October 12, 2003
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Neighbors are making a terrible racket late at night. How long do you tolerate it before taking action?

I'd keep a log for a week and then get in touch with the police.

Aly, 17
Cardiff UK

½ hr

Melodi, 19
Gahanna, OH USA

If you're on good terms with them just tell them as soon as it becomes an issue. If you're not on good terms with them join 'em.

Alias Irrelevante

After 10 o'clock, I'd go over and tap on their door. Then their actions would determine my actions.

Jill, 61
Saylorsburg, PA USA

I have a high tolerance for noise and actually can sleep through anything. If it is something that is recurring, I might wait to day hours to have a calm talk with the folks. If after repeated infractions, I would eventually call the cops. This would probably take months for me to do this.

However, if it sounded like someone was being hurt, I would immediately call the cops.

Felicia, 37
Lowell, MA USA

I guess it depends on how often they do this. If it's really out of the ordinary, I'll try to put up with it for as long as it takes, but if it became a regular habit, I'd lose patience pretty fast!

Fisch, 47
Preston, CT USA

That all depends. Our neighbors are two couples of retirement age, one couple whose youngest (I think) kid graduated from high school in the spring, and one couple with two small children. So the chances of noisy parties are minimal, and I would expect there to be a reason if they were making lots of noise late at night. I'd want to know the reason before I called the cops or something. When I was in the bottom of a duplex, though, I had completely lost patience with the guys living above us. I was okay with an occasional party--we were all young--but they
were partying all the time, coming home late and drunk, finding a "good" song and blasting it again and again with no breaks, singing drunkenly along. One night I pounded on the ceiling with a hockey stick; they knocked back. They also lined up beer bottles outside our door and left cigarette butts all over our sidewalk. So in the morning I called the landlord and told him. He went and gave the one guy who hadn't been involved a stern talking-to (the other guys
having passed out). The next time it happened I was going to call the cops, but then I started sleeping over at my (then-future) husband's apartment, and it was no longer a problem for me. There was a party a couple of blocks away that was keeping me up one night, and I had a final the next day, so I did call the cops about that. The speed with which I react to such situations is proportionate to how much I need to sleep and how little I'm able to sleep.

Karen, 24
Ames, IA USA

I wouldn't take any action unless I knew the racket was caused by something criminal. If it's just noise from a party, I'll let it go because if it's bad enough, some other neighbor will take care of it.

Cathie, 53
Novi, MI USA

Depends on what kind of mood I am in. If it was keeping me from sleeping I would probably let them know.

Cindy, 41
VA USA

If it's the weekend and they don't party hardy too often, I'd tend to let it go unto 2:00 am. During the week and I have to get up a 6:00am. My limit would be 11:00pm.

Janet, 46
E. Brunswick, NJ USA

Depends on the night and what kind of ruckuss. If its a weekend....chill... its the weekend. If its a weekend but there is fighting...oh yeah call the police. if its a work nite and there is any kind of ruckuss, give it about an hour unless it is fighting, give it till it gets out of control.

Stephanie, 27
TX USA

It depends on how tired I am and how often they make such noise.

Jane, 63
West Linn, OR USA

My nearest neighbors are too far away to be heard.

Tam

We had this problem. We usually called the police at 11:30 pm to complain. Butthead has since moved so it is no longer a problem.

Laura, 38
Lowell, MA USA

Probably about a half hour if it's a week night.

Keri-Jade, 23
Brampton, Ontario CANADA

Yesterday / Tomorrow