Is it true that the police can't do anything about noisy neighbors in an apt. complex?
They told me that they can only do something if they hear loud noise while standing outside the building.
Answers:
You can either move, and next time get an apartment on the top floor (I made this mistake). Or, call the police get what the "ordinances" are for shared living, then go from there. I believe if it's loud music, it needs to end around 9pm (different in every city/state). If they are technically breaking any of them, then yes the police should be called. If they do this so many times, I believe it affects their tennancy.
You can always knock on their door to, and let them know they are too loud, if you are afraid of them, and they are basically hoodlums (i've had this happen) contact the landlord, but that's probably useless, I would just work on looking for a new quite establishment.
sure then can. It's called disturbing the peace and is against the law. most states require you meet the police at or near the scene and make a formal request verbally for them to take action and knock on the door. After several incidents, the noise-makers can even be arrested for it.
Direct complaints to the landlord!
Of course they can, so can the complex manager.
I have had a similar problem but in the opposite way. A neighbor I had would complain that I was making loud noise to the apartment complex office and the police. His accusations were totally wrong. I was not even home at the time he complained about the noise. Lucky for me the police could not do anything about it because they did not hear the noise. I confronted my neighbor and tried to tell him that he had the wrong apartment (he just moved in). He said that he knew I did not make any noise he just wanted to make sure that I would not ever make noise. Nice guy, right? Now I was on watch from my apartment complex.
I'm a landlord (and an attorney) and from my own experience can tell you that there's a big difference between "can't" and "won't."
Police can and should enforce any applicable noise ordinances. They often don't, however, primarily because court dockets are so overtaxed and most city attorney's offices don't want to use their resources to prosecute such minor offenses.
In the city where I own rental property, the police will not enforce laws dealing with marijuana sales and possession, because it's considered such a minor offense and the city attorney won't prosecute it.
I disagree with the earlier poster who said that the landlord likely won't address the issue. I belong to a multi-housing association (a group of landlords), and we're all pretty hard-core about making sure our residents treat each other respectfully. There are certainly a lot of bad landlords out there, but there are a lot of good ones, too. It's certainly worth a try to contact the landlord with your complaint. Be sure to have exact information (the dates and times the noise was occurring). You may also request that your landlord keep your identity confidential and not tell the offenders who it was who complained about them. You have nothing to lose by calling the landlord - the worst that's going to happen is they won't respond.
It would also be helpful for you to look up a copy of your city's noise ordinance and have a photocopy (or several) handy - the next time you call the police you can hand them a copy of the ordinance and let them know you expect them to enforce it.
Good luck to you!
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