When one woman was viewing apartments in Los Angeles, California, earlier this year, she thought she found an amazing new building complex to move into.
However, Ella, who doesn’t wish to disclose her full name, told Newsweek that just “10 minutes into move-in day,” she noticed a huge red flag about her new home.
While standing in the empty apartment, Ella was confronted by incredibly loud noises coming from her upstairs neighbor’s apartment. She added that, “as long as the neighbor was home, the noise was there.”
Ella shared her noisy neighbor issue on TikTok (@gammisoou) on May 4, writing that it was a “lesson learned.” The video has since generated 1.9 million views and almost 90,000 likes, as many other tenants have shared similar experiences.
@gammisoou
The phrase “love thy neighbor” isn’t always applicable, as a YouGov survey in 2011 revealed. Results of the survey found that 30 percent of respondents reported that they often get annoyed by their neighbors, with loud music (45 percent) being cited most frequently.
Being too loud was a common theme among problematic neighbors, since loud pets and parties were both mentioned by 29 percent of participants as reasons to complain. How to deal with these neighbors was another problem. Just over a quarter (26 percent) said they went directly to the source and relayed the complaint to their neighbor, while 22 percent complained to police authorities.
After the video went viral, Ella explained that her reason for moving was because of noisy neighbors in her previous apartment, only for her to endure the same problem in her new home.
She said: “This might be the worst part of this story. I had lived in my previous complex for over two years, and there was constant overheard noise that fell outside the realm of everyday impact noises.
“It was loud rolling, banging, and thudding during the day, and all throughout the night. I tapped the ceiling to make them aware, which was ineffective. If anything, it may have made the noise worse,” Ella added.
“This continued for months, I had anxiety walking into my own apartment after a long day knowing there was another battle waiting for me. The noise was so invasive, it would wake me up during the night and interrupt virtual work meetings during the day.”
Following months of emails and visits to observe the noise complaint that Ella upheld, she felt like she wasn’t getting anywhere so she began looking for somewhere else to live.
Upon finding the new apartment and being given the keys, she visited multiple times ahead of finally moving in on April 27. Frustratingly, despite not hearing the loud sounds on her initial look-around, she said that they “occurred with each visit” thereafter.
“We sent the videos to management, and they told us they will move us to a top-floor unit,” Ella said. “Know your rights as a tenant and document everything. Rent is way too expensive to have to put up with this.
“Most people in the comments seem to have similar experiences,” Ella added. “It’s a shame we don’t have more rights as tenants because everyone deserves the right to peaceful enjoyment of their premises.”
With more than 3,500 comments on her video, Ella’s been inundated with fellow renters who’ve had apartment nightmares of their own.
One person commented: “I refuse to ever move into anything but the top floor. I cried almost every night that I lived below someone and dealt with this.”
Another commenter wrote: “Our walls are so thin, I knew my neighbor had a cold because I kept hearing her cough all night. I also hear when she gets texts or phone calls.”
Do you have a problematic neighbor? Let us know via [email protected]. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.