I’ve been living in my current apartment for one and a half years. During the time I live here, my neighbor from hell who lives directly below me (early 2000s apartment, 2-story building with thin wall and pretty ok floor?), has been knocking harshly on my door 3 times. He is always making the same claim that I was making loud noises. The first time he complained I apologized because it was my fault and it was my first day moving in. The second time, the noise didn’t come from me, it was from my next-door neighbor who’s also noisy sometimes but I don’t mind. The third time was the most horrifying one and it happened last night.
A friend and I came back to my place in the afternoon, she wants to stay over so she can catch the train in the morning. From afternoon to evening, nothing happened. We talked, ate, and watched a movie, then suddenly around 11 pm, we heard some banging from the floor. We thought, maybe we’re kinda loud, so we tried to stay quiet. Then the second banging was even louder than the first one, longer, and he opened the window to throw something onto my balcony, which is directly above his. I had a feeling he might come to my room, I quickly turned off all the lights and went to bed with my friend. A minute later, my prediction came true. He started banging on my door and ringing my bells, I was too scared to answer so I just stayed still under the blanket with my heart racing like crazy. It stopped for a while, then we noticed that he was actually waiting in front of my room. He stayed there for about 15-20 minutes (I didn’t dare to look at my phone, was too scared) and continued to bang and ring my door. After a while, he went away, but this experience traumatized me and my friend, we couldn’t sleep last night.
For context, the guy is a middle-aged guy, with a turn-back hat, dressed like a teenager from the 90s. I’m in my 20s, in university junior year, and still have 2 more years left. When I couldn’t sleep last night, I thought about calling the police, but then I remember I’m a foreigner living in Japan and I’m scared they might believe his story and not mine. So the next thing I do is go to my realtor’s website and filed a disturbance complaint. This morning my realtor called me to know the detail of my complaint, and the answer isn’t what I hoped for. She said, she will warn him and the next time this incident happened again I can call the police instead. I feel like I’m on my own, and my realtor doesn’t want to be involved in my case despite her managing the building (I don’t have the contact of the landlord). Now, I’m considering moving out, I feel unsafe but then I’m still a student, my budget is limited and I have to spend quite a lot of money to move out and move into another place. I don’t know what I should do, I’m very scared, and anxious now.
TL;DR: a friend stayed over at my place, we did things but weren’t noisy (or so we thought?). The Downstairs neighbor was upset, banging on his ceiling, then came to my door to bang and ring my door. Told my realtor what happened, and she said I can call the police next time. Feel abandoned, and scared. Don’t know what to do…
ps: English isn’t my first language, sorry if it might sound weird.
5 comments
>She said, she will warn him and the next time this incident happened again I can call the police instead.
If it makes you feel better, last time we complained about someone the building management refused to confront the apartment in question directly until we complained a good three or four times. The fact that your realtor is (at least saying she is) willing to warn the guy directly is a positive sign IMO.
Honestly you should just call the police. That level of banging and doorbell ringing would be way overboard *even if* you were actually making noise.
Plus, throwing stuff onto your balcony? You could call the police for that alone, depending on what it is.
Don’t worry about whose side the cops take when you call them, it won’t affect their decision to do nothing.
> When I couldn’t sleep last night, I thought about calling the police, but then I remember I’m a foreigner living in Japan and I’m scared they might believe his story and not mine.
Please call the police.
This is a really good example of how damaging all the “police are bad” posts can be.
You may well have been in danger last night, and this is what the police are there for.
Of course there are some police that are lazy, some that are even bad, racist, assholes. But that’s true for anything, and they are not the majority. Anecdotal, but every interaction I’ve had with police over the decades has been cordial and professional. Some are more helpful than others, but they’ve always been professional.
Please call the police. I see no reason not to call today to report this and get it on file, it seems the guy is escalating, and you deserve to feel safe.
If you haven’t already, record when these stuff are happening. Having evidence will help you explain it better to the popo.
In addition to what others have said, I’d recommend recording yourself one night for as much as possible before it happens. If you can record yourself causing no real noise for hours before he’s banging on your floor and coming to your door, that’s another piece of evidence in your favour if you call the police. Just because you’re a foreigner doesn’t mean you can’t be afraid of people like that.