Hi,
I desperately need some advise. I have been staying in Basel since Nov 2009. I moved to a new apartment in Feb 2010. The tenant from whom i took over the house mentioned that the neighbour staying downstairs has a habit of complaining once in a month saying there is lot of noise. he has done that to me as well. He keeps sticking notices saying he will complaint to the agency. We have never had a complaint from anyone else and it seems he is the only one who has a problem. I am looking for advise on what should be my recourse if he registers an official complaint with the agency.
We really like the house and are so mentally stressed that we are afraif of even talking and walking in the house.
Please help
Thanks,
Nishith
Neighbours like this are a menace and a pest. Firstly, calm down.. even if they did send a letter, its not the end of the world.
If he sends a letter saying that you "walk too loudly" then thats just nuts. You pay rent in order to be allowed to live there.
Have a look, using the search function to see what others have done.
@Rangatiranui - Thanks. The "calm down" bit helps. He again came a few days later saying we were talking too loudly. He aslo brought one of the rental agency folks home. At this point it becomes interesting, I asked the rental agency person to check with my next door neighbours if we have been making noise and my neighbour said a firm NO. So it now proven to the agency (i truly hope...) that it is only the person downstairs who has an issue. keeping fingers crossed as my wife and 5 year old son are expected in a few weeks and dont know what happens after that....
As long as you do not know what noise they are hearing, there is nothing you can do anyway. So either you find a middle man to find out - or you go to the neighbours with the trick of "explain me how to live, I am a stupid foreigner". Irony does help in some countries.
When you know, you will be able to assess if you can actually do something or if it is a general complaint without any sensible facts.
In my experience, it may also be worth informing your owner/agency yourself, so that they have your side of the story from the beginning. Very frustrating when the agency belive the delirium of a nervous neighbour. Some may argue that it is best NOT to create a problem officially as long as there isn't a real one. Both views are justified... you will have to decide in your case.
Hi,ektanish, welcome to the forum.
This person should be ignored. Try and relax a little, especially as someone from the agency has already been and been told by a neighbor that your not noisy.
I'd be interested to know how long it's been since the agencies visit because if they thought there was a problem you would have had an official letter from them immediately. Try not to pass your nervousness onto your wife, just enjoy your family time together.
Good luck.
If he knocks on your door complaining, laugh maniacally in his face and slap him with a wet trout.
This is Switzerland. Fresh trout is expensive; you could use asparagus instead as it's in season.
You could just flip the situation, start leaving notices on his door about HIS so-called noise and threatening to tell 'the agency'
Are you sure it's cheaper ?
My bad; it was an assumption. At least it's suddenly hit me that there's a good use for all those oranges I got at Fasnacht.
On receiving his next complaint, calmly go over and ask him to let you know immediately ("as it is happening") the next time "you make too much noise". Tell him you want to be a good neighbor, and ask for his cooperation in identifying the problem.
Add on to some comments suggesting arrogant behaviour:
culturaly speaking, be aware that Germans and Swiss Germans tend to be very self confident when they think they are right. What counts is what they think, not reality. That means that escalation can go very far and they will not give up as long as they are fighting for what they think is the truth. That can be very annoying in real life for the other part. You may want to be more diplomatic (in other words more hypocritical) in order to avoid escallation without really giving up yourself.
In other places of the world, things are different - and personality of your particular neighbour will also play a role. But still.... think about it.
I would deal with this matter once and for all in 2 steps.
Have a chat with the neighbour in question. Tell him that you want to live in harmony and is taking his complaints seriously to ascertain if its really a problem. Sometimes, what we think isnt noise ourselves can be annoying to others so having not been your neighbour, I am giving both parties the benefit of the doubt. Also, with certain apartment buildings (the newer ones), your next door neighbour wont hear a peep from you but people above or below you can. My next door neighbour for example, cant hear me practicing the piano at all but the one above me can.
In order for you to take him seriously, ask him to list down and give you specific incidents or examples of noise caused by you , and I am referring to specific time/dates/why he thinks that you were being noisy, rather than just overall whinging.
Ask him to stop with the notes and promise to revisit the situation again in a month or so. I know I am being terribly anal telling you how I would deal with this but you need to fight fire with fire dealing with some people.
At the end of the agreed time period, use your own judgment - if you reckon those incidents noted down are trivial and are part of every day living, bring it to the agency and show them that these are the petty things the man has been bitching about. They wont even bother entertaining him the next time.
If not, make the effort to tone it down. Who knows, asking him to record down specific incidents might deter him from complaining any further. Unless he is a no-lifer who is sitting around all day waiting to pounce on wrong doing neighbours, he wont bother and will also stop with the complaints because you are confronting him head on, but politely.
Good luck and let us know how you get on.
This part stands out...
The question is, do you like the flat enough to put up with this kind of behavior ad infinitum ? Will the stress this conflict begin to overshadow the things you like about your living situation?
My experience: these kind of neighbors never change. Such conflicts rarely resolve, and often escalate. As Faltrad so correctly points out, whether or not you are actually making an unacceptable level of noise is neither here nor there as far as the conflict goes - in the neighbor's mind you are, and nothing will likely change his mind.
So, how thick is your skin? Assuming that you are only making 'normal' everyday acceptable noise, if you are able to brush off such complaints, then ignore him and go about your life.
But if the neighbor's behavior starts to really get to you, if the stress of walking on eggshells 24/7 becomes too much, if you feel that you cannot carry on a normal life, there is only one solution:
Move out.
Hope you find a resolution.
Hi,
You have to find out where you stand with the agency you rent from. If they have heard it from another neighbour that you are not noisy he will eventually work out that his complaints aren't getting him anywhere.
We had issues with our neighbours and he is hard work. We kind of stay out of each others way.He is not a big fan of kids but they are always polite to him so he can't complain about much. You need to try and get this issue sorted before your wife and kid join you! does he know you have family coming out to live with you? Its best to tell him in advance.
I hope it works out for you!
Darcy