Michelle writes:

I came across your blog when I was searching the Internet for information on what recourse I may have regarding my completely obnoxious neighbors (who happen to be renters) whom I really, really, really can't stand.

They are truly negatively impacting my quality of life along with lowering my property value. Unfortunately I haven't found the 'easy' answer I've been looking for, but at least I have a place I can vent and blow off some steam.

My husband and I purchased our home two years ago in the Bay Area. This was NOT an easy task given the crazy housing market and it was something we saved for and worked towards for so very long. We made many, many sacrifices and were elated to move it to our home. One of the big selling points was the deck in the backyard, we love to sit out there drinking cocktails, enjoying the views of the East Bay foothills and the bay itself.

For the first year we had pretty decent neighbors, though we were sandwiched between two renters. One neighbor treats her home as if she owns it. It's beautifully landscaped and she is extremely considerate (she has two teenage boys, both of whom have really never created any type of disturbance). The tenants in the house on the other side of us were three men, ranging from the ages of early 30s to late 50s, who shared the house. They were easy enough to live next to. They worked all day, usually played poker in their garage until about 10 pm after work, and then retired for the night. Occasionally on the weekend they would have a party, no big deal, as we like to do the same.

Well, after a year of blissful living and many times openly declaring to each other that we were lucky to have such good neighbors, we found out that all but one of the men were going to move out because the oldest man wanted his family from the Appalacian Mountains to move in. This constituted his mother, wife, two young boys, teenage daughter, two dogs, and some cats. All moving into a home that's about 1000 sq. ft. These folks are white trailer park trash of all white trailer park trash. How in gods name can such losers afford to live in the Bay Area which is one of the most expensive places to live in the US, even for renters?

Not only are the dogs not housebroken but they crap all over the backyard and never clean it up so the stench is unbearable on warm days. They also bark CONSTANTLY! I have never in my life wanted to hurt an animal until now.

The two boys (7 and 9 and both illiterate and look inbred or are at least crack babies) are the loudest human beings I have had the misfortune to come across. I've never heard anyone scream the way they do. There is only four feet between our homes, and I can hear the boys in the morning when they get up and I can hear them when I'm trying to go to sleep. The parents and grandmother don't seem to know how to communicate without screaming, usually obscenities, at the young children.

The teenage daughter is complete trash as well. She's about 15, does not go to school, does not work, and appears to not do anything at all other than watch tv inside all day long. The parents claim they had to pull the kid out of school because it was too dangerous. Anyone who is above the poverty level sends their kids to private schools because the public school systems are so bad in the Bay Area. (While I feel for your neighbour problems not being able to afford private education isn't a crime and is a symbol of the failure of our government to maintain a heathly public school system, the failure of citizens to demand it, and our collective failure to recognize that some things are worth higher taxes - Ca1v1n)

The dogs have never ever been walked. The children have never been taken to a park or playground even though there are three within walking distance of our home. The children aren't involved in any community oriented sports, arts, or music programs. They all just stay cooped up in their dilapidated shithole shack of a house screaming at each other.

Why spend the kind of money it requires to live in the Bay Area if you're just going to stay cooped up in a crappy rental? You can do that anywhere. It makes no sense to me. They don't go to the bay, they don't wine taste, they don't go to Lake Tahoe, they don't go into San Francisco, they don't go hiking. (I make good $$$ and wouldn't be caught dead at a wine tasting. It is a shame however these kids don't get taken to the California Academy of Sciences or The Exploratorium - Ca1v1n) They do nothing. Absolutely nothing

On many occasions I have written letters to the landlord complaining about them and asking that she evict them. I think she has an obligation to the property owners of our neighborhood to rent to decent people who respect their neighbors and maintain the standards of the neighborhood. But I never end up sending them. I doubt she would do anything even if I did. After putting up with this for over a year, I think the time has come to take action.

Thanks for reading my rant,
Michelle

Christine Writes:

How I needed your site. It made me actually feel better about having an insane sociopath for a neighbor. May I vent? Pretty please?

I've got someone special living across the street from me. I wouldn't have believed this woman existed a year ago, but here I am. I moved into a new house in a new state eight months ago, and was more than willing to look past any oddness in the interest of making new friends. That was my first mistake.

Candy, let's call her, made my acquaintance when I was in my front yard. I caught her rummaging through decorative stones at the house next door that was up for rent at that time. She explained herself by saying she liked to collect heart-shaped rocks. Within just a few minutes she had let me how she'd left her first husband and two boys behind to pursue her "real" life, whereupon she was forced to became a stripper working the bachelor party circuit (she got a boob job to facilitate this pursuit). She now had a legitimate job selling makeup. I am open minded and didn't have a problem with the stripper bit, but I wondered why she "felt I ought to know." Wtf?

The third time we met she proceeded to tell me how she was supposed to get married to the man she was currently living with across the street (in his house along with her daughter, who is a product of a one-night stand). She was getting cold feet because he hardly touched her anymore and almost seemed repelled by her sexually. She also had had a tempting offer from an old friend to "hook up," because he had recently divorced his wife and wanted Candy to know he'd always had a thing for her.

Heavy details for an acquaintance, and yet I did not run screaming the other way. Brainless on my behalf, I'll grant you. Right around this third meeting I began to notice her penchant for looking around my house and asking "was I using that?" because she could really use one and noticed I wasn't really using mine. I gave her many items which were nice pieces but were mostly occupying space in my basement, and gave them gladly. But soon she began taking things she told me she liked that I WAS using. She'd borrow them, make a photocopy or take it to buy one that looked just like it and then bring it back. A few things just disappeared, and I think I know where they are. She also asked me to help her rearrange her house because I was "so great at it."

I began backing off from the friendship, the word she used to describe our relationship, not I. It was then that I began witnessing her moseying away from my other neighbors' houses carrying armloads of household items, clothing, what have you. And "Isn't it great; I really needed this and they weren't even using it!"

And I finally noticed that whenever she came over, she came loaded with agendas, and didn't leave until she had gotten the item or promise or whatever. Suddenly too came a wave of new stories, one special one about how she'd gotten her driver's license suspended for not having her proof of insurance in her car, even though she'd gone to court to show said proof. Now she wanted rides everywhere, as long as I was already going. She hit my neighbors up, wouldn't take no for an answer, and once she got in your car, she would begin a litany of reasonable requests for stops that turned into hours of waiting for her to get her business done. She made neighbors late to pick their children up at daycare, miss appointments and was always extremely late in picking up her own child. Her story didn't add up. I only took her out twice, as did my neighbors. .

At last we neighbors started comparing notes. Every story she told one of us was told differently to another of us. Recently, as one of them drove her around, she bragged about how great it was that she got whatever she wanted, and extolled the virtues of being a doer who never took no for an answer. This, to me, explained her in a nutshell.

Soon after, Candy began sending her four-year-old daughter over to my house or one of the other neighbors' houses and then would drive away in her car (which by her own admission she wasn't allowed to drive) without saying a word. She might be back in an hour. She might be back in six hours. I was outraged.

Here is where we are today. Yesterday I let her have it, let her know in clear language how thoroughly she has violated every one of my boundaries with her behavior. She began to kiss my butt wholeheartedly, as usual. She is the queen of kiss ass. She said she had come to apologize to me for anything she'd done. She appreciated my feedback and that she could take criticism better than most, and that she dearly cherished our friendship and wouldn't purposely do anything to jeopardize it. Then she walked away and strode purposefully over to my next-door neighbor's house (who has three children, aged three and under), left her child there playing with the neighbor's kids and snuck off while the neighbor was distracted, driving away without saying a word. She hadn't wanted to apologize at all. She'd planned on dumping her daughter at my house again until I let her know where I stood.

I can only hope that she wasn't lying when she told me she was planning on moving to be closer to her sons next year.

Yours most confoundedly,

C. Munro

(P.S. I left out a lot in the interest of brevity. There is so much more, but I hope the highlights have entertained. It would be the only good thing to come out of having this nightmare of a neighbor.)

Linda writes:

Love your site. Want to share a bad neighbor story with you.

Many years ago, when I was first married, my husband and I bought a nice 3-bedroom ranch house in a neighborhood of ranch houses. To the left of us were some neighbors who knew just about everything about the neighborhood. They were nice older folks, but they knew all about everyone. Us being the new neigobors in the neighborhood and being newlyweds, they wanted to be sure they kept an eye on our house and gave us advice now and then.

There was a house across the street that was owned by a landlord who rented it out frequently. A young couple moved in who had a couple of small children.

One summer, I had left my car outside because I was refinishing furniture in my garage. I could not put the car in the garage until the project was done so I expected to have it outside for a few more days.

One night during that summer, the neighbors across the street were having a big party, charcoal grill, fireworks, beer, you name it! One big loud obnoxious party.

It was loud for quite a while, but we did not complain. About 11:30 that night, my next door neighbor calls us on the phone. They said they saw someone from the house across the street sneak over to our house and steal the battery out of my car.

Can you believe that! We were flabbergasted, and we didn't know who to believe. So my husband and I went outside in our robes, etc. We asked the good neighbor and the bad neighbor to tell their side of the story. When the arguing was finally over, no one came up with the battery. My husband finally told the bad neighbor to get off our property and keep the hell out of our yard or he'd call the police in the future.

Then when we went to get back into our house, I found out that I had accidentally locked the screen door. Of course, my husband could not look like a wimp now, so he had to proceed to bust the screen door in front of the bad neighbor.

Anyway, these idiots lived across the street from us for about 6 months. I always gave them dirty looks when I saw them drive by, and always cursed at them whenever I saw them. I never gave in. They finally moved away, and I was pleased to see the day that it happened.

Ca1v1n Replies:

I totally understand how frustrating it can be when your buy a nice house in a nice neighbourhood only to discover that there is a "rental" just across the street or next door. You can almost always count on these houses to have been "let go" to some extent, not have as nice a yard, etc. When I lived in Kitchener, Ontario there was such a house two doors down. During the three years I lived there a stream of about 6 different tenents rented the place.

One day I got home from work and was suprised to discover my garbage can was missing. I looked up and down the street (thinking the wind had blown it away after it had been emptied that morning) but was never able to find out. The next day I noticed the neighbours two doors down had moved out. About a week later I noticed my garbage can was right next to the front door of this now empty house. It had probably been there all the time but I had just noticed it.

I went to grab it and it was as heavy as a bag of cement. I opened it up. The bastards who had moved out and emptied the contents of their fridge into the garbage can. It was stacked to the rim with various jars of food, salad dressing, ketchup, etc. It had been rotting for about a week and reeked to high heaven. I couldn't exactly just drag it to the curb because the garbage pickup would not even take it since everything was just thrown in loose and not even in a plastic bag.

I actually had to empty each item by hand into 3 separate plastic garbage bags and then clean out the can in a feeble attempt to get rid of the smell. Now I admit my "cleaning" involved leaving it out in the rain for a few days then letting it dry and spraying it with Lysol (then repeating).

Thankfully the folks who moved in the next weekend were very good neighbours (for renters). They actually did alot of landscaping and really cleaned up the lot.

Henrik writes:

In desperate need to let off some steam I found this site! I'm renting an apartment and the owner lives in Egypt, so I have to deal with annoying neighbours myself.

At first my boyfriend and I thought we had a family living upstairs, since we heard a lot of noise from children, a hyperactive cat running about, and someone snoring so loudly we could hear it clearly. Accepting that we are young people and might be a bit noisy in the weekend we let it pass by, after all people are allowed to have kids and they do make some sound.

I was suprised to realize the upstairs neighbour was a single woman in her 60's. Apparantly the grandchildren come around a lot. We ask her politely if she could keep her visitors quiet after 11pm since we have to get up early for our studies and work. It didn't help.

Then she started having her son renovate the kitchen it was quite nice, because she moved in with her son while he was doing the work for her. Unfortunately we have gotten involved. The idiot managed to work his way all the way down through the floor leaving a gigantic hole in our walk-in closet / storage room.

I noticed next day, since I didn't came home until late the night before. I found a note with a number saying to call and wondered why there was rubble everywhere. I looked up and noticed the hole. I called the number and was told "Oh, by the way I made a hole in your ceiling. I'll fix it when I get around." The son said it would take one or two weeks, but apparantly gotdistracted and it was still unfinished three weeks later.

I wrote a complaint, trying to be pleasant, that our ceiling still wasn't fixed. She told us they would get working and call an electrician to fix the light which they had ruined while working on the ceiling. The ceiling was finaly being finished, but nothing happened with the electricity. I wrote another letter, since a month had passed by now. She replied that everything has worked out fine and that we're a pair of sour pots.

So basicly 2 and a half months of waiting for a hole in the ceiling tobe repaired, that should never have been our problem to start with and our wardrobe in heaps in the living room. I've just called my friend who is an electrician and talked him in to do a bit of work for me.

I think I'l have a very loud party soon...

Adam for the UK writes:

For 7 years we lived in a block of flats. In those 7 years, every night (from the neighbour above) was filled with drug taking, domestic violence and loud music.

We eventually moved in to a really nice street where everyone knows each other and says hello and I really thought I could spend the rest of my life there.

Our new neighbour owns a house but is married to a lady 20 miles away and basically lives there with her most of the time. In fact I haven’t seen him in about 6 or 7 months. He decided that he would leave his 15 year old son in the house. The 15 year old then decided that he would have one of his friends move in. Every night they would be in their back garden taking drugs, smoking weed and getting drunk. This would go on through the night. You can imagine how irate I was to discover that I am living next to the same type of people I had been trying to get away from for 7 years.

In the UK we have environmental health. I called them out and they monitored the noise, took notes etc. The 15 year old boy (the owners son) was served with an antisocial behavior order. This meant that any further noise witnessed by environmental heath would result in prosecution. I was happy that I finally got one over on the little bastard.

All went quiet for a week or so, it was great. Then the music came on. It was bearable and I was happy to take into account that they are young with no adults around so I put up with it. Then Jason (the owners son) met a girl and started spending most of his time at her house, leaving all his drug taking friends in the house. The music started to increase in volume, so once again, I called environmental heath. They took notes and took Jason to court but nothing changed.

Last week I had enough and I went down to my local sports equipment store. I purchased a baseball bat. I waited until I could see that they were all in the same room. I walked up to the house and entered though the back door with my nice new baseball bat. I walked in to the room and I saw 10 jaws hit the floor. I casually walked over to the stereo and turned it off. Every on was silent. I asked if anyone had a comment for me as I couldn’t quite hear what was said. Of course I got the childlike reply of “I don’t know”, “it wasn’t me” etc. They were shaking. I had absolutely no intention of using the bat but it felt good that they thought I had come round to use it. I asked who was first. They were unsure as to what I meant so I said who would like there leg broken first. One of them started crying. It was great to know that I had so much power over them. I walked out with “I’m watching you” comment and went home.

There has been no noise at all since. In hindsight, they could have easily jumped me and kicked the crap out of me but they think that I am a head case and are quite frightened of me. Now when anyone leaves the house, they are quite polite to me, checking that I cannot hear the music. My other idea was to have a friend stand outside in a raincoat staring at the house for hours on end. (He would have done it too with a little cash he said). My point is that if you have noisy neighbours, they don’t know who you are or who you know. The trick is to frighten them psychologically. Trust me it works! You don’t have to go as far as I have but simple things like make sure they over hear a conversation on the phone about how you are going to take someone out , have then buried etc.

Thanks for listening or reading and take care,

Ca1v1n Replies:

WOW! I would never have the balls to walk into someones house, baseball bat or not. I guess in the UK you don't have to worry so much about folks having guns. Now I did once turn around in a movie theatre and warn a group of teenagers that if their one friend didn't shut up that 15 minutes after the movie ended they would be driving him to the hospital. I don't know if they thought I was crazy but a few others around starting clapping so I knew I had some backup.

Mark writes:

My domestic partner and I recently bought our first home. It is in a 1970's development that is well maintained, perfectly manicured yards, well kept modest ranches and ramblers, the occasional boat or camper in the driveway.... the American dream.

On the first day we met Susan. She asked if we were renting the house we informed her that we had purchased it and that she didnt have to worry about bad renters next door anymore. We had heard that the previous tenants had several very loud dogs who alienated the neighborhood. We told her that we have three dogs, but that they were all well trained and that she would never hear a peep out of them. She waved her hand and said that dogs don't bother her and that she was thinking of getting a puppy herself.

It was the next morning at 5:30 that the whining and yelping began. My dogs all awoke and started pacing around unsure what was the matter. There was a puppy in her yard, running in circles and yelping incessantly. This did not stop until around 2:30 in the afternoon when the poor puppy collapsed from exhaustion. That evening when Susan got home she was cooing over her puppy in the yard. My partner and I were grilling on the deck. She yelled to us to look at her new puppy. She said that this was the nicest, quietest dog ever. I laughed and said that the dog had been loud all day, that I was wondering if someone was hurting it! She seemed surprised to learn that there was any noise and asked the homeowners on either side of her who confirmed the puppy had been yelping all day.

After several more days of this I left her a note that stated that I would be contacting animal control if the noise happened one more time. 5:30 am is too early for me to listen to incessant yelping. I copied the local ordinance that outlines the elements of animal cruelty and pointed out that she was not only mean to her dog, but also disrespectful to her neighbors. Then I asked where she was raised. Which I admit was rude but in my defense it was after several hours of hiding my head under the pillow to try to drown out the dreadful sounds from her puppy.

Tonight all hell broke loose. My partner and I were peacefully enjoying our deck when they started howling out the window at us. We at first figured that they were playing a game with the kids who were there then we started to "overhear" conversations about the note on the door and that the police should be called for harassment. Then I went inside I heard more howling and realized that they were howling out of their window. I peeked out the window myself, and one of the adults said that she could see me. She then said that she was going to call the police unless I stopped peeping into their house. I finally asked "What is your problem?" She told me that her mother had lived there for thirty years and that my little note was outrageous. That they had seen people come and go and that nobody ever had a problem with her. I then said that I simply did not want to hear the animal abuse every day. Susan came unglued, she started waving her arms wildly and shrieking at me that she loves her dog, that she would be the worst neighbor from hell I had ever had, and that I should move out of her neighborhood.

At this point her daughter started making lude comments about my being gay. She started talking about me taking it in the *ss, among other such derogatory remarks. She started yelling that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve! My partner was mortified and he blames me for starting this whole thing.

How can I stop this war from making our lives miserable? I have told you both sides of the story here and I firmly beleive that the woman loves her dog but has NO CLUE what being a responsible dog owner is. Do I have to suffer for that?

Ca1v1n Replies:

I've got alot of folks post since this blog started but your the first person to ask for my advice. So here we go. You own 3 dogs, and probably know more about dogs then your neighbour. Perhaps the answer here was not threatening her with a note about bylaws and ordinances but offering to help her train her dog? It is just a thought and perhaps you did try this already. Personally if I were you I would start by apologizing (blame it on being stressed out from work NOT being up all night due to a barking dog even if that is a little white lie). Then offer to help her train the dog. Teach it some simple tricks, recommend good puppy training books, etc. Perhaps recommend crate training?.

If you do all this and she still cops an attitude then to hell with her. I also recommend you invite her shopping.

Sandi writes:

I came across your website after many frustrating weeks of dealing with a neighbor behaving badly. My fiance and I bought a townhouse in a beautiful location over a year ago. This townhouse is absolutely what people would envy us for ...only if they knew!!!

When we first moved in, all the neighbors came to us to welcome us, especially a middle aged couple who we quickly bonded with. We would share a beer with them, our kids would play with their son and we noticed after about a month they were bad-mouthing alot of other neighbors, including the ones that they have known since the development was built.

They complained about how people wouldn't mow their grass, how lazy this one was, etc. Of course, my fiance and I were suckered into it, because we were naive and started to speak our opinions about neighbors also. The kids played non-stop with them and my children called their son "their adopted brother".

I started to notice in the spring that when I would talk to the wife, she would be staring at my fiance and when I was outside, she wouldn't come over but when my fiance was out, she would. When I mentioned something to him, he thought I was crazy and it brought about alot fighting in our house, needless to say.

However, we were putting a patio in the back of our house (we should have gotten a permit but did not - we were too anxious to start the project) and we needed to use the common ground in back of the houses to transport materials. The husband told us that it was ok for them it is common space we don't need anyone's permission to walk on common ground. Knowing that we didn't have a permit, we were nice and thanked them.

Over time, my fiance was taking things back and forth when the wife copped an attitude and would stand in his way, claiming that it was "matting down her grass". My fiance offered to fix it and she barked "that's not the point" in front of my son who picked up on her attitude. From that point on, we knew something was going on. On the final day of the project, she stood in his way and actually put the sprinkler in his direction so that my fiance couldn't get through.

A few days later, when my fiance confronted her husband about the tension with his wife, he stated that she was just having a bad week. When pushed for an answer, he said that his wife said we hit her fence when working on the project which is an absolute lie!

Then when my fiance asked her husband about why she is copping an attitude with me, when I never did a single thing to that woman, the husband stated that his wife didn't like the fact that I chased kids off my property with a hose (another lie) and that she doesn't like the fact that I won't let all the neighborhood kids (10 of them to be exact) in my house at one time. Her husband suggested to my fiance that I talk to her to straighten things out. In my opinion there is nothing to straighten out. All of her claims are lies and I, nor my fiance, will defend ourselves against lies.

I have been advised by legal counsel to stay away from the woman to avoid anything that this woman is capable of claiming. A few days after this, the wife speaks to another neighbor who we had previously complained about and tells her what we said and the other neighbor, because of being furious about what was said, calls the township to report the patio that we put in without a permit.

The ones who get hurt the most in this ugly situation is the kids. Why people, especially neighbors, act this way is beyond me. All I want to do is live my life in the manner I have always lived. I have learned one very important lesson through all of this: neighbors are just that neighbors and I will no longer have any communication with them other than the civil "hello".

Thanks for letting me vent.

Kathryn from Austrialia writes:

Hi Calvin,

I am a Production Manager for a film company in Australia. We are researching for a TV series to be filmed and screened in the US about neighbors behaving badly and I, like some other media types, have come across your website.

If you could post this message with the intention of finding people who may be interested in talking with me, I would greatly appreciate it. It doesn't matter where they live in the US, if they have a bad neighbor story I'd love to hear from them.

Kind regards,

Kathryn Westbrook
5 Fern St
Mullumbimby NSW
2482
AUSTRALIA
Email: kathrynw@iinet.net.au

Angry Resident of 2nd Street writes:

We moved into our new duplex the same day that our neighbors did, and from the beginning they were the most annoying people on earth. The woman who is late fifties walks around all day in SHORT shorts and little tops with her old ass hanging out drinking beer, walking their puppy who looks like it's starving. The husband initially wouldn't even make eye contact when he spoke to you. I wish I could go back to those days. We tried to ignore them and deflect any form of relationship other than "Hi".

Only since we do not smoke in our home every time we went out for a cigarette the old, drunk, skank would babble at us about her glory days as an Army nurse. My boyfriend formerly being in the Army accidentally took the bait and unfortunately started dialog. FUCK!!!!

This is a nice neighborhood, a couple blocks from the beach, surrounded by law offices in homes and I am baffled as to how they can afford to live here. Neither have a job, just a disability check for the wife. They didn't have any furniture when they moved in and still do not two months later, just an airbed (that they have to inflate every day and we can hear every time) , and said it was because of a house fire right after their insurance lapsed. Oh and had previously been living in a tent! Yay!

Week three their car broke down, and we made the mistake of being nice and giving them a ride once, now we are their personal chauffeurs any time we are seen leaving. Apparently they can never have enough beer or cigarettes. Time spent in the car will unleash more information than you need. Turns out we live above a pill popping felon and his druggie ex-nurse wife. Now it's scary.

By week four the husband had lost his job, and I guess they had run out of drugs because we were asked to drive the little lady out of state to "one" of her doctors. Turns out they both eat more than a hundred and eighty percosets in two weeks (Jezus thats alot of percs, that is a perc each every 4 hours. I'm suprised they are not dead - Editor), plus a litany of other drugs and alcohol. They make out like they NEED them and at the time we had no idea what we were doing, she just said medication she needed.

I woke up one morning to the sound of their puppy crying out. The man was downstairs beating it with a broom. I was on my way to the phone book for the cops or humane society, when the wife knocks on my door to "talk" and get away from him. I wish I had called someone that day, but that fucking cunt was up here. She stayed all day, whining and not making any sense. Later I walked downstairs to see bllod on the floor in little spots everywhere.

We deal with loud Country music blaring up through the floor. The fighting, the nasty element of white trash friends they bring around, the unholy sight of over the hill buttocks in teenager shorts, the creepy ex con husband who is loaded at all times. They have had the nerve to ask us to use our oven, when they have one, if they could get our cable spliced to their half of the house, if we had any "papers" like we are still in high school or pot smoking losers like them.

Everyday we pray for their death, or for them to fight so we can call the cops.

Michelle from Washington D.C. writes:

I completely identify with Stacey, however my neighbors live next door. She and her boyfriend have surround sound in thier townhouse. The speakers are next to my bedroom wall. I can hear every movie they play late until the early morning. I have left repeated notes under their door with no avail. I have contemplated calling the police, but god nows what that would unleash. My repeated letters to them have already left them a bit frosty in attitude towards me. Property management will not do anything. The bad thing is that I am a light sleeper, so it really annoys the hell ouf of me. I could always wait one night and reverse the tables on them. When they decide to retire for the night, turn my big speakers towards their apartment and crank it up. Then possibly they will appreciate my concern! Thank for letting me vent. : )