Neighbor noise issue

[anajana 4]

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Hello, i have question regarding neighbor noise. Actually my neighbor have a big family and they always talk loud day and until late night. There is always something going in at their home and they have lot of visitors. I asked them few times to be quite specially in night. Furthermore my bedroom and their living room wall is together so i hear everything which i told them. But they don’t listen and i feel helpless. Today again they were talking loud and it was 3.30pm so i asked them to not to be loud and that i am sick and i need to sleep but instead that the neighbor got angry and he said the “i should put a big poster that i live alone. And that i come every time with this loud noise” . I didn’t say anything but i felt very bad that instead of talking about noise issues he is talking about that i live alone and that i come again and again with this noise issue.

with this behavior i think nothing is going to change. Any ideas what can i do? Where i can complain and actually who would listen to me. I heard that there are lawyer who specifically deal with neighbor noise issues.

[jubinjohn 224]

First of all you need to find which are the quiet hours in your building. You can find that in the hausordnung , else ask your landlord. If they are making noise outside quite hours , i don't think you can do anything. In my previous apartment 1300 to 1500 was quiet hours. 

Also 2200 till 0700 is also quiet hour . But it can vary , do check . 

If I were you I will follow steps like below.

 

1. If they are not respecting quiet hours , do talk to them with a copy of hausordung to prove your ground right then, like catch them during the crime.

2.if they don't agree, seems like your case ,start to make a document containg date and time and description. Involve your landlord and request to mediate ,

3.if he is of no use  mietverein is the only option if you don't have legal insurance. From then onwards the notorious nachbarkrieg will start. And you are at war.

 

Side note: If the neighbor has children , you will lose this war for sure. 

 

[snowingagain 4,565]

While you are doing all suggested, get some noise cancelling headphones.  Or wax earplugs, plus something soothing on in the background.  You can get over sensitized and then you will go mad.  I speak from experience.  

 

 

 

 

[snowingagain 4,565]

And this for some humour..

 

 

 

 

 

[Fietsrad 257]

Nothing to laugh about😕

 

I had a neighbor who practised 'singing' (more like screeching, howling), apparently, incredibly, people paid money to listen to him.

 

I should be wary of talking to the noisy neighbors, that could escalate the situation. Find out about the Hausordnung, ask at the Verbraucherzentrale.

[RAMBO 76]

There is no law against talking in your flat so all this crap about quiet times etc is not usefull advice is it?

 

Move somewhere else with better build quality, flat on top floor, on a outsidewall to limit your shared walls.

Or get used to it that families talk, they have arguments, childen cry etc, and maybe your the one with the problem if you want peace and quiet go visit a church.

 

 

[jeba 4,192]

5 hours ago, RAMBO said:

There is no law against talking in your flat

But there are laws about how loudly you are allowed to talk. For details google "Ruhestörung Nachbarn": https://www.google.com/search?channel=trow5&client=firefox-b-d&q=Ruhest%C3%B6rung+Nachbarn.

You may even be allowed to reduce the rent payment if your landlord fails to solve the problem. We once even had to accept a rent reduction because a tenant felt disturbed by noise caused by pigeons nesting under the neighbour´s roof (her father was a lawyer).

[Namu 704]

I would start looking for a new rental.

[bramble 9,469]

After living in the same flat for 14 years with no complaints my daughter had a similar problem when a family moved in beneath her a year ago. Mainly loud adult voices and children dashing about from room to room screaming etc. from early morning and well into late evening. This was especially disturbing and nerve-racking at weekends when she was at home during the day. Despite several complaints to the Hausverwaltung after talking nicely to the family involved, the noise didn't stop, even though the Hausverwaltung wrote to them asking them to be more considerate. So she moved out in January and is happy in her new surroundings. 

[karin_brenig 602]

well, I feel sorry for you, but as long as you have neighbors, there is always the potential for conflict.

 

You have a few options, how to deal with it:

1. attempt to change the neighbor's noisy behavior (peacefully, or forcefully)

2. attempt to change your perception of the noise (meditate, plug your ears, create even more noise of your own)

3. move to a quiet location, like a single family home far out in the countryside

 

As far as option #1 goes, there's a "standard" approach to do this. First educate yourself about the "quiet hours" for your location. Then get a decibel meter and start a "noise measurement chart". Write down dates, times, decibel measured, and a brief description of noisy activities outside of quiet hours. Something like this: "Monday, April 5th, 2:00 a.m. loud verbal exchange coming from living room at 50db for 45 minutes".

Children playing, running, even screaming, btw, is to be tolerated pretty much at all hours. But other than that a general rule of thumb would be that 40db during day time and 30db during night time in your apartment is considered OK noise levels.

If your chart shows frequent noise levels higher than that, and you want to try option #1, these would be the steps to escalate through:

 

1. talk to the neighbors, if no result proceed to #2

2. talk to Hausverwalter and/or landlord, if no result proceed to  #3

3. lawyer up and sue them - which is when your noise protocol will come in handy.

 

 

[Fietsrad 257]

Apparently modernised DDR Plattenbauten are quite well insulated for noise.

 

Perhaps little Tiny Homes of concrete could be built, like the weekend houses on allotments, for people wanting to live quietly and cheaply.

[optimista 5,534]

Sorry you are suffering. Horrible. Have T-shirt.

 

Over sensitized ? Suggests victim is at fault... frazzled nerves the result of constant noise. 

 

Neighbour verbally insulting you instead of addressing the problem of which he is the source screams arsehole. Talking further unlikely to bear fruit. 

 

Moving out not easy and no garantee of a better situation...

 

I bought a flugelhorn when this happened to me and moved after a year of assiduously regaling my neighbours from hell with my efforts on a poorly tuned instrument. They were much inconvenienced and I derived quite a bit of satisfaction from that. 

 

It blossomed into an even more hugely satisfying hobby. 

[LukeSkywalker 7,284]

Huger than this?

 

 

[optimista 5,534]

On a par. I supplement the flugel with a ruddy great Alphorn these days... 3.45 metre long... 

[scook17 166]

On 23/04/2022, 16:11:09, anajana said:

Furthermore my bedroom and their living room wall is together so i hear everything which i told them.

 

Influencing other people is difficult sometimes, but you can look at what you can do, however funny this might sound...

 

Do you have to have the bedroom in it's current location? Could you disassemble the bed and put it in another room, and move the TV or whatever defines your 'living room' space into the existing bedroom? I am presuming here, the problem is more about sleeping.

 

Let's say its also about general noise. Families are noisy. All you can do, yourself, is cover the noise. You can do this personally by wearing headphones and listening to music, but for long periods, this is a pain. You can also turn on music which has speakers. If I was feeling sadistic, I might even mount the speakers on the wall where the noise was originating from. If feeling really sadistic, I might take up an interest in heavy metal and mount a sub-woofer, but then I am likely the asshole  however much joy I might feel.

 

However, if you want silence, and it only comes from that single wall, you could make the insultation on that wall better. It's relatively simple to build an internal wall a short distance from the actual wall (a few centimetres). Then fill that internal wall with something which dampens the sound. Plaster/pain/wallpaper the new internal wall and you have maybe lost 10 to 15cm of your room space, but it will be a lot quieter. Of course to do such things you either need to remove this when you leave or discuss this with your landlord. For DIY, its a few hundred Euros to construct in terms of materials, and literally any handyman can make the wall for you. Just be sure the insulating material is not a fire risk.

 

A relatively cheap way, but it won't work as well, is to hang (nail) carpet to the wall, a lot like the old soviet Russians would do. Just be sure to cover the entire wall and to pick a thick carpet. Too dusty for my liking, but maybe fine for some people.

 

 

[catjones 1,548]

On 4/23/2022, 2:13:40, RAMBO said:

There is no law against talking in your flat so all this crap about quiet times etc is not usefull advice is it?

 

Move somewhere else with better build quality, flat on top floor, on a outsidewall to limit your shared walls.

Or get used to it that families talk, they have arguments, childen cry etc, and maybe your the one with the problem if you want peace and quiet go visit a church.

 

 

 

Is this your neighbor?  

[RAMBO 76]

7 hours ago, catjones said:

 

Is this your neighbor?  

 

No but I've had one a 100 times worst and still managed to move despite owning the house.

 

https://www.toytowngermany.com/forum/topic/153000-how-to-deal-with-a-psycho-neighbour/