The law can't help me.

[ministryofmind]

We live in these yuppie-wood block condominiums in this "gated community" with these slow moving sloth gates that anyone can sneak in to. Our buildings are made out of tissue paper or swiss cheese, or perhaps a combination of both, because you can hear people sneeze above and below you.

Thankfully yuppies don't make much noise these days, especially the ones with full time jobs and no girlfriend to speak of yet. Like the guy who lives below us. The guy who just moved in above us on his brand spanking new hardwood floors? Not so nice. He enjoys stomping around above our heads and "getting things done" at one a.m. and then refuse to turn down his television because he has to hear it, and therefore suffer the rest of us to hear it too. By the way: he's supposed to have carpeting on his floor. The condo association's rules for filing a complaint are such that on the third complaint a tribunal is held to discuss compromises but the dick upstairs says "go ahead" and really doesn't give a hoot about complaints or compromises.

The LE questions come to this:

Alexandria, VA code dictates that if he so much as makes a peep after 11 pm on a weekday that bothers us, we can call the police and have them try to convince him to cooperate. The police tell us that if they have to come down the second or third time, he gets fined 25 dollars, and double that amount each subsequent time it happens again. Now, I don't think they actually enforce that, so how can I go about making sure that they do so the guy upstairs can learn a lesson?

Also, are there any other acoustically related laws and regulations that other people have heard of here that can help me "regulate" the jerk upstairs?

Lastly, is signing someone else up for "great promotions and deals from selected companies" illegal in terms of snail mail?

- Bunny

[indianagirl]

Your HOA is bets suited to address your concerns. It sounds like poor construction most is the problem. If the person upstairs is acting in a reasonable manner and you are still bothered by the noise, there is nothing the police can (or should) do. You can not compell the police to take action. This a civil problem, the police have very little authority in matters such as these.

Yes, signing him up for mailing lists and promo's is illegal.

[AtlCop]

Alexandria, VA code dictates that if he so much as makes a peep after 11 pm on a weekday that bothers us, we can call the police and have them try to convince him to cooperate. The police tell us that if they have to come down the second or third time, he gets fined 25 dollars, and double that amount each subsequent time it happens again. Now, I don't think they actually enforce that, so how can I go about making sure that they do so the guy upstairs can learn a lesson?

Also, are there any other acoustically related laws and regulations that other people have heard of here that can help me "regulate" the jerk upstairs?

Lastly, is signing someone else up for "great promotions and deals from selected companies" illegal in terms of snail mail?

- Bunny

There is nothing you can do to force a police officer take an enforcement action that he/she doesn't want to take. This is one of the great things about being a police officer. We have discretion in most cases, especially something minor, to take whatever enforcement action we feel is appropriate.

Second, obtaining something using someone's identity other than your own is most certainly a crime. Even if you don't benefit directly, you can't go around giving out people's personal information for the purpose of items being obtained or accounts being set-up.

[Tennsix]

Your HOA is best suited to address your concerns. It sounds like poor construction most is the problem. If the person upstairs is acting in a reasonable manner and you are still bothered by the noise, there is nothing the police can (or should) do. You can not compell the police to take action. This a civil problem, the police have very little authority in matters such as these.

Yes, signing him up for mailing lists and promo's is illegal.

I posted that. I accidently posted under my friend's screen name.

[That Guy]

I posted that. I accidently posted under my friend's screen name.

Yeah right....the truth comes out......

I agree alos on putting pressure on your HOA. When I have cases like this I get the complaintant to do up a private person's arrest form and cite the "offender". This way they can duke it out in court and I can stay out of the fire.

TGY

[BrickCop]

I posted that. I accidently posted under my friend's screen name.

Uh-huh....suuuuure.

[Tennsix]

Uh-huh....suuuuure.

Sheesh. Shave your legs one time...

[horne80]

Have you talked to your leasing office agents before calling the police. Because I know cops love making those apartment 'noise complaint' calls all the time.

If the neighbor is a constant nuisance, your leasing people should be able to take care of it.. They will threaten eviction.

[ministryofmind]

These are condos. We all own our places, how can they evict people?

I have gone to our community housing people and all they say is file a complaint. On the third one a tribunal is held and people get together to do ... something. They wouldn't tell me.

His noise level is definitely unreasonable. The time we went up to tell him to turn his TV down because it was bouncing around in his completely empty living room (what has he been doing making ALL that noise when no furniture has been moved in???) he just flat out said "no." When we went up at 1 a.m. to say "you need to stop moving in at this hour" he said "stuff has to get done." He stomps around all day and all night, he gets his friends over and then he shouts and screams with them at some sports game loud enough that we can hear the dialogue. He still doesn't have carpeting (it's a community rule) and he had the balls to go to the housing people and say that it was coming in and that we were having sex loud enough to wake up the whole neighborhood. Mind you, we moved OUT for a month during his noisiest wake. I wonder where his nocturnal noise is actually coming from, or maybe he's just spreading foul rumors to embarrass us.

The housing people have no sympathy for noise complaints because they get it ALL THE TIME. It is terribly poor construction, but miraculously they tell us the decibel requirements have been met by the people who built the place. So all I can do is essentially call the police where appropriate during late hours and he won't shut up, and it really will be up to the police to see what action they take even if I have to call them two, three times?