Apartment Living | Imamother

amother

Fri, Mar 07 2014, 6:02 am

R there certain basics that r normal to expect from upstairs neighbors or am I asking too much?
For ex: Not having window plants which shed dirt and mud onto our porch each time they are watered, not using drills, hammer, etc. for household repairs after 10 or before 6. etc.
I hate to get into fights over nothing but just wondering if I am in the right to (repeatedly) make such requests as this has been an ongoing issue.

amother

Fri, Mar 07 2014, 6:38 am

I think its best to leave it alone. Most people don't realize when their plant dirt falls or when they make noise. For all you know, you may be making too much noise as well.

My downstairs neighbors are night people and we are morning people. We accept their running and yelling and TV blasting at midnight. But, when we vacuum in the am, they are hitting on their ceiling and hating us.

What can you do? We can't control people. Everyone is on a different schedule and has different expectations. We learned to sleep through them and they learn to sleep through us.

MMCH

Fri, Mar 07 2014, 10:13 am

I wouldnt say anything about plants,
but noise, of course I would say something. and I would want them to say something to me!

we used to live in an apt complex with tons of college kids, and they used to start vacumming and blast music at midnight.
after many nights, I went upstairs and explained politely that I have sleeping children. they had no idea, and they were more than happy to start vacumming in the day time.

invisiblecircus

Sun, Mar 09 2014, 11:12 am

amother wrote:

R there certain basics that r normal to expect from upstairs neighbors or am I asking too much?

In my opinion and experience, yes and yes!

Our upstairs neighbours have a kind of jungle on their balcony. Lots of plants, many of them hanging over the edge and an automatic watering system to keep it all alive. Our balcony has been rendered unuseable because of the amount of water that is not dripping but running down onto it, not to mention dirt and Leaves too.

People here have small apartments and use the balconies for drying their laundry (almost noone has a dryer) so losing the use of ours is like using the use of one room of our house.

We also have a problem with noise. Their bathroom backs onto their master bedroom as does ours, and they have their washing machine in their bathroom. They frequently turn it on past midnight, often at 1am and it makes a lot of noise, particularly as it seems that they like to leave things on top of it which crash to the floor with a bang when the spin cycle starts.

There was also one occasion when they were vacuuming their bedroom (above ours) at 5am.

So back to your original question, I think there ARE basics that everyone should expect but in reality, many people just aren't considerate and you can't do anything about it.