My wife and I found a nice condo on the lake, and we had a couple viewings (unfortunately in the morning/early afternoon. My advice: make sure before you commit to a new place that you spend some time in the unit in the early evening, say 6-8pm. You’ll definitely learn about your neighbor’s habits this way. Lesson learned). First night I go around to the neighbors to introduce myself and offer the typical “If we’re ever too loud in here please come by and let us know”. My heart dropped when the guy upstairs answered the door with what appeared to be a 1 year old human in his arms. Since then, every night from 6-9pm I hear madness above me. Running footsteps that sound like a grown adult, hard things getting dropped on the floor, and tons of furniture being dragged around. Its awful, and when I get home from work I just want a quiet evening in the condo I am paying for. I haven’t said anything yet, because I don’t know how to bring the topic up. Realistically I know the response will be “we can try to keep it down, but a kid is a kid afterall” so I don’t even want to waste my time.

If I had known there was a family of 3 in above the unit, I would never have taken it. I would have looked for another one, and no lake view is worth dealing with the sound of a kid running, crying, throwing/dropping things, etc. Personally I think a landlord or HOA should notify potential tenants that there are small kids in adjacent units as a courtesy and in order to avoid future complications and complaints. Unfortunately people just want to rent out their place and will avoid disclosing the unpleasant information.

Sometimes I feel like I am too responsible and too considerate regarding others. I wish I had the ability to forget that there are people living all around me, and live my life doing what I want. My wife and I want a dog badly, but we wouldn’t think about getting one while living in a condo or apartment because it is unfair to both the animal and the neighbors. So how is a kid any different? Because it’s human? Unfortunately between the ages of 0-8 years a kid is not much more advanced than a dog, and yet people seem to ignore that fact because they decided to have a kid in a condo/apartment.

At this point I have no idea what I’m going to do and my only solution thus far has been to simply stay out of my OWN unit from 8am to 10pm. How ridiculous is that? Being forced out of your place by someone who thought they needed to reproduce before buying a house. Ridiculous.

I bet if they are threatened with having to pay several hundred dollars additional per month – the noise will come to a quick end.

If it’s a building full of families and kids, that’s one thing. But, what if I’m living below you and have to stay home sick? Don’t I have the right to some peace, too. Some buildings just aren’t right for kids.

Let me move above you and run back and forth non-stop for hours and see how you like. Stop being a one – sided parent.

There are also clauses that can be used in a rental agreement known as a “rent abatement.” Basically, it would allow the tenant to have the noisy family cover a portion on the rent. I suggest trying that and charging them $250 per month. Legally, it is possible… check into it.

Now they have a toddler who is learning how to walk. She wears her little toodler shoes in the house. I dont mind, a baby needs to learn things. What bothers me is when at 7am when she gets up they let her run through the whole apartment including the room which is right above mine. Even if they closed off that room untill later in the morning so they arent waking us up.

The oldest has her toys scattered all over the backyard. I wouldnt be able to walk to get something from the shed without tripping up in something, and she hasnt played in the yard since the summer, so all that junk is sitting in the yard untouched for 2 months.

We would like to complain to our landlord. but here in the provinces tennants aggreement it states that noise from children is not a reason for a unpeaceful living arragement.

I would love too move. But we cant afford it, we pay good rent here. We dont want to cause awkwardness between all of us, they are really nice people. But to them their children are spoiled and can do no wrong.

Yes I know kids make noise. But people with children need to have some respect for the people who live below them. I respect they have children and with we have people in we make sure it is not loud after 11pm, Which is the law here. But it needs to go both ways. We respect them, but they dont respect us it seems.

I have a 17 month old. I take him outside to play often, he is not at the jumping off of furniture stage, but I do stop him from throwing toys and slamming his bottom on the ground. I will NOT stop him from playing. And I will not strap him down in a highchair so the neighbors don’t freak out.

Our downstairs neighbor is an older handicapped man. Our landlord even told us that he is a bitter man that makes complaints on every little problem he sees. He literally stands with a broom and waits for a noise so he can bang on our floor. God forbid a case of dr. Pepper falls over again.

I lived in the same apartments on the middle floor, hated the occasional noise our upstairs neighbors made. So I moved to a higher one so I wouldn’t have to deal with it. If you can’t handle apartment living, even when the neighbors are considerate, get out.

I chose not to have children, for a reason. I should not have to endure the consequences of having children because other people chose to do so. I don’t smoke pot, have house parties, blast music at 4:00 am etc – and if that were my choice I certainly wouldn’t expect others to accept my lifestyle. Parents often fail to realize that children are JUST as distracting and it is unfair to label people who get frustred as “exagerating the problem”. We may have made noise as children, and I would hope that my parents took measures (as above) – but I do not have children and therefore should not have to live with the consequences of having one.