stupid neighbor

I have been living in my apartment for about a year and a half now and my downstairs neighbor has been living here a little bit longer.

This guy downstairs is constantly waking me up at like 630 in the morning or sometimes even 4 in the morning because he revvs his cars engine for 30-45 minutes at a time. I know in at least one instance another resident got up and yelled at him . I know the people across the hall from me have a 5 month old baby and this cant help their sleeping either.

I want to write an anonymous letter to management about this . I cant decide if I should be specific about who it is or if I should just say someone in the builiding yada-yada.


What would you do?

well it wouldnt really be a complaint if you didnt mention who it was, i mean how will the managing know who it is?

I can't see them doing anything about an anon letter, it may not even be from a resident in their eyes, I would be specific and list dates so they know it is not an isolated incident.

However, it is likely that it doesn't break any rules, either for the property management company or the police (we had the same problem here a while back) and there is little you can do. If it is that early it may break a city noise bylaw and you could have him stopped like that, but you would have to prove the noise level etc

Well where I live there is a noise ordinance. So I am sure he is breaking a rule and there was a cop living below us also and there werent any of these incidents while she was living here.

I doubt there is anything you can do. Before you do anytning you can check with the police and your local govt. office to see if it is a violation. If you find it is. you can either report it to the landlord, or you could call the police when he does it again.

I doubt it is a violation, and the landlord would probably not want to be bothered, but it depends on your relationship with him. You said the guy was there longer than you, so he has seniority.

You might want to purchase the soft foam earplugs. I had to use them for awhile due to noisy upstairs neighbors, and they work great. The muffle the sound so it doesn;t disturb you.

Have you tried explaining to the culprit that his revving is very noisy and disturbing?

If you write an anonymous letter, you should specify who the culprit is and Maybe the landlord will say something, but you will never know unless he stops revving. The landlord might mention it but he might keep revving. Then what?

The landlord will most likely tell you to call the police. You can do this anonymously just make sure to tell the person you talk to this.

However 1 of 2 things will happen:
1) He'll see the police and turn off the engine or
2) He'll get fined, but won't care and continue to do so. Then if you keep calling the police he may complain to the landlord about someone calling the police on him all the time.

I'm a little jaded with sharing spaces now...our last apartment went something like that.

There was a problem with people having there car stereos blaring at night. This was complained about and there was a reminder placed on all of the doors of all the apartments. The notice just said that blah blah ... city of ***** has a noise ordinance... yada yada.


I just feel that it is very inconsiderate. This car mind you is an 1970 something piece of crap ... It is very loud and obnoxious.

car stereos are seen as 'optional' whereas starting your car (even if you are revving it for ages) is seen as 'essential' - we had a problem with someone, the kind of person who comes home with a case of beer every night but can't afford a part for his car a mechanic in the building ended up replacing the part for him one day (it was only like $30 as well) and we all get better sleep

Um, I don't understand why anyone would want to sit revving their car for half an hour? What are they getting out of that?

Be specific about who he is, but leave yourself anon incase he is a psycho or something.

Good luck, what a jerk he sounds like.

I would definetely try to alter your neighbor's habit because beyond being a nuisance, there could be health-carbon monixide poison issues as well as environmental issues which might be covered by local anti-idling ordinances. I would let your management know of the situation and ask for their assistance and solicit alliance with a fellow neighbor. Though it is a personal choice, I would introduce myself in a very friendly way (tension and unfriendliness with a fellow resident is a very bad thing) and being up the issue and ask if 'we' (me and anyone else who felt annoyed) could help by making a parking place farther from the building... something like that. I would even google his car and maybe pick up some auto-related tidbit of a present (magazine, owners club stuff) to grease things. Ameliorating the nuisance along with gaining a friendly neighbor is a win-win worth pursuing as a first step. If you need to get more formal with authority assistance, then you and he both know that you went out of your way to gave him a first chance to to be a civil helpful neighbor. I am new to this forum but imagine there are many threads involving animals and neighbors - your neighbor's animal purrs alittle too long.

I agree with Wingteal. Getting on the good side will yield better results, if the guy is willing. Also, I would think you have more ground to stand on being in an apartment complex. If you were in a house and the guy was your neighbor, it would be private property, and you really can't very far. But mgmt owns this property, so you have a right to tell them about this. It would be best if you gave your name, and the neighbor's name, otherwise they might not take you very seriously. Also, who knows, perhaps there has been complaints on this guy, but they need a few more to do anything about it.

Originally Posted by Wingteal

I am new to this forum but imagine there are many threads involving animals and neighbors - your neighbor's animal purrs alittle too long.

Click to expand...

I can totally relate. At our last apartment we lived off the garage and heard this type of thing all the time. The worst though was the woman who lived above us. She was a professional singer, and would wake up every morning at the buttcrack of dawn to do scales at the top of her lungs. Nobody wants to wake up to that...

Anyway, I would say check out the noise ordinance if there is in fact one. Read the fine print and see what the legalities are. I would send a letter to the landlord to with the neighbor's name and your name. You can request that if he/she talks to the neighbor that your name not be mentioned. I've left notes on neighbor's doors before too. Explaining that I don't mean to be rude, but .... yadda, yadda yadda. Word it nicely and it should be fine, unless they're just a jerk naturally.

Be specific for goodness sake, the management won't go to the trouble of finding "some guy in my building" if you know the guys name parking space number make of car apartment number etc. put it all in the letter be as specific as you can. If all else fails call the city bylaw office and see if there is a noise bylaw and what hours it is in effect.