I Don’t Have Luck With Neighbors
January 29th, 2010 | Categories: Life | 12 CommentsWhen I live at home, I have to deal with my asshat neighbor, although the issues with said neighbor only really are a problem in the summer. I assumed that I’d only have neighborly troubles at home, but since the semester started three weeks ago, it looks as though a bitter dispute, at the very least, is bound to break out between my roommate and I with our neighbors1.
The root of the issue is noise. It’s a pretty common problem in dorm-style living, and usually noise issues are resolved by knocking on the door of the noisy room and asking its occupants to quiet down. And most of the time, that’s enough to take care of the situation, and it keeps the Resident Assistant (RA) out of the situation and there’s no documentation of the incident to go on anyone’s record. Except when the noise is at such a level when you can clearly hear lyric-for-lyric what song the neighbors are listening to and they speak at such a volume that you know one of the girls lost a hairpin and a boy who was hanging out in the room found it by searching under her bed, there is a problem.
My roommate and I have both asked our neighbors to be quiet on separate occasions multiple times in the past two weeks2. We have always been mindful to ask them to lower the noise level during “quiet hours”3 even though they are generally loud all the time. Last night, however, was the final straw. When we asked them to be quiet, a boy in the room yelled a slur against my roommate after she had taken barely two steps away from the room. In response, one of my neighbors started making insulting (and false) comments about my roommate and me.
This, more than anything, is what is prompting my roommate and me to take further action about this situation. It is no longer adequate to just ask them to be quiet and hope that they respect our request (for the record, they usually don’t). My roommate and I are discussing our options and will not hesitate to file a formal complaint about this situation if necessary. It’s not just about the noise anymore; it’s about the disrespect and rudeness. We have never made slurs against or insulted our neighbors, much less done anything that warrants that behavior targeted at us, and we will not tolerate it.
- Two new girls moved into the room next door as the old occupants moved out at the end of last semester. [↩]
- It’s only been three weeks into the semester and we decided to let the noise slide during the first week back. [↩]
- Quiet hours are from 11pm – 8am weekdays, 1am – 10am weekends. [↩]
Tags: dorm life, people suck, rants
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Hi, I'm Manda. I'm a college student studying communications and languages. I like to read, shop, bake, and travel. I have a tendency to listen to my favorite songs on repeat for hours on end. Sometimes I catch myself thinking in a language other than English. 
I’m sorry you’re going through this, Manda! :( That is one of the things I don’t regret with not going to university, as dorm situations will either work out in your favour (for instance, you seem to be getting along great with your roomate), or horribly (as in your neighbours being assholes). I suppose it’s a gamble for dorm housing.
I think it’s safe at this point to go ahead and report them, as it’s apparent they’re not being mindful of you or your roomate – much less anybody else on the same floor! There’s definitely a line between being loud every once in awhile and being plain ole awful (and apparently breaking the rules? :P)!
Dorm living is really hit or miss. A lot of it is assigned at random (such as who your neighbors are) and you’re either lucky or you’re not. I had a great floor last year, but the floor I got assigned this year has been just awful. I’m definitely looking at moving off-campus in the future. Even if my neighbors weren’t rude and disrespectful, there’s only so much dorm living one can take!
Ugh, they sound horrible. You should definitely file a complaint!
I’ve always been pretty lucky with neighbours; if they were loud I didn’t notice!
That’s awful :( I had pretty terrible neighbors last year myself – and they were the girls we shared our bathroom with (our rooms were set up three rooms to each bathroom). The hardest thing was that I was on a mainstream floor, so while my roommate and I were hearing, they were all deaf, so miscommunication abounded and it ended with them constantly sabotaging my roommate and I. I’m on an excellent new floor this year, thank goodness, but I know how you feel :(
Hopefully your RA will be really good about it and get something done. There’s nothing more awful for a college experience than not being able to enjoy where you live.
My RA has been contacted and she’s asked us to keep her in the loop if future incidents occur, which isn’t a problem. Personally, I am out of my room from dawn till dusk and when I am done for the day, I either have so much work to do or I want to sleep cause I’m exhausted – neither of which are really possible with the current noise level from my neighbors’ room.
Ugh, I feel your pain. My dorm situation in my first year was TERRIBLE. I really regret not doing anything about it and being the push-over that I am because it made for such a shitty year and totally ruined my residence experience.
I know you’re not one to let stuff slide and you stick up for yourself, so GO YOU! Really. I wish I had had the balls to stand up and say something about it when this happened to me. No one deserves to live miserably.
Well that is rude! I think you are well within your rights to just get in touch with the RA now, you’ve been nice and polite and put up with shit from both the girls and the boyfriend so go for it. If they don’t like it, tough.
Fair enough Uni is going to be noisy, but there needs to be a limit. Occasionally sleep and peace are required!
Urgh, inconsiderate people. :( Do other people on your floor complain about the noise? I think it’d be useful to find out their reactions, and if they do find the noise distracting, it’d solidify your case when you do file a complaint.
Thankfully, I’ve never had to deal with neighbors like this on a regular basis — sometimes neighbors turn their bass up ridiculously loud beyond the legal ‘curfew’ of 12AM and making it impossible to sleep, but nothing I can’t deal with.
I know there has been at least one occasion where others have complained about the noise. But my neighbors are friends with most of the people on my floor, whereas my roommate and I aren’t around enough to know anyone that lives on the floor. So I think part of the issue is that some of our floormates crowd into our neighbors’ room and make lots of noise.
Ugh I really can’t stand rude people like that. I think you guys were truly polite to ask them to be considerate during ‘quiet hours’. It’s so childish to not even listen and turn their music down, but also be rude *grrr*
I really hope filing a complaint helps. I never lived in a dorm… so I’m not really sure what the exact rules are when living there. But if your neighbors are so loud and rude is it possible they are forced to relocate from the dorm?
In a worst case scenario, my neighbors could get kicked out of on-campus housing. I’m really hoping it won’t come to that, though! All my roommate and I want are peace and quiet!
[...] with my neighbors. I am trying to be reasonable though, as I don’t want the ordeal to be a bigger deal than it [...]