Evil Old Bitch Neighbor Strikes Again!

[blas]

This morning, boyfriend and I were walking downstairs and to my car so I could take him home.

Angry old bitch was outside watering her plants, and she stopped my boyfriend and said "My, you walk so loudly young man, I can hear your every step up there!"

My boyfriend was a little taken aback and apologized, and then old bitch proceeded on with "Well, I suppose I could tolerate the noise if you only did it during the day time, but I'm trying to sleep at night and don't like it when you two come home and you stomp around upstairs like a horse!"

Stupid old bitch.

I pay to live here too. In fact, I pay by myself to live here. No one else pays for me. I know for a fact that he is NOT that loud when he walks, because I've warned him time and time again about my impossible neighbors who are intolerant of anyone else's noise. So he knows to be careful. And the fact that, like I said, she is intolerant of anyone's noises......

It took everything I had to keep my mouth shut and say "If all of my friends and I are so loud, why don't you go to the landlord, or better yet, go back down south and STAY THERE? I pay money to live here too, actually, I WORK and pay my OWN money to live here, and I think it's pretty fucking miserable that I do my DAMNEST to try to be quiet at night, yet all day long, you're all noisy, slamming doors and cupboards and shouting and laughing outside while I am trying to sleep! You don't care about me getting any sleep, so why should I care about you getting any sleep? Oh, and by the way, if you cannot handle footsteps upstairs, you probably should not live in a downstairs apartment!"

Honestly. Oh well, at least we haven't gotten the broom treatment lately. I swear, a pin could drop onto my floor and she'd throw a fit about it, but she can be as loud as she wants to be all day long every day. And if I dare make a peep on my few nights off a week....that's a no no!

Stupid fucking old bat. I'm not a free-loading college kid who parties all the time living upstairs on my parents' dime. And I'm not a miserable old hag who never worked a day in my life, most likely living off my dead husband's money, like she is. So shut the hell up and deal with it. It's not as loud as you think it is.

[One-Fang]

She harasses you if you so much as drop a pin but she makes a lot of noise? You put up with this hypocrasy ... why?

Seriously. Get your own broom.

[blas]

She's not so noisy that it's unbearable, it's just the principle of the matter. She makes no attempt to be quiet during the day so that I can rest. If she comes home while I'm asleep, I can hear her slam the door downstairs. I hear her slamming her other doors and cupboards open and shut (whether or not that is intentional is still up in the air). All of the old people downstairs usually get together in the late morning if it's nice out and sit out there all day laughing and talking, and I can hear it. If they get really rowdy, it makes it quite fun to try to get to sleep.

Why in the world should I make my boyfriend walk on his tippy toes so she can peacefully sleep?

I understand the "normal" folk are awake and do their stuff during the day, but you know what? I do my best to be quiet when I'm up at night. Even if I'm home alone and not coming home from being out and about. I do my best. I can't guarantee you won't hear a peep. But I can guarantee there will be no parties, no bouncing up and down or thumping or completely unnecessary noise. She can't guarantee to even try to be quiet opening and shutting her doors and cupboards or other random noises. For such a frail old woman that she tries to pretend to be, she is quite noisy and not so light on her feet herself!

[BethB]

Reminds me of the Friends episode where Rachel and Monica are dealing with the ceiling smacker who complains that they are too noisy and they end up stomping their feet to his pounding and end up killing him. I did have neighbors like that who lived below me. If we (my brother, my now ex and I)were joking around laughing, the people downstairs would complain that we were having a rowdy party. Or the time my bro got frustrated with a video game and smacked the floor and they complained that he was blasting music. With a sleepy infant in his room? Highly doubtful. I would always hear these jerks slamming doors and cupboards all the time and screaming. All the time with the screaming. my child did not have to hear such things. Everyone in the house heard what they were saying. I tried to complain but the managers were morons.

[blas]

Oh I know, that's what drives me the most insane!

Ya know, I could just suck up the rest of this year's lease and then go somewhere else, and they can have a different neighbor. They can have another girl my age, or two girls....or maybe two guys....or maybe a couple......college kids who DO party all the time and DO think a tiny 2 bedroom apartment is a perfect party pad....

I don't want to sound arrogant, but I think I'm a real treat as a neighbor. Five nights out of the week, I'm NOT there at night. At all. It's like not even having a neighbor. And I sleep ALL DAY Sunday-Thursday. I bet she can barely hear me walking around or watching TV when I am awake during the week.

But nope, I'm just an evil rotten party going loud college aged kid with no respect!

[RayvenQ]

I live in a flat with someone under me and you know what, no matter how hard you try to be quiet, it happens, sometimes you're loud, even if you can creep around.

I'd tell her to suck it up and if she has a problem, take it up with whoever built the place for making the ceiling/floor non sound dampening.

blas, I'd have you be my neighbour, hell, I'm not bothered about noise, even music, as long as it's at a reasonable level and a glass of water doesn't look like the one from jurassic park, any time of the night (not that I'm saying you do even have it like that)

[BookstoreEscapee]

Ex's downstairs neighbors were really loud. Sometimes it sounded more like they were above us, they stomped around so much. The kid was Autistic, so I didn't really have a problem with him, since he couldn't help it, but the parents.... Yelling, doors slamming, the occasionally guitar solo . A couple times the yelling and screaming was really bad we contemplated calling the cops, only to hear an authoritative knocking on the door down there. Obviously someone beat us to it.

Apparently they once complained to another neighbor about Pablo's tappety tapping feet.

[blas]

I'm glad people can see it from my point of view. It's so frustrating.

I make every attempt to avoid completely unnecessary noise from upstairs that would bother her, like me wearing high heels on the linolium kitchen floor, not walking too loudly at night coming up the stairs and walking around, and I do my best to not slam the door even if I'm upset.

But there are noises that are completely unavoidable. You WILL hear someone walking upstairs. I can't NOT move just because it upsets her. I am allowed to have people over. It's not a party. I am allowed to walk around. She's going to have to deal with it.

It kind of sucks that she gets to "rule the roost", so to speak, and just stay living downstairs and bitching and whining, playing the victim role of "innocent, poor old lady with an evil young party gal upstairs" in this silly game. I'm sure she'd probably refuse to ever live upstairs (oh, the horror of climbing stairs) and I'm sure she doesn't want anything changed but for the people bugging her to get in trouble or leave, and she'll just keep bitching about anyone who lives there.

[Jester]

It took everything I had to keep my mouth shut and say "If all of my friends and I are so loud, why don't you go to the landlord, or better yet, go back down south and STAY THERE? I pay money to live here too, actually, I WORK and pay my OWN money to live here, and I think it's pretty fucking miserable that I do my DAMNEST to try to be quiet at night, yet all day long, you're all noisy, slamming doors and cupboards and shouting and laughing outside while I am trying to sleep! You don't care about me getting any sleep, so why should I care about you getting any sleep? Oh, and by the way, if you cannot handle footsteps upstairs, you probably should not live in a downstairs apartment!"

I'm sorry, exactly what reason did you have for keeping your mouth shut?

This witch sounds not only horrible, but hypocritical, and you would have had every right, from the things you have told us, to blast her just exactly that way. Personally, I think you should have.

Fuck her.

It kind of sucks that she gets to "rule the roost"

It does suck, and when you bite your tongue and don't speak the truth and let her know what is what, as in the OP, then you are contributing to her ruling of said roost.

Correct me if I am wrong, but you pay your rent, right? You are not living there because she lets you? You are not getting a discount on your rent? You are not paying a discounted rate while she pays full rate?

No?

Then FUCK HER, Blas. Tell her what's what. You have just as much right to live your life as a normal person in that apartment as she does to live hers in hers.

I don't know that I would attack the source of her money (as you really don't know if she worked for years or not), but where her money comes from has no bearing on the situation. However each of you came by your money, you both signed leases for places to live, you both pay rent for said places, and as far as I am aware, neither one of your leases says you have to tiptoe around the other one and put up with all this fucking abuse. So stop being Ms. Nice Blas and TELL HER what you want to--no, what you NEED to--tell her.

And fuck her. The hypocritical twat hag.

Personally, I'd have been done with her months ago.

[gremcint]

I must agree with Jester, by not saying anything and putting up with her harassment of you, you are giving her power over you, next time she says something tell her how you feel. Put a note under her door telling her how you feel.

[Greenday]

I don't want to sound arrogant, but I think I'm a real treat as a neighbor.

blas, you can be my neighbor anytime. I promise not to complain.

I have...an idea...PARTY AT BLAS'S PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jester]

Put a note under her door telling her how you feel.

That would be just as passive-aggressive as the broom banging the old lady does on her ceiling.

I say bullshit. Confront her face to face. The next time she says something, get up in her grill and call her on her bullshit.

[iradney]

Ha! She'd hate the people that live above me and TTO. They have wooden floors. Doesn't matter how quietly you try to walk, we still hear it. And they have a very active little boy, so during the day we can hear him running around. We don't care though - once we're asleep, we're asleep

[Slytovhand]

Ditto Jester!!!

Also, as you've said in one of your posts, she's an evil person who is only doing it to be crabby and to have things done her own way... so - tell her that! Tell her about her personality... call her out on her bullshit that she's gotten away with all this time because people feel too afraid and too intimidated to actually speak the honest truth to her (don't we all deserve to be spoken to honestly??)

(or... do I have to call you out on trying not to upset the apple cart because you don't want to be responsible for your actions, and thus, would rather suffer than be considered 'rude' by someone else??)

[BookstoreEscapee]

Ha! She'd hate the people that live above me and TTO. They have wooden floors. Doesn't matter how quietly you try to walk, we still hear it. And they have a very active little boy, so during the day we can hear him running around. We don't care though - once we're asleep, we're asleep

We have wood floors, too, and being upstairs we are required to cover 75% with carpet. Doesn't stop 'em from squeaking like crazy, though.