Absolute Nightmare Neighbor Makes Terrible Smells and Plays Loud Music Late at Night, Thinks Their Neighbor is the Crazy One

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Sep 1, 2022 10:00 AM EDT

I'm moving into a duplex at the end of this week, and this post stuck out to me because it realizes all of the anxieties that I have ever had about moving into a new place, especially in a place like an apartment, unit, or duplex that shares walls with other persons.

This thread was posted on Reddit's r/legaladvice subreddit by user, u/DrLawrencePleebles, who is looking for some advice on a developing situation in which his arrogance and entitlement have landed him.

In general, when you're looking for a place going for a 10-minute viewing of a house in the middle of a weekday gives you a highly inaccurate depiction of the experience you're actually going to have when living there. Very few people will be home at that time of day, and the streets are normally at their quietest. So, you get an impression that you're going to be moving into a place of still and peaceful bliss when the reality is likely very different.

During your first night in the place, you begin to realize everything you missed with your narrow frame of perception, and reality starts to dawn.

There's a TV blaring through the wall, you can hear a kid throwing a tantrum across the street, and the cars being directed down your street by Google Maps to avoid rush hour traffic are slamming into every speed bump creating a distinctive scraping boom that pierces the din.

Your only hope is that this daily ritual of noise settles down early; after all, you've signed a 12-month lease, so you'll be stuck here for at least that long. The last thing you want to endure after the evening ruckus is a neighbor who makes noises at late or early hours that keep you from getting sleep. Late-night partiers and loud car owners are a few of the most common culprits.

Enter this a-hole. He was creating feral smells that prevented his poor neighbor from opening her window on a hot summer's night and blaring loud music late in the evening just because he enjoyed it. This bizarre individual is so self-centered and self-indulgent that he has gone so far as to convince himself that his poor, suffering neighbor is in the wrong for having the misfortune of living next to him.

This guy is a worst-case scenario for many of us, and I will count my blessings if I don't end up sharing a wall with someone like him.