We moved to another province about three and a half weeks ago. Our first day in our new home, after driving for over 6 hours in two separate vehicles (i drove our vehicle with our two small children) we had an unfortunate incident. We got the keys to our home about 3 pm, at 6:30 pm while i was making supper and my husband was trying to get our children's beds set up we got a knock at our door. The kids had been running around and were definitely noisier than normal (they are 4 and 20 mos). Our neighbour below us was at the door telling us that we were being too loud and that he could hear everything as the floors are not soundproof. He then went on to tell me that he was the one who got the last tenants evicted and that he didnt want to go down that route as its hard to find housing in our area. (this was a bit of a threat i think)
I was a bit taken aback as we seriously had only been in our new town for 3.5 hours, and about half of that was us getting groceries and figuring out parking etc outside. We were able to get the children to settle and were actually in bed fairly early as we were exhausted.
The next night our neighbour below us banged on the floor a couple of times really loudly. Our children had been walking around but nothing extreme like running or really loud crying or banging. It was fairly upsetting as we were trying to move boxes in and i was attempting to put stuff away while my husband moved boxes (we are on the fourth floor, he carried ALL of the boxes up all by himself from the moving van, plus we then carried about 5 boxes back out as the previous tenants had left a bunch of stuff in the storage closet that we got permission to donate). I talked to our landlord, they told us to handle it with our neighbor, so the next time they banged on the floor my husband went down and talked with them (turns out I spoke to the male, my husband spoke to a female). My husband said that yes, he could hear the children walking around while he was down there and it was on the loud side. He explained that we were just moving in, didnt even have all our furniture and would get carpets to try to mask the sound.
Well, Ive been home with the boys this week more than I have been the past two weeks. I usually take them out all morning to a preschool program, then its home for lunch, the youngest nap, and then i take them back out to play until my husband gets home from work. The past two days theneighbour has been banging on the floor again. My 20 month old doesnt have the quietest walk but we try our best to make sure the boys dont run and that we as adults adjust our steps so there is not a lot of noise. Today was the worst. My child walked from the kitchen to the living room (possibly about 6 feet) and they banged noisily across the floor right afterward. I think it triggered me as i felt a lot of anxiety and both of my boys were startled. It happened again a few minutes later when my youngest walked across the floor again. My husband was home, he said to just let the boys walk and that if the guy came up he would talk to him. I said that if he came up while my husband was at work i was NOT going to answer the door. My husband said, no dont answer and that he would deal with it.
We really love our new community otherwise. Its so beautiful here and so far, other than our neighbour below us the rest of the people in our building have been lovely and anyone we have met around town have been really nice.
My husband said that we are going to write our neighbor a letter and keep a copy. Im also thinking i may go and talk to the lady that is the caretaker of our building (she is separate from our landlord...who really wasnt much help) about the bylaws for the building and any legal information she could supply regarding noise, harassment, etc.
Outside of carrying my children everywhere in the house (which is NOT going to happen) im not really sure there is much more we can do. We put the youngest to bed at 7, the next goes at 8:30 and we are usually in bed by 10 at the latest, we arent partiers, we dont play loud music, or jump around on the floor. Any noise that is made is totally within the norms of acceptable noise. His behavior seems a bit extreme and its affecting us and our children. I know its the male, because his partner told my husband that she would be away from Dec 1 until the end of January...so she isnt even around right now. when i see him out in the parking lot he is constantly scowling and walks with an angry, intimidating gate.
Seriously, the banging on the floor happened over 2 hours ago and i still feel tightness in my chest and I feel skittery. Has anyone else had similar situations? What did you do to protect yourself?
