It was pretty funny, I must admit... even now, 5 years later!
I have always promised my friend that when her son is old enough I will tell him how the whole town was there at his conception

I used to have a neighbour who came home late at night / early in the morning and left her street shoes (high, clapping heels) on when walking through the apartment (tiles and wooden floor) for an hour, which sounded as if someone was tap dancing next to my bed. One night, I went over and said that she was probably not aware of this, but that it was very loud. I asked her boyfriend to come over to listen to her walking around, he did (granted, I was lucky on that), and they were both shocked at how loud it was. After that, she always took off her shoes when coming home.

Good luck!
Idgie

A familiar problem for all apartment dwellers I'm sure. I would recommend a 3 step program. (all of which I have worked through at some stage or other)

The best and most effective way (i've found) is ..

1. The way of peace. Introduce yourself, try to make friends . Explain in a friendly way, that the walls are thin, and you are hearing more than you'd like. Have a laugh, perhaps invite them over for a cuppa.

if this doesnt work..

2. The way of Law. Write to the Verwaltung or owner, expressing your concern about the noisy neighbor. Focus on there obviously low social calibre. Fill out the list with their other sins. (Not bagging rubbish correctly? Parking wrongly? partying without a permit ? throwing ciggie buts off the balcony?) They are obviously lawless pigs who need to be controlled or evicted before the whole house descends into chaos.

if the verwaltung or owner takes no notice you are left with..

3. The way of war. Find out you neighbors sleeping patterns and give him a taste of his own medicine. Wake him up repeatedly with noises that he cannot ignore. (Deathmetal, breaking glass, Fireworks, hammer drill. ) . This method takes the dedication of interupting your own sleep patterns, and is by no means a certain success.

NB. Perhaps its better to move out before 3.

Hope thats a help

Sun Tzu has spoken

most importantly -

"To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill" - Sun Tzu

That is a nice neighbour .... Any more apartments going your way at the moment ?

Has someone in this thread succeeded in getting rid of the "problem"? Our neighbor upstairs has been driving us nuts with his frequent sex partners (he's married, living separated, but has all kinds of women over all the time, including his wife). The noises gross us out - sounds like there's a zoo upstairs. But the worst part is that they always do it in the middle of the night - usually between midnight and 2 o'clock. I wake up every single time.

We've tried everything - shouting while they were having sex, waking them up at 6 a.m. after they had woken us up at 2 by shutting doors and turning up the bathroom radio to max while having breakfast in the other room etc. He's not taking the hint.

Last night I finally had it and called him. He reacted extremely angrily to my call, saying that I must be over-sensitive and that he's not willing to discuss the issue - that I should rather talk to the landlord or the police.

I should mention here that I wasn't threatening any kind of further action here - he was the one who mentioned the landlord and the police. I merely asked him (as politely as I could at 12:30 a.m.) to keep down the volume.

Our apartment is very expensive (2.5k / month for 4.5 rooms) and I'm not willing to put up with this any longer. I always thought it'd be easier to live in an up-scale area but I can tell you: there's nothing worse than snobby Swiss neighbors with an MBA. The weirdest thing is that this guy works for a high-level human resources agency but has absolutely no social skills himself, is a seriously egomaniac dazzler and has anger-management issues.

Calling the police would be futile - by the time they move their butts to our house, the noise will have stopped. Talking to the landlord about it is just something I'm not really willing to do - I think that's kindergarten behavior - issues like this have to be settled face to face in my opinion.

peter

This is of course the same Sun Tzu that had a number of concubines beheaded in order to encourage motivation when they were being taught to march in step ? I think his idea of subdue is slightly different from the swiss.

dave

Yes except when the kid doesn't want to play the grown up!!!

True - but getting into neighborly guerrilla warfare isn't my goal. Next thing he'll do is badmouth about my sat dish or the air conditioner and I'll have to blow up his car (a very large Lexus SUV, btw - which he's been bragging about to the whole neighborhood ever since he moved in. Probably costs 200+ Fr. to fill the tank. No, he doesn't have the hybrid, perhaps I should point that out to him)

But seriously: perhaps cheering and shouting in encouragement while they're having sex next time will be the best/only thing to do.

peter

Yes please, you really should do that one!

Come on boy!!!! You can make it! GO GO GO!!!!!!!! GOOOOOALLLLL!!!!!

With comments as well....

Ah come on..... You did better last night!!! What is that? tired? Not in the mood? Forgot your prescription?

You can record it and send it to him, so he can fallow his training...

You will be the coach of the year...

Another good question
"Do you need special equipment to get her to make that noise?"

Call Strutter Direct and get him to sort it out:

Since my neighbours are as noisy as I am after 22h00 my recipe is to outplay them with favourite radio station with live audio streaming (I listened to it when I used to drive in South Africa and stuck in the traffic on N1):

http://www.highveld.co.za/planet947/streaming.asp

... but it must be real loud

This is what I will do:
1. Post a big letter on the front door, to ask the neighbours to be quiet (write in german/english so they know it is you).
2. If it still does not work, then I will MOVE house. And move to a EFH (einfamiliehaus), single-standing...so you have NO neighbours.

Really, there is little else you can do.

HAT

PS: Can some kind admin reset my status?

Hi all,

I guess there have already been a lot of posts about noisy neighbours. Here's another one . Really i'm after advice of what to do - i'm renting a flat near zurich. been here a month. Family due to come over soon from the UK. The flat looked fine..... but its not. Sleeping here is not an option. The buildling construction is so terrible that flushing the toilet anywhere sounds like an avalanche throughout the building. There are no house rules. I have people on one side of me who get up at 5am and others that stay up till 1 or 2 am. So getting a full nights sleep is not an option, i'm wakened several times a night.

The place is just not habitable. I'm a bit terrified that i'm stuck here until the move-time stated in the contract comes up. My family will come over soon though and i'm not happy at the prospect that we'll all be up all night. I'm getting delirious from lack of sleep.

What can I do ? Do I have reasons for legal recourse in order to break the contract early ? I wonder if its legal to rent a wohnung if basic necessities aren't met! Do you have any suggestions ? I'd just move and rent out 2 properties concurrently if it were not for the fact that i'm selling a house in the uk and alos have to pay the mortgage for that right now.

Help. Please.... ! suggestions? I've tried writing to the landlord but he seems particularly uncommunicative. If it turned out he didn't exist i wouldn't be surprised. Who doesn't have an email address in this day and age?
Are there consumer support groups in Switzerland I can contact?

Cheers,
Stu

You've given a lot of anecdotal information, but few facts. What construction work ? Your building ? With whom did you sign the contract ? What was contained in the contract ? Usually there are references to rules of the house which detail noise restrictions etc. What is your notice period ? If you have only been here a short time you may not realise that noise complaints (except church bells!) are taken very seriously and the police are often called.

My advice would be to find out the facts of your case then complain appropriately, both to your landlord and then to the police. There is also a renters association (described elsewhere on the forum) that can help.

dave

I had no choice but to move...

A while back I had moved into a building which I was told was quiet. Well, I could even hear the vegetables being chopped through the thin walls. The neighbours were a nightmare. Every night heavy metal music blasted at full volume pounding, literally shaking the walls and their screaming fights were ongoing. Their apt was a duplex and forced to hear them from above and next door made things even more terrible. Indescribable really to explain how from morning to night I did not have one minute of peace and quiet.

My only recourse was to move, which I did.

Before I moved in the agent had reassured me that the construction was sound, and that the neighbours were quiet... When I returned the keys to her she was showing a prospective tenant the apt. Knowing full well what I had endured for those months she actually told this person that noise was not a problem.

I also have noisy neighbours, it's mainly the kids that make the nose, over lunch time or after 11pm at night, i spoke to my neighbour and she told me if i didn't like it move or talk to the owner (talking to the owner was not an option as my neighbours are the care takers) so i just started making nose too, they soon got the hint......

doesn't always work.......

good luck...

Apparently WE are the noisy neighbours. Only one woman really complains about us, but she has a face like a slapped backside so I doubt she is really happy anyway. Before we moved in, a single man lived here, all on his own who travelled a lot. She had got used to utter peace and tranquility and then we arrived. I do my best to keep our daughter quiet, she wears slippers all the time and I have put the little felt things on the bottom of the dining room set. The woman (who lives upstairs), sounds as if she sits on a chair and pounds her feet on the floor in response to any sound we make. I know that noise is subjective, but I really don't think we are more noisy than any other family. We are seriously considering moving.

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