This is my first post here, so I'll try to make it a nice descriptive one. But it's a long story. I moved into my current apartment in May of last year, lived there for 3 weeks, left for a week to get married and go on a honeymoon, then came back and my wife moved in with me. That's when the honeymoon ended, so to speak. Over the summer we had many problems with the downstairs neighbors playing music too loudly. As far as the music issue goes, we did the following in this order: called apartment management, left polite note on door, called apartment management, called apartment management, called police (warning issued), called police (citation issued). I like to think I'm a polite neighbor. I have a nice 2.1 sound system but I have the sub sitting on a folded towel on the carpet to deaden the noise, and have adjusted my equalizer settings to boost voice volume and keep bass manageable. We only use it occasionally to watch movies and/or TV shows, maybe twice a week at most. I might normally have talked to them in person about it, but the type of music playing combined with illicit substances being used leads me to be rather unwilling to trust them to be civil.

During that time we often smelled what we thought might be marijuana outside their door when walking by, but since it wasn't in our apartment and we didn't really have to walk by their door (two staircases to third floor) we didn't think much of it. Since the last call to the police, however, we have rarely smelled it outside their door. Instead, the smell has been filtering into our bathroom, and the kitchen when it gets really strong. In the kitchen we know the smell comes up through the cabinets under the sink, but in the bathroom the smell is so pervasive it's difficult to tell. We called the apartment office about it and they told us to call the police, who told us they couldn't do anything unless it could be smelled outside their door, which it now can't. Called the apartment office to put in an official complaint, whether they could do anything or not, as my wife is in pharmacy school and on the off chance she was randomly tested and had absorbed enough for it to show in a hair test or something similar, it could spell the early end of her career. I wanted something on file to prove we were working to resolve a problem that was not under our control.

I smelled it again one day a couple months ago and called the police non-emergency number, requesting a free officer to come by and hopefully just confirm the smell was what we thought it was. One came by about the time the smell had dissipated, but he was able to smell it from a non-specific source on the landing and confirmed the odor. I called the apartment office the next day with this information, and this time they gave me instructions to call their number any time we smelled it, and they or their answering service would be able to dispatch an agent of the security patrol company they contract with. We did so the next time we smelled it, which was on New Year's Eve. We weren't going to call about their music, but the smell came so we called after all. A patrol came and smelled it on our small porch, and said he'd talk to them about the music and write up a report. Called apartment office again the next Tuesday to confirm the report was turned in. They said they'd be doing their part, which I believe was leaving a note for the neighbors about the issue.

Now to last Thursday. We smelled it again, but this time it was not in the bathroom, but rather in our utility closet where the heater is, causing the smell to spread rapidly throughout the apartment. Called security and they sent another patrol up to talk to us. He confirmed the smell inside our apartment, but couldn't get the neighbors to open their door to smell anything on them. He left and said he'd turn in a report. The smell dissipated, but came back a couple hours later, so I called the number again and reported to the answering service that it was back, but I didn't want an officer out because we were going to bed. Shut our door, closed the bedroom vent and went to bed. Friday evening the smell came again, but being frustrated with calling over and over the wife and I went out for a movie. Saturday I went to the office to pick up a package and asked the employee there, who I hadn't met before and seemed to be more important than the usual ones we spoke with, if the report had been turned in and told her of the incident Friday evening. We spoke for a bit about having maintenance possible try to seal things up, then she asked what time I'd had the issue Friday. I said about 7:20 we left because of it and she informed me that Friday before the office closed they'd left a second note for the neighbors with "changed wording" about the complaints. Which tells me the neighbors simply have no care or concern for anyone but themselves. She then told me that as of then, no security officer had been able to get them to open the door when there was an odor discernible, and until that happened they couldn't legally do anything.

To confound the issue, about a month ago on a Friday night I didn't get much sleep and was in the living room Saturday morning trying to get some rest when they started with the music again. As I'd done a couple times before I pounded on the floor a couple times. I've always been told this is "apartment slang" for cut it out. It was cold outside, I was tired and I was wearing a bathrobe. I really didn't want to get dressed and go outside to tell them to stop. I heard their music stop, someone yell, their door slam, pounding on the steps outside and then pounding on my door. I got up and opened the door (like a tired idiot) and he proceeded to yell at me asking why I pounded on the floor. I explained his music was rattling items on my shelves (as it had many times before), and he went off on a difficult-to-understand rant about how I should be "polite and tactful" and about his kids who were trying to sleep. I just shut the door. That's the only real contact I've ever had with the guy, other than a few glares now and then afterwards when I happened to see him.


That brings it about up-to-date. Sorry for the long story but I didn't want to leave anything that might be important out. I'm just really, really frustrated with the whole issue and am desperately trying to figure out what recourse I have to get it taken care of. Up until a week ago I had joked about it some with people and was just generally annoyed and hoping the issue would be solved eventually. Thursday night I had to pace my floor for several minutes before I was calm enough to go to sleep. I genuinely think my apartment office really wants to get the issue resolved, but I don't know if there's anything else I can do to help the process along.

Every time we have had an issue whether it's been dealt with by us or by a third party, especially after the citation was issued, I've been wary walking around my apartment complex to fetch mail or packages, always hyper-aware of my surroundings (which is saying something, as I'm an extremely security-conscious person normally anyways), and half expecting to see my tires slashed (or at least an attempt made; Kevlar-reinforced tires aren't easy to slash) every morning.

Do you guys have any advice?

EDIT: Forgot to mention. Three kids in the apartment, plus the adult male. That's who I know lives there. People are in and out so much that I'm not sure if there's anyone else, and I've never seen a mom, but that's not to say one isn't there. The kids are in the apartment when the adult male and his friends/roommates are smoking marijuana.