Entitled tenant reports landlord to the city after discovering the unit above her is not up to code, resulting in months of construction noise: ‘That move backfired on her mission to get peace and quiet’

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Nov 5, 2025 7:00 AM EST

Living in a peaceful environment, one where the only noise you hear inside your home is the fridge working, is something we all aspire to have.

Realistically, you can't really avoid noise, even from the comfort of your own home. You will occasionally hear cars driving by outside, your neighbors in the midst of an argument, or a baby crying. But the worst noise of all, the one no one expects and is impossible to avoid, is when construction work is being done somewhere around you.

Waking up one morning to find that your neighbors have decided to renovate their entire home, and you will now be forced to listen to the relentless sound of drilling until it is done, is an actual nightmare for us. So when the entitled neighbor in the story below brought this fate upon herself, we had to share it here.

Keep scrolling to read the story of a neighbor who couldn't stand the sound of her upstairs neighbor living their lives, only to subject herself to weeks of construction after she complained about them to the city in an attempt to get them out of the apartment…

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  • 01
    Woman Wearing Sleep Mask Covers Her Ears Sitting in Bed. Insomnia Due to Noisy Neighbors
    via @kris-han

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02

    Her neighbors were too noisy!

    This happened a few years ago, but it's still one of my favorites. I manage a small multi-unit building in NYC. One of the tenants, was the neighbor from hell, she complained about the
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    people who lived above her on a daily basis, a married couple in their late 20's and one of their siblings sharing a two-bedroom apartment. She would call the police, the city, and our office
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    constantly about "excessive noise." Every single time, the complaints turned out to be unfounded. Some were made when the upstairs tenants weren't even home, and once,
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    when they were out of the country and I knew they weren't lying because when I called them their phones had that international ring tone.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    The down stairs tenant works from home and insists that any normal daytime sounds between 9 and 5 are unacceptable and prevent her from doing her job.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    She decided to dig through city records and discovered that the upstairs unit was still listed as a one-bedroom. She immediately demanded that we evict the upstairs tenants for "illegal
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
  • 08
    Cheezburger Image 10571255040
    via Mateusz Pielech

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    occupancy." When we didn't, she went straight to the city and filed a complaint. That move backfired on her mission to get peace and quiet. The city issued a violation and gave the
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    landlord two options: either revert the unit back to a one- bedroom or bring it up to current code as a two-bedroom.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    The owner, chose to bring it up to code. The upstairs tenants - the married couple and the sibling― were temporarily moved into another apartment rent-free while construction
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    went on for over a month. Work started every morning at 8 a.m. sharp and wrapped up around 4 p.m.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    Ironically, the couple had actually been planning to move out before all this. The old walls had some lead paint, and they weren't comfortable staying long-term with that. But since
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    the renovation completely gutted and rebuilt the place - new walls, updated wiring, everything up to modern standards — they decided to stay. -
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    So now, the downstairs tenant who couldn't stand "daytime noise" got to experience five straight weeks of hammering, drilling, and construction boots overhead every day. And when it
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    was all done? It's still a two- bedroom with the married - couple moving back in, and the sibling deciding not to return because the second bedroom was now being turned into a nursery for their new baby which was on the way.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    Now she gets to enjoy the sound of a crying newborn and little feet running around all day.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    hhhhhhd5 The building you manage isn't up to code and has lead paint and you're upset about a woman wanting some peace and quiet? Fuck landlords like this.
    via hhhhhhd5
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    OP F_Stop_Wide_Open Any building in NYC built before 1960 has lead paint in it, and building has 0 violations and when it was brought to landlords attention he corrected it.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
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    panderp Yes, actually, we should be testing every single home for lead paint. I live in a place with improper "remediation" work (...they just paint over the paint. that's it. and then that peels, and they paint over it more.) Landlords are still fucking awful at doing ANYTHING about lead in their properties, even after decades of knowing what it does to people.
    via panderp
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    OP F_Stop_Wide_Open NYC landlords should have tested all apartments for lead ( $200 or more per apt.), If lead is present tenants need to be made aware, lead on Friction-able surfaced removed, and the rest of the unit inspect annually for chipping paint, and remedied if found. Complete abatement would be very expensive.
    via F_Stop_Wide_Open
  • 22
    Confident-Ad7531 A quiet apartment in NYC? When the city itself is far from quiet? Someone is delulu.
    via Confident-Ad7531
  • 23
    TheCrystalRose The owner/landlord decided to officially upgrade the apartment to a 2-bedroom, which would require constant construction for weeks, knowing that the downstairs neighbor has been complaining about the noise level. Which seems to be at least mildly malicious towards the complainer.
    via TheCrystalRose
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    6poundpuppy The owner maliciously compiled by choosing the lengthy and noisiest option, the one that would highly annoy the constantly complaining tenant. Good for him, a win for everyone who deserved it.
    via 6poundpuppy

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landlord neighbors neighborhood tenant construction neighborhood-drama neighborhood-stories reddit story petty entitled Reddit entitled people apartment
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