Creaking and Audible Steps from Apartment Overhead

My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Virginia

Hello all. I live in an apartment complex in virginia and I have had trouble for months with the tenants above and below me. Any sort of walking or moving around the tenant above me does results in noise on my end. Below where I sleep the noise is so loud I wake up with ear plugs in. Long story short, my Landlord didn't believe me, and came one day to do a "test" of both apartments. The property manager verbally acknowledged that I was "100% right" and she "could hear everything."

However, the only steps they've taken to ameliorate the situation is to buy me a little $40 white noise generator. It's a joke. :wallbang:

After I expressed that that was insufficient, she turned the question around on me and asked me what she was supposed to do to stop the noise. I'm not a landlord with subcontractors at my disposal: I don't know.

I'm a student and I'm getting damn tired of being forced to wake up 3 hours after going to sleep.

Please advise.

I suggest you request a transfer to another unit.

When you live in a building that houses other people, particularly an older building, you can expect to hear evidence of their activity. Hearing noises through a ceiling or wall is anything but unique within an apartment complex.

Have you asked your landlord about moving to a different unit, if available?

If the landlord cannot accommodate you with a move to another unit, your other option is to speak to your neighbors about putting down a thick rug (upstairs) and turning the TV down a bit (if that's the downstairs noise). Alternatively, move at the end of your lease term to a complex with better sound insulation.

As Mr. K notes, as long as you live in a multi-unit dwelling, hearing neighbor noise is completely unavoidable. If you have an Android phone, I would recommend you download the Lightning Bug app, and sleep with your earbuds in. I use this app myself to deal with my husband's freight-train like snoring, and it works like a charm. If it can drown out that, it can certainly drown out apartment noise.

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Quoting LawResearcherMissy

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If the landlord cannot accommodate you with a move to another unit, your other option is to speak to your neighbors about putting down a thick rug (upstairs) and turning the TV down a bit (if that's the downstairs noise). Alternatively, move at the end of your lease term to a complex with better sound insulation.

As Mr. K notes, as long as you live in a multi-unit dwelling, hearing neighbor noise is completely unavoidable. If you have an Android phone, I would recommend you download the Lightning Bug app, and sleep with your earbuds in. I use this app myself to deal with my husband's freight-train like snoring, and it works like a charm. If it can drown out that, it can certainly drown out apartment noise.

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If your husband snores that badly, perhaps he needs his tonnsils out or, prior to that, have him try those breathe-right nasal strips (the larger ones that hit four points) those things did wonders for me and others. They made me sleep so much better, too! Snoring usually means that the oxygen flow to the body/brain isn't as good as it could be, so if nothing else, he might sleep better

Legalese wise, you probably don't have much recourse. Your best option is to speak to the people above + below you about it. A thick rug would help for certain.

As for earplugs, have you tried different ones? Are you a particularly light sleeper? Do you know how to properly insert the earplugs? Earplugs should be good enough for a gun range. Your home should be fine for them.

Just in case, to save you some trouble, take the earplug, and roll it in between your fingers tightly until it's tiny and thin (like a noodle) then insert it all the way into your ear canal and hold it there while it expands again, to take the shape of your ear canal. It should stay in snugly and you shouldn't hear anything but your own breathing or thoughts!

Be careful with ear plugs though. they can block your ability to hear the fire alarms, as well.

I appreciate all this. I've lived in multi-dwelling units for a while now, but is there no threshold at which it violates quiet enjoyment? No matter how obnoxious and loud the creaking and groaning and stomping, that's just "the way it is" but the moment it involves sound generation that violates "quiet enjoyment?"

Is the landlord supposed to tell your neighbors that they cannot walk around their own apartment while you are asleep? Is that what you're expecting?

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I appreciate all this. I've lived in multi-dwelling units for a while now, but is there no threshold at which it violates quiet enjoyment?

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Nope. Normal apartment noises do not violate quiet enjoyment. Your neighbor bouncing around on a pogo stick at 10PM or cranking the tunes up to 11 does. Him walking from one part of his apartment with a normal footfall does not, no matter how old and creaky the floorboards are.

"Any sort of walking or moving around the tenant above me does results in noise on my end.", you say. Well, of course it does. You cannot expect your neighbors to sit perfectly still while you are home simply because you're unable to cope with normal apartment noises. It's not reasonable. What's reasonable is to ask to be moved, or ask for your upstairs neighbors to put down a thick rug.

When you made these requests, what happened?

Those requests were not granted.

No, what I was expecting was not to be paying so much for an apartment that transfers noise so clearly.

By the way, the hyperbole is not appreciated. Of course I don't expect the tenant to "sit perfectly still while I am home simply because I'm unable to cope with normal apartment noise." What I'm trying to express to y'all is that it's by no standard "normal" and I thought the landlord had some kind of duty to maintain the building within the bounds of reasonability.

Thank you for your answers, but if you're going to ridicule me and say that I'm "not reasonable" for resenting my landlord's renting me a POS apartment where I can't sleep, then I'll kindly ask you to move on to another thread.

What do you mean, "some kind of duty to maintain the building within the bounds of reasonability"? Does he have to reconstruct ceilings and floors because noises can pass between them? No. Again, that's part of sharing walls, ceilings and floors with other residents in a building. Few buildings are built to be truly noise-proof between spaces, and the older the building the more likely it is that you'll hear noise.

If the apartment is a "POS", that would presumably have been apparent when you chose to rent it.

Yeah, well it wasn't apparent. And the building was built in like '05.

Once again, not interested in "noise-proof" only trying to figure out ANY kind of recourse I have AT ALL because any time tenant upstairs walks or moves it's literally 50-60dB.

What about violation of building codes, etc?

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Thank you for your answers, but if you're going to ridicule me and say that I'm "not reasonable" for resenting my landlord's renting me a POS apartment where I can't sleep, then I'll kindly ask you to move on to another thread.

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Aw, aren't you precious? You're in here asking for free help, throwing a fit because you're not being told what you want to hear, and now you've elected yourself Moderator, too?

Yah, no. You're in a publicly accessible space, and you don't get to decide who posts where. Life is hard, it's high time you learn to deal with it.

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Once again, not interested in "noise-proof" only trying to figure out ANY kind of recourse I have AT ALL because any time tenant upstairs walks or moves it's literally 50-60dB.

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You think that's loud? Really? That's the noise level of a quiet street. Are cars supposed to not drive by, either?

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What about violation of building codes, etc?

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Check your city's codes. Don't be surprised when those don't give you what you want, either. Your option at this point is to move at the end of your lease term.