Expert: Mark C. Robins - 7/19/2010

Question
I live in a 3-story apartment building on the top floor. I have neighbours directly below me two floors down who nearly constantly play very loud music. The deep bass carries up through the walls and thumps loudly into my apartment. For a while I wasn't sure which apartment it was, but after checking in the halls verified it was the apartment two floors down from mine. It's a mother and her 17 or 18 year old son.

Over the past year it increased in frequency to the point where we'd get maybe a few hours of quiet each day. I went down at least 3 or 4 times over a month or two asking them to keep it down and to be considerate, and found that it was the son each time. He was polite to my face but nothing changed. I tried explaining that it's only the bass but they didn't change anything.

After a while I asked to speak to his mother and explained that it was driving my wife and I crazy and had been keeping a list of all the occurences with dates and times. She seemed to sympathise and apologized and said she's tell him to stop, but it continued. I had to go down to talk to her 3 days in a row and it kept happening. I finally told her I was sick of it and would be taking it to building management and to bylaw.

We live in Waterloo, ON where there's a 24-hour noise bylaw. I wrote a detailed letter to the superintendent with the detailed list of occurences and they ignored me. For a time the noise seemed to stop but soon started up again on and off. That was this past spring. Since then, they'd be quiet for a week, then have runs of a few days straight of loud music, then some days off. I wrote another letter to the building management with a new updated list of occurences, and still got no response.

This has continued to now, where like clockwork each morning when the mother leaves for work, the son blasts loud bass where I can even hear the lyrics to the music through the walls from 2 floors up. I've tried very hard to ignore it and be "cool" about it but my patience is at an end.

Recently he was partying loudly and I called bylaw, and they came to my door saying the neighbours ignored them and didn't come to the door. I got an occurence number from the bylaw officers and want to take this further.

I don't have the money to get a lawyer and sue, nor do I care to start conflict and have them evicted or anything, I just want the music to stop. I've made it clear in the past that the issue is only the noise, and that if there was no loud music, we had no problem. It's clear to me now that they won't stop unless there are solid consequences beyond simple requests to be quiet from bylaw.

How do I proceed from here and what options are available to me? Obviously I plan to speak to management in person and press my case and concerns. Beyond that, what legal options do I have if management does nothing? This has been going on for well over a year and I need it to stop for my sanity's sake.

Answer
I suggest that you continue to contact By Law enforcement each and every time the noise happens and maybe consider calling the police as well.
You should also put more pressure on the property manager's to deal with the problem I assume you are renting, so it is the owners responsibility as well to insure quite enjoyment of your home.