is too high and not appreciated if you are working the next day. Let them know you will up the ante if they keep up the noise.
2 Write a letter of complaint to the Strata if they keep up the BS at late at night. They have to respond to any of these complaints.
3 Write a third letter if necessary to the Strata Management company and copy the Strata stating their noise is unacceptable late at night. Make it official sounding like this is the final option and lawyers may become involved. (fake it but make it sound like you will)
1 post a note on their door first saying their noise level is too high and not appreciated if you are working the next day. Let them know you will up the ante if they keep up the noise.
2 Write a letter of complaint to the Strata if they keep up the BS at late at night. They have to respond to any of these complaints.
3 Write a third letter if necessary to the Strata Management company and copy the Strata stating their noise is unacceptable late at night. Make it official sounding like this is the final option and lawyers may become involved. (fake it but make it sound like you will)
I live in a house that had two guys living a few doors down. They would hot tub tip 4 AM and party it up. They were very loud.
When I was leaving at 7 AM I would call them on their phone and honk my horn. I made them answer the phone saying HI Asshole its your neighbour, I will wake you up every time you keep me up til 4 AM. They stopped after that phone call.
Concrete will solve most noise problems. People think they own a condo and they can do whatever they want but strata property is shared living and shared living means compromise. It's also a f****** common courtesy to keep noise at a reasonable level during most hours. The best is to try to work out some kind of agreement even if it means some compromise because you have to live near them and it's no fun living where you can't get along with people. As soon as you notify the strata council it gets confrontational. Be prepared to do what it takes to win otherwise why bother. Start keeping a log of when the noise happens and how loud it is. Ask someone else who lives in the building to listen to the noise in your place to get their opinion otherwise you have nothing to show but your word against their's. If you can afford to, hire a sound engineer and get their expert opinion. There's no standard on what is loud but there are general reference levels when compared to other noises. You also need to separate what is normal living noise vs. what is not. If your neighbour works night shift and takes a shower every day at 4 AM when they get home that's normal living noise even if it bothers you. A hot tub party at 4 AM is not normal living noise. A hot tub party that makes noise all evening and stops at 11 PM might be normal living noise. You can't expect it to be quiet all the time in a shared building but it should be quiet during 'reasonable' times. You get the idea. Just be prepared when you go to the strata and do everything possible to stop the problem at this step. Arbitration is probably the next choice and could take a few months and cost a few hundred dollars at a minimum. No lawyers are needed but you probably want to see one to get advice. Suing should be the last option. You need to file in BC Supreme Court where the wait for a trial date is almost two years and it will be expensive.
This is good advice ^
You have my sympathy for your situation of living next to assholes who have no
consideration for other people.I myself am for the most part a quiet person
and I take into consideration how my activities impact my neighbors with
regards to sound levels.Sadly there are a lot of people who are not like me.
Take heart though as asshole neighbors like yours are usually the type
of renters who get kicked out for not paying the rent.
SR
There are rules for both the city and building regarding noise. Review the building's noise rules, and your city's as well. Usually regarding noise it is 11pm to 7am that is covered. If a note and followup with management/strata doesn't get results (usually you do get a followup with management), then call the non-emergency line of the police.
Some people are ignorant. Other people are deaf and if no one is there to monitor the volume on their TV so the note idea works.
Some people are ignorant. Other people are deaf and if no one is there to monitor the volume on their TV so the note idea works.
My tenant tried this when she 1st moved in. She had her party going til 5am with the music cranked. So i woke up at 8am, took the muffler off my chain saw & fired it up right beneath her bedroom window & started cutting up my firewood.Well she comes out to the back yard & pleads with me to knock it off.Well i explain to her that it will never happen again just as long as she knocks off the loud music at 11:00 pm,as long as she's living here. Never happened again & she's still one of my tenants.
I hope you work it out with your neighbour.
I hope you work it out with your neighbour.
Some buildings do not allow you to travel between floors...the elevator fob only works on your own floor, and the stairs can only be unlocked by keys for that floor's tenants. This makes communication between noisy neighbours really complex, and most strata owners have no choice but to take every issue up with council. And, if you're a tenant, renting from a strata owner, then you have to tell your owner, who then has to make mention of it to council. Sheesh, so annoying!
All kidding aside the best way to initially approach this is to just go over there, as someone said, during quiet time. Explain the problem to them and ask that they be considerate of the neighborhood.
If it continues then you can kick it up a notch.
Now I'm not telling you you should do this but here's what a friend of mine did once.
He lived on a nice street with families and then one day one of the families moved and the house was bought by a local lawyer to use as a revenue property/rental. Everyone was upset because they had many years ago had some rentals on the street and there were lots of problems.
Anyway 3 young guys moved in and the parties started non-stop all summer. Their calls to the landlord went unanswered and whenever they called the cops it was deemed low priority (Fri or Sat. nights) and by the time the cops came by at 6 am the party was over.
Anyway this went on all summer long. One night my buddy says they were extreemely noisy and this time the party came out of the house onto the street. Again he calls the cops and is told they'll send a car but not sure when. Same old story. After listening to this for an hour he figures it is time to step it up a notch.
Walks over to the 7-11 down the street where there is a payphone. Calls 911 and says he just saw 2 guys go into this address carrying what looked like automatic rifles and thought he heard a shot, then hangs up. Within 5 minutes there were several cops cars there, surrounding the house, etc. In the end they ended up busting a bunch of people for drugs and underage drinking. The cops must have informed the owner because finally he did something and they were gone 2 days later.
The lawyer ended up selling the house.
I like someone's suggestion to put a polite post-it on their door simply asking for them to keep the noise down. Or slip a letter under the door or something. I'm not afraid of confrontation when necessary, but on the off chance they're a crazy person I'd rather them not know who complained and where I live lol.
The post-it/letter is nice because they may just be totally oblivious and that may be all it takes. That way you give them a chance to change without getting them in trouble or making them pay a massive fine. Just make sure you're polite in the letter/post-it. However, one chance is all they should get, if after that they continue with the noise then make a complaint to your landlord/property manager/building concierge (who you'd report to is different for each building).
If it's a building where the tenant has to pay a fine for a noise complaint (usually about 100-200 dollars), that should shut them up. Those buildings usually only have 3 chances and then they evict them. If it's a building where they don't have those rules, I would complain at most 3 times and then take further action if the building refuses to evict them.
It sounds strenuous, but it probably won't go that far. Good luck!
The post-it/letter is nice because they may just be totally oblivious and that may be all it takes. That way you give them a chance to change without getting them in trouble or making them pay a massive fine. Just make sure you're polite in the letter/post-it. However, one chance is all they should get, if after that they continue with the noise then make a complaint to your landlord/property manager/building concierge (who you'd report to is different for each building).
If it's a building where the tenant has to pay a fine for a noise complaint (usually about 100-200 dollars), that should shut them up. Those buildings usually only have 3 chances and then they evict them. If it's a building where they don't have those rules, I would complain at most 3 times and then take further action if the building refuses to evict them.
It sounds strenuous, but it probably won't go that far. Good luck!
