The apartment above me makes thunderous noise at all hours. Can I call the police about this, and should I?

NO!

1st... go upstairs and speak to the renters.... Be nice & polite, as this is the First Thing that you should do, to keep things PEACEFUL, between the two of you.. Even tho you are mad as hell, don't go up there & scream!

2nd... If this does not IMPROVE, give it a day or two... if this does not improve, go up there again & be More Firm... & tell them, you'll be contacting The Manager... Next time... this happens..

- - -REMEMBER - - - there is a certain amount of noise level, "you have to deal with"... from 7a.m. til 10 pm.. but after that, it must be quiet...

3rd.. if this does not help, THEN Call The Manager, or Property Owner, Be Polite But Firm, Have them come over & LISTEN.... first, while the noise is going on.. because if they contact the upstairs tenants without hearing the noise, they will NOT know how loud it is..

4th, if this keeps happening, keep a time journal... or log... write down time, & type of noise.

5th.. contact Manager again, or Property owners... Be FIRM...

6th... Call Police... and call Manager & Property Owners at the same time... Have Police & Manager there at the same time, would be GREAT...

ONCE You Do This... "THE WAR IS ON".... it will be WORSE... than what it was...

How Do I Know this... I AM A RESIDENT PROPERTY MANAGER 9 years... & I deal with this All Of The Time...

I used to do daycare for the county for 23 yrs.... now I babysit adults who can't get along..

Choose Your Words Wisely... as some tenants are Azzholes... & the owners (NOT I) choose not to evict... for NOISE only problems..

Turn up your tv, or turn on a FAN to help lessen the noise..

Before calling police, you need to try to talk to them first, at least two times.

If that does not work, you MUST inform your Landlord. Usually appartments will give the tenants 3 chances with warning notices before police should come to the scene. If it continues to happen even after police have warned/ticketed. Then the landlords have the right/opinion to break the lease with the tenant under the circumstances.

Before calling police I would seriously sit down and firmly talk to your landlord regarding this. Usually after 11pm, any annoyances of noise is not allowed, and should be seriously discussed.

breado73:

First off I would have liked to know if you live in the United States or out side the US, remember that Yahoo Answers is a global community & depending on where you are from the answer(s) can vary due to that countries laws & city ordinances.

I agree with most of what "Frog" stated since she is an apt manager. But I will tell you what I have done in similar situations over the years. First off not all property managers are as conscious as "Frog" is. I have known some who could care less, in fact I have one who doesn't care or bother with noise complaints. With him he puts in his 8 hours a day & that is it, plus he doesn't "work" on the weekends, but I digress.

If you live in the United States each state & city has different noise ordinances. In the town I live in between the day light hours noise is acceptable up to a certain level. We also have an noise ordinance for football games & concerts. But on weekdays the noise level has to come down after 10pm. On the weekend the noise level has to come down at midnight.

I suggest you call your local police dept. to see what the noise ordinance is. So you know where you stand legally when calling the police.

In my Town because we have a noise ordinance & everyone has to comply by the law, so you are entitled to call the police to complain. We are not required to give our name(s). The Police will come out & tell the person/people to turn their noise down & this will be their first warning. If they get another complaint they will be written up & issued a summons if they persist & are called back a 3rd time they can be arrested, fined & put in jail.

Like i said over the years I use to go directly to the people making the noise & ask them polity to turn down or lower the noise level. My personal experience has been that these people will just slam the door in my face & in some instances harass me when they saw me in the complex. So Now i just call the police & let them deal with it since it is a law they are suppose to enforce.

I suggest you try "Frogs" way but I also suggest you call your local police where ever you live & see what the law is in your town/city is with regards to a noise ordinance. Just in case the first way doesn't work for you, then I suggest you call the police & let them deal with the unruly neighbors, especially if it is at night time. Like i said during the day the noise level is & can be much higher But if it is excessive then call to see if anything can be done with the property management. Oh by the way take a look at your lease to see what EVEY ONE IS SUPPOSE TO ADHERE TO THE RULES OF THE COMPLEX.

Firstly kindly approach the Upstairs tenants... and tell them, that their noise is bothering you, be prepared for the noise to GET WORSE... as it always does in these situations..

I'm an Apt. Manager, & I choose to live on the first floor, so no one could complain about my kids' noises...

I just deal with it....

Getting the police involved right away, is not the right thing to do.. talk to upstairs people, call manager.

POLICE HATE going to apts..... FOR ONLY NOISE complaints.. it's a WASTE OF THEIR TIME, as they have More Serious Cases to work on!

My Vote is for what Frog wrote... they would know this from Experience.. to the Idiots who gave them Thumbs Downs; they DO NOT know what they are talking about or even how to deal with the Issues!!!!

How Sad..

You asked a question... and the BEST ANSWER is getting Thumbs down.. Shows HOW Intelligent people on here are.... By That, I mean.... Not Intelligent!

Yes the police will deal with it. If you're not comfortable talking to them about it then I'd suggest asking your landlord to talk to them first. Or you could even send them a letter. Just be sure the police aren't the first contact asking them to be quiet or they may hate you for it. Of course how could they possibly not know they're disturbing the neighbors?

Listen to The Frog-Man...

I agree with Angelica, Exactly Word For Word...... LOL

Check your lease and check with the landlord. There is bound to be a restriction on noise levels at certain hours of the day and night. Most apartment complexes have "Quiet Hours" (10pm-9am for example) when tenants can't vacuum, play loud music, run the dishwasher or washing machine.

Have you tried knocking on the door till they answer? I did that and it worked. I didn't even have to say anything lol. The lady just said ok i'll take care of it. lol