A sorry tale of the Stomping Berliner (the Burger-type not the Doughnuts)...
My neighbour, Mr. Angry, who lives upstairs, is cross because my dog got left outside by mistake on Monday I thought he had come inside, and I went and locked the garage door, but he was still outside. And off to bed I go, and sleep deeply. I slept that night with the window closed - usually it is open - so I didn't hear my poor doggy barking. At 3am I hear Mr. Angry (from Berlin) shouting and stomping and crashing around, he bangs on the door to my apartment and curses and groans and screams that 'your dog has been barking for three hours and no one has done anything and now I have to let him in and I cannot sleep... blablabla'... OH! My poor doggy rushes past me, relieved that he had not been abandoned to a complete night on the tiles in the freezing cold... I apologise profusely to Mr. Angry in my half asleep state, very embarrassed and berating myself for not realising I had left my dog outside and upset because Mr. Angry is... well, angry. But I do ask, why didn't Mr. Angry call or text me after half an hour of doggy barks saying 'your dog is barking, is he OK?' at which point I could have saved him two and a half hours of sleeplessness and my dog from the cold .
Next day, my son, who lives in an apartment in the roof - above Mr. Angry - pins a polite note on his door saying something along the lines of 'please do not shout at the lady of the house, if you have a problem, let's talk. We like living with you and having you as a neighbour, but we don't like the shouting, can we find a way to deal with this?. Yours, Upstairs'.
Mr. Angry comes home at 12:30am, rips the note off his door, starts shouting and screaming and bangs the note onto on MY door, and stomps off upstairs, crashing and bashing as he goes... By now the whole house is awake, me and my daughter underneath Mr. Angry, and my son above him.
After half an hour, my son decides to have a shower and the plumbing is a bit noisy... so Mr. Angry starts again, stomp stomp stomp crash bang shout... and so on.
This morning I get a Skype message from him, saying I MUST:
Tidy the cellar (I pay for the cellar space)
Tidy the garage (I pay for the garage space)
Don't tell him what to do - do not communicate via notes but talk to him if I have a problem
Look after my dog *that's the first time I have left him out like that, and we have been there three years - it was a mistake, I feel bad, but... *
Find somewhere else to live because he has only had 4.5 hours sleep the last two night *as have we...*
Now Mr. Angry stomps when I sneeze or close a cupboard drawer before 7am in the morning, which is difficult because sometimes I have to be at work early. My son has to start at 6am in the summer and has had frequent requests not to make a noise that early. The floor between Mr. Angry and my son's apartment - which is in the roof - hasn't been properly soundproofed, which is a problem. But not one we can change as we don't own the property.
*sighs* I would like an easy life, I have never moaned or stomped when Mr. Angry has one of his oft partaken rants and we all absolutely love living at the place - and my doggy has a lovely big garden - it is a farmhouse, the farmer lives in the village.
Mr. Angry found the property for us... (I know him through my work as he looks after all our computer network system) but we have separate rental contracts. He is a Berliner, btw, not Swiss.
Any suggestions folks?
The following 3 users groan at Sarneraa for this post:
dog barking for 3 hrs in the nighttime with no one taking care of him.
upstairs neighbour, who he knows to be a relative of barking dog lady taking a shower at 1am.
I'd be mr. Angry myself.
The following 9 users would like to thank grynch for this useful post:
Tidy the cellar
Tidy the garage
Don't tell him what to do - do not communicate via notes but talk to him if I have a problem
Look after my dog *
Find somewhere else to live because he has only had 4.5 hours sleep the last two night *
Next day, my son, who lives in an apartment in the roof - above Mr. Angry - pins a polite note on his door saying something along the lines of 'please do not shout at the lady of the house, if you have a problem, let's talk. We like living with you and having you as a neighbour, but we don't like the shouting, can we find a way to deal with this?. Yours, Upstairs'.
I find nothing polite in that note - you ask your neighbour to talk, but send him an aggressive note instead talking and solving the issue yourself.
The note is passive agressive and critizises him while you are obviously the one who cannot behave. I would not want to live next to you.
The following 2 users would like to thank Treverus for this useful post:
Wow!
Yes this wasn't going the way I had expected, true, but it's always good to see both sides and I am very grateful for the suggestions...
Actually, the note was an attempt at trying to be polite, so I don't agree that it was passive agressive, and I agree I behaved extremely badly by thinking that my dog was in when he wasn't - bad bad mistake. But it's not something that has happened before... and he's not a barky dog, he just barked to get my attention and I didn't hear him .
Also son having a shower in the early hours was a rash reaction to being woken up by the shouting and stomping - he doesn't do that usually and actually does try to avoid making any noise... This was the NEXT night, not the same night the dog was barking... second night was angry reaction to a note
I'm not saying we are perfect (sorry sorry)... I mean, door were slammed and shouts were yelled last week because I closed the door when he was cleaning out his car and I didn't know he was out there I dunno...
So I have had time to think and looking at advice from posters:
Solutions -
Ye, do as he says re tidying etc. (I'ma going to hide the recycling bags We already clean the floor every week in the wash room, don't think he's done that since we have been there but there ya go.)
Ye, don't shower at 1am... not good, bad neighbourly thing to do ....
Buy some rugs for upstairs...
NEVER lock the door without checking the dog is inside first...
Don't sneeze before 8am...
Buy him a bottle of wine... ? Will that be enough?
NO SNOWBALLS bad idea ?? Jury's still out on that one...
Be a better neighbour
The following 2 users would like to thank Sarneraa for this useful post:
I once lived upstairs from a Mr Angry (French one) and he complained about my 2 year old daughter making noise as she walked accross the room (barefoot or with slippers on). He complained to the landlady and we wrote letters and called the landlady to defend our selves and also to say we can't help it. Then she brought us ugly rugs to put in every room. And even then he complained! So we ended up ignoring him because some people have nothing else to do other than be angry. Finally he moved out Good Luck!
I thought he had come inside, and I went and locked the garage door, but 
he was still outside. And off to bed I go, and sleep deeply. I slept that night with the window closed - usually it is open - so I didn't hear my poor doggy barking. At 3am I hear Mr. Angry (from Berlin) shouting and stomping and crashing around, he bangs on the door to my apartment and curses and groans and screams that 'your dog has been barking for three hours and no one has done anything and now I have to let him in and I cannot sleep... blablabla'... 
OH! My poor doggy rushes past me, relieved that he had not been abandoned to a complete night on the tiles in the freezing cold... I apologise profusely to Mr. Angry in my half asleep state, very embarrassed and berating myself for not realising I had left my dog outside and upset because Mr. Angry is... well, angry. But I do ask, why didn't Mr. Angry call or text me after half an hour of doggy barks saying 'your dog is barking, is he OK?' at which point I could have saved him two and a half hours of sleeplessness and my dog from the cold 
.
but talk to him if I have a problem
. And even then he complained! So we ended up ignoring him because some people have nothing else to do other than be angry. Finally he moved out
Good Luck!
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