Hello, I have a legit question. Is it possible to be evicted for getting noise complains?
It all started the day I moved, the same day I got a complain from downstairs. I assure the landlord the reason was my moving and me moving my furniture in was an uncommon occurrence.
I apologize and supposed that would never happen again. Months later I received another for my walking. I was walking “too heavily” I’m a 55 kg woman. I don’t believe to be heavy enough to make sound enough to bother someone. But I said I was sorry and started wearing slippers.
It’s been a years and a half and during that I got other noise complains because of my rumba, several others because of walking, moving in my chair while teleworking, getting down my loft, etc.
This are really mundane things. Things I believe all of us do at some point.
I’m scared because I have lived in Japan for five years, and never had this issue. I believe I’m fairly quite, I live alone so I don’t talk, I’m overly cautious with sound and at this point the claims make no sense.
It got to a point where the downstairs neighbor came knocking at 6 pm cause my vacuum was noisy.
I wouldn’t mind all of this if my landlord didn’t have to deal with their complains. I hear them moving and doing stuff too but I never complain because it really doesn’t bother me, so I most look like the worst neighbor in my landlords eyes. He seems pretty chill every time he tells me and apologize for always bothering me. But honestly at this point I’m just scared of eviction.
My friends who have stayed and witnessed the issue believe it is personal, but I have talk to them twice, once to introduce myself and the other because the vacuuming.
Thank you and I appreciate all the answers I could get.
25 comments
They’re not going evict you and the landlord is probably as sick of that person as you. What you have to deal with is the fact you have a nightmare neighbour and it’s unlikely those complaints are ever going to stop. People may give you some advice that amounts to a daydream revenge fantasy where you get back at them but in reality unfortunately the only way to get these people out of your life is to learn to ignore them or let them ‘win’ and move. They’ll do the same thing to the next person who moves in too.
If its one person complaining, then I would just ignore them and tell the landlord that whatever they are saying is incorrect. I had a similar issue with a neighbor complaining about my loud tv late at night, I have no tv, they said ah then might be your computer, again not true. They complained even when I was on biz trips, and I live alone so again not true. I just kept telling them its not true and Id phone in to complain about him randomly every couple of weeks. It stopped pretty quickly after that.
Yeah, it sounds like the problem is with them, not you. Everyday noise (日常的な生活音) is normally not grounds for complaints. You cannot be evicted for that.
You COULD turn the tables on the neighbor and threaten to report them for 嫌がらせ (iyagarase; harassment) or 脅迫 (kyohaku; threats) which might shut them up. Honestly, if they are complaining about you walking around or vacuuming, it sounds to me like they are in harassment territory already. Don’t be afraid to be assertive — if you really are just living normally, not dancing around at 3 AM and whatnot, then they have no grounds to complain and are instead harassing YOU.
While there is not a lot you can do, and you’re not in the wrong so far as I can tell, just two pointers:
You are not obliged to open your door for neighbors. So if you can see them in the spyhole or on camera, let them ring the bell until their fingers fall off. You’re past the point of resolving this amicably and wearing noise canceling headphones isn’t a crime.
If you do talk to them, try to record the conversation. And if you want to go down the harassment counter-complaint it would be good to keep a journal of any interaction, recorded or not, just date and time and a quick summary. Especially if they threaten you in any way.
Shitty neighbors are always a risk. I only got rid of this very annoying neighbor trying to recruit me into her godforsaken cult by moving away.
Japanese law is fairly tenant-friendly, so eviction for any reason is next to impossible. As someone mentioned, the landlord is probably sick of the complainer who’s driving away their tenants.
IN UR apartments the rule is 60 decibels up to 9pm and then 40 decibels after. I’ve had neighbours complain about me and I’m very quiet. They said I was scraping my chair on the floor after 11pm but actually, it was the neighbour who comes home late every night. I have felt pads on the bottom of my furniture precisely for that reason. So basically, *any* noise your neighbours hear will be blamed on the gaijin. You have to push back with your landlord and say it’s not you. Their only recourse is to call the police who will find nothing.
Gaijin mendokusai!
You’re not going to get evicted. The landlord knows it’s all bullshit which is why they don’t do anything about it. Since it’s a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation you might as well make all the noise you want.
I heard from real estate agent that a lot of people like to complain in apartments and mansions… so don`t worry about it…
I’d just make more noise to annoy them.
Nope. I’ve had bad neighbors that were unreasonably loud and/or smoked in non-smoking buildings, but nobody can really evict them for those reasons. Landlord has no power and cops can’t do anything. That’s why I just move asap. There’s just no solution until one of you move out of the building.
Same goes for assholes that report you for no reason. They can’t get you evicted for noise reasons.
100% report to the police for harassment. That will stop them knocking.
Then report to your landlord for harassment too. Say you’re scared.
I would be running my Roomba twice a day at least.
You need to buy some bowling balls for practice.
Google this —> “Everyone’s Upstairs Neighbors”
I had a friend who had issue with downstairs neighbors… (noises, put rubbish on their doors and mailbox…) some Japanese people just dont like foreigners. I will turn the table around and also complain about their noises.
I had a similar issue with neighbor in Bangkok, I’m considerate about noise and lived alone so I tried to be more quiet but was already quiet, similar to your situation. I went on holiday once and came back to a nasty gram about how noisy I was being, so I realized the noise wasn’t even coming from me since my place was empty during that time. I had a teenager on one side of my place that I could sometimes hear so my best guess is it came from him. I was also on other side of the issue In a differenr apartment with getting tons of late noght noise and talking to my upstairs neighbor who was super helpful, only to realize it was the drunk losers next door to him who partied all the time and would stomp around in heels at 3am every night.
Is it possible to suggest to the person or the landlord it could be coming from one of the neighbors adjacent to you? Noise can travel like that. Maybe the annoying person is really hearing a lot of noise but it’s not coming from you.
Neighbor came to you and complained about the vacuum at 6PM? “Fuck you” is what I’d have said, and shut the door.
There are two kinds of people:
The constant insensate complainers.
Those who just don’t give a shit unless it’s something serious like someone died or some shit.
Looks like the floor are really thin. Might as well start looking for another place just in case. PLus it will take your mind off this present annoyance.
Hey, racism
>I’m a 55 kg woman. I don’t believe to be heavy enough to make sound enough to bother someone.
Heavy stepping has nothing to do with weight, rather the percussiveness of your step. If they can hear it, you most likely have an abnormally boomy gait. I’d say nearly 40% of all neighbors I’ve ever had do this and don’t realize it. I’m about 80kg, and I move across the floor like a ninja.
Try walking silently. It’s a life skill you will need, because when I ultimately come to power, stompers will be put into camps.
Is the neighbour by any chance elderly? It’s a common theme that elderly people complain just for the validation and pity.
Either way, it sounds like it’s time to stop being nice. If apologising doesn’t work, just tell them “I’m doing everything I can” or “there’s no way to reduce noise further than this”
I’m not sure what the perfect Japanese is, but （物音を減らすのに）すでに精一杯です and これ以上何もできません should work fine as translations of the above (other users feel free to fix them if not)
I can imagine they might tell you to stop vacuuming or something at 6pm. If so, tell them you won’t do it from 9pm. IF they have a very specific and good reason (“I take care of my daughter’s baby from 6-7pm every day), then I would listen and try to adjust, but I don’t expect they will.
I had a neighbor who used to complain about my footsteps and had the landlord/company call me about it a few times. I seriously considered going out of my way to hear him sneeze someday and counter-complain, but one day I made macaroni and cheese and decided to bring him some and apologize in person.
I explained that since I’m a pretty big guy I sometimes inadvertently make a lot of noise with my footsteps. He seemed pretty surprised but brought me some Gyoza as thanks the next day.
Now he doesn’t complain anymore and we let one another into the building whenever one of us forgets their key when taking out the garbage😂
I can’t guarantee your neighbor would be as understanding, but I just wanted to share to maybe give you an alternative out to your situation. Best of luck!
In my previous apartment (3 story tall apartment building, I lived on the 3rd floor), my downstairs neighbor complained about noise all the time.
The thing is, at the time I didn’t have a TV or even speakers for my computer, only headphones, so it wasn’t the noise. It was my footsteps.
But I was gone almost all the time due to work, I left at 8 am and came back at 10pm, and went to sleep at midnight. She was complaining about my footsteps of my morning routine, where I took a shower and got dressed. She even called the police on me for that, when she couldn’t get a hold of the landlord’s company.
The moral of the story? Some people are fucking insane
Maybe some cheap carpet mats might help? But do tell them you are doing this.
I don’t think eviction is easy to do, even if it is possible. It probably depends on the specific contract as well.
That said, I’m kind of on the other side of your type of issue. I live below a couple who sound as if they give online wrestling lessons twice a day and vigorously rearrange their furniture every couple of hours. Also might wear 20 lb weights on their ankles.
I can literally feel their footsteps vibrate in my chest sometimes, it makes the walls shake.
Just this past week I had the management contact them directly and I found out they supposedly had gotten a soundproof mat and slippers since the last time I complained…which is hard to believe because it got even worse since then.
These particular people are probably an extreme example, but I think it is easy to not realize how hard the sounds you make really hit on surfaces if you’re not used to paying attention to it constantly. Even sometimes I’ll notice I stepped harder than intended or put something down too hard, and if you listen you can hear it echo/vibrate a bit through the ground.
And oh my gosh can it get really irritating after a while, especially when it’s day in and day out. I get headaches often. I can hear them stomping around even as I type this. I have mixed feelings contacting the management so many times but it’s so bad it’s affecting my quality of life.
Not trying to accuse you of anything but it may be helpful to double check to see if theres any room to be quieter than usual. If not then, maybe it’s just their problem.