Landlord gives tenant a warning for vacuuming after 8:00 pm on a Saturday, tenant fires back with a long document of noise complaints: 'This is excessive!'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 11, 2025 2:00 PM EST

This landlord decided to enforce strict rules about quiet hours. His new tenant decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.

This author recently moved into student housing and was quickly reprimanded not long after the move by her building manager. Why? Apparently, using a vacuum after 8:00 pm on a Saturday night was a violation of normal quiet hours. The author thought this was an unreasonable excuse to be treated harshly, but decided to get even by following the rules.

The truth of the matter is that the only person in the complex who was actively breaking all the rules was the PhD student who lived directly above the author. She was making noise at all hours of the night and showed a blatant disregard for the building's quiet hours, but somehow she was immune to getting the same harsh treatment as the author. 

The author decided to document every single rule violation that the PhD student made, ultimately submitting a four-page document to her building manager detailing each and every inconvenience. The building manager had no choice but to pass that list on to the PhD student, who did not take it well.

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  • 01
    A landlord gives a set of keys to a new tenant.
    via Unsplash+ (Getty Images)

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

  • We are empathetic to the demands of the PhD candidate's program and schedule. That being said, the world does not revolve around her, and regardless of how sensitive she is to the valid critiques of her neighborly behavior, she should have to follow the same rules as everyone else. We'll never know exactly why the building manager was so kind to the PhD student and so intense with the author, but when push comes to shove, he knew he had to enforce those same rules.

  • 02

    "Document every noise complaint, so I did"

    I live in student housing in Uppsala. Old building, thin walls, you know how it is. My upstairs neighbor complained about me twice last month. Once
    via deepestpokes
  • 03
    because I was "vacuuming too late" at 8pm on a Saturday. Once because my friend and I were talking in the kitchen at like 10:30pm on a weeknight.
    via deepestpokes
  • 04
    Both times the building manager knocked on my door the next day. Very serious about it. Told me the quiet hours are 10pm-7am and I need to be more considerate even outside those hours.
    via deepestpokes
  • 05
    I tried to explain that 8pm on a weekend seems reasonable for vacuuming and that we were literally just having a conversation at normal volume. He said it
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  • 06
    doesn't matter, if someone complains he has to follow up, and maybe I should "examine my lifestyle choices."
    via deepestpokes
  • 07
    Okay so like. This annoyed me. because my upstairs neighbor is not quiet. At all. I hear furniture dragging at midnight, loud TV,
    via deepestpokes
  • 08
    footsteps constantly, bass from music. But I figured that's just apartment living and never said anything.
    via deepestpokes
  • 09
    Building manager said if I have concerns I should document them. Every incident, date and time, description of noise. Then he can "address the pattern."
    via deepestpokes
  • 10
    So I did. For three weeks I wrote down every single noise I heard from upstairs. Footsteps at 6:45am. TV volume at 11:15pm.
    via deepestpokes
  • 11
    Chair scraping at 1:30am. Shower running at 6:20am. Footsteps at 7:10am. Footsteps at 9:40pm. Footsteps at 11:55pm.
    via deepestpokes
  • 12
    I had four pages of documentation. Times, dates, type of noise, duration when I could estimate it.
    via deepestpokes
  • 13
    Gave it to the building manager last week. He looked at it for a while and then said something like "this is excessive" and "normal living noises aren't violations."
    via deepestpokes
  • 14
    I said sure but you told me to document concerns so I did. He said he meant legitimate disturbances not someone walking in their own apartment.
    via deepestpokes
  • 15
    But here's the thing. He still had to give the list to my upstairs neighbor per building policy once a formal complaint is filed. Which apparently my four-page document counted as.
    via deepestpokes
  • 16
    My upstairs neighbor left a note under my door yesterday. She's a PhD student, works weird hours because of lab access times. She said the list made her cry because she's "trying her best"
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  • 17
    and didn't realize I could hear normal footsteps. Now she's apparently walking around in socks only and feeling anxious in her own apartment.
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  • 18
    I feel like absolute shit about this. I wasn't trying to make someone anxious I was trying to show the building manager that his standards were ridiculous.
    via deepestpokes
  • 19
    He sent an email to both of us about "community living expectations" and "mutual respect" which solved nothing.
    via deepestpokes
  • 20
    A woman vacuuming flor while listening to music.
    via Vitaly Gariev

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

  • 21
    ActionThaxton • 2h ago your building manager is as much at fault here as anyone. your noise complaints are just as vaild as hers.
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  • 22
    send her a note, explaining that the building manager made it clear that your daily noises mattered because she complained, and that this was how you were told to deal with it.
    via deepestpokes
  • 23
    _delicja_ 2h ago Her note is vile and manipulative, aimed to make you feel bad. Somehow she wasn't anxious about the situation when she was complaining about you HAVING A CONVERSATION?
    via deepestpokes
  • 24
    I'd be polite but distant with my reply, so that she can see she can't manipulate you into worrying about her 'anxiety', which she had brought on herself. Building
    via deepestpokes
  • 25
    isn't well sound isolated, we all can hear each other's daily lives and we need to learn to live with it, end of message. Don't coddle her and don't let her make you feel guilty for what is her doing.
    via deepestpokes

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landlord neighbors tenant bad landlord apartment living Bad Neighbor Hypocrisy college student apartment
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