‘Stop complaining about your neighbors’: Noisy bench-pressing neighbor falls through the floor, landlord pays up after ignoring tenant’s complaints

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Apr 1, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

It all started with a loud noise from above, and before he knew it, this tenant's upstairs neighbor came falling through the ceiling. Yup, that actually happened. Thankfully, everyone involved seems to be ok now, except perhaps for the bank accounts of the upstairs neighbor and the tenant's landlord. The former had been bench-pressing in his living room and damaging the tenant's ceiling repeatedly in the process. He was also ignoring the tenant's persistent requests to quiet down and to find another, safer place to exercise. 

The landlord also ignored the tenant on numerous occasions and even told him to stop complaining. Well, when the inevitable accident actually occurred, the landlord would come to regret that statement, as it could come across as total and utter negligence. The Redditor shared their side of the story via this thread on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit.

Keep scrolling below for the fallout and subsequent updates. When you're finished, feel free to take a look at this post about another penny-pinching landlord.

Advertisement
  • 01
    "Our upstairs neighbor was doing bench-press lifting in his living room" PROFIT
    via Shoham Avisrur
  • 02
    "Stop complaining about your neighbors!" Okay. Sure. LOC Now, that story is VERY recent, and the "told you so" effect is never as sweet as this was.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 03
    I have moved in an apartment with a roommate last summer. When we first came in, the biggest part of the sale was the fact that the apartment was freshly renovated,
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 04
    and soundproof (This one is important, and you'll see why), so when we got in, my roommate immediately fell in love with it, and I was too. When we moved in, we were very careful not to bother anyone, as we wanted to quickly have a good relationship with our neighbours ("Oh, did you see the new neighbours? They only moved during the day, they don't make sound during the night, what nice people!" kind of deal) and we can safely say it worked.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 05
    What we did not know, however, is that we were only three renters when we first came in; us on the floor, another family upstairs on the opposite side, and another one on the 3rd floor, with one empty apartment between us. Turns out the 'soundproof' statement was accurate, but only in regards to the inside-to-outside situation. When our upstairs neighbours moved in, it was a g nightmare. Sound from 5am to past midnight, five days in a row, dropping stuff, speaking loudly, yelling or walking in t
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 06
    Out of frustration on the fifth day, I walk upstairs and meet my neighbour, at midnight. I ask them to cease their activities for the night. I have work in the morning,
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 07
    and I cannot be kept up all night. I understand they were freshly moved in, and they might have had a tight schedule, but midnight was too late to be moving stuff.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 08
    He didn't reply and closed the door on me. I go downstairs, and the sound starts over again.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 09
    I notify my landlord, and he tells me he'll handle it, and apologized for the situation, explaining to me my neighbour was just moving and that he probably didn't understand what I was saying because of language barrier.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 10
    The neighbours were extremely loud. I know a lot of Karen will use that as an excuse to shower their neighbours with hate, but when I say loud, I mean it. There was no stop to their loud noises, it seemed like they couldn't be bothered to hold something without dropping it, or jumping up and down on the floor, or purposefully bo the bed frame against the wall when having
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 11
    I recorded the event, and even install microphones in my home ☐ to my computer, activating and recording every time there is strong vibration in the house. Over 98 events on monday February 14th. I was livid. I send that to the landlord and explained this cannot continue. First the apartment was poorly soundproofed, which meant we were hearing every d sound at all time. Second, we had notified the neighbours about the situation, and they have ignored it. I have notified the landlord to awaken th
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 12
    I report the issues several time, and even advise my landlord that there were very heavy sounding thuds coming from upstairs, which worried me. He answered with "Stop complaining about your neighbours, already! I have other things to do!"
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 13
    I have answered. "Understood, sir. Please be advised this will be my last communication and action to help you in that regard."
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 14
    You know when I said I head loud bangs? Turns out our upstairs neighbour was doing bench-press lifting in his living room, and the heavy thuds I kept hearing was him dropping his weights on the ground. I had warned my roommate about removing anything she didn't want broken from the living room, and lo and behold; four days later, the first crack appeared. Then another. The floor was giving up. I moved the couch out of the way, and moved the TV and consoles into the bedroom. Fast forward to three
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 15
    I went to the living room, to see my neighbour on the ground, with several actually gruesome injuries due to the fact he just went through the floor and brought his bench and weight rack with him. I called an ambulance, and the police. The police asked me if I reported the issue with my landlord, which I could confirm, due to my communications being made via email. I sent everything, and I am now, of course, filing to break my lease due to uninhabitable dwelling.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 16
    The landlord came in yesterday, and just proceeded to explode. Told me I should have made him aware that my neighbour was doing dangerous things, to which I answered I had notified him about the very loud sounds and he never investigated, and that he also ordered me to stop complaining about my neighbours. It was not my responsibility to go out of my way to protect his assets if he is unwilling to cooperate with me.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 17
    My neighbours, roommate and I are now residing in a hotel until we can find a new place to live. We are now also looking towards adding a bit more salt to the injury by maybe filing for criminal negligence against both our landlord and the neighbour, the first because the apartment was apparently having some flaws and the latter for endangering us (had I not caught up on what caused the sound earlier, me or, god forbid, my roommate could have been under that.)
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 18
    Anyway, it was a fun week. And I do enjoy the accommodations of my hotel. Never went to a four-star spa-included hotel before. Turns out the chocolate on the pillow is a lie and I am very disappointed about that.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 19
    TL;DR: My neighbour was a noisy b ьс that went through the floor with his weightlifting equipment, and my landlord ignored me when I complained about the noise.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 20
    Edit: As I have advised to a few commentators, I followed up with my roommate, and she did not take pictures of the event. She got a bit mad I asked considering what just happened, and questioned my priorities. I then explained that our reddit story got a lot of attention and some people in the comments requested some visual proof. I will spare you her answer.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 21
    I will just add that it's okay not to believe the story based on my word alone. If people actually didn't question it, I would be worried. When I posted this story, my only intent was to share my experience and I though "huh, malicious compliance, neat". If there was a "horrible landlord" "bad neighbour" reddit I would have found prior to submitting this story, probably would have went there instead.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 22
    I will also add that I am not an expert or an engineer. How and why something like weights and the like would cause part of the floor to collapse, I cannot say. Was there a structural damage prior? Was there water damage that never was addressed, just covered-up? Was the structure just not as sound as I believed it was when I got in? I cannot say. I understand some of you might have worked in construction and never have experienced such an event, or have actual reasons to suspect a lie due to pe
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 23
    For those who made us laugh and those who have spoken to us, who have been encouraging and constructive, people who actually gave us advice, I thank you very much. It was very nice of everyone, and I wish you the best.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 24
    Update: My brother has agreed to take the case and look at the options. We are not feeling very vindictive and our insurance are going to cover most of the costs, so we might file for negligence. I'm not a lawyer myself, I don't know the terms in english, but basically; the landlord should have had his building inspected before renting, which was apparently not done.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 25
    Landlord has apparently calmed down after the events and has apologized for everything. He has scheduled a visit from an inspector to check the integrity of the apartment and the cause of the damage that would have allowed a human and exercise equipment to go through the floor and ceiling.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 26
    In exchange for not pressing charges, he has agreed to reimburse all the money we have invested into the rent, our stay at the hotel and a little extra as an apology, and the guarantee to either repair the apartment and soundproof it properly or, if it is not an option to go back, he will relocate us onto another of his building (which are a lot better than what we had), reduce our rent quite significantly for as long as we stay (with papers to back his offer up) and a full year of free rent.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 27
    This is actually quite generous, in the current rent market. I'm leaving the final say to roommate. On my end; I was not injured, she was not, and this could have been just a freak accident. Yes, the landlord is a bit of an, but let's be honest, we all had worse, landlord wise. Plus, even if we take him up on his offers, the upstairs neighbour might be looking for some severe reparation (he DID get injured, after all).
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 28
    But we would be happy to hear about your opinion; what would you say? Take this further or just take the refund, plus the full year, rent-free year and then low rent for the years to come?
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 29
    LAST UPDATE: After a long time deciding what to do, we have opted to take the landlord's offer. However, we made it clear that we could not live under the same people if the soundproofing was not at the very least improved. We went to my brother's office and met with a colleague of his who multiple documents for us to sign. One of them for the promise of low rent (Landlord wanted to offer 250$ off the market price, we negotiated it up to 300$) to be applied on all our leases. We have also agreed
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 30
    We might be moving back into our apartment by the end of the month. It's a bit disappointing, as we kind of wanted to try another place, but from what I understand, there is a very good chance our neighbours are not moving back on their end, so it might just be back to the ideal scenario. There will be very heavy renovation done and a thorough inspection of the structure before we move back in.
    via u/TheAngryArcanist
  • 31
    Comment from OP: I just want to thank everyone for their kind words, their jokes, their encouragements. They have very much helped both of us, and got us to smile a bit more. For the others, I do not wish anything less. I just hope you are doing well, that you are safe. I appreciate the effort of those who were still able to voice their disbelief while being respectful, and for the others... well, you know. It's the Internet, what are we going to do?
    via u/TheAngryArcanist

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

landlord neighbors malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit petty revenge reddit thread Bad Neighbor Reddit apartment
Scroll Down For The Next Article